Reformation
Rotten Core, Baltimore, Who’s Your Friend?
This past week saw the ISIS Islamo-Nazis take major cities in Syria (Palmyra) and Iraq (Ramadi).
In Texas, record rains have broken a ten-year drought, but now flooding rivers have left parts of Austin and Houston underwater with at least eight people dead and sixteen missing.
On the Memorial Day weekend, following a month of turmoil, a record number of people were shot and killed in Baltimore, America’s 26th largest city.
Let’s pray for the situations in the Middle East and Texas. But today, let’s focus on what is absolutely destroying Maryland’s biggest city (along with Detroit, Chicago, and many others).
Rotten core, Baltimore, who’s your friend?
As you know, Baltimore has been in the news for six weeks after African American Freddie Gray was arrested on April 12, 2015 and died six days later–apparently of injuries suffered either during or after his arrest.
Gray’s death led to rioting in the streets of Baltimore, a stand down order of the police force for a period of time, and millions of dollars in property damage as angry mobs looted and destroyed local businesses.
On May 1, six Baltimore police officers, (three black and three white) were charged in Freddie Gray’s death.
The Baltimore riots were the latest in a string of police-citizen confrontations that some have used to stoke racial fires all across America. There are many more than these, but three brought national attention:
In August, 2014, Michael Brown robbed a convenience store in Furgason, Missouri, resisted arrest and charged Policeman Darren Wilson who was trying to apprehend him. In this initial race-war escalation incident, people shouted false slogans about Brown’s innocence (“Hand Up, Don’t Shoot!) which were later de-bunked. Wilson was cleared of all charges.
The Furgason furor was bogus from the beginning–an excuse for anarchy and race-hustling.
Then, in December 2014 a New York Grand Jury failed indict officers in the chokehold death of Eric Garner who resisted arrest for illegally selling cigarettes. This incident was tragic yet accidental. Riots ensued.
Finally, Freddie Gray died on April 18 after being arrested by police for illegal possession of a knife (he had a long rap sheet). The verdict is still out of this one, but many believe that District Attorney Marilyn Mosby over-charged six officers in Gray’s death and fanned the fires of hatred via her words (“This is our moment!”).
Baltimore’s mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, also failed to protect the citizens of the “Star Spangled Banner” city by holding back police during early encounters with protesters. Her now infamous line: “We also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that.”
Baltimore was looted and burned–and it has only gotten worse.
This past month was the deadliest that Baltimore has seen in more than 15 years. More than two dozen shootings over the Memorial Day holiday weekend alone had city police working around the clock. From West Baltimore to the East Side, a spike in weekend violence took place all over the city. Over the Memorial Day Weekend, city police report 28 shootings and 9 homicides.
Baltimore Police say they responded to six shootings on Friday night, seven on Saturday, five on Sunday and eleven by night fall on Monday. One of those included a double shooting in which a 9-year-old boy was found shot in the leg and a man who suffered a grazed wound to his head.
I like Baltimore. I’ve been there a number of times. It has many great attractions as a city and a lot of good people. But two social elements have been extremely hurtful to the lives and future of Baltimore. There is also one friend who needs to help heal the carnage and point the way to hope.
What are the negative factors that have created a rottenness in Baltimore’s urban core?
Negative Factor One – Bad Leadership
Former Speaker of the House and presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, penned an astute assessment of what is rotten in Baltimore from a leadership standpoint. Entitled “The Collapse of Baltimore City,” he points out that Baltimore’s problem has been one-party dominance by Democrats for decades. The Democratic Party and its ideology have destroyed the once great city of Baltimore.
I don’t particularly like party labels because I know good people in both political parties. But it’s also true the today’s Democratic Party is not the party of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, or even Franklin Roosevelt. It is generally far-left liberal, secular-based, socialism leaning, and produces many victims and government dependents.
Let’s use the modern term “progressive.” Progressive politics are regressive to people, cities and nations.
Here is Newt Gingrich’s fact-based proof that progressive leaders and policies play a major role in Baltimore’s rotten environment:
- Fact: the last Republican city council member in Baltimore City left office in 1942. That is 73 years of solid Democrat city councils.
