written by Pastor Rob Gallion, Petersburg First Baptist Church

I was in college, embarrassingly enough, when I crashed and burned in one of the most spectacular single-bicycle accidents never caught on camera. Pedaling along at full speed on my royal blue ten-speed Huffy with no particular place to go, I suddenly found myself hurtling over the handlebars through the summer air and face-planting squarely in the right lane of N. Robb Street.

How it happened I do not know. I will say, however, I have made it a rule to never again ride a bike while wearing flip flops.

Somehow I managed to un-crumple myself from the pavement, get back on the bike and ride home with three broken front teeth and bloodied face, hands, knees and feet. Normally brothers would have a good laugh at each other’s brutal fails, but Dan quickly assessed my helpless estate and drove me to the Emergency Room where I received the medical care I sorely needed.

My parents weren’t home at the time, but at least Dad got to help out later by paying the bill.

Spiritually speaking, I think there are multitudes of people in our nation just like me in this illustration. They’re cruising along life’s highway at full speed, either not knowing where they’re going or just going along with the flow, when suddenly they hit a bump in the road or get a foot caught in the gears, and the next thing they know they’re spitting asphalt out of their mouths and trying to stop the bleeding. And they have no idea how they got in such shape.

In our generation we’re witnessing, it seems, a culture crashing and burning. As those who truly desire God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we rightly lament the societal tide which seeks to abolish godly values and accomplish man’s will instead. We rightly speak out the truth in love on specific issues that impact our homes, schools, communities, and country.

But listen to me. When I limped home that day, I didn’t need my brother laughing at my failure, lamenting over my troubles or lecturing me on how I should have worn proper bicycle safety gear, as opposed to, say, wearing flip flops. I needed him to get me to the doctor as soon as possible.

When Jesus saw the crowds He saw people who were harassed and helpless, clueless and confused, wrecked and battered. More specifically, He saw those who had been crushed by the devastating effects of sin in this world, whether those wounds were self-inflicted or simply infected by sin’s penetrating curse. And our Savior had compassion on them each.

In fact, Jesus was always moved with compassion by the effects of sin in people’s lives. He illustrated his compassionate heart in the parable of the prodigal son. He shed tears over the city of Jerusalem who rejected him. Even as he hung and bled and suffered on the cross, our Lord looked with compassion upon his tormentors and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

It’s the sick who need a doctor, and Jesus is the Healer who came to call sinners to repentance. He’s already paid the price for our salvation by His blood shed on Calvary’s hill. Our mission is to get the sick and dying, the broken and the bleeding to the Great Physician for the spiritual healing they so urgently need.

Jesus then gave His disciples this word in Matthew 9:37-38: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

We need to be on our knees with compassionate hearts pleading with our Lord for the salvation of lost souls. We ought to be pounding on the door of heaven to raise up men and women from our pews to go out into the harvest fields with the message of eternal life in Christ Jesus for whosoever believes (John 3:16). We should be standing in the gap begging of the Lord on behalf of our families, our schools, our cities, and our nation.

Charles Spurgeon echoed Christ’s compassion and issued this challenge:

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

May the Lord awaken and compel our souls to compassionate, purposeful, powerful prayer as we seek to lead sinners to the healing arms of the Savior.

Last year I was at lunch with an evangelist. After the meal, he handed our waitress a Gospel tract. I wanted to reinforce his compassion, so I told the young lady that her relationship with God was the most important thing in the world. She responded, “Yeah, that and global warming!” She proceeded to tell us that she wakes up in fear of what may happen to the earth during her lifetime. I was shocked. I asked her if she was familiar with the old Sunday school song, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” She said, “Yes.” I told her it was true.

I left that meeting with a deeper awareness of the politics of fear.

The Left uses fear to get people to act. Environmentalists argue that a growing human population using growing amounts of energy from fossil fuels is causing catastrophically dangerous global warming. The Left prescribes two cures.

First, replace fossil fuels with wind, solar, and other renewables. But as Dr. E. Calvin Beisner (of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation) explains, abundant, affordable, reliable energy is indispensable to lifting and keeping any society out of poverty, and fossil fuels are and for the foreseeable future will remain our best source of that energy. Wind, solar, and other renewables are diffuse, expensive, and unreliable. Substituting them for fossil fuels makes energy more expensive, thus slowing, stopping, or even reversing the conquest of poverty in the developed world while impoverishing many in the developed world.

Second, slow, stop, and finally reverse population growth. Environmentalists openly advocate reducing the world’s population to 500 million, i.e., getting rid of 9 out of 10 human beings. How? Partly through homosexuality and transgenderism, but also through government-run “family planning” programs that invariably involve highly incentivized and often even forced use of contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion.

Efforts to control population have unintended consequences. For example, from its start in 1979 China’s one-child policy has led to sex-selected abortions, with male births outnumbering female by about 115 to 100, resulting in about 33 million more Chinese men than women. In turn, this has fueled demand for pornography and prostitution, much of which is met by sex-trafficking that has become so bad that the U.S. State Department has named China among the world’s worst offenders.

All of these things led to our inviting Dr. Beisner to speak for our events in April. I was convinced that the climate change debate had to be addressed from a Christian perspective.

Dr. Beisner did an amazing job helping people of faith to understand why this issue is a conservative, pro-life concern. He ably integrated Biblical worldview, theology, and ethics with excellent science and economics to help our audiences understand how climate alarmism threatens family, freedom, and prosperity—and how to respond to it.

Yes, climate change is a pro-family issue.

As anyone knows who has counseled couples on the verge of divorce, one of the most common causes is financial stress. Poverty harms families. Driving up energy prices increases poverty and so undermines the family.

To that end, it is a very good thing, indeed, that President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Paris Accord on climate change.

Learn More:  If you’d like to learn more, Dr. Beisner’s presentation was video-recorded and is now posted on the IFI YouTube channel. This 90-minute presentation will leave you much better informed and with a deeper understanding of why Christians should actively oppose the climate alarmist agenda. You can watch it here below, or click HERE.

Please subscribe to the IFI YouTube channel.

Read more about Dr. Beisner and the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation and please visit their blog, EarthRisingBlog.com.

You can also follow them on Twitter @CornwallSteward, and “like” their Facebook page HERE.

