SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK

SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE SUNDAY:
Speak Up For Those Who Cannot Speak
Proverbs 31:8-9 FCC January 23, 2011

Two news stories caught my attention this week. Both were about multiple murders. One, the Tucson Massacre, was on the home page of every website and led the evening news of every broadcaster in the country and is still being covered twenty-four seven. A nut with a gun killed six people and wounded thirteen others including a congresswoman. A heinous, reprehensible crime for which there is no excuse.

The other one you might have missed. Officially, eight people died, but in truth it was many more than that. But because most of them were anonymous babies murdered by a “doctor” with a pair of scissors – and I use that term ‘doctor’ only because he had a medical license –the news media didn’t deem it worthy of round the clock reporting. After all, that happens every day in this country through a procedure known as partial birth abortion. The only difference is that these babies were fully delivered.

The only reason this one is getting any attention is because an adult woman finally died because of the man’s negligence and an investigation was mounted.

Foxnews.com reports:
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, (mostly on minorities and immigrants) prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to visit or inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them, District Attorney Seth Williams said…

According to the district attorney's office, Gosnell is facing murder in the third degree for the death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar. The patient died Nov. 20, 2009, when she was overdosed with anesthetics prescribed by Gosnell, according to the station.

Williams said during a press conference Wednesday that Gosnell "induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord."

The juxtaposition of these two stories and how quickly the one about the abortion doctor went away illustrates where our country is on this issue today. The truth is that with the housing and economic crisis, the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, the concern about Islamic Terrorism in general and the debate on health care the national attention and more to the point the attention of the Church has turned away from the issue of abortion. It has taken a place on the political and spiritual back-burner.

We cannot allow that situation to stand. We must not grow weary in this fight. The reasons from Scripture are quite clear.

Proverbs 31:8-9 says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." (NIV)

In Scripture, a “first order task” for ancient kings, princes and judges was to protect the powerless against all who would exploit or oppress them. That’s why we see things like Jeremiah pronouncing this judgment on Jehoiakim, king of Judah.

"Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. 16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD. (Jer 22:15-16 NIV)

Did you catch that? “Is that not what it means to know me?”

People who walk with God take it as a matter of the regular course of life to defend the defenseless, to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. God has made us a “royal priesthood.” (1Peter 2:9). It is the normal course of life for a Christian to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

STATISTICS ON ABORTION IN AMERICA
The following statistics are from a new report released by the Guttmacher Institute (formerly a special research affiliate of Planned Parenthood – one of the largest pro-abortion organizations in the country). The report is titled "Abortion Incidence and Access to Services in the United States, 2008,"

 100,000 + Children are aborted each month in America (3 x Halifax population). For perspective, about 40,000 Americans per year die in car wrecks. Our country spends billions of dollars each year figuring out how to make cars and roadways safer. We need to spend some money figuring out how to make infants in the womb safer.

 199,000 +/- (16%/year) of these abortions were chemical abortions via prescriptions for RU 486 or Methotrexate. Women pay about $490 for this drug. It costs the clinics less to administer this drug so they add another $97.5 million in revenue to an industry already raking in hundreds of millions of dollars. The drug has caused hundreds of women to resort to emergency rooms when something goes wrong.
 There are over 1793 abortion “providers” in the US. Of these 23% offer abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. 11% offer abortions after 24 weeks. (The number of weeks is important. We’ll come back to that in a moment). Roughly 350 clinics nationwide offer abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Clearly, abortion is big business in the United States and the abortion industry is constantly working to expand its reach.

Who will speak up for defenseless children in the womb if not us? Who will fund the work of organizations like Little Life if not followers of the God who said, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves?”

The measure of a just society is the willingness of those who do not have an immediate stake in an issue to speak up on behalf of those who do.

WHAT SCIENCE TELLS US ABOUT LIFE IN THE WOMB: When Does Life Begin?

