Sudan Votes for Freedom: Will There Be a Domino Effect?
I’m flying back from Washington, D.C. after a sobering few days in the nation’s capital. We are all still grieving the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona and those who died in the gruesome attack. In the capital city this past weekend, all flags were at half mask and there were hushed conversations everywhere.
This morning I was walking with two friends to a meeting near the US Capitol Building when police cars with glaring lights blocked all entrances to Capitol Hill. We were told that a suspicious package had been found and they were taking no chances. We bided some time at a nearby Starbucks packed with government workers who couldn’t get to their jobs. Sobriety and concern was in the air.
But then, out of this ominous backdrop, I heard the news: Sudan, the largest and one of the poorest nations in Africa, was voting for freedom—and it appeared that liberty might prevail.
Isn’t that just like God—when everything appears to be black–to pierce the darkness with his light?
And is some new found freedom in Sudan a sign of things to come in other nations as well?
You might want to Google a map of Sudan to get a good visual. As you can see, it’s situated in the Muslim band of nations that occupy much of the Saharan tip of Africa. Sudan is a large nation. It’s a dry nation. It’s an extremely impoverished nation.
But today, in all likelihood it voted for freedom. The votes aren’t fully counted, but the result does not appear in doubt. The suffering people of southern Sudan, many of them believers in Christ, are being given a chance to decide their future—and they are overwhelmingly voting for freedom.
This could be a new day for Africa, other nations, and even some territories and states. But before we look at the future implications, let’s think for a moment about this Sudanese miracle.
Do you remember the name Darfur? Yes, it’s a southern portion of Sudan where hundreds of thousands of primarily Christians have been mercilessly slaughtered for nothing else but their faith over the past ten years. The very name Darfur reeks of carnage, injustice, suffering, and genocide.
Darfur is a part of southern Sudan where nearly two million people have been killed in a gruesome civil war. Most have died since 2005, so this is recent stuff. Four million people have also been displaced and forced to live in primitive encampments.
Why? Because the southern portion of Sudan is that area of the African continent where Muslim control of nations and cultures ended—and Christianity has been exploding for the past three decades.
It is also the region where much of Sudan’s lucrative oil industry lies. For decades, the Muslim north has been raiding and pillaging the defenseless south—taking the oil revenues to Khartoum in the Muslim north and leaving the southern fourth of the country destitute and under-developed (there is less than thirty miles of paved road in southern Sudan).
They’ve also tried to force Muslim society and sharia law on some areas of the south, and when that failed and faith in Christ began to spread north, the militants decided to simply kill all the Christians. Two million died. Four million fled their homes.
That’s the meaning of Darfur and southern Sudan: Darkness, tyranny, violence, bloodshed. I think you know where those tactics originate—in the world of Satanic evil– and in this case, evil that is wrapped in the cloak of religion.
But through much prayer, international pressure, and some miraculous changes of heart, even Sudan’s Muslim leader, Omar Hassan al-Bashir was forced to change his mind and agree to allow the south to vote for independence.
Starting on January 10, an estimated seven million Sudanese began going to the polls. It is an election that will probably last a week. Polling places have limited hours because there is no electricity after dark. Since 85% of the southern Sudanese people are illiterate, ballots simply showed pictorial choices that stood for YES for independence (freedom) and NO for the status quo.
And the Sudanese are voting for freedom. It’s a God-given cry of the human heart. If they prevail, the southern quarter of Sudan will become a new and free nation with a new capital—Juba– where families and children can be safer, and a desperately poor and persecuted people can build a future filled with new-found dreams of hope.
Many thousands of displaced Sudanese who now live in other nations are voting as well and look forward to returning to their homeland. Lee Everisto, a 48-year from Juba who now lives in Cairo, Egypt, said over the sounds of drumming and singing: “It is a historic day, a day that is going to put an end to our tragedy. I’m ready to go back as soon as possible.”
Freedom is a precious thing.
It is the birth-right of all people—made in the image of God.
Some individuals with whom I do not usually agree–former president Jimmy Carter, Senator John Kerry, and actor George Clooney—were all in Sudan for the historic vote and hailed the process. I applaud their efforts and stand with them in this historic milestone.
Maybe there is hope for bipartisan ship when the choice is between liberty and tyranny.
As I was meditating on the expected results of the elections in Sudan—and probable creation of a new and independent nation—my thoughts went back to a “prophetic vision” that is told in the first chapter of my 1989 book Leadership for the 21st Century: Changing Nations Through the Power of Serving. In a futuristic passage covering 1986 to 2025, Lee Grady and I accurately predicted the fall of the Iron Curtain (three years before it happened), and some of the social developments of the 1990s.
