Christians ought to see the handwriting on the wall with President Obama’s appointment today of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. She is the first gay nominee to the Supreme Court.

The highest court in the land which deals with the interpretation of the most extreme laws that govern us all will now have (when she is confirmed) a gay person deciding the course all Americans will take. Among the critical laws facing Christians in particular are freedom of speech laws versus the new Hate Crimes law, same-sex marriage, transgender rights which apparently can trample on the rights of non-transgendered people, and gays in the military.

Is the deck stacked against traditional Christian interpretation of the Bible? I think so. I shared a video recently in which President Obama referred to the “Holy Koran” several times, and always with utmost respect. But when he referred to Christianity he did so with a touch of mockery, and asked, Which version of Christianity should we choose? The James Dobson kind, or the Al Sharpton kind? Read full post... (435 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Dale McAlpine, a 42-year old preacher who has preached in Wokington, Cumbria for years, was arrested April 20 for violating the Public Order Act. His crime? He was preaching on a street corner and named several sins, including drunkeness and adultery. A passerby asked him if he believed homosexuality was a sin, too. He told her he believed it was. A homosexual Police Community Support Officer approached the woman, then approached the minister and told him a charge had been made that he preached against homosexuality. The PCSO identified himself to the minister as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender laison for the police, and the minister said, “It’s still a sin.” Shortly thereafter three uniformed policemen arrived and arrested the minister.
We preachers have been trying to scream for a few years that the Hate Crimes bill was unnecessary, since laws against every crime in it are already in force, and we’ve tried to show what the true nature of the bill is. It is a restriction of free speech. It is intended to ultimately silence moral preaching.
Only the courageous will be able to take a stand for strong moral writing or preaching. And as Europe goes, so goes America. Now that we see what the Public Order Act is accomplishing in Scotland, we see what is coming for the Hate Crimes law in America.
This is not the first time the Public Orders Act has been used to silence Christians. In 2002, a pensioner named Harry Hammond was holding up a sign that read “Stop Immorality. Stop homosexuality. Stop Lesbianism. Jesus is Lord.” He was arrested. As was Stephen Green, a Christian campaigner. He was handing out leaflets at a Gay Pride festival in Cardiff in 2006.
Hang on, America. It’s just a matter of time until your preachers, too, will be arrested if they dare quote scriptures that offend homosexuals. So far, no adulterers, murderers, fornicators, liars, thieves, haters, schemers, or other sinners have protested preachers’ rights to preach from the scriptures that identify their sin. Only homosexuals. Read full post... (352 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

I was fully prepared to yawn my way through another National Day of Prayer. Forgive me for not sharing the ecumenical enthusiasm so many others seem to have.
I find prayer to be a very personal and real connection to the God I believe in. I know Him as Jesus Christ. That is my personal belief. I didn’t get the concept from the government. I didn’t ask the government’s permission to have it. It is my faith, and I exercise my belief in it on a daily basis, and would do so with or without the government’s consent.

This year’s National Day of Prayer has been met with the typical nonsense of the politically correct crowd. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb recently ruled that it was unconstitutional, that it violates the First Amendment. The Pentagon invited, then disinvited Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, to be a speaker at its event on the National Day of Prayer. Why? Because he called Islam a bad religion after 9/11 when Muslims blew up the Twin Towers to punish the Satan America. Read full post... (515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

President Obama met with Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu, but you’d hardly know it. There was no invitation to the press. Absolutely no photo ops. You won’t see photos of the two men standing, smiling, shaking hands in tomorrow’s newspaper. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton probably had a more substantial meeting, but even that didn’t get much attention.

