Christians' Temperature Rise Over Global Warming

Few things get uglier than when Christians start fighting with Christians. After reeling from the abrupt revelations and dismissal of former NAE president Ted Haggard, the NAE is in the spot light again with another inglorious fiasco.

Richard Cizik, the NAE's vice president of government affairs was essentially accused of getting side tracked with the disputed and controversial, issue of global warming which would necessarily have the effect of diminishing real global problems like homosexuality and abortion.

Focus on the Family's James Dobson and numerous other evangelicals asked the board of the NAE for Cizik's resignation if he could not speak accurately for the whole evangelical community. Not everyone is agreed that global warming is anything other than normal cyclical changes which are beyond the control of human action. I happen to be one who ascribes to such a view.

While "Creation Care" as it is called by the NAE is something every Christian needs to be involved in, running after partial, slipshod science as a Christian platform is outside the bounds of what we are called to.

Jerald Walz, an NAE board member said "there has been a growing contradiction between the NAE board's position and personal statements made by Cizik."

"I guess I was disappointed more with the fact that the NAE seems to be moving more away from the gospel of Jesus Christ and more toward the gospel of political activism." Said Walz.

Global warming, even if it could ever be proven to be more than nature running its course, should never take precedent over the Gospel of Christ.

Paul wrote--"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." Romans 8:19-21

When Jesus was here He said, "I came to seek and to save those who are lost." He didn't come to save the environment--not this time at any rate. That's for a later day when a new heaven and new earth will be created for all those who love His coming. The real issue of the day is, "Will you be one of them?"

Super Bowl Coach In The Hot Seat

Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy is in the hot seat and you can probably guess why. This soft spoken NFL coach is a Bible believing Christian. Now that's fine with most people just as long as you don't allow your beliefs to actually inform your conscience and you don't actually talk about your views in public.

Dungy came out in support of traditional marriage while receiving the Indiana Family Institute's "Friend of the Family" award. Dungy's horrible comment was this: "I’m with God and I believe IFI has taken the biblical, godly position on marriage and so I’m pleased to stand with it.”

A spokesman for a pro-gay group, has taken another tact instead of just criticizing Dungy's remark. He insists that Dungy has "created a “hostile” work environment in the Colts organization." “I’m afraid that he would not allow a gay player on his team because he did not follow the Lord’s way.”

This is the logic--the intentionally hateful logic--of those committed to a perverse lifestyle. The logic says that anyone who believes that the Bible happens to teach that homosexuality is immoral, must necessarily be mean and hateful to anyone who commits such immorality.

IFI President Curt Smith dismissed that thinking. “It’s crazy,” he said, “to think that when someone takes a biblical position on a public-policy question, that it creates any kind of a hostile workforce at all.”

If such logic is correct and these people are truly worried that the Colts organization would prohibit anyone from playing who didn't follow the Lord's way--logically speaking--must also maintain that the Colts would likewise prohibit everyone else who is a fornicator, or an adulterer, an alcoholic, a drug user, a user of pornography, a gossip, a trouble maker, or any other sinner. In short, the Colts wouldn't have anyone playing on the team if what the pro-homosexual group contends is true.

But the devil is a liar and the father of lies which explains everything. Are you catching on?

Touting Morality Is The Only Immoral Act Today

A few weeks back General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did something a warrior in the cause of protecting our constitutional rights, apparently has no right to do. He exercised one of those rights in the context of commenting about the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy signed into law by Bill Clinton.

Pace committed the unpardonable sin in these days of moral relativism. He pronounced two activities to be immoral. "I believe that military members who sleep with other military members' wives are immoral in their conduct." Pace said. And "I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condone immoral acts."

Pace made a solid point stating that the military prosecutes other immoral behaviors like adultery and if he had left his comments to that alone, I believe he would have been unassailable. But negative comments about one particular behavioral characteristic--same sex relations--today is prohibited.

Under pressure from veterans of the culture wars, the combat hardened commander, started to buckle. "In expressing my support for the current policy," he said, "I also offered some personal opinions about moral conduct," "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views."