We also made this prediction for the 21st century: “By 2015 there was no longer a Third World. The globe was only divided into two areas: The Free World and the Dark World. And freedom was growing in the nations of the earth.”
Lee gets most of the credit for that perspective. He’s was right. Free Nations and Dark Nations.
That is the meaning of today’s events in Sudan. There are really only two forms of government in the world. One form tends to tyranny, and this includes most of the Islamic nations on earth. The other form produces liberty based on the creation of man, human rights, and societies based on biblical principles.
One of these principles is de-centralization of many aspects of life including economics, technology, and civil government. Where the ways of the Living God are practiced, people tend to be freer to communicate, invent, build, create, grow wealth, and govern themselves. The Christian worldview diffuses tyranny and central control and multiplies freedom and autonomy.
Freedom includes the right to vote for your leaders.
Another metaphor is light and darkness. A light-filled society creates the freedom for self-determination and an explosion of blessing—like sunshine to a summer day. A controlled, tyrannical society brings a creeping darkness of domination, lack of democracy, and loss of fundamental human rights. This would be the ultimate result of a one world system.
Yet, God appears to be expanding the longing for liberty in the nations of the world. Communism is dark by nature. The Chinese, North Koreans, Cubans, and others are longing to be free. Socialism has many shades of gray. It is hurting nations in Europe and growing in influence in America. Muslim nations that enforce harsh forms of sharia law may be the darkest of all.
But darkness does not do well when the light is turned on.
It flees.
It ceases to exist.
I believe we stand at the beginning of a new day when many nations—even states in some nations of the world—will take votes for liberty and cast off their chains. I believe we will see a liberated and re-united Korean peninsula; I believe many African nations may rise to fight the fight for freedom in their societies. Freedom marches and votes will also take place in many parts of Asia.
In my U.S. state of Washington, I know some folk who would love to “vote for independence” from King County—the liberal bastion of the Northwest. If they want big government, high taxes, and decreased liberties, let them have it. The rest of Washington can become another state where the biblical principles of freedom are allowed to thrive. Many Californians feel the same way about the north and south of their fair state. And Texas hints that if the federal government forces Obamacare on them as a people, they just may vote for liberty and succeed from the Union.
These are radical steps to take—but we live in radical times. Peoples should not change their governing structures lightly or no compelling reason. However, “When in the course of human events…”
Ah yes. That is the heritage of the American Revolution.
I encourage you to pray for a great expansion of personal, social, and civil liberty in the nations of the world in the 21st century. If I am reading the heart of God right, we just might have a rendezvous with destiny that is drenched in the blood, sweat and tears of an explosion of freedom.
And when we are dead and gone, and the history of the 21st century is written, Remember Sudan in 2011. It may be pointing the way to a light-filled future through the power of prayer and the principles of liberty found in Jesus Christ.
Michael Vick, Redemption & a Fox News Gaffe
Let’s start the New Year by being fair and balanced.
Most of you know that I enjoy Fox News for its overall Judeo-Christian outlook on life and current events. Fox is a breath of fresh air in the media world where left wing ideologies and a secular view of reality usually prevail. In past columns, I have shown this is one reason that Fox has become the leading cable news station in America.
Nearly fifty percent of Americans watch Fox News.
Recently, however, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, made a huge gaffe on the Hannity Show. Let’s examine his blunder, and use the occasion to talk about about football star Michael Vick, redemption, and the truth as it applies to people and animals.
Tucker Carlson, a staunch conservative, is confused. Maybe some others are too.
Here’s what happened.
On Tuesday night, December 28, Tucker Carlson, a correspondent for the Fox News Channel, was substituting for Sean Hannity on the Hannity Show. While moderating a panel discussion, Carlson used the occasion to criticize President Obama who had recently commented on the outstanding play of NFL quarterback Michael Vick.
Here’s what Carlson said: “Now I’m a Christian, I make mistakes myself and I believe fervently in second chances. But Michael Vick killed dogs and he did it in a heartless and cruel way and I think personally he should have been executed for that. He wasn’t, but the idea that the President of the United States would be getting behind someone who murdered dogs?”
“Michael Vick should have been executed.” “Murdered dogs.”
What? Talk about a jumbled worldview.
But before we get to that, here’s a little background.
Vick was a football superstar who was sentenced to 23 months in prison in 2007 for running a cruel and inhumane dogfighting ring and lying about it. He lost his fortune, spent nearly two years in federal prison, and came out saying that he was sorry for his errors, had given his life to Christ, repented of his sins, and wanted to live a changed life.
