In the media uproar and rush to be vaccinated against Swine Flu or H1N1 there is a quiet discussion about exactly what are the deadly ingredients in these vaccinations. Many parents, rightly so, are concerned about the levels of Thimerosal and the potential for mercury poisoning that some blame for autism in some vaccines. While there may be Thimerosal-free vaccines available, most of the first shipments of the H1N1 vaccine apparently contain very high levels of Thimerosal. To vaccinate a child in the face of some statistics showing autism rates of 1.4% for children today, versus virtually zero before widespread vaccinations programs began, gives one pause for concern. What is even more disturbing to those in the pro-life movement is the knowledge that these vaccines designed to prevent the flu are possibly tainted with the tissues from voluntarily aborted babies.

To date, according to a multiple sources, dozens of the vaccines used by Americans today are contaminated with human diploid cells; the tissues derived from the cells of voluntarily aborted babies. What is even more alarming is there are no laws to require that people be informed as to which vaccines have these tainted tissues as their root base and which do not. Vaccine makers, attempting to get around what they know to be controversial information, label their ingredients in such a way to mask the fact that there are cells from electively aborted babies in the formulation of their vaccines.

What is a pro-life parent or person to do? Catholic experts give conflicting information at best. The Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, who serves as the Director of Education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, says parents may vaccinate their children with these tainted vaccines because by doing so, “they are not involved in any illicit form of cooperation with the original abortion.”

Further Father Pasholczyk explains that parents who use these tainted vaccines should educate themselves and others about the facts of their origination. They should demand that alternatives and morally-derived vaccines be developed. But in the end he says, “Parents may vaccinate their children because vaccinations are critical to preventing serious, life-threatening diseases and to safeguarding large segments of the population from cataclysmic disease outbreaks and epidemics.”

Do all of the nearly two dozen vaccines contaminated by voluntarily aborted babies rise to a “cataclysmic level” as Father Pasholczyk suggests? For many baby-boomer parents, mumps, measles and chicken pox were almost a rite of passage. In fact, there is a growing school of thought in medicine that these childhood illnesses help to strengthen a child’s immune system for later in life. Ironic to think that the very vaccines designed to prevent these illnesses now, tainted with the blood of electively aborted babies, may be producing a new generation of children with weakened immune systems.

Remember that Father Pasholczyk is not speaking for the Magisterium of the Catholic Church when he tells parents that it’s okay to use tainted vaccines. From Rome, we have a different Catholic perspective, in a letter from Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life to Mrs. Debra Vinnedge, executive director, Children of God for Life in July, 2005. Bishop Sgreccia says that Catholics have “a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems. The lawfulness of the use of these vaccines should not be misinterpreted as a declaration of the lawfulness of their production, marketing and use, but is to be understood as being a passive material cooperation (emphasis added) and, in its mildest and remotest sense, also active material cooperation , morally justified as an “extrema ratio” due to the necessity to provide for the good of one’s children and of the people who come in contact with the children — especially pregnant women. Such cooperation occurs in a context of moral coercion of the conscience of parents, who are forced to choose to act against their conscience or otherwise, to put the health of their children and of the population as a whole at risk. This is an unjust alternative choice, which must be eliminated as soon as possible.”

So what is a pro-life Catholic to do? We are left simply with the lesser of two evils. Either we participate in (at least) “passive material cooperation” to abortion or decide to take our chances and not vaccinate our children, hoping that if they do catch one of these illnesses our modern American medical system can provide care for a full recovery. And yet, even those in the pro-life movement who decide a “passive material cooperation” is their moral choice are left with some other rather startling information.

It is clear, with the power of the pharmaceutical lobby and the present leadership of the U.S. government, there is going to be no effort to “force” vaccine manufacturers to create vaccines that are not tainted with the blood of voluntarily aborted babies. And to complicate the matter even further, in nearly all current vaccines products there is a statement that declares there is residual DNA in their formulation. Each new vaccine is a virtual cocktail that contains ingredients built from the ingredients made in the last one. Trying to even discern which vaccines are truly “abortion-free” may be impossible to tell.