- Fact: the last Republican mayor of Baltimore City left office in 1967. That is 48 years of unbroken control of the mayor’s office.
- Fact: the Maryland Senate is currently 33 Democrats to 14 Republicans.
- Fact: the Maryland House is currently 90 Democrats to 50 Republicans.
- Fact: the last time Republicans held both the Maryland Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates was 1897.
- Fact: the last time Republicans held even one chamber of the Maryland General Assembly–the House–was 1917. That is unbroken Democrat control of the Maryland legislature since 1918–or nearly a century of Democrat control.
- Fact: 7 out of 8 members of the Maryland delegation in the U.S. House are Democrats.
- Fact: Last Republican U.S. Senator from Maryland was elected in 1980.
I think you get the point. Progressive “leadership” (Democrats) has made Baltimore what it is today.
Gingrich points out:
“The collapse of order has a continuing effect. There has been a drastic increase in shootings and homicides in Baltimore since April 27. More than 50 people have been shot. At least 10 have been shot and four killed since Saturday May 9. Nonfatal shootings are up nearly 50 percent. All of this happened under the leadership of a Democrat mayor who was worried more about the rioters’ free speech than about the safety, protection, and livelihoods of innocent Baltimoreans.”
He concludes his argument by reminding us that the first duty of government is to protect the innocent and the weak from predators and violence. But progressives “favored the violent over the victims.”
Newt also destroys the false charge that the police are racist. Here is his second “fact check” list:
- Fact: More than half of the Baltimore City police force is minority.
- Fact: Four of the six top commanders are African American or Hispanic.
- Fact: Half of the police officers being prosecuted are African American.
- Fact: The problem is not lack of money. Baltimore spends $17,329 per student, and its unionized, bureaucratic schools fail. (Amazingly, as Archbishop of Baltimore William Lori points out, the Catholic schools cost $6,000 a year and have a 99 percent graduation rate. Yet the Democrats are committed to locking poor children out of those schools if it takes a dime away from funds for failing, unionized public schools.)
Gingrich summarizes that in Baltimore, and many other progressive-led cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and New York, bad leadership policies have “trapped people in dependency, killed small businesses in favor of bureaucracy, and favored unionized workers over children. The result has been a 50-year disaster which no liberal Democrat is prepared to analyze honestly.”
Problem one in Baltimore is the rotten core of progressive leadership (or lack of it).
Negative Factor Two – Family Breakdown
The other major factor in the chaos, crime, and rottenness of progressively-led cities in America is the tragic breakdown of the African-American family. Whereas relatively intact black families were the norm in this nation all the way up to the 1960s, that is no longer the case.
Seventy percent of black children are born out of wedlock. Seven out of ten black teenage girls get pregnant and don’t graduate from high school. The “fathers” don’t take responsibility and split the scene. The single parent homes go on welfare. Crime increases in the neighborhood as fatherless children join the gangs to find “family” and peddle drugs to survive.
No one in America has been a clearer voice on the tragic breakdown of the black family that Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, anchor of the number one cable news show in America, “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Please take time to watch this short video. No one says it plainer than Bill.
The stunning collapse of the African-American family has produced poverty, bad neighborhoods, and rotten cities where it’s easy to light a match of racism or any other grievance and watch the culture go up in smoke.
Two human resources are rotting Baltimore’s core: Broken families and bad leadership.
So who is your friend?
The person who is the answer to all human needs is Jesus Christ, the God-man, who not only died for our sins but sends his Holy Spirit to live inside of those who turn and become reconciled to God.
God in us provides the will to reject violence and hatred; Christ in our hearts gives us the power to create strong and healthy families; God’s grace in our lives lifts us out of despair and poverty; Christ-centered leaders enact and enforce good laws that create security for people, good schools for children, jobs for the industrious and deterrents for criminals.
How does Jesus accomplish this? Through his people–the Church–who rise up like the morning sun to bless the city through their prayers, evangelism, charity, acts of service, and leadership
Followers of Jesus in Baltimore–this is your kairos moment. Flood the streets with God’s grace, justice and goodness and pray that the Lord of the harvest will make Baltimore a “city on a shining hill.”
