Everyone has heroes, or at least people they greatly admire. David Wilkerson was one of mine, along with John the Baptist and a few others. So I was deeply saddened when my daughter called to tell me he had been killed in a car accident. Of course, there was the sweet knowledge that he was with the Lord, but there was also the bitter reality that we no longer had him here on earth.

His passing brought back a flood of memories. Back in 1980, I screened the movie The Cross and the Switchblade at our church. It was based on his best-selling book, and starred Eric Estrada (from the television series “CHiPs”) as Nicky Cruz, the hardened gang member who mocked the naive country preacher who had come to his rough neighborhood.

I loved the way Wilkerson trusted God and went to New York, gave his shoes to some hoodlum, and ended up walking around the city in his socks. He epitomized the love that each of us should have for the lost. I decided there and then that I had to fly David Wilkerson seven thousand miles to New Zealand for a series of meetings.

New Zealand is about 16 hours ahead of New York, so I climbed out of bed at 2:00 a.m. on a Tuesday morning to put in a long-distance call to the United States. After about forty minutes of complications, I finally got through to the church and was disappointed to hear a busy signal. FULL POST

Osama Bin Ladin

In the recent news of the reported death of terrorist Osama Bin Laden, I was able to catch up with a couple of well-known Bible scholars to get their perspectives on this situation. First, King Solomon had this to say:

King Solomon

"Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off. Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against a righteous man's house, do not raid his dwelling place; for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity. Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him. Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out. Fear the LORD and the king, my son, and do not join with the rebellious, for those two will send sudden destruction upon them, and who knows what calamities they can bring?" (Proverbs 24:14-22) FULL POST

Sung by Prince William, Catherine (Kate) Middleton, the Royal Family, and all of the wedding guests (okay, most of them just kind of moved their lips) you might like to know the history and legacy of this once popular hymn:

William Williams

Encouraged by the Welsh Methodists to update their hymnal, William Williams Pantycelyn (1719-1791, an aspiring hymn writer penned his most famous song "Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer" which first appeared in 1745 in a Welsh hymnal, published by Wiliiams in Bristol, England, named “Hallelujah. Williams, the "Sweet Singer of Wales," produced about 800 hymns. S.W. Duffield claimed that Williams, an avid revivalist Methodist preacher, did for Wales what Wesley and Watts did for England. FULL POST

I watched a lot of holocaust footage while researching for a new book, Hitler, God, and the Bible and its accompanying “Hitler’s Religion” DVD. I read eye-witness accounts of families of Jews being shot, and some of them buried while still alive. I stared through tear-filled eyes at photos taken by Germans of innocent Jewish women (some in their teens) being paraded through the streets, and then hung publically. They weren’t given the mercy of a quick drop to break the neck. Instead, thin rope was deliberately used to make the hanging last longer. The photos show other Jews being made to watch, and German soldiers smiling as the women soiled themselves, as they dangled by the rope.

Jews were made to pull teeth from the dead bodies of their gassed fellow countrymen, and extract gold. The corpses were then thrown into ovens for cremation. If any gold was missed, those doing the extracting were thrown alive into the ovens.

Adolf Hitler systematically slaughtered six million men, women, and children in the horror we call the “holocaust.” After the war, Hitler escaped justice by killing himself, and many Nazis fled to the haven of Argentina to happily live out the rest of their days, also without being brought to justice. FULL POST

At the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Health Care Act, there’s strong evidence to show that if the legislation is fully implemented, it will be anything but affordable.

First, in Massachusetts, which is nearly five years into its Romneycare plan, a model for the national overhaul, spending has skyrocketed. Governor Deval Patrick is trying to fix this by bringing in something called the ACO, the “accountable care organization.” Remember the old HMO’s, health maintenance organizations, managed care where Big Medicine makes more money the less care it provides? Another name for this is rationing. In April 2006, then-Governor Romney wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health care and the cost of health care will be reduced.” It hasn’t happened. The only way Massachusetts is going to be able to sustain its system is for the government to decide exactly what will be paid for and how much.

The national healthcare overhaul was supposed to avoid this problem with something called the Individual Mandate, a requirement that every American purchase government-approved health insurance. Requiring the young and healthy to participate in the system, even if they are unwilling, is the only way to make it work financially. That’s why the Obama administration called the Individual Mandate the lynchpin of the health care law. When you take the lynchpin out of a machine it falls apart and that’s what healthcare law does without the Individual Mandate. The Individual Mandate is also the subject of a lawsuit that could end up in the United States Supreme Court. FULL POST

