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"A Play for Power"
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Can America be saved?
This week I've had the pleasure of attending five-sessions of our church's "Restoring America" Conference, and what a week it has been! The first speaker was writer David Limbaugh, author of Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity. David Limbaugh is also the brother of Rush Limbaugh.
The second was Lt. Colonel Oliver North, a decorated platoon leader in the Vietnam War and the former deputy director for Political-Military Affairs in the Reagan Administration. Ollie is now a New York Times best-selling author and the host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel.
The third speaker was Lt. Colonel Steve Russell, leader of the strike force that pulled Saddam Hussein from that rat hole in Tikrit, Iraq; founder of Vets for Victory and now a State Senator from Oklahoma.
The fourth was Dr. Ergun Caner, as he says "a former 'towelhead'" who was raised as the son of a Turkish Muslim leader and later converted to Christianity. Caner is a national speaker and expert apologist. He has debated Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and other religious leaders in thirteen countries and in thirty-five states.
The fifth speaker was Donald Wildman, Chairman of the American Family Association.
The central theme for the week was "Calling America Back to its Godly Foundations"; or, how restoring America's spirit begins with reaffirming our belief in the same Christian principles that formed the bedrock of this great nation.
The series was entertaining, positive and upbeat - at least until the last of the week-night speakers took the podium. Meaning no disrespect, the dry and negatively positioned presentation by Donald Wildman, a retired Methodist Minister and the founder of the American Family Association, focused on the damage the media has done and continues to do to our country through its influence on our values, our customs and mores, and on our government.
According to their web site, Wildman's organization believes that "the entertainment industry, through its various products, has played a major role in the decline of those values on which our country was founded and which keep a society and its families strong and healthy." Wildman says, "For example, over the last 25 years we have seen the entertainment industry ‘normalize' and glorify premarital sex. During that time we have suffered a dramatic increase in teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and abortion as a means of birth control."
Even if the entertainment value of his talk was 'nil - agree with this man or not - his assertions had merit and they come as no surprise to an old curmudgeon like me. Why? As Wildman himself explained, during the fifties, television programming supported our mainstream values; but then things changed. During the sixties, the boob tube openly promoted the normalcy of the sexual revolution. In the seventies, Norman Lear continued to work his social-engineering magic behind the scenes. Using a medium more powerful than any we'd seen, with programs like All In the Family, Maud, The Jeffersons, and One Day at a Time Lear convinced many folks that bigotry, prejudice against everyone and everything could be funny, abortion was okay, inter-racial marriage was a hoot and that a debate on pre-marital sex by teenagers and birth control was a suitable topic for evening tv.
In the eighties, the gloves really came off. Christian values and Christians themselves were no longer simply an oddity; they were the bad guys - a media phenomenon that continued into the nineties and continues today. In 2009, we Christians watch seemingly helplessly as heterosexuality becomes passé and homosexuality is presented as the new "norm." However, contrary to the message conveyed by Ellen deGeneres, American Idol's Adam Lambert and on shows like Brothers and Sisters, Dante's Cove, Sophie, Grey's Anatomy ... it ain't what God intended and it ain't normal.
Regardless, then as now, the methodology is the same: gain acceptance of a controversial idea by presenting the abnormal as normal. As Wildman pointed out, "Show me one program - other than Little House on the Prairie - that shows a Christian in a positive light and I'll eat my hat."
As he expressed what he perceives as the goals of the gay community, I thought his "us" verses "them" paradigm was a bit heavy handed. After all, as Christians aren't we taught to hate the "sin" but love the "sinner"? But then I read this morning's column by Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts.
The article was entitled, "‘Homosexual demon' target of exorcism." In it, he rants about ''Apostle'' Patricia McKinney and her Christian congregation attempting a ''gay exorcism'' of a 16-year-old boy. The writer observes, "He convulses on the floor as if in the grip of a seizure while adults circle above, apparently attempting to holler the gay out of him. They yell things like, "C'mon, you homosexual demon! We want a clean spirit!
"And ... ‘Come out of his belly! It's in the belly!'
"And ... ‘Right now, I command you to leave!'
"And ... ‘Rip it from his throat! Come on, you homosexual demon!''
He continues, "A woman fans a towel at the writhing boy. At one point, the child, limp and unresisting as a sack of flour, is held upright and vomits into a bag. A piano plays gospel chords in the background." Of course Pitts - like all Christian haters - presents such goings-on as the modern-day "Christian" approach to removing the sin of hate from the sinner we love.
Pitts says to Apostle McKinney, "I want to assure you: I'm not here to beat up on you, or to accuse you of being the bigots you say you aren't, or to call you a bunch of backwards mouth breathers who abused a confused teenaged boy. No, I'm just hoping you'll tell me what a homosexual demon looks like. I'm scared I may unknowingly run into one, so please help me sharpen my demon gaydar."
He concludes, "If you could run down all the various types of demons and ways to ferret them out, I'd be grateful. Not to leave the impression I'm entirely demon illiterate. I do know a few. For instance: the demons of fear, stupidity and intolerance. You don't need to tell me what they look like. I already have a good idea."
Evidently someone needs to explain the work of Biblical demons to old Leonard. Even in this modern, secular world, there are still plenty of them to go around and all of us are possessed. For some, it is drugs or alcohol; for others it is pornography or some other sexual immorality. Then there's coveting, stealing, killing, lying, bearing false witness, worshiping idols such as your job or money or cars or big houses ... well, you know ‘em all and maybe you - like me - have yielded to your share.
Nonetheless, there's no doubt whatsoever that the practice of homosexuality is somewhere on that list. If you believe the Bible, you know it, too. The Good Book makes it clear that the practice of homosexuality is a moral sin, no more or no less than any of the others.
When the question of the origin of homosexuality arises, homosexual activists tend to resort to the oftenheard phrase "I was born gay." The idea that homosexuality is a genetically predetermined condition has also been increasingly embraced by society as a whole. A February 2000 Harris poll of 1,010 randomly selected adults found that the number of people who believe sexual orientation "is more dependent on the genes you are born with" has increased six percent since 1995. Thirty-five percent of the people polled believe that homosexuality is "genetic," versus twenty-nine percent who held that opinion in 1995. Fifty-two percent believe that "what you learn and experience" causes homosexuality, as opposed to sixty-five percent who believed that in 1995.
Despite the efforts of the liberal secularists to convince us otherwise, according to the experts, there's no evidence that homosexuality is genetic ... any more than a predisposition some have to dependence on alcohol or drugs or sex of any description. Like all the other demons we have to fight, a successful conquest can be a lifelong battle. Also, like all the others, it's a battle most won't win on their own.
Still, regardless of how you label it or under whose banner it's practiced, I find the use of the ''gay exorcism'' cruel, extreme and of absolutely no value. But as I've seen in my own life and witnessed this week in the lives of others, calling on the Lord and believing in Him can still produce miracles. Even in this day and age, His power is sufficient to make the lame to"walk", the blind to "see" and to forgive, make whole and turn all of us away from the sin that has a choke hold on our lives.
Folks, here's some more good news: even amidst all the gloom and doom and craziness, there's hope. Those of us that attended this week's "Restoring America" Conference at that community church north of Atlanta, believe with all our hearts that through fervent and faithful prayer, even the toughest battles can be won, American can be saved, and perhaps her best days are still to come.