According to Dr. Theresa Deisher president of the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI), as well development director for Ave Maria Biotechnology Company, which promotes pro-life biotechnology, it may not be Thimerosal in vaccines that parents, concerned about autism, need to worry about, but, in fact, the residual DNA from the tissues of voluntarily aborted babies. In an article Dr. Deisher wrote for the SCPI June, 2009 newsletter she said:

There are groups researching the potential link between this DNA and autoimmune diseases such as juvenile (type I) diabetes, multiple sclerosis and lupus. Our organization, (SCPI), is focused on studying the quantity, characteristics and genomic recombination of the aborted fetal DNA found in many of our vaccines. Preliminary bioinformatics research conducted at SCPI indicates that “hot spots” for DNA recombination are found in nine autism-associated genes present on the X chromosome. These nine genes are involved in nerve-cell synapse formation, central nervous system development and mitochondrial function. Could genomic insertion of the aborted fetal DNA, found in some of our childhood vaccines since 1979, be an environmental trigger for autism? Could the fact that genes critical for nerve synapse formation and nervous system development found on the X chromosome, provide some explanation of why autism is predominantly a disease found in boys? Could the “hot spots” identified in these autism-associated genes be sites for insertion of contaminating aborted fetal DNA?

These are the questions just now being look into by the same organizations and research firms, like the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, that assured us that Thimerosal was not the link between vaccines and autism. In the meantime, good pro-life people will have to decide between the lesser of two evils: Whether to have “passive material cooperation” and allow ourselves to be immunized with vaccines known to be tainted with the tissues from electively aborted babies, or take our chances that we won’t get these diseases or viruses.

Although H1N1 makes this issue especially relevant, it is not a new one. As far as 1994 at the Catholic Bishops conference of England and Wales, religious leaders prepared a report on this very same subject which called vaccine use of voluntarily aborted babies,“a kind of evil which is widespread in biomedical research and which people rightly think they should combat when they can…the practice of medicine is being made parasitic on the evils of abortion and fetal experimentation.”

Fifteen years ago they called on Catholics to refuse vaccination as “one way of seeking to turn medicine from a course which will increasingly subvert people’s confidence in it.” For many of us, we cannot “passively materially cooperate” in the killing of the unborn and so refusing to vaccinate is our only choice. Maybe if enough pro-lifers took this stand, we could turn medicine from its course of continuing to kill and using the unborn to save the rest of us.

About the Author: Mark Armstrong lives in North Dakota where he and his wife Patti are the parents to ten children, eight boys and two girls, including two adopted AIDS orphans from Kenya.  He spent nearly 30 years as an award-winning broadcast journalist before serving as the communications head for North Dakota’s workers’ compensation agency. He co-authored the best-selling Catholic book, “Amazing Grace for Fathers.” The couple have a pro-life talk, “Confessions of a Catholic Couple” available at One More Soul. Mark is also an occasional guest host on the Relevant Radio Network for both Sean Herriott on Morning Air and The Drew Mariani Show.  Mark’s website is  at www.RaisingCatholicKids.com.

© Guest Writer for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

“For I will pour out water on the thirsty land
And streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring
And My blessing on your descendants.” -Is. 44.3

Of this verse, the “good pastor” Robert Murray McCheyne once remarked:

There are no other words in the whole Bible that have been oftener in my heart and oftener on my tongue than these.

The passage applies directly to Israel, but the principle of the promise can be applied to all contexts where the Creator is active amongst men. Where the land thirsts for righteousness and mercy, and where men thirst for God in recognition of the dryness of their own hearts, the word stands true that He will “pour out water” from heaven, and His own interpretation of the image is that He will pour out His Spirit on our offspring, and His blessing on our descendants.