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In the wake of the violent confrontation and death in Charlottesville, Virginia, the response of the church seems curiously one-sided. For example, one of my friends, a pastor, expressed his sadness and anger about the events and that he was grateful for those pastors who stood with the counter-protesters.

Most of what I see on social media are denunciations of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Nazism, and white supremacy, with calls for pastors to use the opportunity to condemn racism. Since the church of Jesus Christ must oppose any kind of racism, this is a good thing.

But my friend’s post implied that Christian pastors were standing with the counter-protestors, and perhaps suggested that other pastors should too, which is alarming. If Christians aren’t careful, they may be pulled into an association they will later regret.

While the white supremacists must be rejected and categorically condemned for their ungodly ideology, the counter-protestors—known collectively as antifa (short for “anti-fascist”)—are just as ungodly. The two groups live at the extremes of our national politics and are really two sides of the same coin. It is unconscionable for a Christian (much less a Christian minister) to join with either movement.

The conflict in Charlottesville originated with a request from Unite the Right, a white nationalist organization, for a permit to hold a rally protesting the removal of the city’s Robert E. Lee statue. White nationalists, like all American citizens, have the right to gather under the auspices of free speech, no matter how repugnant that speech may be.

And repugnant it is. White nationalism, known also as white supremacy, is a relatively small movement that believes white people are superior to all other races. It includes organizations like the KKK, neo-Nazis, and some armed militias.

Also known as the “alt-right” (“alternative right”), adherents are inspired by fascist movements like Benito Mussolini’s in Italy and Adolf Hitler’s in Germany. The Nazi flag was prominent during the Charlottesville protest, as were tiki torches which called to mind the torch-bearing lynch mobs of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The alt-right despises Jewish people, Christian doctrine, and the American Constitution, and embraces Nietzschean philosophy.

White supremacy, white nationalism, neo-Nazis, the KKK, and the alt-right all share the same goal: a whites-only nation that preserves a white culture rooted in its European ancestors. They would say they are fighting the encroachment of foreign cultures that threaten to eventually supplant “white” culture.

Such ideology has no place in our body politic, which was founded on the Lockean idea that “all men are created equal.” It should also go without saying that such sentiment rejects the biblical teaching that mankind was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and, therefore, all men equally retain a measure of the divine imprint, all are sinners, and all are candidates for salvation, no matter ethnicity or skin color.

In sum, the white supremacist movement is a fringe activist cult that deserves to stay on the margins of society. There must be no uniting with them.

But neither is there uniting with antifa, the anti-fascist movement (sometimes known as the “alt-left”) which is heavily rooted in anarchy and opposition to the state. The September 2017 issue of The Atlantic includes an essay titled, “The Rise of the Violent Left,” in which Peter Beinart writes,

Antifa traces its roots to the 1920s and ’30s, when militant leftists battled fascists in the streets of Germany, Italy, and Spain. When fascism withered after World War II, antifa did too. But in the ’70s and ’80s, neo-Nazi skinheads began to infiltrate Britain’s punk scene. After the Berlin Wall fell, neo-Nazism also gained prominence in Germany. In response, a cadre of young leftists, including many anarchists and punk fans, revived the tradition of street-level antifascism.

…

Since antifa is heavily composed of anarchists, its activists place little faith in the state, which they consider complicit in fascism and racism. They prefer direct action: They pressure venues to deny white supremacists space to meet. They pressure employers to fire them and landlords to evict them. And when people they deem racists and fascists manage to assemble, antifa’s partisans try to break up their gatherings, including by force.

This explains what we saw in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election and what has followed. Members of antifa consider Trump a racist and have lumped conservatives and Republicans in with white nationalists. That’s why Ann Coulter, Ben Shapiro, Gavin McInnes, Katie Pavlich and Ann McElhinney, Charles Murray and other conservatives have encountered sometimes violent protests shutting down their speaking engagements on college campuses.

It also explains the violence at Trump rallies (click here, here, here, and here). This is not a defense of Trump (some of his supporters were no better) but illustrates what is happening in our country and why.

Perhaps the most even assessment of the events in Charlottesville came from Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, who tweeted, “The hard left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right. I saw club-wielding ‘antifa’ beating white nationalists being led out of the park.”

Further, recall that the antifa counter-protestors were, in essence, defending the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue. Excising history calls to mind the communists of Stalinist Russia or current U.S. nemesis Kim Jong-un, who airbrushed allies-turned-enemies from photos and purged state records of any evidence they ever existed. Where will such a purge end here in America?  Will Mt. Vernon or the Jefferson memorial be next?

The antifa movement is Marxist in form, emphasizing divisive identity politics and class warfare, and sanctioning the use of violence to subvert authority. They are godless materialists who believe that a socialist utopia can be achieved via their views of diversity, equality, and tolerance, and that violent resistance is necessary to overthrow the established order. Anarchy by definition is opposed to the biblical admonition to be subject to the governing authorities (Romans 13:1).

If allowed to progress, both movements—white nationalism and antifa—ultimately end in dictatorship. Hitler and Stalin may have been enemies in World War II, but the sickle and swastika both oppressed their people, just from different directions.

The truth is obvious: Christians must not make common cause with either movement. Yes, we must oppose racism wherever and whenever we find it, but we must not join a violent, anarchical movement simply because it too opposes racism.

We stand against both racism and anarchy, and we do so in the name of Jesus Christ who submitted himself to the ruling authorities to atone for the sins of all men. And it is to Jesus Christ alone whom we owe our allegiance and obedience.

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Virtually anyone over the age of 25 today has heard of Karl Marx and Marxism, though many remain ignorant of Marx’s history and the subsequent cultural ideology that emerged from aspects of his economic theories.

Karl Marx was the grandson of a Jewish rabbi, but his father converted to Lutheranism to escape the antisemitism endemic in Germany, and Karl and siblings were baptized in a Lutheran church in 1824.

Karl Marx’s father died in 1838, leaving the family in dire financial straits.

Like so many young people today, Marx became enamored with radicals at the University of Berlin, and in 1844 at the age of 26, Marx met the German socialist, Friedrich Engels, which sparked a friendship and collaboration.

Marx is perhaps most famous for describing religion as “the opiate of the masses.”