The 112^th Congress now beginning its work is certainly more conservative than the one that precedes it.  But it’s also vastly more pro-life. New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, long a warrior for the sanctity of life, says...  the 112^th Congress contains “arguably the most pro-life House ever.”  Wow!  Let’s hope these folks are pro-life enough to pass some good legislation at the national level. The Washington D.C.-based non-profit, Susan B. Anthony List, works to elect pro-life women, (and some men)...from either party...to Congress.  The group’s director, Marjorie Dannenfelser, counts 38 seats that “switched” from pro-choice...to pro-life.  And in another 14 seats, “unreliable” pro-life votes were replaced with “reliable” ones.  So in an election where over 60 seats changed from Democrat to Republican, 52 were “strengthened” in their potential to advance the cause of life. In a recent column for The American Spectator, Grove City College Professor Paul Kengor observesthat in “Perhaps the sweetest justice of all, leadership of the House goes from Rep. Nancy Pelosi to Rep. John Boehner, a tectonic shift in the pro-life direction—from one lifelong Roman Catholic to another...”      FULL POST

There was a time when an invitation required a definitive answer.  But, with advent of the electronic invitation via Facebook or E-vite, one doesn’t necessarily have to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Frequently, there’s another option:  ‘maybe.’  This postponement possibility is increasingly common to social engagements.  But it also exists in business. The ‘tentative yes’ on the Outlook invitation is certainly a realistic option, but it contributes to a certain non-committal culture.

Sometimes technology makes our rudeness seem less rude to us. But it doesn’t make things easier for people on the receiving end.  Most of the time, the electronic ‘maybe’ is a bit of a cop-out.   It’s easier to be non-committal when you don’t have to hear the disappointment in someone’s voice or fill the silence with a plausible explanation.

The ‘maybe’ phenomenon is common among young people. But we’re all sometimes tempted to keep our options open. When someone asks, ‘How about a movie Friday night?’ we might think, ‘It sounds good.  But what if I get to Friday and I feel like staying home?’ Or, a friend asks: ‘Wanna join us for Christmas dinner?’  You’re thinking,  ‘Sure, unless a better invitation comes along.’  You click ‘maybe,’ send it along, and you’ve successfully postponed the decision.  Technology facilitates what is already true of us. As a culture we have become commitment-averse. FULL POST

Lauren Mitchell struggled to adjust to her new role as a doula. She is one of many trained, as the Greek term literally means, to assist in childbirth. “What you get very used to is this weird mix of tragedy and relief and sex and death — this wild variety of emotions,” she says. “There’s always this interesting mix of remorse and relief.”

If that doesn’t sound like a traditional birth experience to you, you’re right. Lauren is an abortion doula, taught to coach mothers not in the birth, but killing of children. She is one of dozens of volunteers with The Doula Project in Manhattan. The group covertly works in two unidentified abortion mills, including one that specializes in late-term abortions.

One doula says her job is to “offer patients whatever they need: someone to joke with, someone to cry with, maybe someone to rub their feet.” Another described how she helped a mother by simply blocking her view of lethal injection syringes and an ultrasound monitor with her soon-to-be dead baby’s image on it. She considered that a successful intercession. But where will these abortion helpers be when, days, months or years later, these hurting mothers are faced with an inescapable sense of loss, depression and regret? What jokes will they distract them with then? FULL POST

Some of the bizarre findings and conclusions in the court decision overturning California’s marriage amendment, Proposition 8, present the concept of gender as unimportant in family life and society. Finding number 70 reads: “The gender of a child’s parent is not a factor in the child’s adjustment.” The judge also concludes, “...the evidence shows beyond any doubt that parents’ genders are irrelevant to children’s development outcomes.” The truth is the evidence does not prove that. In fact a brochure published by the American Psychological Association that was entered into evidence in the case stated twice, “Few studies are available regarding the children of gay fathers.”

The opinion also refers to society’s “antiquated and discredited notions of gender.” It says that Proposition 8 writes into the California state constitution “gender restriction that the evidence shows to be nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women figure fulfill different roles in civic life.” Gender: an artifact? This judge should take a biology class. The opinion then hits us with: “Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage.” FULL POST

Judge Royce Lamberth caused a stir by making Monday a particularly bad day for the Obama Administration. For ruling against the president’s attempt to spend federal tax dollars on embryonic stem cell research, the US District Court judge is officially on the liberals’ hit list. They’re calling him a “crazy judge” with “sloppy reasoning,” but you can decide for yourself.

Here’s the background. Shortly after taking office, President Obama issued an executive order funneling millions of tax dollars to embryonic stem cell research. He did so in blatant defiance of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which specifically states that no federal funds may be used in research that harms or kills human embryos. Since 1996, Congress has reapproved the amendment yearly, so it’s hard to ignore.

Judge Lamberth rightly noted the conflict and, because federal law trumps executive orders, the court temporarily halted the controversial funding. Meanwhile, the lawsuit that prompted this discussion will proceed through the court system.

The judicial decision sheds light on two important matters. First, it reinforces that President Obama’s famous executive order to exempt abortion from health care reform is also meaningless. As we’ve known all along, executive orders cannot override federal law. This case proves it. FULL POST