I would rather be found in the tension of spiritual thirst, without having yet seen the water to come, than to be drunk and satisfied with the wine of this age. I would rather be as a cracked desert ground, and aware of my dryness, than to be full of the delusion of self-satisfied living. To be able to thirst after God is a great gift from heaven. To yearn for Him in the barren wastelands is better than to be satisfied without Him in the man-made reservoirs of the city.

To be at ease and full without the outpouring of His Spirit is to live in a delusion. I may whittle away a lifetime without really thirsting, taking sips from fashion, swigs from sport, gulps from Hollywood, and guzzles from religion, and my life will end in deception. My children will have been robbed of a glory and knowledge of God that could have been theirs, had I been a man of thirst.

But I may live a life of thirst, and in my weakness, yearn for Him in the quiet places of the desert, and the promise will one day be answered. I know not when. I know not the hour of visitation. But the certitude cannot be shaken, for He Himself has declared it. He will “pour out water upon the thirsty land,” and my children will see something of His glory that they would have missed if I had settled for something less than God Himself.

If only the world knew of the glory of thirsting for Him! If only the Church weren’t so distracted and filled from the “buffet” that the world offers us and the busy mentality that modern “ministry” puts before us.

Though I have heard of His great love, and experienced it on many glorious occasions, it still staggers me that He longs to pour out His own Spirit upon us, and our children. It matters not that I’m a dry and cracked soul. In fact, that is the ground upon which He copiously pours out His holy rain. Oh, to live a life of anticipatory thirst. To ache for God Himself, until He comes and makes all things new. This is blessedness indeed.

Oh then wish more for God, burn more with desire,
Covet more the dear sight of his marvellous Face;
Pray louder, pray longer, for the sweet gift of fire
To come down on thy heart with its whirlwinds of grace.

Yes pine for thy God, fainting soul! ever pine;
Oh languish mid all that life brings thee of mirth;
Famished, thirsty, and restless, -let such life be thine,-
For what sight is to heaven, desire is to earth.

(Frederick Faber, as quoted in The Christian Book of Mystical Verse, compiled by A.W. Tozer; Christian Publications, 1963; pp. 56-57)

He will pour out water, dear soul. Thirst then! Thirst after Him…

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

Voters in the northeastern state of Maine repealed a state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed, dealing the gay rights movement a heartbreaking defeat in the corner of the country most supportive of gay marriage.

Gay marriage has now lost in every single state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine — known for its moderate, independent-minded electorate — and mounted an energetic, well-financed campaign.

Whenever the people are asked if marriage should be redefined to include homosexual couples, the answer is a clear no.

© Marcus French for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

Then suddenly he rose and found
A hungry-looking Christian;
He took his hand, took him aside,
And asked him a straight question:

“You’ve read the Word; you know the Book;
The promises are clear.
But have you seen the living God?
Have you found Him here?

Have you experienced holy fire
The Spirit in His power,
A mighty wave, a rushing wind,
A flame that does devour?

Is there something more you’re seeking,
So high, so wide, so deep?
Do you find yourself frustrated?
Is church putting you to sleep?

Then listen well, your heart is ripe;
My tale I will tell.
This story is your story too,
And it’s your tale as well.

For thirty years I’ve been in church,
It seemed like a good show.
But now I’ve got to meet with God –
Do you know where to go?

I’m trapped in mundane worship times,
The praises have grown cold;
The preaching’s dry and dusty,
The teaching stale like mold!

Each service feels like a rerun,
The songs all sound the same;
The prophecies are so hollow —
Not worthy of the name!

Words, more words — they’re everywhere,
But oh there is a stink!
Words, more words — they’re everywhere,
But none to make us think!

We lack the heavenly Presence,
It’s clear we’re in a rut;
I’m desperate for revival –
It burns within my gut!

