“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” — John the Baptist in the Gospel of John, Chapter 1, verse 29.

When I heard these words during the funeral mass for Senator Edward Kennedy, I was reminded of their power in my own life. It may surprise you to learn that this Protestant Evangelical minister first heard the Gospel preached in its entirety at Communion in a Catholic mass held at a Jesuit College. That great declaration of the original Baptist would arrest my soul and ultimately lead me to salvation.

Unlike some of my colleagues, friends and fellow pro-lifers, I didn’t object to Ted Kennedy being given a Christian funeral. The fact that Senator Kennedy, who was often at odds with the dictates of his own church and with historic Biblical teaching, could be extended grace at the moment of judgement, conveys the generous mercy that is central to the Gospel.

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad Ted Kennedy’s many sins in life didn’t necessarily keep him from God’s grace at death. It gives me great hope in Christ for myself. I pray it will do the same for the millions upon millions who watched–perhaps for the first time–a service permeated with the Christian message. May John the Baptist’s testimony affect them as it did me.

Yesterday’s post on President Obama’s employment of the Ninth Commandment against “bearing false witness” brought a lot of E-mails. Some readers thought I was much too harsh; others, much too mild. My point was simply whether Mr. Obama properly used the reference to “bearing false witness” when defending his health care reform proposals against critics.

Yesterday I had an unexpected–indeed, amazing–opportunity to get some additional clarity on this question. Cheryl and I are vacationing with another two couples on the northwest tip of Washington’s spectacular Olympic Peninsula. To get here, we took an auto ferry across the Puget Sound from Edmonds to Kingston. Now, what would be the odds of encountering a Jewish scholar on the Commandments along such a path?

Well . . .

No sooner had we boarded the boat then I looked up to see a passenger deck filled with Orthodox Jewish families! I was shocked. After all, this wasn’t the Catskills. I asked one young man, “Is there a rabbi among you?” He looked at me incredulously and said, “What? The place is filled with rabbis.” He pointed to one nearby. I approached deferentially and asked if the man would indulge me on a question. He congenially indicated yes. I told him about the conference call with President Obama and the reference he had made to the Ninth Commandment.

“In your opinion, Rabbi, did the President correctly employ the Commandment, or should he have left it alone?”

In typical rabbinical fashion, the sage stroked his beard and said, “This is very serious, because you do not know the heart or intention of the accused person.” Then the rabbi asked, “Was the President passionate in his remark? Was he feeling something?”

“Yes,” I said. “I believe he was.”

“Then this was just what he was feeling, and when we feel strongly about something, we say something we otherwise would not. So, while it may not have been correct, it was something he felt.”

Feeling myself like a precocious child, I asked, “Rabbi, if I may impose on you further, if you were the President’s religious advisor, how would you have advised him? Should he have used the Commandment or not?”

“This is a good question,” he said, congenially wagging an upraised tutorial finger at me, “This is a good question.” Then he stroked his beard again and said, “This is how I would have advised the President, ‘If this is something you feel, say that you feel like there are those who are bearing false witness, but you don’t wish to condemn them, because you don’t know what is in their hearts, but it feels like some are bearing false witness.’”

“You should be the President’s advisor,” I said.

“Everything is providential,” the rabbi said as we walked arm-in-arm to the exit way.

“What were the chances of that?” I asked Cheryl as we climbed into our car. “What are the chances that a ferry between Edmonds and Kingston, Washington, across the Puget Sound, in the forested Pacific Northwest, would be filled with Jewish scholars?”

I love that kind of wonderment.

When I get back to Washington, DC, I will recommend to the White House the name of at least one religious advisor.

Back to the conversation. What do you think of the rabbi’s advice to the President? Send me an E-mail at rob@faithandaction.org.

Veteran Washington journalist Robert “Bob” Novak died today at age 78. He was an original. His style and guts at speaking his mind and espousing his convictions became legendary. He was controversial, like anyone engaged in the political arena, but he was principled. He wasn’t at all the caricature gadfly his opponents made him out to be. My twin brother, Paul, served on the board of Thomas More College with Mr. Novak. Paul had several intimate conversations with him and found him to be more than congenial–generous would be a better word. He was also thoughtful, reflective, even contemplative. Mr. Novak was certainly a big booster of everything we do.

Most important to us was Mr. Novak’s fascinating religious journey. Paul and I grew up with people like Bob Novak. For most of his life, he was the quintessential modern, assimilated American Jewish professional, but he became a fellow Jewish Christian, professing his faith later in life. He didn’t carry that testimony onto the Christian celebrity circuit, though. His was a quiet, unassuming, and terribly genuine conversion that worked its way out in the mostly private spheres of the man’s life.

We’ll all miss Bob Novak. He is now part of that great cloud of witnesses surveilling our conduct as Christians left on Earth. I just hope that up there he doesn’t dish on any of my foibles. He could be good at that!

Rest in Peace dear brother in Christ.

While I’m getting a little R&R on the West Coast, this Declaration came out of the World Congress of Families underway in Amsterdam. Wish I could have been there. My brother, Paul, and I, and our organizations, have closely identified with the WCF and endorsed its activities. I know the people behind the Congress well and appreciate their good work. As they say here in Washington, “I wish to associate myself” with the words and intentions of this Declaration:

World Congress of Families V: Declaration of Amsterdam
AMSTERDAM, Aug. 12 /Christian Newswire/– The following declaration was overwhelmingly approved at the World Congress of Families V on August 12, 2009 at the RAI Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

DECLARATION OF AMSTERDAM

Representing families and organizations from over 60 nations, we delegates to the World Congress of Families V, convening in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, this 10-12 August 2009, affirm Article 16, par. 3, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, agreeing that ‘the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society, and is entitled to protection by society and the State.’