Marxism is a godless theory that promotes the view that what we can see and touch is all that exists: There is nothing beyond this mortal life, there is no hope of eternity in heaven, no dread of hell, no thing called sin. Therefore, everything in life is detached from any intrinsic value. Every act is valuable only if it contributes to the well-being of the proletariat (i.e., the lower or working class). Marx viewed society through an economic lens that divided people into groups based on economic wealth. The wealthy were deemed oppressors of the poor.

From Marxism emerged a social and political movement called the Frankfort School and its more comprehensive (i.e., not merely economic) theory of social criticism called Critical Theory, which began in Germany and later moved to academic institutions in the United States. Critical Theory is a complex and diverse set of ideas that share in common the goal of critiquing those forces in cultures that purportedly enslave and oppress humans.

In the view of critical theorists, those forces include traditional and natural institutions like marriage, family, and religion, as well as norms pertaining to sexuality. The sustained attack on these institutions and norms manifests through movements like Second- and Third-wave feminism, the homosexuality-affirming movement, and the “trans”-affirming movement. Many refer to these post-modern, politically correct, “progressive” movements as part of or emerging from “Cultural Marxism.”

The embrace by conservatives of political figures like Milo Yiannopoulos  who delights in flaunting his homosexuality suggests that Critical Theory has corrupted even conservatism. Milo claims to be a conservative, yet, like so many libertarians, divorces God’s transcendent truth from social and political theory.

Unfortunately, Yiannopoulos is not alone. Increasing numbers of Christians and conservatives capitulate to the cultural demands to tear down essential norms and institutions. Worse still, they exhort others to refrain from “judging” or “condemning” life choices inimical to human flourishing.

Too many libertarians and a growing number of conservatives advocate for near-absolute autonomy with a concomitant disregard for either moral truth or the public good.

Dr. Paul Kengor writes this in his book 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative:

Consistent with Reagan, conservatives today constantly talk of freedom. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom. Go to any gathering of conservatives, and you will hear a freedom mantra.

. . .

Yet, in truth, as Reagan understood, to invoke freedom alone is a mistake. Freedom by itself, isolated, is libertarianism, not conservatism. For the conservative, freedom requires faith; it should never be decoupled from faith. Freedom not rooted in faith can lead to moral anarchy, which, in turn, creates social and cultural chaos. Freedom without faith is the Las Vegas Strip, not the City of God. Freedom without faith begets license and invites vice rather than virtue.

Faith infuses the soul with a sanctifying grace that allows humans in a free society to love and serve their neighbors, to think about more than themselves. We aspire to our better angels when our faith nurtures and elevates our free will.

America’s survival depends upon citizens with inner moral constraints striving to do what is right, not just what feels good at the time.

Remember that liberty divorced from truth ultimately results in chaos and destruction. Pray and act to advance God’s truth unapologetically and without ceasing.

Righteousness exalts a nation:
but sin is a reproach to any people.
~Proverbs 14:34~

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Christians who hold to historic and traditional teachings of the Bible believe that God created us from the beginning “male and female” (Genesis 5:2; Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6). Biology and physiology empirically affirm that there are only two genders. Christians who hold to this theologically orthodox and scientific view believe that “gender-confirmation” surgery, hormone-blockers and cross-dressing damage human beings. We do not believe that medical intervention changes the fact that God created us “fearfully and wonderfully” in His image as either male or female (Psalm 139:13-16). That truth simply cannot be changed.

Leftists believe that “gender” is fluid and changeable. In fact, some on the far left believe that there are more than fifty “gender” options.

Leftist in the media, academia and the entertainment industry reject the orthodox beliefs of Christians (as well as Jews and Muslims) and label these beliefs hateful, while accepting the controversial and science-denying, evolving beliefs of Leftist activists.

Why are Leftist beliefs considered sound and compassionate while historical beliefs are rejected as illegitimate and intolerable? While few Leftists would likely admit it, I believe the reason they reject biological reality is that they hate God. More specifically, they reject His standards of righteousness and choose to openly rebel against those standards. They shake their fists at God and loudly proclaim with their lives that God has no authority over them.

Those who suffer from gender dysphoria are discontented with how God created them, so they choose to recreate themselves. It is the same for those who embrace their same-sex attraction or other paraphilias. It is a rejection of God’s design and purpose for the gift of sexuality.

They have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They have become filled with unrighteous, evil, covetous and malicious thoughts, and approve of those who do the same (Romans 1:18-32).

At the heart of all this is the sin of rebellion, and unbelief, the sin from which there is no dispensation or reprieve (1 John 5:16-17).

The importance of exposing these lies (Ephesians 5:11) and opposing this agenda is critical if we hope to protect young, vulnerable and/or impressionable family members, neighbors from the snares and lures of today’s culture (Psalm 124:7; Proverbs 29:6).

We have to recognize that the lures of the world are very real and can be very strong. There is a reason why the Apostle Paul tells us to “walk circumspectly” or look carefully how we live, “not as fools but as wise…because the days are evil,” and to “understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15–17).

As such, we must be aware of the godless worldviews and lies that are constantly being presented to us. Moreover, we must identify them as lies or deception for ourselves and our for our family members and friends. If we do nothing, others may assume we think the Christian worldview is just one option among many–just one way to find fulfillment.

The Christian faith must offer truth to a dark and decaying culture. We cannot affirm the lies of the culture with our silence or misplaced compassion. The Christian message exposes false beliefs and practices, illuminates the best way (Psalm 119:15), and points to eternal hope in Jesus (Matthew 11:28).

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Written by Pastor Scott Lively

What we call the pro-family movement is a component of the larger conservative movement and deals with matters of sexuality and the natural family. Its American roots are in the cultural backlash to the Marxist revolution of the 1960s that turned family-centered society on its head and swapped the Judeo-Christian morality of our founding for Soviet-style “political correctness.”

