1) Hillary Invokes Jesus' Name in Illegal Immigration Debate 2) Bill Maher Thinks Christians Control America 3) Vision America's Reputation Grows 4) An Easter Message
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HILLARY INVOKES JESUS' NAME IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION DEBATE
If a conservative cites Scripture on abortion or homosexuality, the media goes ballistic. We’re called a threat to church-state separation (so-called) and harbingers of a coming theocracy. The left, on the other hand, can use (and abuse) religion to its heart’s content, and nobody blinks an eye.
In the impassioned debate over illegal immigration, Senator Hillary Clinton (D, NY) said a bill that passed the House would “criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.”
This, of course, is nonsense. The House legislation punishes those who help aliens to come here illegally, not those who render humanitarian aid once they’re here.
The New Testament is largely silent on the subject of immigration. However, the Old Testament has much to say on the subject of boundaries. In Genesis, the Children of Israel are invited to settle in the land of Egypt; they don’t just up and move there without permission (illegally).
Now that the former first lady has decided to “mix politics and religion,” perhaps she could ask what Jesus would do the next time there’s a Senate vote to limit the killing of the unborn.
BILL MAHER THINKS CHRISTIANS CONTROL AMERICA
In response to Vision America’s hugely successful The War On Christians And Values Voter In 2006 conference at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington, DC (March 27-28), comedian Bill Maher (an atheist) went after us on his HBO show “Real Time.”
After calling evangelicals “the party of paranoia,” “demagogues” and “con men,” Maher calimed that Christianity “has taken over all three branches of government” as well as “public schools” and “the best-sellers list.”
Christians put “The DaVinci Code” on the top of The New York Times best-sellers list for the past two years? Christians control a public-school system devoid of Christian values, where children have been reprimanded for reading the Bible during recess?
All three branches of government?
The left has dominated the Supreme Court since the 1950s -- witness a Godless public square, abortion on demand, and the striking down of popularly enacted anti-gay rights laws. Yet all it took was two Bush appointments (one replacing a conservative), and suddenly we control a court that’s dominated by the thinking of David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, where the left still has a 5-4 majority..
And Bill Maher thinks we’re paranoid.
VISION AMERICA’S REPUTATION GROWS
God continues to do great things through Vision America. The publicity from our second national conference has raised our visibility to the point where the media seeks us out for comment.
On April 3, I was on Alan Combs national radio show for 45 minutes, debating Dr. Bob Edgar a former six-term Congressman from Pennsylvania who’s currently the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.
At one point, Dr. Edgar asked me how “you conservatives can pretend to be peacemakers” when you ignore the injunctions of the Sermon on the Mount. I replied (a bit hotly, I must admit): “You hypocrite. I referred to you kindly. You come out blasting my ‘radical right-wing views.’ Then you have the audacity to talk about peacemakers?” Righteous indignation does have its place.
Last Saturday (April 9), I was interviewed on C-SPAN for an hour on Tom DeLay’s resignation from Congress. I told the interviewer that the worst thing that happened to the former House Majority Leader “was being a Christian in politics.”
And the current issue of “The Church Report” (a national business, news magazine distributed to over 40,000 Christian leaders across the United States) names Vision America as one of the “Top 20 Christian Organizations,” along with such high-visibility groups as Family Research Council, Coral Ridge Ministries and Focus on the Family. To read this article online, go to http://wwww.thechurchreport.com/content/view/1256/32/
AN EASTER MESSAGE
There is no greater day on the Christian calendar than Easter Sunday. How fitting that it falls at the beginning of spring each year when nature herself shouts resurrection.
As you prepare for this most high and holy day, pause and prepare yourself spiritually before going to Church this Sunday. Remember the agony of the cross, the pain of the beatings, the scorn and mocking of the soldiers and the crowd, the arrogance of the public officials, the shame and humiliation which our Lord endured before the world, and the loneliness of the hour when He finally cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Remember that every time that Jesus addressed God, other than this one time, He referred to Him as "Father." But on this occasion He referred to Him as 'God."
Why? Because in that very moment, "He who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."(II Cor. 5:21) In those climatic moments, He became our sin, and unlike at all other times in His earthly life, He was addressing God as a sinner rather than as His son, and God was addressing sin, which God cannot tolerate. As a sinner in the hands of an angry God, He cried out. And the God of mercy imparted grace to you and I.
A few moments later, Jesus cried out again, "Father, It is finished." Once sin was paid for, He was restored to a Father-Son relationship again. Remember that...and worship. What a mighty God we serve. Hallelujah, for He is risen, indeed.
