OUR COLUMNISTS Have We Lost the Culture War? Commentary by Joe Murray What is the state of our Union's culture? Poor. In regards to Christian values, Jesus has not just been moved to the back of the bus, he has been thrown out the emergency exit door. m...m...m...Married? Commentary by Jane Jimenez Big things are happening for marriage! A national conference just concluded in Atlanta, with experts from around the country sharing ways to support and save healthy marriages. Seeking a Savior Commentary by Brad Locke Our sports heroes will err, sometimes so egregiously that we can't justify or ignore it. Yet we continue to raise up new idols for worship, placing them precariously on the rubbish of the last fallen idol. A Father's Influence Extends to Generations Commentary by Mark Creech There's no escaping it. Dads either build a place of blessing for their children, or they build a prison. They either grow weeds -- or roses.

...The National Education Association (NEA) has nixed a proposal endorsing homosexual "marriage" in all 50 states, instead opting for another way to put its stamp of approval on homosexuality. The NEA Resolutions Committee has deleted a controversial amendment to its diversity policy known as B-8, which would have comprehensively endorsed same-sex marriage. Also, a revised amendment (B-10) supporting same-sex marriages and civil unions in the seven states where those unions are legal, has been "pulled for discussion" after the Alabama Educators Caucus protested the resolution. Alabama State Representative Gerald Allen recently called on Alabama NEA members to either boycott the NEA convention or vote against the resolution. Meanwhile, the NEA's "Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification" issued a report declaring that homosexual issues be required content for teacher credentialing. The committee report states "that the NEA advocate for the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues in the 'National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education' teacher education program review process." The NEA has reportedly already contacted the accreditation council about the requirement. And finally, after heated debate, the union voted to replace the word "tolerance" with the word "acceptance" in it policy language. The NEA convention wraps up today (July 5) in Orlando. [Jim Brown]

...Six months and almost 2,800 miles later, a minister and his wife have completed their "Walk to Reclaim America" with Fourth of July prayers in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Pastor Rick McKinney says he and his wife Jane took more than ten million steps since setting out from California's Santa Monica pier on New Year's Day. Rick says there were lots of goals for this journey. "I think the biggest success actually is how it's changed my wife and I," he shares. "And what we've seen, what we've heard, and what we've learned in talking to people has changed us -- and we will never be the same." Along the way, the pastor says many people were won to Christ and many Christians were stirred to recommit their lives to the Lord. He says it was an amazing journey. "We've had the opportunity to share our story with lots of churches and congregations along the way, and they have been changed forever," he says. "And we are believing with all of our hearts that this is the beginning of a great spiritual awakening in America." Their mission, he says, was "to reclaim America for the Lord." McKinney says the nation's Founding Fathers "could not have imagined a country where the cross would be under attack" or "where marriage would be under attack." On the sidewalk between the Supreme Court and U.S. Capitol, he and his wife prayed that America's leaders would turn to God for wisdom and guidance. And he told a crowd at a press conference that there could be another walk in the future -- but right now they just want to rest their feet. [Bill Fancher/AP]

...In a standoff surrounding the display of a plaque containing the Ten Commandments, the District of Columbia has "blinked." Officials in Washington, DC, had threatened fines against the National Clergy Council for displaying the Decalogue in a garden plot across the street from the Supreme Court building. But after a few weeks, the District rescinded the order to remove the display. Council president Rob Schenck did not expect such a quick resolution. "We were utterly shocked with how quickly the officials of the District of Columbia capitulated and reversed their decision demanding that we remove the Ten Commandments Monument from our front garden," Schenck says, who suspects DC officials saw the error of their ways. "Officials who are prejudiced against religious speech, who don't like what Christians are doing in this town abused their authority, acted without proper authorization," he says, "and I'm sure what happened here was the legal department of the District of Columbia looked at this situation and saw that they were in flagrant violation." A longtime Washington lawyer told Schenck he could not recall the District ever reversing one of its directives. [Bill Fancher]