Before the 1960s there wasn’t any need for a “pro-family” movement because family values had been the overwhelming consensus of the western world for centuries. Indeed, so surprised were Americans about the cultural revolution that it took nearly twenty years for the conservatives to mount a truly effective response to it. That came under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

The 60’s revolution was not grounded in the Marxist orthodoxy of Lenin and Stalin, but the Cultural Marxism of Herbert Marcuse’s Frankfort School, which envisioned sexual anarchy, not a “workers revolt,” as the key to dismantling Judeo-Christian civilization. The natural core constituency for this ideology was the underground “gay” movement whose dream of social acceptance was not possible without a complete transformation of American sexual morality. Thus, beginning in the late 1940s, Marxist organizer Harry Hay, so-called “father of the American gay movement” was also “father” of the (then hidden) army of “gay” activists most responsible for the “culture war” that exploded in the 60’s and continues today.

America’s Marxist revolution was therefore a “sexual revolution” whose overwhelming success vindicated Marcuse’s destructive vision and became the primary tool of the one-world government elites for softening resistance to their domination by breaking the family-centered society which is every nation’s greatest source of strength, stability and self-sufficiency.

Importantly, though primarily driven behind the scenes by “gays,” the first goal was not legitimization of homosexual sodomy but the normalization of heterosexual promiscuity. This was the motive and strategy that drove “closeted” 1940s and 50s homosexual activist Alfred Kinsey’s fraudulent “science” attacking the marriage-based sexual ethic as “repressive” and socially harmful. It also drove the launch of the modern porn industry, beginning with Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Magazine (Hefner called himself “Kinsey’s pamphleteer”). It drove and defined the battles in the courts where sexual morality was systematically “reformed” by Cultural Marxist elites on the U.S. Supreme Court: contraception on demand to facilitate “fornication without consequences” (Griswold v Connecticut 1966), abortion on demand as the backup system to failed contraception (Roe v Wade 1973), and finally legalization of homosexual sodomy (Lawrence v Texas 2003).

Note the thirty year gap between Roe v Wade and Lawrence v Texas. That major delay in the Marxist agenda was achieved by the election of Ronald Reagan, under whom the pro-family movement became a major political force. That gap also highlights a critical fact: that “street activism” may be essential to any political cause but the real key to the culture war is the U.S. Supreme Court. By 1981 when Ronald Reagan took power the Marxists had nearly succeeded in collapsing the nation’s family and economic infrastructure and the LGBT juggernaut had come completely out of the shadows and taken its place at the head of the cultural blitzkrieg it had been steering from the beginning. Reagan stopped that juggernaut by putting Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, the lion of constitutional originalism who wrote the majority opinion in Bowers v Hardwick (1986) which affirmed (not created) the constitutional right of states to criminalize homosexual sodomy and other harmful sexual conduct in the public interest.

Reagan and Scalia stopped the sexual revolution in its tracks and made it possible for the pro-family movement to begin restoring family values in society, which we strove diligently to do. I got my start in Christian social activism in those heady days and served as State Communications Director for the No Special Rights Act in Oregon in 1992 which forbade the granting of civil rights minority status based on sexual conduct. We fell short in Oregon but a Colorado version of our bill passed the same year. We had in essence won the culture war with that victory given that the Supreme Court had previously ruled that minority status designation required three things: a history of discrimination, political powerlessness, and immutable (unchangeable) status (such as skin color). We had a slam-dunk win on at least two of the three criteria and it would have been just a matter of time before we passed the No Special Rights law from coast to coast.

However, Reagan had been prevented by the elites from putting a second Scalia on the court in the person of Robert Bork, and was forced by the unprecedented political “borking” of Mr. Bork to accept their man Anthony Kennedy to fill the seat instead. Just ten years later, Kennedy served his function by writing the majority opinion killing the Colorado law in Romer v Evans (1996), audaciously declaring that the court didn’t need to apply its three-part constitution test to the No Special Rights Act because it was motivated by “animus” (hate) and thus did not represent a legitimate exercise of the state’s regulatory authority. The ruling was all the more outrageous given that it was only possibly through a blatant abuse of the court’s own judicial authority. Kennedy’s “disapproval = hate” lie set the tone for the political left from that point forward.

In Lawrence v Texas, Kennedy delivered the coup-de-grace to Justice Scalia by striking down Bowers v Hardwick and brazenly ruling that “public morality” cannot be the basis for law. Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority in all five SCOTUS opinions that have, in essence, established homosexual cultural supremacy in America, including the infamous and utterly unconstitutional Obergefell v Hodges (2015) “gay marriage” decision. He is, in my opinion, the worst and most culturally destructive jurist in the history of the court: the culprit (among many villainous candidates) most responsible for the current dysfunctional state of the family in America.

So where’s the “bright future” amidst this lamentation? It’s in the promise made and so-far kept by President Donald Trump to appoint only constitutional originalists to the supreme court. It is in the pleasantly surprising discovery that his first pick, Neil Gorsuch, seems from his first comments as a “supreme” to be a perfect choice to fill the “Scalia seat” on the court. It is in the hopeful rumors that Anthony Kennedy is about to retire, and the simple fact that ultra-hard leftist Ruth Bader Ginsberg and leftist Steven Broyer are of an age that their seats could at any time be vacated by voluntary or involuntary retirement.

In short, the bright future of the pro-family movement is in the hands of the man we hired to drain the swamp in Washington DC, and who hasn’t yet backed down in that fight despite the remarkable scorched-earth campaign of destruction and discreditation being waged against him by the establishment elites of both parties, Hollywood and the media.

I must admit that after Obergefell I began to think that the pro-family movement had lost the culture war, but I now believe there is real hope, not just for reclaiming some lost ground, but possibly of reversing all of the “gains” of the hard left over the past half century. A solid majority of true constitutional originalists could actually restore the legal primacy of the natural family in America fairly quickly, and our cultural healing could quickly follow.

As the leftist elites and street activists continue their all-hands-on-deck attempted “borking” of President Trump, let’s not forget why they’re doing it. His political survival means the end of theirs. I can’t think of a brighter future than that for our nation.

This article was originally posted at ScottLively.net

Written by Pastor Joe Denner

What is your primary strategy for bringing about the kinds of changes you’re looking for in your church, community, family, or life?

I recently participated in an executive retreat with an organization that was discussing change and the topic of conversation centered around, “What is most important right now?”

I think that is a question we should all be asking, as pastors, as business people, as parents, as citizens. I am sure there are many answers we could come up with, but one of the answers this leadership team came up with resonated deeply with me.

