The Demonic Possession of America

This is the July cover for Vanity Fair magazine.  That is a man.

Bruce Jenner is nuts.  He's obviously deranged.  His personal madness, however, is nothing compared to what this story signifies about our society.

I have lived, as a "professional Christian," what I imagine it must feel like in the early stages of a demonic possession.  In 2013 I wrote the following:

I started fighting the “gay” movement in the late 1980s here in Maine. 

The Christian Civic League of Maine — the group I led from 1994 to 2009 — decided in the late 1980’s that the “gay” push would  succeed in Maine’s legislature.

During the twenty five years that I committed myself to the fight, the devil never quit advancing on every front open to him.

My board of directors decided, as a political matter, that we had a better chance of winning if we could take the issues to the people in statewide referendums, bypassing the legislature.  We argued the matter successfully in statewide voting from 1990 until 2005, prevailing in many single issue contests.

However, our victories came at great cost to the small evangelical movement in Maine.  After years of faithful and sacrificial political work gathering signatures, distributing literature, and making phone calls, the resistance collapsed and the homosexual movement succeeded in enacting much of their agenda.

While individuals within the Republican Party and Roman Catholic Church fought nobly, the institutions themselves never fully dedicated themselves to the fight.  Only one institution did so:  The Christian Civic League of Maine.

Leaders of evangelical churches started finding every excuse they could to distance themselves from this fight in 2002, after we won our second statewide vote on the issue.  Even though we prevailed in that contest the price that church leadership was being forced to pay by a softening “electorate” in the pews was starting to weaken the resolve of the League.

Now, there is barely any resistance left in Maine.  The League lost many of its dedicated fighters, and the homosexual lobby — which completely controls the State House — is focusing its attack on Maine’s public schools.

Culture is more powerful than politics. Christianity surrendered the culture a long time ago.

It was only a matter of time before politics would collapse into unreason.

And, make no mistake, all sex outside of marriage is unreasonable as a political matter.  Societies that create and uphold sacred rules governing sexual activity succeed and prosper.  Societies weaken and collapse if they don’t.

I feel to the marrow of my bones the collapse of reason in the nation I was raised to love more than life itself (that's called patriotism), and it makes me numb.  A friend describes this feeling as snake venom.  We are all being forced to confront in our hearts and minds the effect of a poisonous infusion.

Jesus Christ is the antidote.  America needs an exorcism.

I preached on Sunday.  I opened with a quote by President Theodore Roosevelt.  He said, "We cannot rise to any true level of greatness, unless that greatness is based on a high and brave type of spiritual
life."

Courage is often measured by our capacity to choose suffering over security, safety and all money's promises.  Jesus observed that you cannot serve both God and money.

MassResistance pointed out in a recent analysis of Ireland's collapse into sexual deviance, "The LGBT movement's biggest triumph has been their ability to cut off the money supply to frontline pro-family groups. The millionaires and billionaires ostensibly on our side could easily donate many times the money necessary to fight this effectively. But they have virtually all become emasculated by fear of the 'gay mafia'. It’s quite pathetic to see, and it has had terrible consequences. So we need to create new methods of funding. Average people are becoming more important than ever."

I experienced this firsthand.

During all the years I led this fight in Maine I had only two reliable donors who could be counted on for gifts of ten thousand dollars or more.

Two.

Nothing I said or did over three decades of very publicly ministering for common sense on sexuality and morality caused another stable funding source to emerge.  And I never experienced a reliable year-over-year rise in support from what MassResistance calls "average people."

The support from regular folk stayed steady until 2009 when I resigned.  I don't know what the support looks like at the Christian Civic League today.  I do know that their work has been republicanized.  They take their marching orders from Maine's Republican Governor.

I won't.  But I love to support him when I can.

John reports Jesus saying:

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

A christianity that has no capacity to suffer for truth telling isn't Christian.  Persecution is the mother's milk of Christianity.  The symbol of our faith isn't a sword.  The cross is at the heart of what we preach and live.

Cindy Jacobs writes hopefully:

Pastors will be increasingly pressured by out-of-control courts to preach only part of the Word; some will stand before the courts of the nation as a result. However, this will wake up the church to her finest days as she finds her voice in the governmental arena once again.

Threats from all types of radical extremist groups will be posed against Christian leaders, resulting in a shifting and sifting of hearts as some will compromise to avoid persecution.

Those who do not compromise, though, will find their churches aflame with the power of the Holy Spirit as the new "not ashamed" generation of millennials takes the field.

Colleges and universities will experience major moves of God. Even now, we are in the beginning stages of the next Great Awakening. Prayer is being mobilized on college campuses, and young revivalists are preaching across the land.

God does not reveal these things to cause us fear or discouragement; rather, He invites us to partner with Him as He fulfills His purpose for our nation. Let the warnings move you to pray, and let the promises move you to hope.

I hope she is right.  I haven't seen evidence of "millennials taking the field."  In my orbit I see more evidence of them following evangelicalism's pied piper of deviance, Alan Chambers.

In 2005 Maine voted for the gazillionith time on sodomy.  I experienced the softening of our strategy that year.  A program called "Love Won Out" gained prominence in evangelicalism's political resistance.  I found their message to be nauseating it was so devoid of any notion of God's justice and truth.

In a few short years that movement collapsed as Exodus International was forced to close.