[An encouragement from Steve Hall, Northwest Prayer Leader:
Tearing Down America
It’s been an interesting week of presidential announcements. Hillary Clinton tweeted her presidential run then gaffed badly that she’s “fought women and children all her life.” Maybe that was an honest statement if you consider her views on abortion.
Marco Rubio also jumped into the race as a fresh, young, and articulate US Senator. If either he or Ted Cruz is elected to our highest office, they will make history as the nation’s first Hispanic president.
We certainly need a fresh leader for a hopeful future—not a return or carry-over from the past. In fact the next president will face a daunting assignment.
Stopping the tearing down of America.
If the present administration has succeeded at anything, it has been to greatly accelerate the tearing down of a once great nation. Now that we are heading into the seventh year of the Obama administration, and he is no longer running for office, it much easier to look at the president’s record and understand what he really meant when he said he wanted to “fundamentally change America.”
I will not judge his heart. Only God knows it. But the Bible is very clear that people are “known by their fruits.” Based on that wise axiom, what is the actual legacy of the Barack Obama presidency?
Instead of America being built up, we are in the process of being torn down. From a polling standpoint, nothing indicates this more than the steady reading that 70% of Americans believe that we are going in the wrong direction and only 30% believe we are headed the right way. This statistic has held constant for the majority of the Obama years.
Regardless of his motivation or desires, this means that Americans believe that we are being “torn down” not “built up.”
How so?
Using a preacher’s method of a three-point sermon where the words all start with the same first letter, let’s look at three critical areas of American life that the current administration is inadvertently or consciously tearing down.
Moral Tear Down
As a spiritual leader, this one is the most important to me because morality, which comes primarily from faith in God, leads to freedom or liberty which in turn brings blessing to a family, neighborhood, city of nation.
The Obama Administration has been the greatest accelerator of immorality in the history of our country, and that’s probably for two reasons: 1) Barack Obama was elected at time when powerful immoral forces in this nation were gaining momentum in the culture, and 2) Our president is primarily a secular man who pays lip service to biblical faith, but actively promotes secular values.
Now that the election gig is over, and he is free to be himself, we are witnessing a breathtaking assault on the traditional biblical values that made America unique in world history. The tearing down includes:
- The assault on children via abortion. Barack Obama is only the third president in all of American history who is pro-abortion, and the only one who radically championed late term abortions while in the Illinois Senate. Baby-killing has become passé and even applauded during the Obama years. Hillary Clinton, beholden to NARAL and Emily’s List, would do the same.
- The destruction of the five thousand year biblical covenant of marriage—the only American president to do so after he lied about changing his mind. In the Clinton roll-out video, she jumped on the same theme—which will further destroy the nuclear family in America.
- The failure of our nation’s first black president to mobilize the black community to rebuild the African-American family. This is such a tragic loss. Barack Obama could have been the man to call black dads home and encourage African American women to avoid pregnancy without marriage. Instead, he played the race card for years while black families disintegrate at mind-numbing speed.
- Opening our porous southern border for criminals, gangs, terrorists, and even unattended children simply for the sake of gaining Democratic votes. Immigration chaos is truly a moral issue that is destroying the social fabric of many cities and states.
Monetary Tear Down
The crony capitalist redistributive policies of the current Administration have soared the national debt to over eighteen TRILLION dollars, failed to create good wage jobs in a sputtering economy, and placed put a huge regulatory drag on the United States economy.
Obamacare is not only a health care disaster, but a huge noose on families, businesses, invention and innovation—and one of the most deceptive taxes ever foisted on the American people. And its enforcement agents are the hated IRS.
Barack Obama is primarily a statist who does not believe in liberty and free markets. His environmental policies torpedoed the Keystone Pipeline for no good reason and have not allowed America to become energy independent—a crucial position to hold in the 21st century. Instead, hopes of windmills and failed electric cars have put the brakes on one of our country’s most dynamic sectors—the new fossil-fuel explosion. All that’s been “renewed” in America has been our dependency on foreign oil and loss of clean coal jobs.
At best, America is treading water as we head toward a debt cliff. At worst, we are speeding toward the greatest economy collapse in the history of the world—driven by a man who little about lean budgeting, judicious use of debt and job creation.