“Prayer should be our strategy,” stated one of the senior members of the team.

Unfortunately, prayer often isn’t at the top of our list when we think about strategy. Don’t get me wrong, many of us pray. But how many of us have prayer as one of our most important strategies, bringing a focus of prayer into multiple arenas in our lives?

This leader’s answer makes me think of Paul’s words, “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

As a husband, father, pastor, and business owner, I am becoming more and more convinced that prayer is one of the absolute most important aspects of all of my roles. There isn’t a single responsibility in my purview that shouldn’t be bathed in and have as its source of direction a regular and consistent conversation with God.

There are many ways and many areas that this strategy could be implemented, but I would like to challenge you to make it a consistent practice in one specific area – your marriage.

My wife and I have been praying together daily for over a decade and we would both tell you that it is one of the most intimate practices you and your spouse can enjoy together. Not only do we believe that, but we would also say it is one of the most powerful practices we enjoy together.

A couple that regularly and consistently stands together in prayer is a powerful weapon in the hands of Almighty God. Because of this, the enemy of our souls, the devil, will pull out all the stops to prevent this from happening. But we must persist. We must be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (Eph. 6:10) so we can prevail in this fight.

The stakes are too high not to fight. And God is too faithful not to prevail on your behalf if you will surrender to Him in this area.

Paul urges the people of God to make the most of our time, because the days are evil (Eph. 5:16). Praying together as a couple is a key way to make the most of our time.

I truly believe that if we will yield to the Spirit and allow Him to form us into praying couples, that we will see a movement of God in our day that is unprecedented.

Remember the words of Nehemiah, “And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” (Nehemiah 4:14)

Specific Prayer Items:

• Pray for President Donald Trump and both of our U.S. Senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.

• Pray for the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court:  Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Sonai Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch. Please pray that they would uphold and preserve religious liberty as they consider the Masterpiece Cakeshop case later this year.

• Pray that lawmakers in Washington, D.C. would continue to work toward defunding Planned Parenthood and repealing Obamacare.

• Please continue to pray that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner will veto HB 1785 and HB 40, proposals that would legalize transgender birth certificates and taxpayer funding of abortion in Illinois.

• Pray that devout Christians throughout the state would respond to the call to public service and run for office on the local, state and federal levels. Pray that moral and fiscally responsible candidates would have the support they need to prevail in the March 2018 elections. Pray that God would remove from office those corrupt political officials who enable reckless and immoral legislative practices to continue.

• Pray for boldness in our pulpits and for strong, unwavering church leadership plus a willingness to engage the culture.

• Pray that God would bless and prosper the work of IFI and IFA.  Pray for the success of our upcoming fall events and the wherewithal to do the work necessary on behalf of life, families, marriages, and religious liberty.

Thank you for being a prayer warrior alongside us!

Joe Denner is the President of Alliant Leadership and the Pastor of Dover Bible Church. He and his wife and their nine children live in Dover. Illinois.

You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel. Check out his blog too!

A recent study by Barna reveals the truth about what the spiritual climate in America is currently like. The study was conducted over 7 years, ending in 2016, and focuses on the most post-Christian cities in the US. According to Barna, “To qualify as ‘post-Christian,’ individuals must meet nine or more of our 16 criteria… which identify a lack of Christian identity, belief and practice. These factors include whether individuals identify as atheist, have never made a commitment to Jesus, have not attended church in the last year or have not read the Bible in the last week.”

The results might surprise some, Barna says:

The most post-Christian city in America is Portland-Auburn, Maine (57%). In fact, New England and the Northeast—considered the foundation and home-base of religion in America—figure prominently: Eight of the top 10 most post-Christian cities are in this region. The next six cities on the list are Boston, MA-Manchester, NH (56%), Providence, RI-New Bedford, MA (53%), Burlington, VT-Plattsburgh, NY (53%), Hartford-New Haven, CT (52%), and New York, NY (51%). Next up are two big West Coast hubs: San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA (50%), and Seattle-Tacoma (50%).

The percentage of people dedicated to Christianity has changed significantly in the last 50 years, causing the religion to lose much of its influence in our everyday lives. Although the Barna survey revealed that the most post-christian cities are generally concentrated in the New England area, according to The Blaze, Barna conducted a study earlier this year which revealed “that San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose, California, is the most unchurched metro area in the country, with 60 percent of respondents saying they ‘have not attended a church service in the past six months.’” A Gallup survey from December found that 21 percent of Americans have no religious identity — up from the 15 percent of respondents who said the same in 2008.

As research seems to show, we may be approaching not only a post-Christian, but a post-religion era. A country once focused on God seems to be moving rapidly closer to a godless society. This leaves us begging the question, what will the children of these post-christian people believe? Will our country continue its journey towards forgetting religion all together, or will the next generation bring the rebirth of Sunday school, Bible studies, and church picnics as a regular part of life?

According to Christian Post, “Gallup also found that church and other religious attendance has been declining. While 73 percent of respondents said in 1937 that they were a member of a church, only 56 percent said the same in 2016. Additionally, 72 percent of of those surveyed in 2016 said that religion is losing its influence on American life.”

Ask any young adult how many of their friends and co-workers regularly attend church, and you’ll likely realize that this grim statistic is true. The question is, why? Why are people rejecting Christianity, and religion altogether? Why are certain parts of the United States more “post-Christian” than others? What can be done about this disheartening trend?

The answer lies in you and me. Only we have the ability to turn this tide. It is time to pray fervently again for our country, and for our loved ones. Change does not happen overnight, just as America did not become a nation that is hostile to Christianity overnight. Change is still possible, but it begins with you and I standing up and refusing to let our faith merely take a supporting role in our lives any longer. Our nation must return to its origins of “One nation, under God”, or live with the consequences of a nation without God.

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America was very far from perfect in the early 1960s. In much of the nation segregation was the law of the land and women certainly had far less opportunities than men, just to mention two of society’s inequities. And I’m quite aware the first issue of Playboy, featuring Marilyn Monroe in the nude, was published in 1953. At the same time, there’s no denying that America back then was a far more innocent, family friendly country than it is today.

