The American Church in Crisis

Read this article: American Church In Crisis

A study of more than 200,000 U.S. churches shows that while the nation has added 52 million people in 16 years, the church is virtually unchanged. What’s wrong?

The world has changed. We are less spiritual and more carnal. And much more materialistic. This is a very different world than it was in the seventies.

We have our work cut out for us.

Jesse

McCain Stepping Up

Read this: The Associated Press: McCain castigates Obama on judges.

Maybe… hopefully… the fight will be on. It’s about time for the issues to become the issue. We have had to endure four solid months of the Obama-Hilliary popularity contest and America has yet to actually engage in a Presidential campaign based on where people stand on the issues we face.

Although I am afraid Americans are becoming less concerned about the abortion issue at least McCain has the right view on the appointment of judges on the Federal level. “My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power,”McCain said Tuesday in a speech at Wake Forest University. I am with him on this big time. Activist judges (uber liberal elitist types) are going to “bury” the constitution unless we can start putting more folks in there who understand “the proper role of judges in government.”

“Senator Obama in particular likes to talk up his background as a lecturer on law, and also as someone who can work across the aisle to get things done,” McCain said. “But … he went right along with the partisan crowd, and was among the 22 senators to vote against this highly qualified nominee.”

“Apparently, nobody quite fits the bill except for an elite group of activist judges, lawyers, and law professors who think they know wisdom when they see it — and they see it only in each other,” McCain said.

Well said. If there is one thing that Bush has done right (and I am no fan) it was to appoint good men (although I am still scratching my head at the Harriett Myers fiasco) to the bench. I believe that McCain would be the best for job in this regard. We Christians need to think about that. So, on the issue of abortion and appointment of judges (which go hand in hand) I will put a mark by McCain’s name.

I’m just sayin’

Jesse

Words Matter (from letters to the editor-Daytona Beach News Journal)

Words matter

In “Whose words matter?” (Letters, April 18) Charles Gardner copied part of Sen. Barack Obama’s now famous speech on race and then asked: “Does it really matter what the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said?”

Yes it does, and here’s why. Anyone can write a moving speech. Some of the most murderous tyrants in history gave magnificent speeches. You can’t tell what’s in a man’s (or woman’s) heart or what he really believes from prepared, practiced speeches — especially in an election year when politicians will take whatever position is necessary to win. You learn someone’s character from his actions and unprepared statements. They tell you more than any prepared speech can.

Obama has so far made two statements that — contrary to what his supporters say — were not just poorly chosen but seem to go to his core beliefs. The first was the “typical white person” reference to his grandmother. Obama’s view of white people became crystal clear. Had a white man used the phrase “typical black person,” we would consider him a racist. Maybe Obama’s not as far from the beliefs of his church’s former leader as he would like us to think.

The second statement was that smalltown Americans cling to their guns and religion because of financial frustration. Here, too, I suspect he stated his true feelings about those of us who live in “fly over land” (as his elitist peers like to call us). To those he associates with — and perhaps Obama himself — we gun-totin’, Bible-preachin’, racist, ignorant hicks are too stupid to understand how things really are and need the enlightened “them” to lead us.

So what about Wright? Obama spent 20 years listening to Wright preach. Did none of Wright’s radical views rub off? How much black liberation theology does Obama follow?

And Obama’s been married since 1992. How much of his wife’s “there’s nothing America has done in her lifetime to be proud of” does he agree with? Do we really believe that in 16 years of marriage she has had no influence on his views — and won’t have if he’s president?

What we need to learn is what Obama’s view of America really is. Is it a view based on what his prepared speeches say — good people, individual freedom and capitalistic opportunity — or is it a view based on the elitist socialist hate-America ideas of those he associates and lives with and that creep out when he’s unscripted?

That is the reason Wright’s words are so important.

SILVIO DiGREGORIO, Flagler Beach

Well said Silvio.

Jesse