Well there you are. God forbid that anyone should talk about morals anymore; after all they are all just social constructs anyway, right? Morality is passé. The only real immorality these days is stating that something is immoral.

Even in the face of the anatomically obvious and scientifically absurd, we are forced to accept that same sex attraction is both natural and good. And even though that has only been the burgeoning view over the span of one generation, in a strange twist of destiny, those who, in their same sex attraction, would die out in their own Darwinian construct, continue to gain ground for the normalization of that which is clearly abnormal.

But making such a moral pronouncement, I too can be dismissed because I just committed the unpardonable sin myself.

One thing is certain, like it or not. At the end of the day, someone will be right, and someone will be wrong for as much as we would insist it otherwise, you cannot have it both ways.

Barak's Tickets Should Ba-reak His Bid For President; But It Won't

I think most people, even the most irreligious accept that Jesus was a good and wise person. So when Jesus says something, I contend we can take it to the bank.

So when Jesus said, "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much." as recorded in Luke 16:10, we need to take it seriously, agreed?

Enter Barak Obama, the freshman senator from Illinois and the Democrat's current phenome running for the highest office in the land. Character is vitally important no matter what our cultural icons and media moguls might say.

So two weeks before Obama declares his candidacy, he decided to clear up a small matter of some over due parking tickets. Not a big deal right? Wrong. The tickets were 17 years over due and I think it fair to say that barring a run for president, those tickets would never have been paid. I call that a character issue. "He that is unrighteous in a very little thing in is unrighteous also in much." This tells us a great deal about the character of this man who wants to lead a nation.

Obama's campaign spokesman dismissed the whole thing as irrelevant. But if they truly believed it was irrelevant, why did Obama suddenly decide to clean up his mess 17 years later and only after he decided to run for president? No, this is vitally relevant.

Obama's tickets were for parking in bus stops; parking without a residential permit and for cheating the parking meters all the while he was a law student at Harvard. There was no consideration of the people having to get on and off the bus, the bus having to park in the flow of traffic with the bus stop taken by Obama's vehicle. No matter; his convenience was all he was concerned about. No residential permit? Aren't such permits issued to obtain revenue as well as control neighborhood access to limited parking spaces? Was Obama so pour--remember he was at Harvard--that he couldn't spare the change for the meter? Remember these weren't "oops, I forgot" situations. He had 17 tickets which, I would say, indicates an attitude of arrogance and disdain for the law.

Would he mind if as President, the citizens he wants to rule over decide not to pay their income tax as he decided not to pay his permit fees and parking fees? You see this really is a big deal or rather should be, but it won't be and that is why we are failing as a nation growing smaller and smaller rather than greater and greater.

The man who would be king is a scofflaw plain and simple. Come to think of it, based on the track record of his party, he is the perfect candidate for a people of low ideals and even less integrity. I hope people remember this, but I doubt anyone will.

High School Indocrintation Exposed

Well it has happened again. What is "it?" "It" is the way the glorious social engineers of public education trample--usually with impunity--over the rights of students and parents in order to ram their agenda for a new world order down everyone's throats. While they are the first to scream, "Stop shoving your morality down our throats," they connive at doing the same. And not surprisingly, the center piece of the new world order is the acceptance, normalization, and encouragement of homosexuality.

Deerfield High School, in affluent suburban Chicago, implemented classes to indoctrinate its students into their world view where, perverted sex is a social virtue.

Students were forced to attend classes where they had to listen to homosexual upper classmen talk about their feelings, their experiences and what it's like to be homosexual. If that isn't bad enough, the students attending were then told they had to sign a statement of confidentiality forbidding them to talk to anyone about the classes including their parents. Students who were reluctant to sign the form were told that if they didn't they would be sent to the dean.

Dr. Sue Hebson, vice-superintendent of the school district, denied the existence of such a contract and denied that the classroom discussions involve sexuality. It appears that Hebson is lying through her teeth.

What I want everyone reading this to believe is that this is NOT some rare occurrence isolated to San Francisco or Atlanta or San Diego. There are over 3000 homosexual "clubs" in the nation's high schools.