I’m love-sick for my Jesus,
So hungry for my Lord;
Just longing for my Savior;
God knows that I’m so bored!

Is there someone who can help me,
Who’s touched the real thing?
A man who’s heard from heaven —
With a word from God to bring?

Are there prophets burning with fire,
Servants who are ablaze?
Anointed and overflowing,
Appointed for these days?

Do they carry the Spirit’s burden,
And breathe the Lord God’s breath?
Are they set apart and holy,
Obedient to death?

I hear the words of the Master,
‘Come follow Me,’ He said.
If some Christians go their own way;
I’ll go with Him instead!

Oh please, don’t do as I have done,
And waste so many years.
Don’t wait and wait for endless months;
Move on! Outgrow your fears!

Forget the twelve step programs;
A seminar won’t do.
You need a touch from heaven,
To fill you through and through.

There must be change in your life —
A work of God that’s real.
Don’t fool yourself with worn clichés —
Don’t let the devil steal!

Don’t miss out on God’s presence
Or let these hours pass;
Don’t stop your soul from hungering;
Get out of the morass!

Dear friend, you are not crazy;
Dear saint, you are not mad;
There really is a problem,
It’s true, you have been had!

There’s more! There’s more! Believe it!
There is that place in God.
There are holy visitations,
New paths that must be trod.

Will you get up like old Pilgrim,
And seek that better way?
Will you go forth on that journey
No matter what men say?

Will you go out now and meet Him,
And leave the crowd behind,
Forsaking dead traditions,
If Jesus you will find?

It’s not in another meeting,
A nicely packaged hour;
Another harmless service,
Devoid of heaven’s power.

It’s not in another teaching,
Three points to fill your head.
The Word is always vibrant;
But this stuff is so dead!

We need God to send His Spirit,
To fully take control,
To transform every member,
To come and make them whole!

Enough with man’s religion;
Enough with earthly plans;
Enough with our new programs;
Produced by fleshly hands.”

Just then in strode the pastor
His calling to fulfill;
Just doing his weekly duty –
Then he became frozen still.

For astir was that parishioner
He grasped the preacher’s clothes,
And grasped the preacher’s soul as well —
And in that grasp he froze.

“Oh pastor, enter the prayer room
And shut yourself inside.
Be emptied of competition,
And crucify your pride!

Pray for holy visitations,
Caught up alone with Him,
Consumed with heavenly vision –
That’s where you must begin!

You won’t find Him in a textbook,
Buried on page twenty-two.
He is the living God who acts –
He wants to move in you!

It’s not only the ‘apostles’
He’ll bless and send and use;
He will saturate your own soul,
If you will not refuse.

So arise, get up, pursue Him,
Jesus your true best Friend!
He is worthy of devotion,
He’s faithful to the end!

Why should you starve on crusty bread,
And crawl along the ground?
Your Savior is your source of life,
Seek Him, let joy abound!

Renew your life, refresh your heart,
Press in, take hold, pray through.
Put first things first, make God your goal;
What else have you to do?

Your Bible schooling stole your zeal,
Church life has drained you dry;
You used to have such childlike faith,
Now budgets have your eye!

You used to be so passionate,
So innocent and free
Now you’ve become professional;
You’ll preach for a good fee!

Oh, set your sights on higher goals
And not on dollar bills.
Live in the light of Judgment Day;
Ambition always kills!

Let Jesus be your daily Guide,
Put Him where He belongs;
And soon His presence will arrive;
His praise will fill your songs!

Simplicity will be your style,
Devotion your new goal;
Communion will become your aim,
God’s life will flood your soul!

Oh, take your eyes off numbers,
Church growth can be a trap!
Go out and make disciples.
Go out and bridge the gap!

Pour your life out for broken lives —
Let God your heart break too.
Take up the cross, deny yourself;
Just live His will to do!

Wake up, be brave, be honest;
Today — oh hear His voice!
Be ruthless with your schedule;
Seek GOD. Make that your choice.

