Coach Daubenmire: Sheep without Shepherds

Folks, I think the world of Coach Dave Daubenmire, who is sounding the clarion call for American pastors to get out of the stands and become powerful players in the “Culture War.” We need God-fearing men of God to be engaged in this titanic struggle for the soul of our nation. Also, have you noticed what issue never seems to surface in the presidential campaign and the media coverage of it? Yep, America’s deep moral crisis. I suppose we should expect practicing homosexuals to defend perversion and gender confusion, and (most) politicians and corporate execs to act like cowards by appeasing vocal “gay” activists and their secular media allies. But is it asking too much of our pastors — I’m talking the Bible-believing ones, not the spiritual quislings — to boldly speak the Truth to our decadent culture that denies God by advancing hedonistic “lifestyles” and ungodly, counterfeit legal “rights” that will assuredly be used to persecute … the Church? — Peter LaBarbera

Sheep Without Shepherds
By Dave Daubenmire, Pass the Salt Ministries

“…and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

There is no law in America any more. Now, don’t take that the wrong way. There are plenty of LAWS in America, but there is no law.

Lex Rex is an old legal term which translated from the Latin means simply “the Law is King.” It is the premise upon which all natural law and our American Constitutional Republic was formed. No one is above the law and natural laws cannot be altered.

But recently in America we have seen this premise turned on its head. No longer “Lex Rex, the law is king,” but now “Rex Lex the king is law” is the prevailing system in our once-great republic. Our political leaders destroy the foundations of the nation by changing the laws to legalize the current most-popular sin.

“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) Jesus is no longer King over America. Without Him and His Precepts there is no law. Although we no longer live under a king we are far removed from the Republic that our Founders gave us. They rebelled over a tax on tea for heaven’s sake!

But the thought of disobeying government is almost anathema to the Church Leadership today. Slowly but surely the chains of government are being forged for American Christianity and hardly a whimper from the “men of the cloth.”

“Romans 13 commands us to obey the government, Coach,” they tell me all of the time. “Really?” I ask. “Why is it some of the great heroes of the Bible are those who refused to follow unrighteous leaders and unrighteous decrees?” Have you considered Moses and Pharaoh, Daniel and King Darius, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Nebuchadnezzar? Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, much of it from jail. Jesus himself rebelled against the Jewish authorities of His day. It cost him his life.

When will the American Church leadership say, “Enough is Enough?”

I just recently returned from another “Shake The Nation” seminar in Idaho. We travel the country trying to awaken Christians to what is happening around us and our need to engage the culture. My friend, Tom Munds, spent three months organizing the event in Boise. He sent out fliers, visited churches, met pastors, advertised on radio and in print, using his own money. After the event, the reaction was the same as everywhere we go.

“My goodness,” the attendees say. “Where are our pastors? Why aren’t they telling us this stuff? We have to do something. There are more Christians than there are any other faith.”

And what is it we are telling them when we hold a seminar?

• Abortion is Murder.
• Homosexuality and divorce are sin.
• Our schools have become Secular-Humanist factories.
• Our rights are God-given, not government-granted.
• God is King…..your government is not.
• Judgment begins in the house of God.
• It is our job to fight for Truth.
• American Christianity has lost His Salty Savor.

The pastors never come. The sheep innately know something is terribly wrong but can’t put a finger on the problem. We expose the Devil’s game-plan and their eyes become opened, but they have no where to turn. “I wish my pastor was here.”

But the shepherds won’t come. They are afraid of what they might hear. Christianity is an army without generals.

It reminds me of the monkeys….hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil…maybe if they just ignore it, it will all just go away. Well, the foundations of this nation are crumbling. We ignore it at our own peril. Can you say “California Supreme Court”?

“Those issues are political,” our religious leaders say. “Those issues are religious,” our political leaders say, each lacking the courage to do what must be done.