Well over a decade ago, I was involved in Waterville public school's pilot program concerning AIDS education. Secrecy and confidentiality were part of the package in the guise of wanting to create an environment where the "kids would feel safe to talk about their sexuality." It was hogwash then, and it is hogwash now. In some schools around the country, teachers actually had two different copies of curriculum handy so that when a parent asked to see the curriculum, they were handed a parent friendly, sanitized copy rather than the one actually used.

The nation's schools of education pride themselves on the control they have over the minds of these kids and by it, the future of the country. Honestly, they have been winning hands down because parents are so busy pursuing the almighty dollar, that they have chosen to disbelieve it is as bad as it is being comforted by keeping their eyes tightly closed.

Well and good I say. You reap what you sow and the harvest is looking truly wretched.

Law to Ban Clergy From Marrying Update

Bob Emrich of the Maine Jeremiah Project reports, "...the Judiciary Committee today voted unanimously "ought not to pass" on LD 779 "An Act To Remove Clergy as Signatories on Marriage Licenses". In an unusual move, they shortened the public hearing and went immediately into work session in order to vote on the bill. This is a wonderful victory!

Thank you Lord!!!

Duke Discovers Diversity Education Isn't Working

I have a million dollar question today. What ever happened to the incessantly cited battle cry of the immoral left? You know the one; "You can't legislate morality!"

How many times have we heard it, or at least used to. I haven't heard it in a long, long time though. And do you know what I think happened to it? I think the liberal left realized not only that you CAN legislate morality but that you will legislate it if even if you intend not to. Requiring acceptance of immorality is to legislate morality--albeit a morality that is perverse from the historical norm.

I believe that at the end of the day, the overwhelming populace still knows it is not proper to fornicate; that it is still not proper for men to desire men and the same with women, and that it is definitely not proper for a person to have surgery to become the opposite of what God created them to be.

This is why in spite of Duke University's years long commitment to campus diversity, a recent panel discovered that diversity, while taught, does not exactly play itself out in the daily affairs of the student body. The school noted that although the school has homosexual friendly policies and mandates, the "lived experience of the gay and transgendered students is that of intolerance, exclusion and harassment, and students… remain as racially and ethnically homogeneous as they were during high school."

There are two issues here (at least). The first I already mentioned. Duke is trying to legislate its own morality but it's a morality which runs counter to the God instilled morality He has placed in us all.

The second issue is that the sinful nature of man is not naturally geared toward altruisms of virtue, equality, kindness and consideration. All the policies in the world will not change who and what we are. Only a relationship with the Living God can accomplish that.

Duke needs to strive for tolerance to be sure. Not tolerance of that which is counter intuitive and counter productive but tolerance of the virtues and values spelled out by God in His book, the Bible. As hearts are changed by God's grace, immorality will be shunned, and real compassion and love will be the rule.

As it is, Duke is headed for more of the same; politically correct policies that improve nothing, and attitudes that change even less.

Update on Law to Eliminate Clergy Marriage

You might remember a week or so ago I informed you about a bad piece of legislation titled LD 779 "An Act To Remove Clergy As Signatories On Marriage Licenses."

After writing the sponsoring legislator he sent me an explanation of the reason for the bill. His explanation was more confusing than the bill itself but it seems the bill was done on behalf of Rev. Mark Rustin of the North Deering Congregational Church in Portland.

In my first commentary on this, I stated that I didn't want impugn motives but it seemed like it was an end run to remove the biggest impediment to civil unions, namely us! You know, Christians who still believe the Bible is more than a "good book;" it is the very word of God; inspired, infallible, inerrant, and authoritative.

Rep. Marley explains, "As Rev. Rustin noted, it's a relationship between two people under circumstances they accept as defined by God. However, the term "marriage" has been adopted to define the legal joining of two people's interests, property and rights under law. This adoption of the term notwithstanding, the two meanings need not be confused any longer by the same person being able to solemnize both the legal contract and the religious covenant."