The Software Was All There – Scientific advances enable us to know, to actually see, when a baby’s heart begins to beat in its mother’s womb. All of the genetic information that you are made of existed at the moment of conception. Your personality, body size, eye color, hair color, basic intellect, etc. was already fixed. In other words, the software that makes you who you are was all there from the beginning as the hardware began growing around it.

Brain Waves Begin – Modern science reveals that the baby’s brain begins functioning enough to produce measurable brain waves at 40 days. The baby’s face begins to move, forming what look like smiles and frowns as early as 12 weeks.

You might be thinking, “Well, OK, that’s 40 – 90 days. Nothing much that could be called human is happening before that. ” If you are thinking that then let me remind you that you started out the same way. You weren’t thinking anything before you were 40 days old but your personality was fixed, your size was fixed, your intelligence quotient was fixed. Would you have wanted someone to stop your development at that point?

Both sides of the political debate agree that science has revealed much more about the beginning of life than we knew when the infamous Roe v. Wade decision was handed down in 1973. But science is not the last word. It cannot tell us everything we need to know about life.




THE BIBLE AND THE SANCTITY OF LIFE

Scripture Reveals What Science Reports – The truth about the beginnings of human life were revealed in Scripture long before science had the tools to report on them. God the Great Creator tells us when personhood begins as well as what it means.

Made In God’s Image – Unlike any of the rest of earth’s creatures, men and women are reflections of the personhood of God.

Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (NIV)

By giving man dominion over the animals God revealed that humanity is in a totally different class from the animals. We are the only beings on the planet that can interact with God on the level of personality. Every creature depends on God. We are the only creatures that can know Him. That gives each man, woman and child incredible dignity and worth.

Crafted by God’s Hand – There are over 70 references to “the womb” in the Scriptures. One of these is Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”

Isa 44:24 "This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,…(NIV)

I am married to an artist. My beautiful wife makes beautiful things out of stuff that I would normally label trash. On a recent trip to Florida she combed the beach picking up sea shells. She then took them home and carefully cleaned them and let them dry. Early in our marriage I would have been complaining about taking so much trash home and tried to throw it out. But I learned that a real craftswoman can make beautiful things out of what we would call useless. Soon her seashell creations, a little sea shell tree, a seashell wreathe and other pretty things began to adorn our home. It’s like that when you’re married to a creative person. Can you imagine what I would miss if I had taken those seashells to the trash? Can you imagine how my wife would react?

You and I, like every other baby in every mother’s womb, are hand crafted by the One who made all things, who stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth “by myself,…” he says. He does this work. He alone is the author of life. When we commit the act of abortion we are taking the seashells out of the Creator’s hands and smashing them. Imagine how He must feel about that.

Given Life in the Blood – God equates the presence of blood with the presence of life. Genesis 9:4 reads, “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” Leviticus 17:11 states, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”

Do remember the 20 weeks? Scientists have observed that at 22 days or 3 weeks of development, a baby’s heart begins beating and pumping the baby’s own blood through his or her own circulatory system. At 5 weeks brain waves are measurable. At 12 weeks the baby has a face.

There are over 350 abortion providers in this country that provide abortions after 20 weeks. Abortion truly stops a beating heart. Abortion takes a human life.

A Child in the Womb is a Conscious Soul – Science reports that the baby begins to move at 7 weeks. This movement can be felt by the mother at 16 weeks. The gospel of Luke (1:44) reports that when Elizabeth, who was miraculously pregnant in her old age, met her cousin Mary, who was carrying the Lord Jesus that the child who was to become John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb. The implication is obvious: God gave the infant John knowledge of his cousin’s presence while both were still in the womb. The further implication is also obvious: John, like every other babe in the womb, had a soul before he was born.

