High Court Unanimously Upholds Ten Commandments Display

See the link below for the whole story. My good friend Jay Sekulow argued this case. I was with him at the very beginning, visited the site of this Ten Commandments display when he and his legal team sized up the situation and sat in on his legal team’s strategy sessions. They’re the best! Our Faith and Action ministry also submitted a brief to the High Court. Many thanks to another dear friend and Christian brother, attorney Bernie Reese, for authoring that brief on our behalf. Congratulations to Jay, thanks to Bernie, a shout out to the leaders and folks of Grove City, Utah, and heart-felt gratitude to the Lord and all of you for this resounding victory! It’s unanimous: God’s Word will remain and the death-cult called Summum can look elsewhere! Court rules for Utah city in religious marker case.

Court rules for Utah city in religious marker case.

My Challenge in the New Political Landscape

Thought you’d be interested in the below article I just submitted to the Evangel, the official publication of the Evangelical Church Alliance, America’s oldest association of Evangelical clergy. The editor, Dr. Hank Roso, asked me to address this particular subject. I hold my ministerial affiliation with the ECA and serve on their board of directors as chairman of the ECA Committee on Church and Society. Keep in mind I’m writing to my fellow Evangelical ministers, but the principles apply more widely. Hope you enjoy it:

THE CHRISTIAN AMERICAN’S NEW CHALLENGE

To say the presidential election of 2008 was historic is an understatement. America elected the first African-American in our history. (He is actually bi-racial, which makes that element even more significant.) The new president is the first generation son of a non-citizen father. He is the child of a single mother whose grandparents raised him. These factors alone make Barack Obama one of the most interesting of our presidents, and he’s only been in office a matter of weeks—and there is more.

The new president’s philosophy of building a “team of rivals” by incorporating opponents into his administration hasn’t been done since Lincoln. (It bears noting one of those rivals, Hillary Clinton, is also a “first” as the first former First Lady to become a cabinet official!)

The impact of the Obama Administration goes beyond “firsts,” though. It brings with it important and sweeping changes in the philosophy of government. The new chief executive has been compared to Franklin Roosevelt, whose governmental innovations are still felt—and are still generating controversy–75 years after he was elected.

All this is to say it is a momentous time in America, for Christians as much as anyone else. As with the general public, opinions vary widely within the Christian community on issues like the war on terror, the economy and its bailouts, stimulus packages and the government’s role in these things. Evangelicals did largely oppose Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party in the last elections, and that’s worth exploring. More interesting to me, however, is what approach Christians should take now that the Obama Administration is securely in place and Democrats have a commanding majority in the Congress.

Before I go further, let me say I approach these questions not as a political operative, nor as a policy activist or lobbyist. I am called to be an evangelist to our government officials. While I fully exercise my franchise—as every American should—it matters little to my ministry who actually ends up in Washington after an election because I’m called to minister to them all the same, no matter what label they wear or policies they espouse. The Gospel knows no political boundaries.

Having said that, it is worth exploring the points of tension between Christians and the new government in Washington, and what we should do about it. Before doing so, first let me say no matter who is in power, we are obligated by God’s Word to pray for them (I Timothy 2:1-2), comply with their rule, when it is just, (Romans 13:1-7), and always treat them with respect and proper decorum, even when they are unjust (Acts 26:1-3).

As citizens, we do have additional obligations to fully participate in a representative democracy. As a Republic, the citizenry has a duty to exercise its will through voting, redressing grievances (in constitutional language) and even engage in non-violent civil disobedience in the extreme cases that it is warranted. (As in the Boston Tea Party, which got this whole thing called America started in the first place!)

Now to those points of tension: Christians on the whole have registered their dissatisfaction with the Obama Administration on two major points: The sanctity of life and marriage. President Obama has clearly stated he supports Roe v. Wade and will defend legal abortion, and, while he believes “marriage” is reserved for a man and a woman, he does support same-sex “unions.” As a Harvard trained lawyer, no doubt the President knows this will lay the legal groundwork for an inevitable court decision mandating “marriage” be extended to same-sex couples.

These two points are legitimate grounds to resist Administration policy and properly register our concerns about them and even act to frustrate or change them. Of course, this involves actions at the Congress and even with the states as much as anything else. Still, this can be done with the utmost respect and courtesy, which is more important than ever. With the first African-American in high office, it would be easy for Evangelical moral conservatives to be written off as racist should they treat the new President with disrespect, something we should be concerned about.

President Obama brings with him to the White House a remarkable number of Christians, including three ordained Pentecostal ministers. He is surrounded by leaders in the historic solid Gospel-preaching black churches, an “in,” if you will, for Evangelicals, that previous “liberal” administrations, like that of President Clinton, did not afford. He has also signaled strongly his willingness to listen to and even work with Evangelicals and other moral conservatives. For this reason I am prayerfully attempting to build bridges into the Obama White House rather than throw stones at it from outside.

This brings me to my final point: The greatest mistake Christians make when it comes to politics is blurring the lines of distinction between faithfulness to the Lord and faithfulness to a political party or agenda. This is the mistake the liberal mainline churches made in the 20th century, and one from which they have never recovered. As Evangelicals, let’s not make the same egregious error. There’s a difference between Jesus and Rush Limbaugh and the Bible and platform of a political party. I’ve been in Washington long enough to know that no one political party will ever embody the highest principals espoused so perfectly in God’s Word. No politician will ever be less sinful than another, “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

What every politician—and every human being—needs is the grace of God extended to them in the atoning work of Christ on the Cross. That remains my greatest challenge and yours for the next four or eight years—and for as long as the Lord should tarry His return.

Sixty years of state imposed atheism and the marginalization and even attempted extermination of the religious in the People’s Republic of China has left a desperate famine among the Chinese. Cheryl and I witnessed this in, of all places, Washington’s famed Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts just this past Saturday. We were guests for “Divine Performing Arts: The Spectacular 2009,” and it was spectacular!

The stage production featured 100 Chinese dancers, vocalists and musicians, including a live orchestra. The gorgeous costumes, exotic instruments, masterful choreography and digitally animated backdrops were bedazzling and highly entertaining. As I suspected, though, it turned out to be a tastefully delivered proselytizing event for the Chinese “New Age” religion of Falun Dafa, otherwise known as Falun Gong. This is a modern subset of Buddhism that has gained a very popular following mostly among ethnic Chinese. When a mesmerizing tenor sang about the splendor of “The Dafa,” or secret, divinely revealed code of the Universe, I whispered to Cheryl, “No one told us this would be a ‘Come to Dafa meeting.’” (Just a little religious humor–relax!)

I’ve tracked Falun Gong over the years because of my work with the Institute on Religion and Public Policy which monitors religious persecution worldwide. The Chinese Regime has brutally repressed Falun Gong “practitioners,” drastically reducing the movement’s visibility inside the country. According to my friend and Chinese expert, David Aikman, Falun Gong has, however, maintained an extraordinary attraction among Chinese elite ex patriots–professionals, intellectuals, academics, etc.–here in the U.S. and in many other countries.

At the performance here in Washington, I sat next to a Chinese professional and his family. He told me he traveled from Pittsburgh to see this program, as he had previously to several other locations, because he just can’t get enough of it. “They never told me about anything like this growing up in China,” he said, almost breathlessly. “Talk of God and the Divine was not allowed there.”

Falun Gong talks a lot about “The Divine,” and this is why it has been been so brutalized since it’s appearance in the early 1990’s. Followers have been intimidated, jailed, tortured and killed. It’s been one of the worst patterns of religious persecution in the history of the Communist tyranny there.

I have always been an advocate of complete religious freedom. Christians should never be afraid to line-up all competing religious claims and compare them to the Truth in the Gospel. The Gospel always wins. If people are prohibited from exploring any spirituality, though, as they continue to be in China and so many other countries, then they can never discover the Truth.

Let’s keep working and praying for the good people of China. Only when they are allowed to seek for the Truth will they ever be able to find it.

OK, now that I have your attention . . .

Yes, I’m going to switch sides to agree with my pro-choice opponents–but just momentarily. You may know I’ve been embroiled in the pro-life / pro-choice controversy for a long time, 21 years to be exact. It started when my brother, Paul, was pastor of a large church outside our hometown of Buffalo, New York. A couple from his congregation found a bag discarded by a medical facility next to their home. It contained several fetal remains. Paul held a public funeral for the nameless babies and life was never the same for him again. When this happened, I was on a 2000-mile charity walk from the border with Canada to the border with Mexico raising money to build clinics for some of the poorest children in the world. When Paul was finally able to contact me about it, I was stunned. Until then, abortion was an abstract argument for seminars in Christian ethics. Now, it was an overwhelming reality.