You won’t find Him in your planner,
No committee has the key.
You’ll find Him when your soul cries out,
‘There must be more for me!’

‘There must be more than building funds,
And sessions past midnight,
And endless talks with leadership,
Disputing who is right.

Somehow I know I’ve been misled;
The model doesn’t work.
I’m not called as an executive,
Nor should I be a clerk.

I’m called to be a man of God,
A man who’s Spirit led,
A healer of the sick and lame
Someday to raise the dead!’

And with that cry new life will rise,
Your heart will be revived;
Heaven’s light will flood your soul –
You will not be denied!”

The parishioner then turned his gaze
Away from flesh and blood:
He looked to Him who sends the showers,
To Him who sends the flood.

“Today, O Lord, do hear our voice,
And pour Your Spirit out.
Saturate the thirsty ground.
End this spiritual drought!

Revive us with Your Presence,
Renew us from above;
Touch the flock called by Your name;
Come fill us with Your love!

Do greater works in our day,
Than that which You have done.
Bring the fullness of Your rains,
And glorify Your Son!”

That old church-goer spoke no more.
Another voice was heard.
Yet not the voice of flesh and blood:
It was our Father’s word.

And if you listen closely,
Beyond this little rhyme,
You’ll hear Him speaking clearly:
“My children, it is time.”

© Michael L. Brown for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson’s life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure.

“I just thought I can’t do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that’s it,” said Jonhson.

She handed in her resignation October 6. Johnson worked as the Bryan Planned Parenthood Director for two years.

Johnson was growing uneasy with the organization’s direction the months leading up to her resignation, claiming that rather than emphasizing birth control, she was being pressured to increase the number of women receiving abortions:

According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it’s business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.

“It seemed like maybe that’s not what a lot of people were believing any more because that’s not where the money was. The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that,” said Johnson.

Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian church goer recently became convicted about.

“I feel so pure in heart (since leaving). I don’t have this guilt, I don’t have this burden on me anymore that’s how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion.”

Johnson now supports the Coalition For Life, the pro-life group with a building down the street from Planned Parenthood. Coalition volunteers can regularly be seen praying on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. Johnson has been meeting with the coalition’s executive director, Shawn Carney, and has prayed with volunteers outside Planned Parenthood.

Video from KBTX is below:

© Marcus French for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

PUNE, India, October 29 (CDN) — After more than a decade of severe persecution, India’s Christian minority is growing increasingly concerned over the mushrooming of newer and deadlier Hindu extremist groups.

Gone are the days when Christians had to watch out only for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, which are closely linked with the most influential Hindu extremist umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). With voter support faltering for the RSS’s political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), moderate and extremist sections within the Hindu nationalist movement are blaming each other, and militant splinter groups have emerged.

[... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ...]

© Marcus French for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

© Marcus French for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

Among the more interesting quotes from the clip, Donahue discusses efforts in Massachusetts and California to require Catholic adoption agencies to allow gay couples to adopt children in order to receive taxpayer funds:

We’re not going to allow gay people to adopt children. That’s against nature. It’s against nature’s God. But they won’t stop.

© Marcus French for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

“I have made a covenant with my eyes;
How then could I gaze at a virgin?
…. for that would be a fire that consumes….
and it would burn to the root all my increase.” -Job 31.1, 12

I understand that many would brand my faith antique and my convictions archaic for approaching this subject, but that is a minuscule risk for me to take. God is too glorious, His Gospel too precious, and the fate of our sons and daughters too much at stake for me to worry about the consequences that these themes bring. I am convinced that we have woefully underestimated the damage that is done to the world and to the Church, particularly with regard to the issue of so-called entertainment.