And so, 55 years ago, when we sat together and watched Leave It to Beaver, we didn’t say to ourselves, “How corny! There’s not a family in the nation like the Cleavers.” Instead, it was as normal to us as it was entertaining.

In a word, Americans in the late-1950s to early-1960s enjoyed watching Father Knows Best and The Andy Griffith Show. Today we enjoy watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Secret Diary of a Call Girl. (For the record, in contrast with Bruce-Caitlyn Jenner, the patriarch of the Kardashian family, Robert Young, who played the father on Father Knows Best, was never crowned “woman of the year.”)

In the late-50s to early-60s, Annette Funicello was a popular, young female star singing songs like “Pineapple Princes.” Today it’s Miley Cyrus, singing songs like “Wrecking Ball” – in the nude, riding a wrecking ball, on her music video.

Take an old show like Dennis the Menace, which aired from 1959-1963, and think of some of the things he got in trouble for. (After all, he was called a “menace,” right?) In the first episode, “Dennis successfully eludes a babysitter (whom he has never met) and sneaks out of the house and goes to a cowboy movie that his parents also go to while [his friend] Joey is left with the babysitter, pretending to be Dennis.” In the next episode, “Dennis and [his closest friend] Tommy replace a fallen street signpost but fail to notice they’ve put it up with the street names facing in the wrong direction.” Oh, what a menace!

Today, we would be following Dennis’s journey on reality TV, waiting for him to get out of the juvenile detention center after robbing an elderly man in broad daylight. Will Dennis ever change, or will he end up dead before his eighteenth birthday? And rather than Dennis having that old scruffy hairdo with that shock of blond locks always out of place he would be sporting a purple Mohawk, wearing earrings, an eyebrow ring, a lip ring, and adorned with tattoos galore. (If you think I’m exaggerating, watch some clips from Beyond Scared Straight.)

Or consider that on I Love Lucy, Lucy and her husband slept in separate beds. Could you imagine today’s version, where the show would feature partial nudity (after all, it’s a family show, so there has to be some modesty), mild profanity, constant sexual innuendos, and kids who do not show the slightest respect to their parents?

Or compare Andy Griffith to Stalker or Hannibal, or compare Lawrence Welk to the annual MTV Music Awards. Or watch an old Elvis movie where he shakes his hips – that was so controversial – and compare that to the latest crotch-grabbing, bootie shaking music video (those have been around for quite some time now). And be sure to compare the lyrics too!

If you’re a young person reading this and you’re not familiar with the older shows, take a few minutes to watch some of the episodes. They’re readily available on YouTube, and you’ll be amazed by what you see.

Watch an episode of Lassie, then switch over to American Horror Story, or compare West Side Story to Natural Born Killers. Then go back to The Flintstones cartoon show – remember, we would watch this together as a family – and compare it to today’s animated shows like South Park or Adult Swim. (By the way, if you say, “I’d rather pass on watching these newer shows,” you won’t get an argument from me.)

Recently, Matthew Walther, a national correspondent for The Week, wrote, “I used to watch Game of Thrones. Then I realized it was endangering my immortal soul.”

He came to this conclusion six-years (and six-seasons) late, but a recent episode jarred him into reality. “My goodness,” he thought to himself. “I’ve just spent an hour watching to see if a guy who raped a teenage girl at bow-and-arrow point is going to be eaten alive by the animals he has spent the last few seasons subjecting to forms of cruelty that make Michael Vick look like a PETA ambassador or beaten to death in the freezing cold by his victim’s half-brother. Thank goodness the guy who set his terminally ill daughter on fire in a pyromantic oblation to a heathen god at the behest of a witch who never seems to wear any clothes is not around to prevent justice from being carried out here — the woman whose size makes her the frequent butt of bestiality-related jokes killed him just in time!”

And on and on his description goes, more lurid by the line. The contrast between this and Lassie is the contrast between America today and America when I was a boy. The question is: Can America be saved? Is there any way to recover some of the innocence we have lost? I say the answer is Yes, and I believe that there is a prescription for radical change laid out in the pages of Scripture itself.

That’s the subject of my new book Saving a Sick America: A Prescription for Moral and Cultural Transformation (due out in September). You can download the first chapter of this book, from which much of this article has been adapted, for free, here. You can also watch the book trailer there as well.

Things are indeed dire, but not all hope is lost. The question is: Do we sense the urgency of the hour?

Article originally posted on Townhall.com.

Frustrated by its inability to win elections, the left is attempting to silence opponents through intimidation, either in the streets or in the courts.

The latest example is the hijacking of Guidestar USA by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Guidestar is a database of more than 2 million nonprofit and non-governmental (NGO) organizations. It’s considered the foremost authority on nonprofits, and had a self-avowed reputation for “remaining neutral.”

That changed when a left-wing activist, Jacob Harold, came aboard in 2012. Mr. Harold, whose bio boasts of donating to the Obama campaign, extensive activism on behalf of climate change groups, and hosting a NARAL Pro-Choice DC men’s event, tweeted a photo of himself holding a sign protesting President Trump at the radical Women’s March in January.

Apart from Vermont ice cream magnates Ben and Jerry, it might be hard to find a more radically leftist major CEO. So it’s no wonder that Mr. Harold welcomed the Southern Poverty Law Center as an authority on “hate groups.” Using SPLC’s “hate map” as a resource, Guidestar smeared 46 organizations, many of them Christian, as “hate groups.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center has a long history of abusing nonprofits and individuals with whom they disagree. They tar innocent people and may have inspired at least two terrorist incidents. The SPLC’s “hate map” lumps Christian and conservative organizations with neo-Nazis, skinheads and other violence-prone groups. The most common offenses? Failing to salute the brave new world of sexual anarchy or unlimited illegal immigration.

On Aug. 15, 2012, a disturbed young man, Floyd Corkins II, who later told the FBI that he had been inspired by the SPLC’s “hate map,” attempted to commit mass murder at the DC-based Family Research Council. He had a knapsack full of extra rounds and Chick-fil-A sandwiches that he had planned to stuff into the mouths of his victims. Stopped by Leo Johnson, a courageous guard who was shot while subduing him, Corkins became the first person in U.S. history to be convicted under Washington, DC, law of domestic terrorism.