Military Tear Down
Maybe the most glaring tear down of American society that has occurred under the Obama watch has been down-sizing and demoralizing of the United States military. Though the Bush invasion of Iraq can be argued both ways, no one can argue that when George Bush left office, Iraq was stable, our US forces were extended but strong, and the most volatile part of the world, the Middle East, was under control.
Not anymore. The Middle East is burning and in turmoil:
- Barack Obama failed to support the freedom movement in Iran in 2009. Now we are pushed around by genocidal and terror-supporting ayatollahs and are on the verge of allowing the world’s most powerful terrorist state to develop a nuclear weapon. If you were committed to ushering in Armageddon or World War III, there is no more helpful thing you could be doing right now than being taken to the cleaners by Iranian diplomats.
- With Hillary Clinton’s approval, we toppled the Gadaffi government in Libya, allowed our ambassador to be killed, and now chaos reigns in that nation.
- We said that Yemen was a “model” of our policy to reform the Middle East, and now it looks more like the Middle Ages than a stable part of the Middle East.
- Hundreds of thousands of people have died and been displaced in Syria and Iraq. By bringing our troops home too early, we released the draconian serpent of Isis to behead Christians and quickly become the new Nazis on the planet.
- We antagonized our friends (Israel) and have emboldened our enemies (Jihadists).
- Our American military is said to be at the lowest point of morale in a generation due to our feckless policies of appeasement, experimenting with sexual rights on the battle field, and telling our courageous chaplains to stop talking about God.
Morally, monetarily, and militarily the American nation is being systematically torn down. It would be easy to blame that breakdown on our leaders at the top. There’s just one problem.
We voted for them–twice.
It’s time to pray. It’s time to repent. It’s time to choose new leadership that will build up our nation, not tear it down.
The Half Truths That Fuel Islam and the Way to Reform It
Take a moment and think about how a lie works.
Most lies are not brazen rejections of truth. If they were, they would be easily rejected by most people’s common sense.
No, the power of a lie is that it usually takes a half truth (which draws you in) and then mix it with error.
That’s what the serpent did when he lured Adam and Eve into the Fall. He said something that was true (“knowing good and evil”) and wrapped it with an untruth (“You certainly won’t die!”). They bought that lie and the world was changed (Genesis 3:1-6)
Islam is also based on a number of half truths. Therein lies its power and attraction.
How can it be reformed?
My new book–The River of God–which should be out this year, has some detailed chapters on both the history and principles of the religion of Islam. The research included reading the Koran all the way through for the second time in my life.
This made it clear to me why so many people–1.2 billion–have been drawn into the “tent” of this monotheistic faith. Islam is built on a number of half truths, which seen by themselves, can be quite convincing. This is especially true of the jihadist version which is gaining momentum and converts in various parts of the world.
We all know that radical Islam is exploding in the Middle East. The White House recently convened a summit of Muslim leaders to discuss that topic and what to do about it. Some believe that Islam can be reformed and that the attraction of it can be changed.
But how?
This can only be done through exposing the half truths upon which this religious/political force rests and calling people out into the light.
So what are the half truths upon which the House of Islam stands? I only have space to mention a few:
1. There is only one God and his name is Allah.
Yes, it is true that there is only one True God who made the heavens and the earth. It is also true that “Allah” is a generic term for the Supreme Deity just as in English we used the term “God” or in Spanish they have “Dios.”
So far so good. There is only one God and he should be worshipped.
But the “Allah” of the Koran is a warring God who condones the killing of innocents to advance his worship. He is arbitrary, cannot be known, a single entity and distant to mankind. All those traits are lies.
The real “Allah” is none of the above. His moral essence is love, his Being is Triune (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), and he is knowable and personal to those who come into an intimate relationship with Him.
2. Mohammed is his prophet.
Mohammed of Arabia was a religious man and a very strong leader. He spoke against the gross idolatry of his time and called his followers to worship the only God. That part is true.
But he was not a true prophet of God as evidenced by the errors, mistakes and distortions in the Koran. Actually, he was a marauding thief who stole from others for a living and justified the use of violence for his own purposes. He was a grossly immoral man and possibly a pedophile. He is not worthy of following or emulating.