The Church is largely bored with the Scriptures, unwilling to sacrifice for eternal things, unacquainted with the Spirit of prayer, and is harboring such distorted views of God that it is often difficult to tell if the One she is proclaiming is the same Lord that the apostles and prophets set forth. There may be a litany of reasons for this decrease of majesty, but I believe that one of the greatest of these is that Hollywood has a stranglehold on the hearts and imaginations of God’s children.

The pornography epidemic could be driven home here, and to sound the trumpet against that demonic system will require the emergence of a true prophetic voice indeed. Almost 40% of American pastors admit to a current struggle with internet porn, and the numbers are even greater amongst men within our congregations. This is beyond tragic, and we are in need of a massive overhaul of repentance and mercy. Now more than ever are we in need of awakening, and if you are in this category there is deliverance and freedom from this deathtrap. The Gospel of Jesus sets us free “from all sin,” and He will give you grace to slam the door once and for all on this terribly besetting sin, when you repent and turn to Him with a whole heart, clinging to the Son of God.

Yet as horrific as the pornography phenomenon is, that is not the primary burden of my heart in this writing.

I am convinced that the Church of America, as a majority, has been removed from, or has never known, the kind of trepidation and tenderness of heart that Job was expressing when he declared, “I have made a covenant with my eyes….”

It was part and parcel with the faith of all the saints of old, that what they allowed to pass through the eye-gate, and what they permitted willingly to go into their ears, would taint their souls at best, and find residence in their lives at the worst. I am suspicious of modern “prophetic” men who commonly cite movies and shows that contain illicit sex, profane lingo and themes, glorified violence, immoral innuendo, or other defiling examples as points in their messages. The only reason these points hit home with so many church members is that they themselves are given over to the same powers and influences.

Our hearts are too taken up with this world, saints, and there has never been a generation wherein the spirit of this age strikes the soul with such color, such special effects, and such mesmerizing power as the one we find ourselves in. Yet we are called to an ultimate holiness nonetheless, and it may be said that one of the distinguishing factors between those who will bear the testimony of Jesus at the end of the age and those who will take the mark of the beast during tribulational times will be this radical consecration of the eyes to God Himself.

In Eph. 5, Paul declares that there should not even be a “hint of immorality” in the lives of God’s people. Dear believer, I ask you pointedly, what constitutes a hint? How many of Hollywood’s characters, themes and plots can we drink in without receiving a “hint” of darkness?

There is something sleazy about many of our lives, charismatic or not, and while it might not be overtly recognized, I believe there is a residue of immorality resting upon those who have freely given themselves to morally compromised entertainment. There is something flimsy about our religion, and the bright burning of holiness that marked John the Baptist, the prophets of old, and Jesus Himself is conspicuously absent in the sanctuary, where His name is declared “holy” in verbal exercise, but the sense of His holiness has become foreign.

“…. it would burn to the root of all my increase.”

While we have boasted in “liberty,” and spoken poetically of our spiritual interpretations of Hollywood flicks (interpretations that Hollywood would largely reject and ridicule), we have too often condoned the spiritual pollution of our hearts.

Would the porn epidemic be so far-reaching and deeply-rooted if the Church hadn’t dropped the ball in areas of more subtle compromise? We have become arrogant in our boasting. And we wonder why our kids are prayerless and numb to eternal reality, buying into agnosticism and atheism when they graduate high-school and make it to their respective Universities. We wonder why thousands of “evangelical” teens are converting to Islam or diving headlong into the “party” life when they get out from under the wing of a youth group, and into the reality of college life. This may not be the only issue, but it is much more prevalent than we know. It’s a battle of ideologies, and hell has no greater method than to slowly dull our hearts to the God of righteousness through cute, subtle, and entertaining displays of hellish ideas. As a friend of mine so rightly wrote:

We have so saturated our minds and imaginations with man-created images that we are bound to those images and therefore subject to the agenda of the men creating them.

It has burned to the root of our “increase” in Christ. It has dulled and blurred the “inner-man” of the Church. We have lost the hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus encouraged, for we have given our hearts, minds, and pocketbooks to the broken cisterns of carnal entertainment.

