CHRISTIANS, SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION by Matt Barber

With the exception of one column previously penned, I pray this becomes my most widely read to date.

The secular left has mastered use of the Internet to further its extremist goals. In fact, President Obama’s web-based “Organizing for America” propaganda machine may have given him the 2008 election.

Let’s beat them at their own game.

To that end, I have a strange request. I’m asking each God-fearing, freedom-loving American who reads this column to forward it, post it, tweet it, print it out and give it to every pastor, priest or cleric you know. If you don’t know any, give it to someone who does.

Why? I agree with Barack Obama that November 2012 represents the most important election of our lifetimes – perhaps our history. Of course, that’s where my agreement with Mr. Obama both begins and abruptly ends.

Here’s the operable question: Do we want America “fundamentally transformed” to mirror the secular-socialist ideals of the radical leftist currently “occupying” the White House?

In Barack Obama’s America, individual freedom is trampled beneath jackboots as a matter of course. It’s already happening at an unprecedented rate.

One need only look to the HHS mandate forcing Christian groups – both Catholic and Protestant – to violate, under penalty of law, biblical prohibitions against abortion homicide.

Or consider recent attempts by multiple elected officials, all Democrats, to shutdown Chick-fil-A – a private, Christian-owned business – simply because its leadership holds the biblical view of marriage.

Is this George Washington’s America, or Joseph Stalin’s Russia?

It’s definitely not your father’s USA.

Instead, wouldn’t we prefer the America envisioned by our Founding Fathers? A constitutional republic wherein individual liberty – whether economic, First Amendment or Second Amendment-related – is sacrosanct and off limits?

Pastors, you’re it. You’re our front line of defense. It’s up to you to rally the troops. Now begins the second American Revolution and, as with the first, it’s on you – men of the cloth – to take the lead.

That is, if you hope to remain free to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Speaking of chicken: In recent years there’s been an epidemic of cultural inaction exhibited by far too many ministers of the gospel. It’s fear-based. “Oh, I don’t talk about political issues,” they say. “You know, ‘separation of Church and State’ and all that.”

Baloney.

If this is you – and only you and our Lord know for sure – you’ve been deceived by the enemies of God. You’ve chosen the easy way out – the path of least resistance. This is something Christ, whom all Christians are called to emulate, never did – not once.

So, respectfully, man-up, Padre! Be the “salt and light of the world,” as Christ so admonished.

But you don’t have to go it alone. There are detailed, easily digestible tools available. Civil-rights firm Liberty Counsel, for instance, is distributing more than 100,000 copies of “Silence is Not an Option,” a concise, though comprehensive, DVD and printed material collection informing pastors and churches about what is permissible regarding political activity (Please, get it for your church at LC.org or by calling 1-800-671-1776).

“The church must be empowered to confront the assaults on our culture, our faith, and our freedom,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. ”I don’t want any pastor, church leader or lay person to say, ‘What more could I have done to protect life and liberty?’”

“Silencing people of faith in the public square has always been the goal of those who realize the influence that pastors, churches and people of faith have on elections. I want pastors to remove the muzzle and replace it with a megaphone,” he said. “Pastors and churches have a lot of freedom to address biblical and moral issues, to educate people about the candidates, and to encourage people to vote. Not one church has ever lost its tax-exemption for endorsing or opposing candidates or for supporting or opposing local, state or federal laws.”

Did you get that? Despite hundreds of thousands of threatening letters sent by hard-left groups like the ACLU and Barry Lynn’s Americans United, not a single church has lost tax-exemption for socio-political activity – zip, zero, nada. Not even for endorsing candidates from the pulpit.

Indeed, if these anti-Christian bullies had been around two-and-a-half centuries ago, and our forefathers had paid them any mind, we may never have had the first American Revolution.

Don’t let them halt the second.

We’re on the precipice of the abyss, and, pastors, I think you know it. But know this too: There’s a whole lot relating to both culture and politics you can both say and do, and very little – if anything – you can’t.

