What could beat being in Florida when an epic snowstorm hits Washington, DC? Being with the good people of Lakeland’s First Baptist Church at the Mall! Pastor Jay Dennis, his wife Angie, and their ministry team could not have been more gracious, hospitable and generous. Their reception was even warmer than the Florida sunshine! Man, these people are great! We know we have a new partner church with First Baptist and are so very grateful to God for it. Check out their website at www.churchatthemall.com. BTW: You’ll read about why it’s called “Church at the Mall”– they aren’t renting space–they own all 400,000 + square feet!

Please join us in thanking God for Pastor Jay and this wonderful congregation–and THANK YOU, each and every one, at First Baptist, Lakeland, for making us part of your extensive missionary family!

Rob +

Yesterday’s annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington was more interesting than usual. Of course, anytime the President of the United States is present for a religious affair, it’s interesting. This year, though, the attendance was particularly strong, and the keynote address was both fascinating and disappointing. While the President brought what I thought were fairly unremarkable remarks, Hillary Clinton’s talk was much more memorable.

Before I go much further, I will say, in the end, Secretary Clinton went from meaningful refection to meaningless political talking points. Still, what was meaningful, albeit paltry, had, well . . . meaning.

The nugget was her story about Mother Teresa. She candidly recalled how, at the same event in 1994, when Mrs. Clinton was on the dais as First Lady, the Saint of Calcutta used the podium to openly rebuke America (and the Clintons by her glower at them) over our hideous practice of abortion. (Click here to read a transcript.) I was impressed that Hillary would even mention what was then an embarrassment to her and her husband.

Sec. Clinton went on to say that after the speech, Mother Teresa asked to see her privately backstage. “I thought, oh boy, I’m in trouble,” Hillary remembered. That’s when the otherwise electrifying regalement went flat. Instead of telling us more about her possible discomfort (which she did mention in passing), or even recalcitrance, or possible momentary penitence, she instead explained how all Mother Teresa wanted was the First Lady’s help on a charitable project.

Well, knowing Mother Teresa and her incredible internal fortitude, piety and pastoral concern for every impoverished soul on earth, including Hillary’s, it’s hard to believe that’s all there was to the story. Something tells me something was left out–and perhaps rightfully so. After all, if what really happened was a further chastening and the offer a means to prove repentance, that should remain private between confessor and penitent. Whatever transpired didn’t have an immediate effect, nor one to date. As far as anyone can tell, Hillary is still a proponent of abortion, what the Saintly Nun had publicly told her that day in 1994, is “the greatest destroyer of love and peace.”

Still, whatever effect Mother Teresa’s pastoral rebuke had or didn’t have on Hillary, it was enough to be remembered 16 years later, which probably means it will still be remembered well into the future. That gives Hillary an opportunity to still process it and repent, which is always God’s greatest gift to each of us.

Let’s pray for Hillary . . .

Rob +

The Bible is clear we are to pray “for all those in authority,” (1 Tim 2:2) — those we like and even those we don’t like! Well, there will be plenty of both at this Thursday’s annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. Sometimes called the “Presidential Prayer Breakfast,” this unique event has hosted just about every president since Dwight Eisenhower. It’s sponsored by Congress but staged by an independent organization known as “The Fellowship.” Thousands attend, including many top-level US Government officials as well as foreign heads of state and diplomats like ambassadors and consuls general.

This year instead of watching, I’ll be working–behind the scenes–as part of the intercessory prayer support ministry. It seems kind of funny that you would need a “prayer team” to pray for a “prayer breakfast,” but it is a really important function. Like all Washington events, a lot of people come to this gathering “to see and be seen.” I know it’s hard to believe, but a lot of the attendees couldn’t care less about the prayer part! (OK, I’ll admit it, 15 years on Capitol Hill has left me a little cynical.) Still, the majority who come are at least seeking something spiritual. If nothing else, they figure it’s safer to be with people that pray than with people that don’t!

So, while the “public prayer” can be tepid–and often compromised–by the political climate and sensitivities to the religious diversity of the crowd, the private prayer behind the scenes is anything but tepid. In fact, the prayer team, that meets in a back room, away from the glitz of the “show,” is extremely serious about its bibical intercession. That’s why I’ve agreed to be a part of it for a second year. I’ll be on my knees, leading out in prayer and praying with those who join us in this secret “prayer closet.” (Of course, it’s hard to resist the temptation to at least duck into the main event, so we’ll see. Maybe I’ll stop in just long enough to tell you what the “spiritual temperature” is like in the room!)