It’s staggering to me that when the subject is raised to most believers, the tag of legalism is immediately raised. While there are legalistic souls who lack an understanding of mercy, and who often place heavy yokes upon others, the vehemence and rage of those who dish out accusations that men like myself are “legalistic” is far more widespread, at least in my own experience. I’ve never heard more warnings against “the religious spirit,” “self-righteousness,” and “legalism” than I have in the last few years.

In the area of entertainment they say, “Paul said we had liberty in Christ, and we’re walking in that freedom.” But these modern examples are usually employed in a context that is far different from the situation with the Judaizers in the churches of Galatia. There is not an iota of Scripture that would encourage me to set my eyes, ears and emotions on themes that make light of sin.

The apostles, quite contrary to the liberal ideas of today, addressed issues of righteousness with remarkable frequency and intensity in the New Testament, and I believe they would weep over the Church in our day, that we would be delivered from the murky waters that have tainted and dulled our spirits in the realm of entertainment. Gospel liberty is not license, but rather freedom from the death grip of this dying age. It is a liberty to come into the wonderful reality of communion with the Living God, and to taste of the “powers of the age to come.”

This is not about judging our movies based on their ratings. A thousand “PG” movies could be just as detrimental as one “R” movie. Addictions to political news or social networking must also be challenged if they burn up our time and keep us from the place of prayer and worship, diminish our passion for the Scriptures, and fog our awareness of the lostness of humanity. This is about a total consecration of our eyes and hearts unto Him, that we might gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, tremble before His majesty, remain in the loving counsel of His voice, and set Him forth in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

Our eyes have been too opened to the lying glimmers of this age. The time is here for an ultimate consecration of the eyes to the Lord, that we would see the increase of Christ Himself in our lives. We haven’t got room even for a “hint,” friends.

Let us return to Him with weeping and mourning, that so many of us have preferred the fading lights of this age to the glorious light of God Himself. We need not buy into the lie any longer. He longs to pour out mercy upon us, to purify us down to the marrow of our bones, to make us a tender-hearted people, enjoying deep communion with Him, and walking in meekness and holiness unto the day of His return.

Oh God, cleanse and purify our hearts with the fire of Your holiness and love. Catch us up in the Spirit of prayer and the glory of worship, quicken our souls to love the Scriptures, awaken us from fantasy and bring us into eternal reality. For Jesus’ sake.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink

This is a particularly American brand of faith: confrontational and action oriented. The most cited verses come not from the Gospels detailing the life of Jesus Christ but from the Old Testament prophets. Mr. Gallagher said he was inspired by Jeremiah 7, where the Lord says Israel’s “people, animals, trees, and crops will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger.”

Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said she worried that the emphasis on judgment provides tacit approval for violence, like the recent killing of Dr. George R. Tiller, an abortion provider in Kansas.

But Mr. Gallagher, 60, a white-bearded father of six, disagreed. He said Christianity must be emphasized because churches are the only institutions with the power to put abortion clinics out of business. Like Mr. Pouillon, who often protested outside congregations on Sunday mornings, Mr. Gallagher said far too many Christians nodded, but did not act.

“It really can end,” he said of abortion, “if all the Christians just went out there for seven days in a row to tell the truth peacefully.”

It seems quite amusing that the reporter believes the faith of Abortion protesters is “a particularly American brand,” as if only American Christians would stand up as salt and light in their land when bloodshed is being sanctioned politically and culturally (though the tide is shifting culturally).  Overall, however, it is a pleasant surprise to see them actually treating pro-life protesters with some level of dignity and respect.  DriveThru, CitizenLink’s blog, commented:

What we don’t often see is a major newspaper – particularly the New York Times – giving front page, eye-catching real estate to a civilized article about the varied paths many people take to become life advocates.

© Marcus French for Voice of Revolution, 2009. | Permalink