3. Submission to God is the way of life.
Islam means “submission” and the message of the jihadists is that people need to submit their lives to God. So far, so good. The Bible teaches a similar truth that salvation comes when we submit our wills in faith to the God who loves us and died for our sins.
Islam leaves out that last sentence. Submission in Islam is to a warring and vengeful Being and the means of submission can include coercion, tribute, and death to those who refuse.
That part is the lie. True submission to God is voluntary, prompted by God and motivated by love. It is never forced or true love is not involved.
4. Jesus is a major Prophet who will return one day.
Jesus the Messiah is mentioned prominently in the Koran. Many truths are stated about him including his virgin birth, his ability to do miracles, and his Second Coming. In fact, Isa (Jesus in Arabic) is one of the most frequent figures mentioned in the recitations of Mohammed.
However, the most crucial things about Jesus Christ are left out of the Islamic writings. Muslims are told that Jesus was not the Son of God, he did not die on the cross of the sins of the world, and that he is not the King of kings and Lord of Lords who will be revealed at his Second Advent.
These omissions make the Muslim concept of Jesus a lie. To them, he is not “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
He is. (I AM)
5. God’s Kingdom will be global and all people will worship Him.
One of the great draws of Islam is its global vision of conquering the world. Muslims have a view of a changed and worshipping planet that ushers in a new era that includes the return of Jesus.
In this sense, Muslims are true progressives. The world is progressing toward the universal rule of God.
However, the means to get there–violence and death to all non-believers–is a Satanic lie. Yes, God’s kingdom is growing in all the earth but it is doing so through loving persuasion and mercy, not cruel beheadings, burning people alive, and raping young girls.
This fruit of Islam reveals its origins–the pit of hell. But its drawing power lies in the vision of a worldwide caliphate and eventual Heavenly kingdom.
There are other half truths in Islam that could be mentioned. But these five give you are idea of the power of this false religion. When you call people to submit to God, mention Jesus, share vision for a world wide kingdom and promise heaven for martyrs, that’s powerful stuff. In fact, compared to the emptiness and bankruptcy of immoral Western culture, it actually looks quite attractive.
No wonder thousands are joining the global jihad and even Western women are leaving their families to become “jidahi brides.” The power of Islamic vision is, in many ways, more potent than the decadent West.
But it is based on a lie (many half truths).
On the other hand, some Islamic ideas are full lies, not even half baked. Here are two examples.
The Koran completely leaves out the concept of blood sacrifice needed to atone for sin. Since the dawn of time, fallen human beings have been aware of their guilt (sin), and known that something else dying in our place is essential to repentance and forgiveness. The Koran is completely silent on this subject as if sin didn’t exist and sacrifice is not necessary.
The Bible teaches us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). The greatest loving act of all time and eternity is the Son of God dying on the cross for the sins of the world (John 3:16).
The truth contains Good News! Islam is silent on how salvation has been achieved.
Another completel lie of Islam is the place it gives to women. They are treated as property and second-class citizens, not allowed to be educated, and have no real hope of heaven. That is hideous and false. All women and men are made in God’s image and co-heirs of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7).
So how can Islam be reformed?
I believe it can be done through the following actions:
1. Freedom-loving nations must mobilize and defeat the jihadists just as they did the Nazis in WWII. We need to pray for modern Roosevelts and Churchills to replace the present-day Chamberlains that are too ignorant or timid to defeat evil.
2. We need to care for people entrapped in the Islamic lie, convince them of the truth about God, and see them converted into his kingdom of light and love.
3. We must convince individual Muslims and whole Islamic nations that Isa, not Mohammed, is the only one worth trusting and emulating.
4. We must bring the Muslim world to trust the Bible and reject the Koran and sharia law.
5. We must shout on the housetops that the True Allah is the Loving Triune God!
6. We need to demonstrate that men and women can only be saved through faith in Isa, and not by their good works.
7. We must liberate Muslim women through a message of equality and dignity that is found in Christ.
8. We must call all Muslims to humble submission to the God who loved them enough to die for their sins.
Reforming Islam is a tall order. The half truths must be shredded and the whole truth proclaimed.
But in the coming days and years it can be done through the grace and power of Isa the Messiah.