You won’t hear much about Netanyahu’s concession to endorse a two-state solution, or his restricting West Bank settlement growth for ten months. But you will hear that while Vice President Biden was visiting Israel recently a new housing project was announced in the media in Israel. Oh, but not to worry, Mr. Biden punished Mr. Netanyahu by arriving ninety minutes late for a scheduled dinner. Read full post... (566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Here we go again. Some congressmen are pushing President Obama to hurry up with immigration reform, and one of their key initiatives is the implementation of “biometric national identification cards.” Senators Charles Schumer (D-New York) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) just postponed a meeting with the President for the second time. It is likely that they are simply reacting to sharp criticism from advocates.

But mark this down: this congress will push the issue of immigration reform, and they will include a demand for biometric national ID cards. Biometric ID cards will necessarily contain virtually all of your personal information – banking, health, insurance, and more – and will require your bodily engagement to be effective, i.e., either your thumbprint or handprint, or eye scan. And of course there are those who believe the card is the first step to an implanted chip similar to those used now on pets, and approved by the FDA in 2004 for human implants. Read full post... (525 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

I was disappointed watching the Academy Awards 2010. Not at the hosts. I thought Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were funny! I thought they teamed up to provide a welcome “show within the show.”

And no, I wasn’t disappointed at the winners. I thought Bridges was due, and I thought Sandra Bullock was actually humble in her acceptance. And I thought the movie she won for was a wonderful example of how Hollywood can once in a while come through with something mainstream Americans can warm up to.

No, my disappointment was more about something that didn’t happen rather than something that happened. For the last few years I’ve watched certain Hollywood celebs use their Oscars night to either bash former president Bush, or to make an impassioned plea to “bring our soldiers home!” Their compassion was convincing as they spoke of our young men and women dying “over there.” In particular, I watched Sean Penn on some Youtubes demanding that Bush be impeached because he had put our young people in an improper war, and demanding that democrats, when they were in control, bring our troops home. Read full post... (507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

She never saw the truck coming, didn’t have time to brace for impact. In an instant she was blasted across the console of our brand new Toyota Celica, her head knocking out the passenger side window. The truck had run a red light and broadsided her. Witnesses rushed to her side and helped her. In minutes an ambulance took her to Baylor Hospital.

I was working several miles away when the company phone rang. A coworker offered me a ride to the hospital. When I arrived an hour after the accident, doctors were still digging out glass from her head and ear. She was a bloody mess. But there was a worse problem: she was seven months pregnant with our first child!
After a couple of hours waiting, one of the doctors came out and summoned me for a private meeting. “Your wife is extremely shaken,” he said, “but she should recover okay. Our real concern now is for the baby. We can’t find a heartbeat.” Read full post... (742 words, 1 image, estimated 2:58 mins reading time)

My oldest daughter was about 6 years old, playing on the floor with a church friend of the same age. My youngest, Ashley, was three. She was excluded from their game. Chutes and Ladders was too complicated for her, they thought. But she could count, and proved it to them, so they let her in.
After a few plays they called to me. “Daddy, you want to play with us?” I guessed the door had been opened to outsiders, so I left my book on the dining table and headed to the contest.

My youngest was being bratty. Every time she would climb a ladder, she’d chant in a sing-song, “Na na nuh na na, I’m gonna win.” The others rolled their eyes.
Chutes and Ladders is a tricky game. In just a few spins, the little taunter hit a couple of slides and fell back, and Daddy hit a couple of ladders. And just like that, I won the game. Read full post... (626 words, 1 image, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

My father was a simple man who offered simple solutions to problems. When I was a teenager and trying to be a good Christian, I would ask his help with some problem, and more often than not his advice would simply be: “Why don’t you just pray about it?”

That would be it. Just pray. I saw that as a cop-out, an unwillingness to hammer out the details of a resolution. As a result, I probably over-reacted the opposite direction. I tried to resolve all conflicts. I tried to figure out the complex issues, and talk for hours. In the long run, prayer became a “last resort” for me. If all else fails, then I’ll pray about it. But for my dad, prayer had always been a “first resort.”

I wish I had learned from him a little earlier.

Along the way I’ve accidentally discovered the power of prayer. Read full post... (603 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)