You see, our pastors love to shepherd in the safety of the sheep-pen, but they have a Pilate’s-basin approach to the land where the wolves roam. America needs her shepherds out in the streets. That is where the wolves are trolling, but the shepherds think commentating on the battle is the same as engaging in it. Howard Cosell spoke of the battle, Muhammad Ali engaged in it. Which one was known as “The Greatest”?

Take it from me, when you stand-up and speak-up you’d better be prepared to duck. The enemy doesn’t play fair — they play to win. The IRS, media bombardment, character assassination, and lawsuits are just a few of the arrows sure to fly your way. Remember, opposition is the sign of progress. Shepherds are supposed to be brave enough to fight but we don’t see them out much, so we know they’re not guarding what has been given to them. They spend their time preparing sermons about sin, instead of leading an army to fight it.

So, I look at what is going on with the Judicial Tyranny in the State of California and I wonder when will “the church of Gulliver” arise? How long will righteousness continue to be tied down by the black-robed Lilliputians? Could it be that the Lord is allowing all of these things to come upon us to get His Body to stand up and fight?

Over the past eight years I have spent a lot of time defending the faith the best I know how. I have seen victory after victory slip from our hands because the “men of the cloth” were AWOL on the field of battle. I have traveled the land and personally witnessed:

Judge Roy Moore stand for the Ten Commandments only to be called a law-breaker and be abandoned by the shepherds when he was hauled off of the bench that he’d been elected to by the People.

Terri Schiavo being murdered as the “shepherds” fed their flock in the safety of their sanctuaries. Instead of fighting for her life they encouraged folks to “get a living will.”
Women go into abortion mills as pastors drive by on their way to their Saturday morning tee-time.

Sodomy legalized. Gambling legalized. Divorce legalized. Homosexual “marriage” legalized. All by judges who have no right to legislate and legislators who forget that they work “for the people.”

Homosexuality celebrated in government schools. A teacher ordered to remove a Bible from his desk. Christianity stripped from the schools of this nation while the pastors support the un-Godly institution. Children snatched from their homes by “government social services.”

The pulpit silenced by the IRS in fear of losing their tax-exempt status.

So now the Lord brings another opponent our way. Government of the People, by the People, and for the People has been shredded by six Republican-appointed judges in California. The secular pastors are out in the streets praising the “wisdom” of the Court, while Christian pastors are safely secured in their sanctuaries where they curse the darkness of this day rather than being the light from which the evil must flee.

Allow me to repeat what I have said a thousand times. America’s problems are not the politicians; her problems are in the pulpits. Let me prove a point.

Whenever you see a moral issue pop up in this land that is sanctioned by government should you “call your congressman” or your pastor? The correct answer is your pastor. He is supposed to speak for God.

That is why Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against THE CHURCH. There are certain battles mandated by Jesus that the Church must fight. Why should we expect our politicians to stand up for Truth when our pastors won’t? If the pastors would speak, the politicians would begin to dance to a different drummer.

Gates don’t move, they stand. The only way they prevail is if the Lord’s Church doesn’t storm them. Prayer is not enough, it requires action. Prayer is the power; it is the propulsion, the prevailing force through which the physical action is spiritualized.

“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” (2 Cor. 10:4-6)

The gates are the strongholds. Those occupying the gates do not honor God. Believers are called to pull them down, to storm the gates, to avenge all disobedience in our duty to honor God.

“Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” (Martin Luther, 1521) But our sheep have no shepherds. Rather than fighting the wolves they are hiding from them. “I”ll huff and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow the house down.”

No wonder folks are worried about global warming. Prayer without action is nothing more than hot-air!

Coach Dave Daubenmire, founder and President of Pass The Salt Ministries and Minutemen United, is host of the high octane Pass The Salt radio show heard in Columbus, Ohio.

In 1999, Coach Daubenmire was sued by the ACLU for praying with his teams while coaching high school in Ohio. He now spends his energy fighting for Christian principles in the public domain. E-Mail: coach@ptsalt.com.