Now I'm leading an assault on the heavenlies with my friend Coach Dave Daubenmire.  A few weeks ago he called on his Salt and Light Brigade to focus their prayers on the Supreme Court.  Coach believes America's highest court is the target for now.  I agree.  Their decision on sodomy based mirage is expected as early as the end of this month.

Paulie and I will drive to D.C. for his Solemn Assembly in two weeks.  You should join with us in prayer during that afternoon.  And, if you cannot go, you can make it possible for us to go by making a donation to our ministry.

Charges Dropped Against Christian Evangelist Kent Hovind

A few years ago my brother-in-law loaned me a set of DVDs.  I watched all of them.  Kent Hovind takes on the matter of Biblical creation and evolution in the DVD set.  You can watch much, if not all, of the seminar on the internet.  Google Kent's name.

Kent went to jail in November of 2007.  He is still there. He was sent there because he came into conflict with the IRS over their rules.  They prosecuted him using laws created to discipline drug kingpins.

Watch the youtube above.  Kent is obviously not a drug kingpin.  He is a gifted communicator/teacher who responded to the call of God to preach the gospel.  In doing so he didn't shrink from developing a persuasive critique of modern "science,"  specifically the theory of evolution.

Focus on Dr. Dobson

My favorite people these days have something to do with football.  My buddy in Ohio, Coach Dave Daubenmire, is running for Congress in one of America's most conservative Congressional districts.  He coached football until the prayer police tried to make him stop.  They failed, but he got so disgusted with fearful leaders during the year long fight that he quit ... coaching football.  He kept right on coaching though.  He traded a non-descript cap for his trademark cross hat and took to preaching, and coaching guys like me.  I enjoy his columns published on newswithviews.com.

My new favorite football guy used to play NFL ball.  He's now a preacher also.  The good Reverend Ken Hutcherson penned a doozie of a column the other day.  World Net Daily published it.  He titled it I lost my Focus on the Family.

Hutcherson says he spoke personally with both Jim Daly and Dr. Dobson.  He claims that he's the only one who has spoken to both of them about Dobson's recent departure from the ministry he founded over three decades ago.  I'm sure there are many folks around the world who looked on these developments and would have enjoyed a conversation with both men.  I count myself among them.  Maybe "enjoyed" isn't the right word.  It isn't enjoyable to discuss these developments with anyone, but it is necessary.

I attend a small Nazarene Church in rural Maine.  Dobson was raised by a Nazarene evangelist father.  I'm sure he got his toughness from his dad.  It's no picnic being an evangelist.

Having inherited his dad's grit, as leader of Focus on the Family Dr. Dobson stood up when it was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to endorse publicly the notion of spanking.  He not only endorsed it, he taught us all how to do it Biblically.  Moreover, Dr. Dobson taught us about discipline, choosing to do the hard thing for the good of others.

Dr. Dobson helped Paulie and I raise three sons who we couldn't be more proud of today.  All three have demonstrated with their actions deep commitments to God, family and country.  Between them there are three combat tours to Iraq with the United States Marines, and work in high levels of our government protecting all of us from terrorists.  And they're just getting started, none of them having crested 25 years of age.  I credit Dr. Dobson's Focus on the Family with providing significant, very significant, guidance to our parenting.

Dr. Dobson is an American hero.  He should be broadcasting from the Focus microphone until the day HE chooses to retire, and not before.  It is beyond belief, what has been done here.  I feel like listeners to Focus on the Family should object to this move and demand that Dr. Dobson be returned to the host chair of Focus on the Family.

His new radio venture is unwise for the movement.  I'm ashamed to call myself an evangelical as I think about this.  Surely we must do better with the war horses of our movement?  Dr. Dobson is in his prime.  God has brought him through so much.  Agree or disagree we need his ideas as host of Focus on the Family, not as the host of some side show.

Dr. Dobson is not to blame here.  He is too much of a gentleman to make Focus look bad.  I honor him for that.  The board of Focus on the Family needs to make a course correction, and invite Dr. Dobson back to the microphone.

Peter LaBarbera, the leader of  Americans for Truth observed:

We also suspect that Focus may be feeling the pull of George Barna’s polling research denigrating “religious right” activism (e.g., Barna Group President David Kinnaman’s and Gabe Lyon’s influential yet painfully shallow book UnChristian) and the appeasing liberal Christian “Emergents” — both of which appeal to younger generations of Christians who eschew the polarizing “culture war.”  In that regard, Focus has a choice: does it follow the worldly culture trends driven by these new generations — who, although they probably are loathe to admit it, are indoctrinated in politically correct,  “gay”-tolerant attitudes? Or does it recommit itself to educating these youth and standing boldly for timeless truths no matter where the culture is headed? (We realize there are many Christians who advocate quitting the cultural war against social evils, but they never have a good answer to this question: what about the hugely funded and powerful Homosexual, Abortion and Porn Lobbies that never quit; do we simply abandon America’s cultural/political landscape to them in a free society?)

If even the obviously Christian Focus on the Family is going to give up the fight for common sense on sexuality then very soon the question will be, "Will anyone be allowed to boldly speak out for Biblical ideas about marriage, family and sexuality?"  Massachusetts lawmakers decided this week to consider jail terms and fines for citizens in their state who shame the public display of sexual sin.

This is not a good sign for Christianity in America.  It's obvious we are losing our courage.  One good way to get it back would be to reverse course with Dr. Dobson, one of the most gutsy men in recent American history, and put him back on the radio.