Every child in the womb is a living, soul, capable of human interaction and some early form of understanding the presence of blessing or threat. They are conscious, but they have no voice. Many of their mothers, who are told over and over again that it’s just a choice, really feel as if they have no choice at all. Their parents, their boyfriends, their society and their fears sound the bell so loudly for abortion that many, many women feel it is the only option.

There is so much more information out there on this topic but hopefully this is enough to equip you and inspire you to speak up for those who cannot speak.

Let me conclude with a few recommendations on who to speak to and how.
Concluding Application

First, talk to the Women You Know – Four out of ten women in America have had an abortion. It is a personal trauma that is often stuffed very deep inside of her soul. Most women aren’t given the time and information that they need to fully understand what they’re being urged to do or have done. She has never had permission to talk about it. She needs permission and she needs you to be very sensitive.

If she is open about it and wrestles with it suggest a Bible Study at a place like Little Life. I’ve seen the healing that can come in a woman’s life through those studies.

If she is not open about struggling with it recognize that whether she can acknowledge it or not she is hurting. She may be belligerent about it. Hurting people hurt people. She is carrying a deep wound. Pray for her.

Second, talk to Adolescents – Probably the most important group you can talk to because they are the ones who can change the trend. Give them the information that I just gave you. They have a strong sense of justice. They will speak up when adults might remain silent.

Third, talk to Legislators – They need to hear from you every year. Significantly, The Patient Provider Affordable Care Act provides many streams of funding and authority that open the door to tax payer funded abortions in the US. That alone is reason enough to rewrite or repeal it.

Fourth, talk to Friends – Share this information with them. Let them know about Little Life Pregnancy Medical Center in Danville, Virginia, which FCC supports. They need the opportunity to support Little Life and to give hope to young women in crisis.

Fifth, Sign the Manhattan Declaration – Find it at www.manhattandeclaration.org.

Conclusion
Eric Metaxas’ excellent biography of Bonhoeffer offers a good closing perspective for all of us.

Few people would compare America of the early 21st Century with Germany of the early 1930’s. The social and political forces at work are vastly different.

One thing we do have in common however is this: No one then living in that most technologically developed, intellectually sophisticated and artistically sensitive country in the western world - a Christian nation that was the birthplace of the protestant reformation – would have believed how quickly it would all slide into the barbarism that was National Socialism.

Martin Niemoeller was one of those men. A decorated U Boat captain of the First World War, he became a pastor that early on was supportive of Hitler because of his opposition to Communism. But when the NAZIS passed a law making all Jews second class citizens Niemoeller finally woke up. By then it was too late. He, along with over 800 other pastors in the anti-Nazi Confessing Church were arrested and imprisoned shortly after the 1936 Olympics. Bonhoeffer was hanged. Niemoeller, after stints in Dachau and other concentration camps, barely escaped with his life.

I leave you with the quote for which he is best known.

First They came... - Pastor Martin Niemoller

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists ,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

(I am indebted to Tony Perkins and the National Right to Life website for some of the information in this message).

JESUS IS LORD! REALLY?

JESUS IS LORD? REALLY?
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 7:21 NIV)

A recent article in a national Christian magazine asked the question: Were Jesus and Paul in conflict? Did Jesus teach one thing and the Apostle Paul another? A shallow reading of the New Testament might leave that impression, especially concerning salvation. One might think, from the quotation in Matthew above, that according to Jesus it takes more than calling him Lord to be saved. But then we read Paul’s statement in Rom 10:9 and wonder, “What’s up with that?”

Here’s Paul’s statement: “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NIV)

I love to quote Romans 10:9 to people who are in doubt or wondering how to be saved. But most 21st century Americans don’t understand what it means. It needs a little explaining.

When some folks say, “Jesus is Lord,” they are repeating a culturally acceptable religious slogan. Its like, “Of course I believe Jesus is Lord, just like I believe in Santa Clause at Christmas and Baseball in June and Hotdogs and Apple Pie and Chevrolet.”