On June 14, Bernie Sanders follower James T. Hodgkinson, who had “liked” the Southern Poverty Law Center on Facebook, shot up Republican congressmen and their staffs at a baseball practice in Alexandria, critically wounding Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise, and injuring four others. The Louisiana congressman had been singled out by the SPLC for an alleged connection to a white power group, a charge he denies.

Earlier this month, Guidestar began adding the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group labels to 46 nonprofits. Last week, Guidestar – and the SPLC by implication – began getting major pushback.

On June 21, a group of 41 Christian and conservative leaders, including former Attorney General Edwin Meese, signed a letter to Guidestar demanding deletion of the defaming labels, which Guidestar did – sort of. The labels were removed but the damage was done and the information is available upon request.

Next, Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal foundation, filed a defamation lawsuit on June 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Guidestar for posting a label on Liberty Counsel’s Guidestar page describing it as an SPLC-designated “hate group.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which built its reputation years ago by monitoring the Ku Klux Klan and other violent groups, still raises money by the boatload with its scare tactics and has a $300 million endowment. That allows it to do things like send a dozen attorneys to New Jersey, where a jury under a liberal judge in a kangaroo court in 2015 found a small Jewish group, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), guilty of consumer “fraud” for directing people to counselors who aid people in overcoming unwanted same-sex desires.

The Southern Poverty Law Center also listed former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson in the “hate” category for his stances on marriage and biblical morality before public outrage made them withdraw the label.

Three years ago, the FBI dropped the Southern Poverty Law Center as a source for identifying hate groups. In March 2016, the U.S. Justice Department accused the Southern Poverty Law Center attorneys of “lack of professionalism” and “misconduct” for falsely characterizing the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Immigration Reform Law Institute as “hate groups.”

Maajid Nawaz, a moderate Muslim who opposes jihad extremism, says he is also suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for defaming him and his organization, the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

If there is still doubt as to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s motives, it was laid to rest in an interview with SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok, who said that his group’s “hate group” criteria “have nothing to do with criminality or violence or any kind of guess we’re making about ‘this group could be dangerous.’ It’s strictly ideological.'”

Mr. Potok is also on video stating, “Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate crimes and so on. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.”

And the Southern Poverty Law Center still has a shred of credibility? Sure they do. Ask any “mainstream” journalist.

A new book by Michael Medved explores the miracle of our nation’s founding and growth. It is also a reminder of why we should thank God for His grace on America.

IFI depends on the support of concerned-citizens like you. Donate now

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“Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” ~Judges 21:25b

America circa 2017 sounds much like Israel of 1000 BC, proving, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Our current culture seems determined to rebel against God and His precepts, resembling Romans 1 more and more with each passing day.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

. . .

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

Yet we believers know the remedy!

The hard part is often not knowing, but rather sharing the good, Good News of the Savior.

The Apostle Paul tells us, ““How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Well, based on Paul’s words, the IFI Faith Forum guest speaker, Ray Comfort, has some mighty good-looking feet…so to speak!

Ray Comfort is the Founder and CEO of Living Waters ministries and the best-selling author of more than 80 books, including, Hell’s Best Kept Secret, Scientific Facts in the Bible, and The Evidence Bible. He co-hosts (with actor Kirk Cameron) the award-winning television program “The Way of the Master,” seen in 200 countries.

And we highly recommend his movies in which he challenges people about abortion, the sin of homosexuality and the problem of evolution. You, your family and church can watch them for free on YouTube!  The one about abortion is titled “180” Movie and runs about a half-hour; the one about homosexuality is titled “Audacity” and is just short of an hour long; and the movie tackling evolution is titled “Evolution vs. God,” and runs about 40 minutes long.

Comfort has a boldness coupled with a great gift to connect with people that entices the hearer to ponder life and sin and salvation.

Ray can frequently be seen captivating visitors at the Huntington Beach Pier in California: crowds gather and are intrigued by Comfort’s fast-paced style, asking all the right questions about life and creation, about God and Jesus Christ.

Speaking with joy and boldness, stealthily shattering the lies of secular humanism, debunking the false narrative of revisionist history, Comfort challenges his audiences, whether on a street or a beach, with the truth God’s marvelous grace and way of redemption.

Join us for an unforgettable evening on September 30 from 7 – 9PM at Medinah Baptist Church in the northwest suburbs as Ray Comfort shares his passion for Biblical truth.

(Click here for an event flyer.)

Tickets are only $10 each, but space is limited so you’ll want to register early:

But be warned: Ray Comfort’s enthusiasm is HIGHLY contagious! You may never again hesitate to share the Good News!

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Written by John W. Mauck

Our nation is experiencing such political turmoil. Where can we find peace? In Messiah alone.

Fake news, alternative facts, secret investigations, “covfefes”—there is nothing new about the constant bombardment of news we receive all day, whether willingly or not.

When we hear about religious liberty laws, our ears should perk up. Right now our freedoms of expression, conscience, speech on the basis of religion are facing serious threats in Illinois and the across country. Though there have been victories, like this t-shirt printing shop in Kentucky and pastors in Illinois being able to counsel those with unwanted same-sex attraction, there is much that lies ahead for those of us bound to follow Jesus’ teaching.

In John 16, Jesus is telling His disciples of His going away, but that the Holy Spirit will join them and that He will come back. The disciples are confused as Jesus tells them about the grief they will feel. Finally Jesus tells them in verse 33:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Grandiose? Not for the Son of God. He has already overcome the world! So even though things seem chaotic, we rest in His promise that the Holy Spirit is with us and that Christ will return. If HB 1785 is signed into law, He has already conquered the sin that would take place after the gender-preferred birth certificates become permissible. Though hard to imagine, He has already overcome whatever grief and anguish would take place should HB 40 be signed into law and taxpayers are forced to pay for abortions.

This doesn’t mean we do not need to lobby, vote, preach, and call our government representatives and pray, but it does mean that there’s peace available to us. As we consider the future of our freedom to live based on our God-given convictions, we may take comfort in that He is in control and has already taken care of us.

Specific Prayer Items:

• Pray that there would be boldness for our pastors to preach the truth in love in sensitive cultural and legal areas.

• Pray for the compete healing of U.S. Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA).

• Pray that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner will veto HB 40, the bill which will require taxpayers to pay for abortions, as it will soon arrive on his desk.