A long epic struggle began in our lives. Paul and I would be drawn into the red-hot center of one of the greatest controversies in American culture–and in all of human civilization. We would both focus much of our spiritual, mental and professional time and attention on advocating for the dignity and sanctity of every human person. Our Jewish dad had given us a comprehensive education in the horrors and lessons of the Nazi holocaust, impressing on us the need to challenge the evils of dehumanization everywhere. That’s why Dad was a huge fan of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.–and why we kids always watched the TV images of the marches, the water hosings and the arrests of civil rights workers with rapt attention and often in tears. Later, in seminary, Paul and I were introduced to the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the brilliant German theologian martyred by the Nazi’s for opposing Hitler. These things combined to make it impossible for Paul to ignore that bag of babies. My brother and I would both go on to speak out often on America’s own holocaust, facilitate the adoption of babies saved at the clinic doors, take care of moms in crisis pregnancies and work to change public policy on abortion. We’d even do prison time for leading prayer vigils and counseling women and men in front of clinic doors, and we would spend countless days in court and pay thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees. Today we maintain the National Pro-Life Action Center on Capitol Hill and Paul founded and directs National Pro-Life Radio.

OK, enough of the pro-life bona fides. What about switching sides?

Well, this is where the octuplets come in. I rode the same roller coaster as everyone else when the news first broke, then yielded more details. First, it was amazement, Wow! Eight babies! I thought of the mom; what a blessing, but what an enormous challenge. I thought of the kids–a veritable nursery school from Day One. Then came the other facts: She already had six kids at home. She was a single mom. She had in vitro. She lived with her parents. There were questions about the fertility clinic. Boy, was this story charged. Yes, these are all questions we need to deal with, pray about, work out ethically and morally, and somehow resolve. One thing really bothered me, though. Where were the pro-choice apologists? For years the country has been subjected to the mantra–most recently recited during the presidential campaign: “It’s between a woman, her doctor and her God,” said more than one candidate. In other words, it’s nobody’s business. But, boy, that’s not how it’s worked out with this one.

It appears to me when it’s about terminating pregnancies, it’s all about privacy, but when it’s about preserving those pregnancies, it’s about public opinion. Well, for once, I’m siding with the die-hard pro-choicers. For Nadya Suleman, the octuplets’ mom, it’s all about her, her doctor and her God. She’s clear: she wanted these babies, perhaps not all at once, but she wanted a big family. She approved of her doctor’s actions. And, she is certain it was God’s will for her to have eight. Why does the otherwise pro-choice establishment suddenly turn nosey,intrusive and instructive–even scolding–when it comes to eight births instead of eight abortions?

I know, I can just hear you. “Come on, Rob, but don’t you think it’s wrong for this doctor to have implanted so many embryos?” “Don’t you think she should have waited until she was at least married?” “Don’t you think it’s wrong to place all these children at risk? And what about the cost to society?” Yes, these are legitimate questions for us to ask about ourselves and our society and future practices, but these babies are with their mom now–and they have been since they were conceived. Pro-lifers have long argued that the circumstances surrounding conception do not dictate a person’s worth. Every human being is of the utmost value and most be afforded the utmost dignity–including a welcome into life, love from family and the community and protection by the law and society. These are intrinsic human obligations, divine mandates and necessary practices to ensure a just civilization.

So, to all my pro-choice opponents: I’m with you for once. This is about this woman’s choice to be a mom–14 times over. Let’s support her right to choose, and pray for and help her and her babies to have a safe and wonderful life.

There, I reached across the divide. Now, pro-choicers all, let’s see what else we can do together.

Rob +

Day Gardner works closely with us at Faith and Action. She is a remarkable person, an esteemed colleague and rising voice in the African-American pro-life, pro-family movement. In addition to her work with various black pro-life groups, she is a producer and host for National Pro-Life Radio.

I’ve included Day’s comments here as part of our series, “Black History Month at Faith and Action.”

Black Pro Lifers Find Obama’s Faith Based Initiative Thin on Faith, Fat on Abortion

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 /Christian Newswire/ — When President Obama began his message by declaring “There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being,” Black Pro-lifers began to listen more closely, wondering if the President was realizing that babies are indeed innocent human beings. Their hopes were dashed, however when he went on to describe his plan to focus on family planning as a part of that initiative, code words for expanding government funding to abortion groups like Planned Parenthood.

“We hoped President Obama would use his faith based programming to find common ground on issues such as abortion while finding room to tone down some of the positions he took on the campaign trail,” said Catherine Davis Director of Minority Outreach, GRTL.

However, at the conclusion of his remarks, most found the President not only failed to dial back his campaign commitments; he did not lay out a strategy to make abortion “rare” as he has stated on numerous occasions.