Jesus is Lord is part of Southern culture in the same way that “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet” is in other cultures. He is Lord in the sense that he is the chosen deity of our civil religion, in the same way that Jupiter was Lord if you were an early Roman or Zeus if you were Greek. He’s the guy symbolized in the stained glass windows, and the crosses in the graveyards. But it isn’t personal. There is no personal significance to the statement. You don’t necessarily have to sacrifice any personal autonomy to say it.

To people who use the phrase like that Jesus will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” The person never entered into a faith relationship of loyal obedience to Jesus. Jesus is a name we tag on to the end of a prayer but he is not a person we know or a Lord to whom we swear unwavering allegiance.

But to say, “Jesus is Lord,” in the Romans 9 sense is at one and the same time a highly personal as well as totally public swearing of allegiance. Calling someone, anyone, Lord, in that culture was to recognize and accept their authority over you as master. And, at the time Paul wrote that sentence Roman citizens were being required to say “Caesar is Lord” to maintain citizenship. They had to swear allegiance to Caesar just like a Nazi swearing allegiance to Hitler. Death waited anyone who refused.

So the true believer, back then and today, is someone who swears allegiance to Jesus Christ and never turns back from a lifetime of obedient faith. He is “one who does the will of my father who is in heaven.” In Elisabeth Elliott’s words, it is a long obedience in the same direction. It doesn’t mean that we do it perfectly all the time. But the overall pattern of life is one of faithfulness to Christ, no matter what the cost.

Just saying “Jesus is Lord” doesn’t give us entry into eternity, nor does the obedience itself save us. But it is the evidence of a person that truly belongs to Jesus. To that person Jesus promises, “If you confess me before men, I will confess you before my father who is in heaven.”

THE BLESSINGS OF BIOGRAPHY

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. (Proverbs 4:7-8 NIV)

There is an old story about wisdom that goes something like this: A young entrepreneur interviewed a prosperous older business man and asked him the secret of his success.

“Wisdom,” he said.

“How do I get it?” asked the younger man.

“By making good decisions.”

“And how do I learn to make good decisions?”

“By making bad ones.”

Wisdom, in the biblical sense, is the practical application of knowledge and truth to every day life. It is life-skill, the understanding of the ways knowledge and information can be brought to bear in the solving of life’s challenges, the exploitation of its opportunities and the avoidance of its many pitfalls. One of the greatest sources of it is the Book of Proverbs (found just after the Psalms in your Bible).

But there is another source and that is biography, the stories of the lives of interesting people. Through skillfully written biography we see wisdom and godliness, or the lack thereof, at work in the lives of others. It is a wonderful tool for reflection upon one’s own life, developing a better understanding of others who are different from you, and gaining vicarious experience. We can learn to make good decisions by seeing the results of their bad ones.

Wondering where to start? Here’s a list I’ve benefitted from in the last twelve months or so. West With the Night, by Beryl Markham; John Adams, by David McCullough; Bonheoffer, by Eric Metaxas; Decision Points, by George W. Bush; Courage and Consequence, by Karl Rove; A Journey, by Tony Blair.

So pick up a biography this year and get wisdom. And when you find a good one let me in on it! I look forward to hearing what you’ve learned.

DOING WITHOUT DO OVERS

“What is behind-a me is not-a before me!” shouted the Italian racer as he ripped the rear view mirror off the windshield, and put the pedal to the metal in one of those silly seventies rally movies. We used to quote it when heading out on family road trips, exaggerating the dialect for effect.

Most of us would like to live that way, “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead…” as the Apostle Paul would say. But the truth is, many of us do look back, are held back emotionally and spiritually, by mistakes we’ve made in the past, things we wish we could “do over.” We don’t necessarily call them sins. We’re still uncomfortable with that verdict. But if we were honest we’d admit that most of them were. We were raging, or deceitful, or covetous, gossipy, greedy, or gluttonous. We indulged our sinful nature and it cost us. In our guilt we look for “do-overs,” ways to fix what we did wrong, or indulge melancholia in an attempt to appease God.