In solidarity with earlier WCF Declarations, we define the natural family to rest on the lifelong marriage of a man to a woman, for the purposes of welcoming and nurturing new human life, providing love, companionship, and mutual support, building a home rich in functions, and strengthening the bonds of the generations.

We define ourselves as pro-child. We affirm those social, cultural and legal structures that encourage optimal outcomes for children, in terms of health, learning and later civic engagement. We favour work arrangements that enable parents to spend more time with their children. We understand the biological and social sciences to teach that children predictably do best when raised by their natural parents in a married-couple home.

We affirm that the future of nations rests on families that are spiritually grounded. Religious organizations should be free to uphold their own moral teachings about marriage and family in the public square.

We affirm that the natural family exists prior to the state. Public policies must respect this family autonomy.

We call for sound laws and policies that will:

- support the natural institution of marriage;

- discourage divorce, especially when children would be involved;

- encourage couples that commit themselves to the rearing of children;

- protect the primary right of parents to guide their children’s moral and practical education;

- protect the physical, mental, social and spiritual development of children;

- and guard vulnerable human life, especially at the beginning and end of the life cycle.

This Congress gave special attention to the status of the natural family in developing nations. In this light:

- We affirm intergenerational solidarity. Beyond the immediate circle of mother, father and their children lies the rich tapestry of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Urbanization, industrialization, migration, wars, epidemics, and selfish individualism have all weakened extended family bonds. We favor actions that would re-energize this broader family circle as the place where individuals might find help in times of crisis, unemployment, sickness, poverty, old age, and bereavement.

- We raise up the natural family as our solution to poverty. Support to people living in extreme poverty should be given in a family context, wherever possible. We endorse actions that favour family home ownership and micro-enterprises, deliver appropriate vocational training to young men and women, and renew rural economies as rich alternatives to migration to the cities. We view each new child as an asset for the world, a new mind and a new pair of hands.

- We identify declining birthrates as the core demographic problem facing the 21st century. We favor responses that discourage abortion (including sex selective abortion), enable larger and healthier families, and encourage economic growth.

- We respond to the HIV and AIDS pandemic with a program of abstinence, faithfulness and character building through life skills education. We believe that this approach will inspire and reinforce family life in societies, break the cycle of infection, and best serve the interests of children. We also urge special initiatives to improve treatment for victims and to assist orphans and elderly care-givers in rebuilding viable homes.

- And, we call for a family-centered approach to good health: Sexual education should be parent- guided and focus on skills such as self-restraint, relational faithfulness, and the making of responsible choices. Access to pre- and post-natal care should be expanded, including counseling on positive alternatives to abortion, including adoption. Breastfeeding should be promoted as a child-survival strategy.

Adopted this day, 12 August 2009, in the City of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This statement may not necessarily reflect the views of individual speakers and delegates.

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the ’seedbed’ of civil society. The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois (www.profam.org). To date, there have been four World Congresses of Families — Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw, Poland (2007). A fifth World Congress of Families is being held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 10-12, 2009 ( www.worldcongress.nl).

Christian Newswire

“THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN . . .” (Mark 2:27).

Finally, I get a bit of a break this summer. Well, sort of . . .

Not to complain–or to use a more precise Yiddish term for it, “kvetch” (Jewish slang for an annoying form of whining)–I’ve had a pretty intense past several months. It started with my dad’s diagnosis with terminal cancer in April. That began a frenetic lifestyle toggling between Washington, DC and my family home of Buffalo, NY. In between I had extensive oral surgery to remediate a rare bone condition. I hadn’t even healed from that when Dad died on July 21, triggering a reconfiguration of our whole family. Dad was not just my father, but a wonderful friend, advisor and encourager of everything God has called me to do. I miss him terribly. As all this drama unfolded, I had some of the most fruitful–but also most demanding–speaking engagements in my 26-year career. All this is to say, I needed a vacation.

Immediately following Dad’s passing, though, Cheryl and I had other business to attend to–reconfiguring our lives. When Dad turned so ill, Cheryl and I were already in a major transition. The first 33 years of our marriage was all about my side of ministry. As a fabulous wife and mother, Cheryl has always adapted herself to our home, kids and my calling. So, after the kids became emancipated adults and my team was solidly in place to conduct our Faith and Action ministry into the future, it was Cheryl’s turn to pursue her calling. For over a decade, she’s been passionately engaged in ministering to women who are victims of sexual violence. She’ll now take her volunteer work one step further by completing a long-delayed graduate degree in a highly specialized field of Christian counseling. One big challenge: The only school to offer this unique training is in Seattle, Washington. So, for the next three years, I will live a bicoastal existence, with about one-third time in the great Northwest state of Washington, and the rest in Washington, DC, continuing to do what we have done for the last 16 years–proclaim the Truth in Jesus Christ to top elected and appointed officials. We’ll sell our home in Northern Virginia and live in two small apartments on opposite ends of the continent!

In the meantime, we get a seven-day cross country road trip, only the second time I’ve done it. (The last one was over twenty years ago.) We’re taking out everything we’ll need to set up a home on Seattle’s gorgeous waterfront. I love the open road and find long-distance driving therapeutic for body and soul. Except for one deadline we must make so I can do a video shoot at a studio in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the rest of of it will be a pretty lazy tour of this great Land. I won’t check in much because, well, I kind of don’t want to do anything. Our daily prayer videos will continue, though, so please log on for them and other breaking stories out of Washington. I’ll check in with you after my short sabbatical!

Blessings,

Rob