This prayer commitment is part of our 2010 theme for all of our ministry outreach at Faith and Action, “Prayer Before Politics!” In a highly charged election year, when Sarah Palin and Scott Brown are shaking things up, and President Barack Obama is taking so much heat, we need to pray as never before. We really must have not only the mind of God, but we must appropriate the power of God through prayer.

I hope you’ll join me in a network of “iPrayer Partners” for this vital intercessory outreach to earthly potentates. Watch for my video reports from the site on Thursday. You just may witness an answer to your prayers for our own nation and the nations of the earth!

Rob +

OK, somebody has to say it. It’s uncomfortable and it makes whoever says it open to being called a “Pharisee,” a “homophobe,” a “bigot,” a sanctimonious hater, a benighted troglodyte, or worse. Somebody has to endure that, though. We need to act like grown up, secure people who can talk about difficult things and resolve them.

So, to quote one of my favorites, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, “Call me a relic, call me what you will. Say I’m old-fashioned, say I’m over the hill,” but here it goes.

First, for the President to use the State of the Union to call on Congress to repeal the current policy on gays serving in the military was wrong. It is incendiary, provocative, distressing and contrary to the most deeply held religious and moral convictions of millions of Americans. Second, if he really believes passionately in this, he has other means to accomplish it. He can use the budget process, or, even quicker and cleaner, he can simply issue an executive order.  He used such an order last night for something far less consequential. The President obviously thought the deficit so important he by-passed the Congress and created a Deficit Commission by fiat.

If, in fact, allowing gays to serve openly in the military is, as the President said, “The right thing to do,” then why not simply do it? What the President actually did was lob an explosively contentious grenade into the public square. Gay activists were instantly in knots about it—disgusted the President didn’t do what they really wanted, but only renewed a campaign promise by punting to the Legislative Branch. And a whole lot of ethnic and cultural groups, moral conservatives, religious people, and, yes, military men and women, are now left to painfully wrestle with what is surely another divisive, corrosive and likely dead-end issue.

Why is this? Because no matter how you cut it, gays-in-the-military does not present the same set of questions as blacks-in-the-military, or latinos-in-the-military. There is near universal belief that it is always wrong to use race, color or ethnicity to judge a person’s character, ability or willingness to serve. (For that matter, there’s no debate the data eliminate whether a gay person can serve admirably or is willing to serve admirably. In fact, not only have gay persons done so, they have given the ultimate sacrifice in doing so.)

The question really is whether it is appropriate for the military to be used to validate a dubious sexual practice. Lets face it, that’s what this is really all about. To the gay rights activists, please be at least that transparent. Tell us what you’re really thinking so we can have an honest conversation. This is about validation of a lifestyle that has as its defining feature a sexual attraction and even a set of sexual acts. After all, isn’t that what on the opposite side makes a heterosexual?

The fact is, well-considered, well-informed, carefully researched and fully contemplated moral and religious philosophies hold that sexual acts between persons of the same sex are injurious to the individuals involved and the society around them. These convictions cannot be dismissed as veneers for irrational hatred or the base animus of the uneducated and ignorant masses. There are plenty of Ivy League PhDs in this camp, along with caring, compassionate, even loving pastors of souls; there are also the vast majority of those who embrace one of the earth’s three great monotheistic faiths. Which brings me to the next point.

A former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told me chaplains are “critical to good order and morale, and therefore to the success of our military.” As a board member of an organization that fields a large number of chaplains to the military, I interact with them regularly and I routinely hear about the things that concern them, and this is definitely one. And this doesn’t only affect Evangelical or Catholic clergy. I’m also talking about Jewish, Muslim and Mormon chaplains. In each case, their religious systems teach homosexual behavior violates God’s intended purpose for human sexuality and is therefore not allowed. You don’t have to have a Harvard degree (though many of these chaplains do) to know there will be conflict between what these chaplains are charged to teach and preach, and the President’s proposed policy change. It’s a huge—read that HUGE—problem for morale and good order.