“The President removed the Mexico City Policy on Jan. 23, to allow U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund radically pro- abortion organizations around the world. It is further proof that he plans to expand and increase death by abortion which means millions more children will die,” said Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro- Life Union.

While Mr. Obama lauded the community of faith for its community organization strength, he also signaled that he would view his policy initiatives through the lenses of separation of church and state, the Jeffersonian doctrine that most have elevated to a constitutionally protected level. “When a person of faith goes to work, he does not check his moral values at the door. The president of the United States of America should not keep moral values out of the oval office. Since he knows that God is displeased with those who intentionally kill the innocent, he should not use taxpayers to pay those whose who kill the innocent. When you view public policy, a moral compass needs to be heeded to take the country in the right direction, lest we lose our way.” Said Dr. Johnny Hunter, Fayetteville, NC

“The black community is awakening to the genocidal impact of abortion in the black community” said Dean Nelson, Director, Network of Politically Active Christians, “We are very disappointed in the President’s refusal to provide an avenue of redress in his faith based programming.”

It seemed fitting that the sad news of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s surgery for pancreatic cancer broke while many of us were at the National Prayer Breakfast. It was just a few years ago, when she was suffering with colon cancer, I personally urged Justice Ginsburg to turn to the Lord, who, I noted, is a “just judge, but also a merciful healer.” While the Justice herself was more than congenial and seemed moved by what I said, one of her aids did not. The young woman took the Justice’s arm and pulled her away from me.

Since that time I have watched the Justice become weaker and visibly sicker. At Court social functions and even on the bench, I saw a progressive pallor overtake her. It was the color of cancer, and it didn’t bode well for her. On two occasions, I watched her collapse in her seat, once almost to the floor–and there was that infamously long snooze on the bench–during a hearing!

The pastoral side of me cares deeply about Justice Ginsburg, a delightful person who reminds me of my late grandmother, Helen “Nana” Schenck. At the same time, Justice Ginsburg has been consistently–even egregiously–wrong on her disposition towards innocent, nascent human life. She just hasn’t grasped the meaning of the inherent value and equal dignity of every human being.

I am praying for Justice Ginsburg and I ask you to do so, too. I’m praying for two things–first, that she will turn to the One whose name is Jehovah-Rapha, “God our healer.” I pray she’ll see Him and press through to touch,  “the hem of His garment.” (See Matthew 9:20) Interestingly, that “hem” was what is called in Hebrew, “tzitzit,” or the traditional knotted fringe Jewish men wear representing the Commandments, or the essence of God’s Word. (Justice Ginsburg is Jewish, but she has said publicly that her religion doesn’t mean much to her.)

Just hours after today’s prayer breakfast, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he was late to an afternoon news briefing because he had to tell President Obama about the Justice’s condition. I’ve been around Washington and White Houses long enough to know that errand was about more than simply alerting the President’s concern and compassion. (And I have no doubt he has both for the ailing Justice.) When the White House spokesman delivers information like this, more than the President’s protocol officers spring into action. Sure, they’ll get the appropriate presidential “Get Well” note and flower arrangement out the door, but others are no doubt in motion, too. They’re the judicial vetting crew who are, very likely at this moment, already pouring over the files of prospective picks for Justice Ginsburg’s inevitable replacement.

Following suit, we here at Faith and Action will be doing two things at once: We will pray that the Lord will reveal Himself fully as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s savior and healer, while we gear up for one of the Supreme Court nomination battles of the century!

It’s been a while since I’ve written about what’s going on here on “The Hill.” (”The Hill” being Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. The other thing important to say about it is, “The Hill” is slang for the US Capitol building itself, that sits atop an actual hill.)

Let me give you just a quick summary to get you caught up-to-date:

- The year began with three big events: The biggest was the Inauguration of the 44th President, of course. It was followed just two days later by our National Service for the Pre-born, the annual premiere indoor pro-life celebration and the only  full-scale prayer and preaching service held inside the US Capitol complex. My brother, Paul, and I founded this event 14 years ago. It is now sponsored by the National Pro-Life Religious Council headed by Fr. Frank Pavone. The day that got lost in the mix was the Monday preceding the Inaugural, which was Martin Luther King Day. All three kept us very busy.