Trust me: God doesn’t need your melancholy. If you’re living with some left over guilt from 2010 allow me to share some encouragement for 2011. It comes from Hebrews chapter ten.

Under the old covenant, The Law of Moses, “every priest stood daily ministering and offering, time after time the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins.” (Vs. 11 paraphrased). That didn’t help much because the sacrifice of an animal was never enough to cover all sins. In fact, verse three explains, “…in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.”

All the Law could do was to remind us of our inadequacies and encourage an eternal longing for “do overs.” But Jesus Christ, “having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD…” Sitting down is a symbol for finished work. Jesus was one and done. He made one sacrifice, himself, and it was enough. Hebrews explains that the whole Old Testament temple system was a model, a type, a shadow of the real thing in heaven. When Jesus made his sacrifice it wasn’t offered on earth alone, it was offered in the real temple, the heavenly temple. It was once for all, eternal, infinite in its ability to wipe out the sins of all who believe. In other words, the sacrifice of Christ enables all of us to do without the do overs.

So no more do overs. Grab that mirror, rip it off the windshield, and say it with me as we head off into 2011: WHAT IS BEHIND-A ME IS NOT-A BEFORE ME!

THE CHRISTMAS QUESTION

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27 NIV)

Every year the world’s largest automakers come together in Detroit Michigan for a stellar event. First string entertainers man multiple stages, high-tech extravaganzas of light and sound and video and graphics fill the conference hall, multiple 5 star banquets are laid on in the adjoining ball rooms for the VIP guests and millions of dollars are spent producing the Detroit Auto Show. Oh and don’t forget the press. The automotive media and every other media service is there in great numbers and wined and dined like royalty because after all, they are the town criers of the electronic age, the royal heralds and chroniclers of the 21st Century.

And what is all this for? What is all that moving and grooving, singing and schmoozing and million dollar light show all about? Well, Ford and GM and Chrysler and all the other big names just want to make an announcement. They have some new models coming out and they want to be sure that everybody hears about them.

2010 years ago God did something totally new, something completely different from anything that had ever been done before. But compared to the Detroit Auto Show and most other new things we hear about, he barely made a peep about it. God never announces things like we do. Most of the time, when God makes an announcement about something he’s going to do he does it in an out of the way place, to an unsuspecting person at an inopportune time and lets the rest of the world catch up very slowly.

That’s what he did on the first. God sent a supernatural messenger to the teenage fiancé of a Jewish carpenter in a tiny backwater Judean town to tell her that an unplanned pregnancy would precede her marriage. I can’t think of a more inconspicuous and, from Mary’s point of view inconvenient way to usher in the arrival of the Savior of the World. Mary’s life was going to be turned upside down. Yet that’s the way God works. The Christmas question for Mary was: would she cooperate with God? Would she receive this blessing mixed with such difficulty?

Incarnation is always difficult, always inconvenient from a human point of view. When Jesus wants to make his presence known in your life, to work in you and through you to bless the world, it will most likely happen at a time and in a situation that is problematic for you, awkward, just plain hard. The Christmas question for you is: will you let him be Lord in that moment?

The Savior does not need and will not use a big, loud, splashy forum to do his work. He comes in quiet ways to humble people who are willing to cooperate, even when his timing is inconvenient. How will you answer the Christmas question?

RANDOM ACTS OF CULTURE

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Cor 3:17 NIV)

On the day after the Al Qaeda attack on a Catholic Mass in Iraq I had a rather extraordinary experience in contrasts. I took a break from studying to prepare for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and opened an email from an old friend. It took me to a Youtube video of a self-described Random Act of Culture. The Youtube caption explains:

On Saturday, October 30, 2010, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers from 28 participating organizations to perform one of the Knight Foundation's "Random Acts of Culture" at Macy's in Center City Philadelphia. Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ - the world's largest pipe organ - the OCP Chorus and throngs of singers from the community infiltrated the store as shoppers, and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah" at 12 noon, to the delight of surprised shoppers. (See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU or search Opera Company of Philadelphia Hallelujah.)