And there’s another thing. Come ‘on, let’s be grown ups. There’s a reason the military doesn’t have men and women showering together. Please don’t dismiss this one as a childish vestige of a now distant Victorian past. The fact is you don’t generally want people around you in a shower that are erotically stimulated by your naked body. Now, I may be betraying my naïve ignorance here about how gay people get excited, but none of my gay acquaintances have ever said it works terribly different for them then it does for straights. The site of an attractive nude body probably does for gays what it does for straights. (Unless, of course, you are gifted with a disinterest in sex, period. That’s another matter.) For most of us, testosterone, estrogen and libido are forward moving forces that need at least a modicum of external controls, including segregated showering and dressing spaces.

I’ve purposely left until last the most incendiary element of this State of the Union attack on personal, moral, social and religious sensibilities—its affect on our relations with the Muslim world. When I participated in my first face-to-face formal dialogue between Christian and Muslim leaders in an Islamic country, I was asked at the start, “Do you accept homosexuality?” Homosexuality is a deal-breaker for the vast majority of Muslims. I know, we don’t want to kowtow to oppressive religions, no matter how many adherents they have, but, again, if we’re looking to solve problems, this is not the way to do it.

Surely the President knows these things. He told us during his campaign he’s a man of deep and considered Christian faith; he had a Muslim father and a partial Muslim upbringing; he has a Harvard law degree and an IQ off the charts. Surely he’s not ignorant of the considerable and principled convictions held by so many on this subject; and of the dangerous pitfalls it presents given the already tense environment military women and men sacrificially occupy.

Let’s grow up and have the big conversation before President Obama’s proposal brings about unintended, irreversible and even terrible consequences for our valiant American heroes.

I’d really like to hear from you on this.

Rob +

Just got definite word the President will infringe on the sanctity of marriage and the family in tonight’s State of the Union address, when he asks Congress to repeal the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on homosexual behavior in the military. The proposal is a huge problem for morale and for the privacy of our men and women in uniform, not to mention for chaplains and even our relationship to other nations and cultures. Watch for my post on this after the State of the Union.

Rob +

I’m out in the Pacific Northwest, so, needless to say, I’ll do what many of you will do tonight, watch the President’s State of the Union speech on television. I’ll post some thoughts shortly after, but I won’t comment on the strictly political content–that’s better left to experts in that field. I have to remind myself I’m not called to be a lobbyist, politician or even political activist. I’m called to be a preacher of the Gospel and a minister to souls. Of course, if Mr. Obama hits on anything related directly to religious freedom or our core moral principles on the sanctity of life, marriage and the family or the public acknowledgment of God, I’ll have plenty to say! Stand by.

On another matter, several people have asked for an update on our Haiti relief effort. More than $30,000 has been received to date. $20,000 of that has already been disbursed for medical supplies and equipment for teams working on the ground, with another $5000 in motion today. Before disbursing the rest, we’ve been asked to wait for a report from the field on what is needed most at this stage, as it changes daily. Here’s some video on our most current action:

Peggy and Pat Mahoney on Haiti

For the 16th year in a row, I was humbled to open the annual prayer service we hold in the US Capitol focused on ending the terrible blight of abortion. Each year hundreds of the most dedicated pro-life activists in our country attend this two-hour  gathering. While most of the program is given to prayer and scripture reading, we do hear from from distinguished leaders on the sacredness of  human life. This year they included our great friend of so many years, Fr. Frank Pavone, president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, the primary sponsor of the event. Joining him was Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and the firey Bishop Harry Jackson, an outstanding voice in the African-American pro-life community.

This is the only uncompromosing prayer and preaching event of its kind ever held INSIDE the US Capitol complex. It doesn’t happen without a herculean struggle, though. Every year we get right up to start time and we’re still threatened with expulsion, even though we go through all the proper channels for approval. This year we were rescued by Virginia congressman Randy Forbes, a fine Christianwho navigated treacherous political waters to ensure we could hold our event. Even so, as we sang–accapella as directed–an emissary was sent to shut us down.  Notwithstanding the opposition, we had “church” today in the US Capitol, with Christians of every tradition praying together and listening to the Word being powerfully proclaimed!

Hope you can join us next year–always on or about Januray 22. Mark your calendar now!!

Rob +

Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts is scheduled to visit his future colleagues on Capitol Hill today. In his first news conference following the election, Mr. Brown called it paying a “courtesy visit.” It will hardly be viewed as courteous by some, including, I’m sure, Majority Leader Harry Reid who likely will see it as pressuring him and others for a quick swearing-in.