- MLK Day was filled with folks arriving for the Inaugural ceremonies. Our two facilities–the Ostrowski House Ministry Center and the National Pro-Life Action Center–were overflowing with sleep-over guests. For my wife, Cheryl and me, our two principle guests were Pastor Kenneth Barney and his wife Ellen. I’ve shared a lot of ministry with Pastor Barney over the several years I’ve known him. I’ve been honored by preaching in his pulpit at the incomparable and enormous New Antioch Baptist Church of nearby Randallstown, Maryland. (New Antioch is one of the largest African-American congregations in the metro Washington, DC area.) We’ve also traveled together both in the US and abroad. I asked Pastor Barney if I might have the honor of being his chauffeur on MLK Day, considering the nation would inaugurate its first African-American president the next day. I told him he deserved a white driver for the day! After some hemming and hawing, he acquiesced. We had a lot of fun with it, but it was also a serious exercise for me. “Switching places,” if you will, with what is traditionally an African-American role, was eye-opening and humbling for me. If the pastor didn’t get a lot out of it, I surely did!

- On the Inauguration: By now you’re probably well acquainted with the video of the January 7 prayer and anointing service I did at the doors leading from the US Capitol to the Inaugural stage. This is the path Barack Oabama took on January 20 on his way from being Citizen Obama to President Obama. It got huge viewership. Between the two posts on YouTube, over 160,000 have viewed it so far, with countless others watching on numerous websites that poached it from one or another. In any case, Rev. Pat Mahoney, Congressman Paul Broun and I got lots of praise and criticism for doing it. Some thought it was a sell-out endorsement of a suspicious politician, while others interpreted it as a prayerful rebuke of the incoming pro-choice, pro-same-sex unions chief executive. It was neither. It was simply our best attempt at obeying St. Paul’s mandate in I Timothy 2:1 -2, to pray “for all men, for kings and all who are in authority.” I figure God knows what to do with presidents. Our job is to pray. You can watch my discussion with Pat about this aspect of our now controversial actions by clicking here.

- Among our guests we had a very wide spectrum of opinions about Mr. Obama. Some were here to celebrate the first black president or the change in political culture they believe he brings to the White House. Most were realistic about his policies on abortion and same-sex unions, etc., but they’re willing to either give him a pass or watch to see if he changes while in office. On the other side we had those who came to challenge Mr. Obama, some with graphic photos of aborted babies. My approach in the moment was to suspend my concerns about his policy positions and rejoice with those who see the elevation of a black man as a major step forward for our American civilization. After the initial celebration, however, I am ready now to do our work, which is above all else, evangelization. As missionaries to Capitol Hill, we have to deal with whoever is elected and ends up here–Democrat, Republican, Independent, liberal, conservative or moderate. It doesn’t matter where they come from or what they do, it doesn’t change the message we are charged to deliver to them. So, we’ll do with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid just what we did with their predecessors and counterparts: Bring them the Gospel and Biblical Truth. We may have to work a little harder at it given the climate, but God is able and we’re up to the challenge!

- On the National Service for the Pre-born (previously known as the National Memorial for the Pre-born), we had a full house in the brand new Congressional Auditorium deep underground inside the spectacular new Capitol Visitor Center. This 580,00 square foot facility was planned initially as a safety buffer between the interior of the US Capitol and the sometimes hostile outside world. the original inducement for the project was the killing of two US Capitol police officers by a crazed gunman in July, 1998. I was there with a group of pastors that day. Since 9/11, though, the project expanded considerably and is now not only a splendid museum to the US Congress, but a secure underground bunker where the Legislative Branch can continue its business even after a destructive assault above ground. We were privileged to one of the few “outside” groups to use this magnificent state-of-art facility for strong witness to the Gospel of Life. (Watch video clips here)

– In the days since all this I’ve been out preaching, giving media interviews and getting geared up for the next big ministry event, the annual US Capitol Bible Reading Marathon. You can read about it at this site under “Upcoming Events.” I hope you and your church can participate with us this year. If there was ever a time God’s Word needed to be proclaimed in its entirety–out-loud–at the seat of the Nation’s government, it is NOW! If you can’t literally get here to pray or read, you can join us live on the Internet. Watch this site for details.

–There will be many “unplanned ministry” opportunities in the days and weeks ahead. We expect at any time for the notorious Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to come down with its decision on whether we will remain “One Nation Under God.” We expect they will do as they did once before and strike down the Pledge of Allegiance as “unconstitutional.” When they do, we’ll be ready to set the courts straight, right up to the US Supreme Court across the street from our ministry headquarters. (We’re busy working and praying on that plan, too.)

I’ll keep you informed about all this and more. In the mean time, thank you for praying for us, standing with us and generously supporting us. You’re as much a part of our ministry team as anyone else and we’re grateful to the Lord and to you for it!

Rob +