Since that time, Vick has lived what appears to be a repentant life–even speaking to over sixty animal rights groups around the nation and profusely apologizing for his past behavior.
Besides that, Tony Dungy, a committed Christian and former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, began discipling Vick upon his release from prison, encouraging him in his faith. Vick then was picked up by the Philadelphia Eagles and given a second chance by Roger Goodell the commissioner of the National Football League.
This year Vick had a monster season–leading the Eagles into the playoffs and earning Pro Bowl honors. President Obama commented on his success because it is an amazing story of failure, heart-break, repentance and redemption.
And Tucker Carlson said he should have been executed!
I’d call that the gaffe of the year.
To his credit, a week later he came back on the Hannity Show and back-tracked a little. Here’s what he said in a second go-round: “This is what happens when you get too emotional, and I did. I’m a dog lover … I love them and I know a lot about what Michael Vick did. … I overspoke. I’m uncomfortable with the death penalty under any circumstance. Of course I don’t think he should be executed, but I do think that what he did is truly appalling.”
“I overspoke.”
That may be true–but it goes much deeper than that. I listened carefully to the second interview with Carlson. I was looking for a number of “rays of truth” that should have come our of his heart when given a second chance himself.
They did not come, and I was greatly disappointed.
Tucker Carlson, a professing Christian and visible news commentator, appears confused about some very basic and important concepts. And I have a feeling that he isn’t the only one. Let’s clarify those ideas and strengthen them in our own hearts and minds.
First, human beings are not animals. This is the lie of evolution that Mr. Carlson has at least tacitly bought into. It’s okay to love pets and enjoy them immensely. But they are not human beings and shouldn’t be treated as such. Pets do not have souls, are not morally accountable to God, and do not go to heaven or hell. That’s why killing an animal is vastly different than taking the life of a human being. Sane, biblically-based societies have always understood that difference.
In past time periods this truth was learned on the family farm. People took care of their animals for the meat, milk, eggs, or work they could provide, but when they died (or were killed for food) there were no funeral services and gravestones.
Animals are animals–a lower level of creation. It is wrong to abuse them. But it is equally wrong to elevate them to human status. Tucker Carlson has lost track of that reality.
I have a “farm boy” friend who once demonstrated this truth to me. We had two older dogs that we needed to get rid of because we were moving from the area. My friend offered to take them and simply shoot them. He had done it many times before. He told me it was quick, humane, and besides, “they were just animals.” It was just like a vet putting down a horse or dog.
He was right.
Animal lovers–don’t cast any stones! This is the truth: Only a secular society elevates animals above their God-given place in creation. On this particular point, Tucker Carlson needs to re-think.
Secondly, because animals are a lower, non-immortal order of the created world, you cannot murder them. Murder is the taking of innocent human life.
In my daily Bible reading this morning, I was reading in Genesis 9 where the Bible spells out both the difference between the human and animal worlds and the basis for capital punishment in the case of human murder. Following the global flood, God spoke these amazing words to Noah and his family:
“Multiply and fill the earth. All the wild animals large and small and all the birds and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them in your power. I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. But you must never eat animals that still have their lifeblood in them. And murder is forbidden. Animals that kill people must die, and any person who murders must be killed. Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God’s image” (Genesis 9:1-6).
First notice that following the Flood, God allowed people in a fallen world to eat both animals and plants. Prior to the deluge it appears that human beings were vegans. But not after the Flood. Now human beings could eat cows, pigs, chickens, fish, and other animals.
This required killing them–not murdering them.
According to God, you can’t murder an animal. We must not mix up important concepts and words.
And God clearly tells us why. Only human beings are made “in the image of God”–which includes moral accountability and immortality of the human spirit.
The words of God also contain another important truth that Tucker Carlson needs to re-consider: capital punishment. Notice that in Genesis and many other places, the Author of justice and compassion says that murdering a human being is so bad, so unjust, that it deserves the penalty of taking the life of the aggressor.
It’s the right and humane thing to do. In fact, in Exodus 20 when God gives the Ten Commandments to Israel, twenty verses after God says “You shall not kill,” he inaugurated capital punishment for the sin of murder in the Hebrew nation (Exodus 20:13 and 21:12).
Man is a special creation. He is made in God’s form and likeness. His spirit and soul are eternal. If a human being destroys that life, he deserves to have his own life taken.
Tucker–re-think being “uncomfortable” with capital punishment.