I watched the video with tears in my eyes, remembering the thrill of singing that song with a chorus of hundreds in years past. Then I sent my friend the link to the Resurrection Sunday Dance in Budapest, Hungary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dSIL358NM ). Both videos elicit deep emotions of joy for our freedom in Jesus Christ along with longing for the day he returns.

That’s when the extraordinary contrast hit me. Just before viewing the Hallelujah Chorus video I had watched painful, first-hand accounts of persecution from fellow believers in Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Iraq. The brothers and sisters were under extreme pressure and spoke with great feeling and urgency asking us to pray and to speak up for religious freedom in their countries. I groaned within as they told their stories. And their oppressors? Fundamentalist Muslims and Islamic governments.

I sat back in my chair and took a deep breath and reflected. What are the Random Acts of Christian Culture? Glorious music performed in public celebrations with complete freedom, joyous dancing by thousands of young people in ancient city squares where atheistic communism once ruled. And the Random Acts of Muslim Culture? Well orchestrated and Sharia-law legalized oppression of human rights, annihilation of entire Christian congregations, brain-washed boys and girls with bombs in their clothing, premeditated ambushes on defenseless fellow soldiers, airliners crashing into sky-scrapers.

What to do in the face of such things? Keep singing. Keep dancing. Keep praying and advocating for the persecuted. And keep telling the world that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is true freedom.

FOR WHOM WOULD JESUS VOTE?

Someone asked Jesus that question once. He famously replied, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. In other words, “Get your allegiances right and your obligations will become clear.” The Christian’s role on planet earth is as an Ambassador of God. Our ultimate loyalties are to God’s values, God’s purposes, and God’s mission.

If our ultimate loyalties are to God what exactly are our obligations? In a democratic republic we the people are Caesar. We owe it to ‘Caesar’ to vote. We owe it to God to understand what he says about the political issues of the day and vote accordingly. Here are a few examples:

The War in Afghanistan – Scripture teaches that government is God’s servant, “an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrong doer.” (See Romans 13). Scripture also teaches us to love neighbor as we love self. War for the purpose of conquest, revenge or greed is unjust. War for the purpose of protecting the weak and innocent before they can be harmed or coerced by a nut with a bomb is just and loving. Christians should vote for the person they believe will do the best job of protecting the weak and innocent here and abroad from Islamists.

Abortion – Back in 2004 I watched a presidential debate with a friend. A question arose about the partial birth abortion ban. My friend didn’t understand the phrase – a euphemism for a gruesome death delivered to a child in the final stages of birth. When I described it he was horrified. He should be.

God is the creator of life. Children in the womb are the weakest of the weak, the most defenseless. Isaiah 1:17 says, Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Christians should vote for the people who will support the partial birth abortion ban and defend the unborn.

Homosexual Marriage – God created marriage to be between a man and a woman. God established the moral order for the world that he created. If we observe it and abide by it, things go well. If we abandon it we can expect trouble. (See 1 Timothy 1:8-10). Christians should vote for the people who will honor God by protecting the traditional definition of marriage.

Religious Freedom & Freedom of Speech – Jesus instructed us to ‘go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ Religious freedom and freedom of speech are two of the founding principles of America. Activist judges who wish to silence Christians in the marketplace of ideas are challenging those freedoms. Thoughtless lawmakers and leaders who make room for the growth of Sharia (Islamic) law in America undermine Religious freedom and freedom of speech in the name of protecting them. Christians should vote for the candidates most likely to protect us from Sharia law and from legalized oppression of Christians in the work-place and academia.

Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. Get your allegiances right and your obligations in the voting booth will become clear.