Over 151 Christian leaders from all sorts of different denominations and organizations have signed a document called the ‘Manhattan Declaration’ which is a call for Christians to stand together on a number of major moral issues that face America. The following three points summarize the key areas addressed by the document :

1. The sanctity of human life

2. The dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife

3. The rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Here’s the final paragraph of the document which reflects these key areas of concern:

“Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.

We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”

Response: <<Read my response on my AFTF blog>>

Here’s a link if you want to sign on to the document. Over 5,000 signatures so far.            *Top

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In new survey just out today, Gallup finds that more Americans now consider themselves “pro-life” than “pro-choice, by a 51 percent-42 percent margin:

Response: Praise God—this is great news! Nearly every trend in the American culture has been negative for Biblical Christians in the last several years. An encouraging word for a change.            *Top

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(Dr. Mohler via Wikipedia)

All sorts of articles, polls, and publications have sounded the warning trumpet lately—calling attention to the ‘decline of Christianity in America. What we really are experiencing is the death of ‘cultural Christianity’—the kind that I talked about before– in the 50’s growing up with everyone in my neighborhood identifying themselves as Christians except the Jewish family down the street but they believed in the same Biblical morality as every other American.

Times have changed indeed—the culture wars are basically over and the church has substantially lost—even among a whole lot of folk who identify themselves as ‘Christian’. Here is a recent quote of Dr. Albert Mohler addressing the new cultural environment that the American church could soon be facing:

"We are going to discover that cultural Christianity is what eventually disappears in a secularized age.

Cultural Christianity has been so much a part of the environment of our ministry and of the expectation of our churches that it’s going to be a very different situation for the pastor of the First Baptist Church to worry about being arrested rather than to worry about whether he’s going to get the first seat in the restaurant.

… When you start looking at a lot of the logic of what is becoming endemic in the culture toward the future, we’re going to be in a very different situation than we’ve ever faced before.

And we’re going to discover that we are not as many as we thought we were.

… We’ve got to prepare students to be ready for that and to be able to lead churches to be able to understand what it means to be the church when we no longer have the cultural supports that we had counted on, wrongly, I think, all these years."

—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler Jr. [Baptist Press, 4/23/09]

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"We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised."

Carrie Prejean did get ‘first runner up’ but quite a few folks believe that her support for traditional marriage may well have cost her the Miss USA crown. Her statement caused a media feeding frenzy that included all of the AM TV shows and was the topic of the day on many radio programs across America, particularly on the liberal coasts.

While under fire on the "Today Show" yesterday morning, Prejean defended her answer:

"I knew at that moment after I answered the question, I knew, I was not going to win because of my answer, because I had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God. I wouldn’t have answered it differently. The way I answered may have been offensive. With that question specifically, it’s not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct."

Response: The persecution of conservative traditional Christian perspectives is already a reality in the main stream media. It is really shocking how the press has been rather one-sided and biased towards the homosexual agenda.

Since the passage of Proposition 8- ‘The traditional Marriage’ amendment in California, the media has been particularly active in putting down Christians and pastors who support traditional marriage. 20 year ago and even maybe 10, the statements of Miss Prejean would have been considered normal—then again that question would have never even been asked!

We now live in times when that which is ‘Biblically correct’ is considered evil and controversial and that which use to be hidden and immoral is now called good. Nevertheless, ‘for such a time as this’ we are called to stand up for the truth.           *Top   (Cross-Posted on ANSWERS For the Faith)

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According to the article, similar movements are spreading to other countries, including a well organized move against Catholicism in Argentina.

Response: This is a rather sad development. A generation ago most Britons were baptized into the state church as infants. Now as the secular and the atheist movements gain numbers and cultural credibility many adults are seeking to ‘divorce’ themselves from their former ‘Christian’ identity.

Actually this is really not all bad. It is far better to be either hot or cold. After all, the declining British ‘cultural Christian’ identity has lately produced a weak church. It is actually harder in many ways to bring ‘Cultural Christians’ to Jesus than any other religion. Their ‘luke-warm’ version of Christianity actually inoculates them from seeking the real McCoy.

One good sign, the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches are growing significantly in the UK. Also, those who now identify themselves as Christians in the UK are far more likely to be seriously committed.            *Top

An Atheist Protestant Pastor? Condoms being handed out at church? A practicing Muslim serving as an Episcopal priest? A practicing Gay Bishop? All ‘April Fools’ jokes Right? No–incredibly true!

This is where you end up once you begin to deny Biblical authority and established truth –than anything goes.            *Top

(-Picture by WorldIslandInfo.com via Flickr)

US out of wedlock births now exceed 40%. A real indicator that the nation and the dominant culture is headed at full steam away from Biblical Christianity or so it would seem. Unfortunately, I would imagine that the statistics for the American Church are only slightly better.

It is amazing to me how many supposed Christians follow the dominant culture and live together before marriage. I’m sure that many of you Pastors out there have seen this trend.

The super abundant grace taught in so many churches has opened the door to immorality without fear of any judgment from other Christians or from God. Worse yet, so many Christian leaders have jumped the ship and live contrary to Christian Biblical standards and yet brazenly expect to continue in the ministry.

Many see no reason why they should change. A homosexual Bishop continues to live with his same-sex partner and causes schism and division among a 70 million member association but preaches that the Bible is wrong and everyone that opposes him must change?

A former president of an Assoc. of Evangelicals has an affair with a homosexual prostitute but says that now he is ready to minister again but the Church is treating him rather badly and he airs all his dirty linen and attitudes on TV–obviously being used by enemies of the church.

A well known mega-church pastoring couple separate, keep on ministering, and try to split up their huge ministry like it is some kind of multi-million $ business.

A major prophetic minister falls into homosexuality and alcohol but rejects the plan for a supervised recovery, goes his own way, finds a group that extends fellowship to him and now says he is ready to return.

Then the latest, a major healing evangelist falls into adultery, divorces his wife and leaves his children, but now is ready to begin restoration? Because he will never do that one again since he is now married to his sin and intents to continue in it?  More shocking, several major leaders seem to be on board with it all?

The fastest growing religious category in America is “none”. Why not, the church has become just like everyone else.

But it is now time for the faithful church to stand up and walk a different path–with signs following but also expect the beginning of real persecution from a rapidly departing dominant culture.            *Top 

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(Video length- 4:45) I found this video on Michelle Malkin’s blog.

It shows the San Francisco police department  protecting and escorting a group of Christians out of the Castro District in San Francisco, CA. It’s only 4 minutes and 45 seconds long but it seems to last forever–actually viewing it for a minute is probably more than enough to get the idea.

The event happened last Friday night in the Castro District, a predominantly gay community in the city of San Francisco, California.

A group of Christian young people had been conducting a street ministry every Friday night for quite some time in the Castro district–talking to people about Jesus and how the Lord loves them and can change lives. Also, they would usually sing worship songs and pray over the community.

Last Friday night was different. <Read the whole article>            *Top

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