Third and finally, the Michael Vick story is a wonderful, true-life tale of redemption. Michael Vick grossly messed up, was convicted by a human court for his cruelty to animals, and served two years in prison for his crime. It cost him millions of dollars, his career, his reputation, and two years of his life.
While in prison, he came to his senses, asked God and others to forgive him, and when he was released did everything possible to show his repentance. Looking at the evidence of a humbled and changed life, the National Football League re-instated him and gave him a second chance. So did millions of American football fans.
Michael Vick took advantage of that second chance and once again rose to greatness–this time a wiser, contrite man, aware of his failings and sins. We should forgivehim. We all need forgiveness and second chances in life. It’s true that forgiveness and trust are two different things. We are called to instantly forgive because God forgives us without reservation. Trust, however, takes time–where a person needs to prove whether they have really changed.
Right now Michael Vick deserves our forgiveness and is earning back our trust. President Obama was right to praise him. Tucker Carlson was wrong to say what he said.
And all of us need to anchor ourselves to God’s righteous and unchanging principles. Human beings are special; animals are animals; capital punishment is for human beings who commit murder; redemption is marvelous!
Let’s learn from the Fox gaffe. We all need a second chance.
The Worst Congress in History–Should We Look in the Mirror?
I think we just lived through the worst United States Congress in history. Since the American Republic has been around for 234 years now, that is saying something.
Of course, I wasn’t there to observe 177 of those years, but I’ve kept a pretty close view on the past thirty or forty–and nothing compares to the deception, ineptness, radical nature, and horrific policies of the 111th United States Congress.
The 80th Congress (1948) was called the “Do-Nothing Congress.” The 109th Congress (2006) has been labeled the “Vacation Congress” because they only met for 100 days. Various congresses in the 18th and 19th centuries were either extremely raucous or bitterly divided (such as over slavery).
But nothing trumps the just completed 111th Congress.
They should be named the “Destroy Everything” Congress.
I believe we need to open our eyes–and also look in the mirror.
We elected these people.
What does that say about us?
It wasn’t that long ago that you didn’t hear much about the US Senate and House of Representatives in the daily news. They weren’t much of a factor or presence. Yes, every twenty to thirty years they made a controversial decision or passed a bad bill. But that was the exception, not a daily occurrence.
Of course, 24/7 cable news and the Internet have greatly increased the spotlight on national governance. But technology does not determine the character of those who lead.
During my lifetime, most senators and congressmen were decent people regardless of party. I generally vote Republican because of the GOP’s general commitment to Judeo-Christian principles which bring liberty. But I’ve liked and supported many Democrats as well including Senators Scoop Jackson and Henry Magnuson, and President John F. Kennedy. Sam Rayburn was a heck of a House Speaker and Tip O’Neill was a decent guy who shared a congenial, after-hours relationship with President Reagan.
So the issue is not partisan. It relates to the people in office.
The elected representatives of the 111th Congress were the worst national legislators we’ve ever had. Don’t believe the spin of the past couple of week. It’s just a desperate attempt to resurrect the discredited progressive agenda. The majority of Americans aren’t buying it.
Take a look at the most recent Gallup Poll on the 111th Congress. The graph is quite enlightening:
“PRINCETON, NJ — Americans’ assessment of Congress has hit a new low, with 13% saying they approve of the way Congress is handling its job. The 83% disapproval rating is also the worst Gallup has measured in more than 30 years of tracking congressional job performance.”
“The prior low approval rating for Congress was 14% in July 2008 when the United States was dealing with record-high gas prices and the economy was in recession.”
“For the year, Congress averaged 19% approval among all Americans, tied with the averages for 1979 and 2008, and one percentage point above the 18% average for 1992. Those years were all marked by difficult economic times for the United States.”
Gallup asked another question in a July 22, 2010 poll. It had to do with which institutions give people the greatest confidence. The poll found Congress ranking dead last out of the 16 institutions rated this year. Eleven percent of Americans said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress, down from 17% in 2009 and a percentage point lower than the previous low for Congress, recorded in 2008.
So according to Gallup, the 111th Congress approval rating is 13% and confidence rating is 11%.
That’s pretty bad.
Why?
Let’s first look at the people and then at the policies they’ve enacted.
THE PEOPLE OF THE 111TH CONGRESS (just to name a few)
Nancy Pelosi – She will probably go down in history as the worst Speaker of all-time. From ultra-liberal San Francisco, she ruled as if everybody in America wanted to move to her progressive haven. A blank slate on America’s heritage and principles, she drove her own Congress into the electoral ditch with the greatest turnover of seats in sixty years. Her most famous quote (among many) referring to Obamacare: “We need to pass the bill so that we can find out what is in it.”