In the hours since Mr. Brown won the Super Bowl of special elections, a lot about him has come to light. In yesterday’s post I told you about the Senator-elect’s family church. Well, it looks like it may indeed be more of his family’s church than his own. A source that once worked for Mr. Brown in the state legislature described him as a “non-church-going Protestant.” Apparently, Mr. Brown has the reputation of doing something other than worship on Sunday mornings.

Even if Mr. Brown taught Sunday school every week, it wouldn’t necessarily mean he’s a “good Christian,” nor that he understands Christian doctrine or moral instruction–and it appears he’s quite deficient on at least the latter. He explicitly recognizes Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision de-criminalizing the killing of pre-born children, as “the law of the land.” (Before coming down too heavily on him for that, though, remember “pro-life” Chief Justice John Roberts said the same thing during his confirmation hearing.) What betrays even more his lack of good Christian moral formation is Mr. Brown’s support of so-called “civil unions,” which has as a consequence, whether intended or unintended, of granting social sanction to immoral behavior.

A few of my readers have concluded that because of these serious deficiencies, Mr. Brown is either a fake or a uselessly flawed individual that shouldn’t occupy this seat any longer than necessary. Well, I’m not quite so condemnatory or dismissive. What Mr. Brown appears to me to be is a Massachusetts politician. He may or may not be a Christian, but that doesn’t change his profession. The likelihood of a 100% pro-life, no-exceptions candidate winning a senate race in the Bay State is, conservatively speaking, zip. Electing a Massachusetts senator that lectures on the sacred nature of sex as only between one man and one women within the bond of Holy Matrimony is, even more conservatively speaking, -10.

So, in my estimation, on the political side, Massachusetts probably picked the best candidate it has had in decades–and likely will have until there’s another Great Awakening in New England. On the spiritual side, Mr. Brown needs all the prayer, tutelage, discipleship, “doctrine . . . reproof . . .correction . . .  instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16) that he can get–and that’s why I believe God sent us here.

In the 15 years I’ve been a missionary on Capitol Hill, I haven’t met one perfect Christian politician, so Scott Brown is nothing new. Perhaps he’s a little worse than some others, but he’s not terribly different.

More to follow . . .

Rob +

Faith and Action friends, including supporters of our ally, Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, gave over $28,000 in record time to help the people of Haiti. Those funds are now in motion, benefitting a long-established clinic with two locations in Haiti, one very near the epicenter of the earthquake. Funds have also been provided to a surgeon from Haiti who now makes his home in the United States and practices at an award-winning medical center in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

He is currently in Haiti performing emergency surgeries on victims. More funds have been allocated for one or more church groups staged to travel to Haiti as soon as runways open for a chartered flight to land. Whichever groups go first will receive remaining funds for supplies. Because workers on the ground in Haiti are concerned for their own and their patients’ safety, we are withholding the names of funding recipients until threats have passed and adequate security is in place.

Yesterday’s election of Scott Brown to the US Senate is rocking Washington, DC. It’s as if everyone here is dazed–Democrats and Republicans alike. Brown is an interesting study. Pro-abortion voices decry him as anti-choice and pro-life voices decry him as not pro-life enough, while gay groups denounce him as “homophobic” for not supporting same-sex marriage and pro-family groups thump him for advocating “civil unions.”

I’ve gotten a lot of E-mails on Senator-Elect Brown, including from a top sitting US Senator and top Christian leaders in Massachusetts and elsewhere. He is an interesting study. As far as I can tell, Sen. Brown is what 18th Century founder of the Methodist Church John Wesley called a “Bible Christian.” The best information I have is that the Brown family’s home church is New England Chapel in Franklin, MA. It’s in the network of new Christian Reformed Churches. That is, the congregation is contemporary in its culture and style, “Evangelical” in its ethos, and soft in its delivery of its message. At its core ,though, it’s old-time Calvinistic Reformed Christianity, which can be strict and severe. (See Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin.) Still, Brown seems to define himself religiously. Among other things, he has a serious relationship to a community of Catholic nuns; definitely not typical of Christian Reformed.

Senator Brown’s pastor, Chris Mitchell , a graduate of the evangelically renowned Gordon-Conwell Seminary, where Billy Graham once chaired the board, seems like the kind of minister I generally keep company with and the church is very familiar in the way in conducts its ministries. (We posted a video of one of their recent baptismal services–check it out on our Faith and Action homepage.)

I’ll post more on Scott Brown and his faith. For now, I encourage you to pray for the senator-elect from the Bay State. He’ll need it–badly.

Rob +