Churches can educate about political, moral and biblical issues. These kinds of issues – whether abortion, marriage, feeding the poor or any community issue – are never off limits from the pastor’s pulpit, even if politicians are also talking about them. “Silence is Not an Option” systematically addresses the misrepresentations used to muzzle America’s pastors and Christian leaders.

Leading up to Ronald Reagan’s landslide presidential victory in 1980, Rev. Jerry Falwell captured the crux of the church’s apathy problem: “What is wrong in America today?” he asked. “We preachers – and there are 340,000 of us who pastor churches – we hold the nation in our hand. And I say this to every preacher: We are going to stand accountable before God if we do not stand up and be counted.”

Dr. Falwell’s words ring no less true today.

Imagine the benefit to our culture if thousands of churches across America registered millions of Christians to vote. How about pledge-drives wherein pastors ask tens-of-millions of Christians to simply commit to voting biblical values?

The possibilities are limitless.

Proverbs 4:18 reminds us: “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”

Shine bright, salt and light. Don’t be choked into dark silence.

Because silence is not an option.

It can’t be.

Christians, silence is not an option

Matt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action (LCA on Facebook) .

JESUS OR MORE BARNS?

And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.’

Luke 12:16-18 NAS

Summing up this parable Jesus said we should give our wealth to the poor and needy before allowing our possessions to rule our thoughts and actions.  His teaching that we should not be consumed with thoughts of how we will maintain and build our bank accounts, 401K’s, and mutual funds is a clarion call to focus on the imperatives of the Christian life.

We are to be watchmen waiting for the Master – “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit.  Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks” (Luke 12:35-36).

If the things of this world get in the way of us seeing the important things of the Kingdom, then Jesus says we are to get rid of them.  We don’t need more barns, we need all of Jesus!

DO YOU KNOW A PLACE?

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.

Psalm 46:4-5 NAS

Trouble comes often into the life of a Christian.  Our handling of it demonstrates a number of things.  First, when trouble comes where do we turn?  If we are anchored into the rock immovable – Jesus Christ – we will remain unmoved.

Second, when trouble comes what is our outward response?  Does our countenance reflect the calmness we have in Christ?

Third, when the storms of life batter us, of what effect is our hope and trust in Christ?  The Psalmist gives us a beautiful picture of the reaction to trouble most fitting the Christian.

Verses one through three describe what we all know to be true, namely that trouble finds us all sooner or later.  But notice the Psalmist describes for us what our response should be.  First, we acknowledge even in the midst of our most dire straits that God is the One to whom we turn.  It is in the shelter of His mercies and grace that we seek refuge.

But even in the midst of our whole world shaking apart, in the midst of the deafening roar of the churning ocean waves that seem to engulf us, God bids us come to Him and find solace.

There is a river, the Psalmist says, that brings joy.  This river makes glad the city of God.  God is there, and He will not be moved.  Oh how glorious is the truth that God makes us to receive His joy and strength to withstand the trials we all face.

Your eyes and your countenance will be lifted up today as you reflect on our mighty God, maker of heaven and earth.  He is our strong tower and refuge!

GROW CHRISTIAN GROW!

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Hebrews 6:1 NAS

The writer to the Hebrews makes no secret of the fact that Christians must take action in order to grow in spiritual maturity.  Notice that he tells us that we are to “press on.”  This means we are to be actively involved in our maturation process.  It is sad to see Christians who believe that spiritual maturity is a process of osmosis.  Those individuals believe that if they are faithful in their church attendance, read a chapter a day in their Bibles, and then pray before they go to sleep at night, then they will automatically grow into a mature Christian.

Here’s some bad news for those people – you don’t grow without being an active participant in what God describes as the process for growth.  Here the writer to the Hebrews says we are to leave the elementary things behind.  What things?  He says the elementary teaching about the Christ.  In other words, there is much more to learn and live about Jesus than that He died on Calvary’s cross.

It may be in vogue today to forsake theology in favor of the warm-fuzzies.  But fuzzy thinking will not draw you closer to Christ and will not provide the impetus for spiritual growth of the kind the Bible describes.  The “meatier” issues of the faith are not apprehended by a novel Christianity.

May we press on to break through the elementary teachings of the Scriptures to attain the status of workmen that are not ashamed!