Mike Hein of the Civic League notes, "Rev. Paul Nielsen, who leads the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Waterville, disagrees. 'I think that Rev. Rustin is at least a little bit confused about what his role in the marriage rite is from a civil perspective,' said Rev. Nielsen. 'I’m not sure why the state would have any interest in disqualifying clergy as one of the qualified witnesses to a marriage.'”

Hein continues, "Pastor Nielsen explains, 'Currently the state of Maine only asks the clergy to sign the wedding certificate as indication that the wedding actually took place. I don't think that clergy are acting as agents for the state of Maine.’”

After looking into the matter more, I found that the Rev. Rustin would not balk at performing a civil union for same sex individuals.

So like I said, this is just another attempt to remove the Christian influence in our culture inserting a godless humanism the crowning glory of which is homosexuality.

Polluted Politics Flush Quality Candidates

Well which soap opera, sleaze rag tabloid sensation are you going to follow this long and protracted campaign season? Between Hillary and Barak and Giuliani and the rest, we are in for well over a year of the sort of sewage already bubbling up to the surface of the sewer of politics.

New York City's 9-11 hero has tossed his hat into the ring and of course "it" has started. You know what "it" is. "It" is the covert, the salacious, the nasty, the private revelations that are made public by anyone and everyone with an axe to grind or a scab to pull. This week it's Rudy's college aged son Andrew taking the spot light on family dirt.

Andrew admits a strained relationship with his father but concedes they are both working on it. That's where the story should have stopped but that's not the way it's done in these United States.

Andrew insists he learned his values from his mother. That's an intentional jab at his father whose "values" are not only controversial but are the focus of his viability as a candidate. What's interesting is that about the only specific mentioned in the whole pseudo-story is that Giuliani "has increasingly chosen to spend time with third wife Judith Nathan rather than Andrew and daughter Caroline, 18."

Face it Giuliani has enough of his own baggage to overcome without somewhat meaningless axe grinding by his children. Giuliani is pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, and has appeared in public dressed in drag. What's really interesting is that right now, Giuliani is about the best the Republicans have to offer.

Andrew finished his comments by saying, "I have problems with my father, but it doesn't mean he won't make a great President." Well if you believed that Andrew why did you go shooting off your mouth to ABC's Good Morning America?

Sports fans, what is happening in this once great land of ours is that the bar of integrity and virtuous character is getting lowered every four years. I contend there is a reason for that even beyond the obvious that we are, as a people, lowering the bar of virtue all the way around. The recent trial of Scotter Libby is an example of what I mean but that's for my next commentary on Wednesday. Don't miss it!

The Scooter Throws a Wheel

Scooter Libby was found guilty on four out of five charges against him last week. Libby was accused of outing Valerie Plame--who, as the news likes to put it, was employed by the CIA. With the cloak of secrecy and mystery that accompanies any mention of those three letters, a willowy shadow falls on a situation which is actually a pretty benign news story.

First for some honesty on my part--I am conservatively biased; I cannot stand the liberal bias of just about every source of information readily accessible to modern man. Yes, there have been some great strides made over the past 15 years for people of moral conscience but that does not negate the reality that it is still difficult to get even proximity of the truth in the affairs of the world.

I also cannot stand the hypocrisy of the previous administration with respect to felonious and/or obscene conduct from the very top down. I'm not talking about allegations mind you; I am talking about the admitted and proven scandalous behavior and convictions of all kinds of Clinton aids as high ranking as Webb Hubbel and National Security Advisor Sandy Burger who walks free to this day with no repercussions at all.

Let us not forget that Mr. Clinton was barred from legal practice and only escaped the proper outcome of impeachment due to what I have already stated above.

So when an aid to a moral president--a moral president who is absolutely HATED because of that morality, goes down on what was not even the purpose of the investigation in the first place, I cannot get worked up about whatever it was he supposedly did or didn't remember about a person whose position with the CIA was public knowledge and of little more importance than a janitor at Langley.

Here's the real issue though. Evil and wicked people will stop at nothing--repeat that--NOTHING--in order to seize power or even the illusion of power. Good people on the other hand, will rightly observe that the price to pay for the opportunity to make a difference is not worth it. All of which means, it is the evil and wicked who will end up in the places of authority and power. God help us all.