Harry Reid – The Senate majority leader from Nevada. He strong-armed Obamacare through the Senate by altering the rules and making back-room deals against the express will of the American people (Louisianna Purchase, Cornhusker kick-back etc.). Reid’s Senate didn’t pass one budget item during the past year while giving full vent to vast liberal wish lists of spending. His most famous gaffe among many: “The War is lost!” (When our fighting men and women were in harm’s way and the surge in Iraq was working.)
Barney Frank – His lack of regulation over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which continues to this day) was one of the major factors in the collapse of the real estate market and the financial difficulties we’ve experienced since 2008. Frank is a foul-mouthed, militant homosexual whose “partner” once ran a gay prostitution ring out of his D.C. apartment.
Responding recently to President Jimmy Carter’s assertion that America is ready for a homosexual president, Franks bellowed: “It’s one thing to have a gay person in the abstract. It’s another to see that person as part of a living, breathing couple. How would a gay presidential candidate have a celebratory kiss with his partner after winning the New Hampshire primary? The sight of two women kissing has not been as distressful to people as the sight of two men kissing. And because of the Defense of Marriage Act, it’s not clear that a gay president could use federal funds to buy his husband dinner. Would his partner have to pay rent in the White House? There would be no Secret Service protection for the paramour.”
Yuck.
And this man was one of the powerful men in Washington, D.C. during the 111th Congress?
The list could go on and on–but I think you get the point.
POLICIES OF THE 111TH CONGRESS
First, they wastefully threw an 800 billion dollar stimulus program at the nation that did nothing to create jobs. The unemployment rate continued to climb because government spending does not stimulate capital creation and entrepreneurship. This was the biggest pork barrel bill in the history of the nation. Much of it went to prop up liberal causes, state governments, and unions. It was an utter waste of nearly one trillion dollars.
Then they spent an entire year going against the will of the American people and finally jamming through Obamacare last Christmas–the first step toward socialized medicine in the United States. This nearly three thousand page monstrosity is probably the worst single piece of legislation ever enacted on American soil. As a result, doctors are vowing to retire; Companies are raising rates; Over 250 groups have been exempted from the program because they’re favorites of the Administration; And this is a giant take-over of one-sixth of the American economy.
Because of the radicalness of this and other income re-distribution programs, the Tea Party Movement was born and swept many state houses, legislatures, and Congressional members out of DC in the November 2 elections.
After the election, the chastened 111th Congress should have humbly returned to their D.C. offices, voted to keep the tax rates in place, funded the government, and gone home. They had been soundly defeated and told they were taking the nation in a wrong direction.
But in a brazen, in-your-face manner, they did just the opposite. First they pushed to raise taxes on the wealth creators in America, lost, and finally capitulated. Then they pandered to their homosexual base and sent shock waves through the US armed forces by callously rescinding the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy–again against the wishes of the people and especially those on the front lines.
They also tried to slip in a controversial immigration bill, and pushed for a major nuclear arms treaty with Russia that is hurtful to the United States. They have no business even treading in these waters.
But this Congress doesn’t care. They have an agenda–and they stuck it to the American people.
Rush Limbaugh described the 111th Congress this way in his radio commentary on December 16, 2010:”The damage being done by this Congress is disastrous. They are hi-jacking our country right before our eyes. We are in the middle of being raped and they know it. We said “No” in November but they are still destroying and hijacking our country right in front of our eyes. They don’t care about the country.”
That’s why I call them the “Destroy Everything” Congress.
Fortunately, in a few days, they will be gone and the 112th will take their place.
But their destructive rampage should lead us to some necessary introspection.
Many of these people, including Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barney Frank were re-elected in 2010. They will be diminished, but are still in office.
What does that say about us–that we could elect people such as this to guide the affairs of our nation?
In olden times, God used prophets to explain to people why they were given good kings–when they followed God and lived right–and why they were sent bad kings as judgment for their sins.
We don’t have unelected kings in our day. We don’t need an explanation. We live in democratic times where our leaders are a reflection of us.
We the people–elected the 111th Congress. They were the worst in history.
But that consequently means that we, too, just might be the worst generation in American history who elected the worst leaders.
We need to change, live good lives, and elect good leaders.
Start with yourself. Look in the mirror.
Humble yourself. Ask God to forgive you, and live a changed life.
If enough Americans do it, we just might turn our worst time into one of our best .
“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will from heaven , forgive their sins and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).