Invitation to Pray & Fast

Two weeks from today is Election Day. Many Americans are voting already in early voting and via absentee ballots. There is still much electioneering to do. I plan to devote every spare moment to the effort to get John McCain elected President. However, there is more to be done by Christians than the usual blogging, emailing, phone calling, letter writing, pamphlet distribution, and sign waving.

The Bible recommends prayer and fasting for the nation in times of trouble. The Lord advised Solomon: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (1 Chron. 7:14).

The prophet Jonah went to Nineveh and prophesied that the city would be destroyed in forty days. The people of Nineveh “declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” (Jonah 3:5). The King ordered, “Let everyone call urgently on God” (Jonah 3: 8). Thus, God chose to withhold his anger and the city of 120,000 was saved from destruction.

God promised Abraham that whoever blessed Israel would be blessed, but whoever cursed Israel would be cursed (Gen. 12:3). National security is an important issue in this election. The Bible instructs, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you [Jerusalem] be secure’” (Ps. 122:6).

Please join me during the next two weeks in praying and fasting for our nation. Ask God that our new President be a true man of Christ and a follower of the Bible. Please join me in begging God that we remain faithful to our promises of protection to Israel. Plead that the next President will be the one who will appoint judges who will end the holocaust of abortion. Our nation needs spiritual revival; ask God for an outpouring of His Spirit upon us.

A Republican Politician’s Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a young Republican politician. He was a well-educated lawyer with Ivy League credentials. After serving in his State Legislature, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He was seen by all as a rising star, with great potential to lead his Party into the future.

This young Republican decided to run for President. Party elders were ecstatic. He was the darling of the media, normally hostile to all politicians, especially Republicans. His appeal was strongest among women and young voters. Campaign appearances seemed more like rock concerts than political rallies.

His presidential aspirations seemed unstoppable. He won more states and was well ahead of his opponents in the primaries. He was the man of the hour to just about everyone.

Then, disaster struck. The press became more curious about his background, perhaps spurred on by stories and rumors spread by his opponents. Their attention became focused on his church and its pastor.

This Republican superstar was a member of a mega-church in a mainstream Christian denomination. The church was located in a predominantly white lower working class neighborhood. Many parishioners had been hard hit by factory closures, off shoring of jobs, N.A.F.T.A., falling housing prices, layoffs, and unemployment. Crime, drug usage, school dropout rates, and broken marriages were on the rise.

The church’s motto, imprinted on a sign in the vestibule, was “Unashamedly White and Unapologetically Christian.” On its website, the Church proclaimed, “We are white Americans and remain true to our native land, Europe, the cradle of civilization.” Bible courses at the church emphasized the Aryan roots of Christianity and claimed whites were God’s chosen people. White America was the true Holy Land. Citing Scripture, the pastor preached that Moses was an Aryan prince and his wife, a peaches-and-cream blond. Jesus had blue eyes and white skin.

To join the church, members had to pledge their allegiance to The White Value System. This was a document written by a church committee. It addressed the economic needs and struggles of the church’s white members. “These white ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools or wherever whites are gathered.”

Among the pledges required by this church’s White Value System were:
1. To make the fruits of all developing and acquired skills available to the white community
2. To allocate regularly a portion of personal resources for strengthening and supporting white institutions, and
3. To pledge allegiance to all white leadership who espouse and embrace the White Value System.
The worth and validity of all activity would be measured in terms of positive contributions to the general welfare of the white community and the advancement of white people towards economic freedom.

When news of his membership in this church was announced, there was an outpouring of outrage. Republicans and Democrats alike, along with the press, demanded the candidate abandon his presidential campaign. They called for his immediate resignation from his Senate seat. The Republican Senate leadership stripped him of all his committee appointments. Voters in his home state launched a recall effort if he did not resign. The American Bar Association vowed to disbar him.

It is a sad tale, but his membership in a Euro-centric church finished his political career. He became a social pariah. No law firm or major business would hire him, despite his Harvard credentials. His wife divorced him, his children denounced him, and his parents disinherited him. The last time anyone saw this former Republican rising star, he was pushing a grocery cart with all his earthly goods to his campsite where he lived.

Attack on Yazidis: What Iraq Will Look Like if American Troops Withdraw Prematurely

Horrific suicide bomber attacks were made upon Yazidis in northern Iraq earlier this week. The Yazidis are "a small Kurdish-speaking sect that has been targeted by Muslim extremists who consider its members to be blasphemers." They live in a remote area where there are few American troops.

"This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will, almost genocide," Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told CNN.

Those who are calling for immediate or near-term withdrawal of American troops from Iraq need to look closely at the pictures from these attacks. They are stomach-turning. Yet, this is what Iraq will look like if American troops are withdrawn prematurely, before Iraqi forces are ready to take over their country's security.

Do Americans want to see night after night of ethnic cleansing -- the results of civil war -- from Iraq on an unimaginable scale? I don't. Yes, we have seen many pictures and reports of suicide bombings and sectarian attacks on civilians for the past three years. They will look like a walk in the park compared to what will come if we withdraw early.

Do we remember the horrors of Rwandaa and Kosovo? Are we aware of what has been happening in the Sudan? Are those the kind of pictures we want with our dinner every night on the evening news or with our breakfast on the morning news shows? I believe that is exactly what we will see if we leave Iraq before the Iraqis are ready politically and militarily to secure their country and establish a viable democracy.

Our withdrawal would result in a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing: a holocaust. I agree there has been abundant mismanagement of the military efforts to establish the peace in Iraq after defeating Saddam Hussein. Donald Rumsfeld and his team served President Bush poorly in not planning effectively for the aftermath of the removal of Hussein. Nonetheless, I do not want us to be responsible for the deaths and injuries of millions of Iraqis in a civil war.

Hatred of President Bush has blinded many liberals to the raw reality of what would happen if Iraq descends into a full civil war. Ironically, these same liberals were quick to advocate our intervention into the Kosovo battles between ethnic Albanians and the Serbs. They have condemned our failure to intervene in Rwandaa, a bloodbath between ethnic tribes. These same anti-Iraq war protesters are critical that the U.S. has not rushed in to resolve the conflict in Darfur between Northern (Muslim) and Southern (Christian) Sudanese.

All of these are civil wars between ethnic or sectarian rivals. Why, if it is a moral imperative for us to rescue the underdogs in the civil wars in Rwandaa, Kosovo, and the Sudan, would it not be so to prevent a bloodbath in an Iraq civil war?

President George Washington wisely warned us in his Farewell Address to avoid "foreign involvements." I would respect a viewpoint that says the United States should remain neutral and avoid involvement in civil strife in other countries. But, I believe it is pure hypocrisy to advocate intervention in these other cases and not in Iraq.