• Pray for Illinois Bible College Association—a lawsuit waiting decision from the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals that will determine whether Bible colleges can award degrees to recognize its students’ achievement in the area of religious study without government approval.

• Pray that Governer Rauner will veto HB 1785, which allows an individual to change gender on their birth certificates. This would open doors to such chaos as male convicts legally claiming to be female and obtaining transfers to women’s prisons.

• Pray for the fiscal state of Illinois—nearly entering its third year without a budget.

• A couple of our clients at Mauck & Baker:
  • World Outreach— Still in court after 10 years of legal battle with the city. This Chicago homeless shelter suffered damages when the City refused to allow it to house displaced Hurricane Katrina victims.
  • Affordable Recovery Housing—The City of Blue Island tried to force this Christian recovery center to shut down, including vacating its now 100+ residents. Although Blue Island’s attempts were thwarted by court action, it is resisting paying for the legal fees of Affordable Recovery Housing. Unless ministries are allowed to recover legal fees they are often unable to obtain justice.

Thank you for being a prayer warrior alongside us!

John W. Mauck, an attorney for 40 years, is a founding partner at Mauck & Baker, LLC in Chicago. He is also an Allied Attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom. He received his BS from Yale and his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago. He and his wife of forty years have four adult children. John is the author of the books Jesus in the Courtroom (Moody Publishers), and Paul on Trial (Thomas Nelson), which was a Christian Book Award Finalist.

In a new study published by the research organization Barna Group, church attendance trends around the country were analyzed:

A trusted measure of religiosity over the decades has been church attendance and, for the most part, Americans are attending church less. But those shifts have occurred in varying ways and at different rates throughout the diverse regions and cities across the country.

. . .

Based on Barna’s most recent data, almost four in 10 (38%) Americans are active churchgoers, slightly more (43%) are unchurched, and around one-third (34%) are dechurched.

It probably comes as no surprise that four of the top five most “churched” cities in America are found in the South. Salt Lake City, Utah rounds out the list.

Three of the top five “unchurched” cities will also probably shock few people: San Francisco, Reno, and Las Vegas. Two cities in Massachusetts also made the top five.

Many Christians and other supporters of the Judeo-Christian ethic understand that the rate of church attendance impacts our country and our culture. The bad news is that, as professor Carson Holloway writes at the Heritage Foundation, “In recent years, Americans have lost sight of religion’s positive contribution to creating and sustaining our democracy.”

The American Founders, Holloway writes, “intended to institute a secular government but insisted that it required a religious foundation”:

For example, in his Farewell Address, George Washington reminded his countrymen that “religion and morality” are the “firmest props of the duties of men and citizens” and therefore are “indispensable supports” of “the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity.” He added, moreover, that morality depends on religion: “[R]eason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Religion, he thus suggested, is necessary to the preservation of “free government.”

“In seeking to renew our understanding of religion’s contribution to freedom,” Holloway writes, “we can turn to no better teacher than [19th century writer] Alexis de Tocqueville.”

Tocqueville explained more thoroughly than anyone else why religion, though in some ways a pre-modern and pre-democratic phenomenon, is nevertheless essential to the health of modern democracy. This is one of the key themes of his monumental study, Democracy in America.

Modern democratic freedom, Tocqueville argues, developed as a result of Christianity’s influence on European civilization, and more particularly as a result of Puritanism’s influence on American civilization. This link is not accidental: Political freedom requires an unshakable moral foundation that only religion can supply.

Moreover, religion is necessary not only to democracy’s emergence, but also to its preservation. Democracy fosters intellectual and moral habits that can be deadly to freedom: the tyranny of the majority, individualism, materialism, and democratic despotism. American Christianity acts as a corrective to these perilous democratic tendencies.

Here is Holloway taking it a step further:

Accordingly, Tocqueville concludes, the preservation of America’s traditional religion is one of the most important tasks of democratic statesmanship. Indeed, he goes so far as to say that religion “should be considered the first” of America’s “political institutions” and even that it is necessary for Americans to “maintain Christianity…at all cost.”

Holloway then makes the point that is unfortunately backed up by the Barna study:

To summarize Tocqueville’s teaching thus is to be reminded of how much America has changed since he examined it, and this in turn raises the question whether Tocqueville’s teaching is any longer relevant to us. Christianity today possesses nothing like the public moral authority that it had in the 1830s. Today’s America is less religious overall than Tocqueville’s America, and religious Americans today are more diverse in their religious beliefs than were the Americans of Tocqueville’s day.

Holloway then makes another key argument:

These changes, however, do not render Tocqueville’s account irrelevant. He wrote not as a religious teacher aiming to propagate a particular faith, but instead as a political analyst interested in the kind of religious beliefs necessary to uphold freedom and democracy. Moreover, Tocqueville saw democracy’s dynamism and understood its tendency to change the country’s religious landscape.

Accordingly, Tocqueville wrote not with a view to preserving completely intact a particular religion, but instead to discover the religious essentials of the free society and to explain how and to what extent they can be preserved. His thought therefore invites us not to a fruitless nostalgia for an unrecoverable past, but instead to an intelligent application of the lessons of the past to the obligations of the present—especially our obligation to preserve and pass on the free society that we have inherited.

There are many reasons people don’t attend church — chief among them is that our churches are filled with sinners. However, we are told that we should not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” in Hebrews 10:25. Fellowship, encouragement, burden sharing and serving one another can only be done in community.

In short, church attendance is a blessing to you, your family and to other members of the flock. Don’t let any excuses stand in the way of becoming a regular part of Christian fellowship.

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We live in a divided and contentious culture where traditional Judeo-Christian values are rejected for humanistic ideals and cultural Marxism. Last Saturday morning IFI received two emails that demonstrate this dichotomy:

Laura from Crystal Lake sent this in response to our weekly email newsletter: “Wow these are just awful links. It’s amazing how much hate Illinois Family Action spews. Clearly not a Christian group because God would be ashamed of you.”

One minute later, James from Rockford sent this email to us: “Thank you for all of your articles about family issues. It’s nice to know that someone is speaking out for us. Who would have thought fifty years ago that such an organization would be necessary? Sad.“