...A leading theologian says the actual writings of the first president of the United States prove conclusively that George Washington was a strong Christian. In his new book George Washington's Sacred Fire, Westminster Theological Seminary president Peter Lillback says for decades the nation's founding father has been inaccurately and conveniently mislabeled as a deist -- one who believes God is the Creator but abandoned His creation. Lillback spent more than 15 years examining the personal writings of President Washington, and he says those writings and documents are sprinkled with references to the Bible. "He was biblically literate. He knew the Bible so well that he quotes over 200, or alludes at least to 200 different Bible verses that I've come across in my writing," says Lillback. "Instead of denying prayer, there are some 180 prayers he wrote with his own hands in his own letters. Instead of denying that God revealed Himself, he speaks of the Bible as the blessed religion revealed in the Word of God." The theologian says it is important to know about Washington's solid faith. "Each side [of the debate] wants to couch our founding father in such a way that it gives them leverage when they come to the public square -- and the only way to accurately address that question is by letting Washington himself speak," Lillback contends. "And when you do, it's clear that he was a Christian, that he valued the Bible, that he wanted religion and morality to be part of the public square. And that's a great advantage for us if we are people of faith." Lillback's book is available through ProvidenceForum.org. [Allie Martin]

...The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation tied last week in a vote on whether to make what's been dubbed "net neutrality" part of telecommunications legislation passed in the chamber. The measure, sponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), will now have to be pursued through an amendment to be included at all. The bill makes provision against access discrimination for all potential web users. Such a bill, called the Internet Freedom and Non-Discrimination Act, has already passed in the U.S. House. Michelle Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, says without Senate passage, many ministries, businesses, and organizations stand to be at a severe disadvantage in their access for consumers through the web. Combs says those organizations will be on the slow track through Internet providers, or possibly be blocked entirely, as a result. Internet providers wish to charge for equal speedy access to Internet locations. "If net neutrality does not get passed, a lot of these websites are going to have to settle for the slow track," she explains, "which is going to be very bad to get our message out as conservatives because the consumers will not want to go to the slow track." Combs urges voters to continue contacting their own U.S. senators -- and those on the Commerce Committee -- to let them know they want the Dorgan-Snowe net neutrality amendment added to telecommunications legislation in the Senate. The matter is expected to be taken up after the Independence Day break. [Ed Thomas]

...The president of Eagle Forum says she is pleased with the recent ruling of the Supreme Court that upheld the Texas redistricting plan. Former Texas Congressman Tom DeLay had drawn up the plan for new boundaries in 2003 after Republicans took control of the Texas Legislature in 2002. Phyllis Schlafly says Texas needed the change to reflect the political shift in the Lone Star State. "The Republican majority in Texas is really quite impressive, and yet that was not reflected in the number of congressmen they had," Schlafly explains. "Usually we have redistricting every ten years, but after the Republicans took over the State Legislature, they felt they should redistrict and make the congressional seats more fairly represent what the voters want -- and that's what they did." The new plan enabled the GOP to elect six new members to Congress in 2004. Democrats and minority groups had challenged the plan, saying it was unconstitutional. But the Eagle Forum leader says Texas had the constitutional right to redraw the districts. "It was a mid-ten-year redistricting, and the Supreme Court upheld that," she says. "There's no reason why they couldn't. You look to the Constitution and you ask yourself the question: does the Constitution authorize it or does it forbid it?" In this case, notes Schlafly, the Constitution does not forbid it; therefore states have the right to do that. [Chad Groening]

...A Christian film reviewer says Superman is not "gay." Ted Baehr, who heads up MovieGuide.org, says there is no evidence for the claim that the new "Superman" character in the recently released movie is a homosexual. Rather, Baehr says all the evidence in Superman Returns points to the main character's love for Lois Lane. "So he doesn't give any evidence of being gay in the movie, except for the fact that he's a good looking guy with a strong physique," says Baehr. "If that makes you gay, then we've got to remove all the people in the Marines ... and all the people in football and everything else. That's absurd. Just because a person is good looking and has a good physique doesn't make them gay." The movie critic laments the fact that despite no "proof" exists to support their argument, homosexual activists carry on with their agenda. "[T]hat's not going to stop the Advocate [a popular homosexual publication] from claiming everybody from Abraham Lincoln to maybe the founders of Focus on the Family or Planned Parenthood as being gay because that's their job," he says. "Their job is to lie about everything. The left lies, and it lies perpetually. On the homosexual side, that's even more intense." Baehr says Superman Returns contains strong Christological elements. But he encourages parents to talk to their children about the film to help them distinguish Christian elements from questionable ones. [Natalie Harris]

...The State Supreme Court in New York could rule today (July 5) to legalize homosexual "marriage" in that state. If the decision does go that way, it would make New York the second state in the U.S. to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts became the first in 2003 after a 4-3 ruling by that state's high court. In the New York Case, the state justices may avoid the marriage altogether and choose to legalize civil unions, similar to Vermont. The New York high court has received letters of support for the homosexual effort from a number of groups, among them representatives of several religious organizations, including Episcopal and United Methodist groups. [Fred Jackson]

© 2006 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines