“Now, I know that someday I am going to come to what some people will say is the end of this life. They will probably put me in a box and roll me right down here in front of the church, and some people will gather around, and a few people will cry. But I have told them not to do that because I don’t want them to cry. I want them to begin the service with the Doxology and end with the Hallelujah chorus, because I am not going to be there, and I am not going to be dead. I will be more alive than I have ever been in my life, and I will be looking down upon you poor people who are still in the land of dying and have not yet joined me in the land of the living. And I will be alive forevermore, in greater health and vitality and joy than ever, ever, I or anyone has known before.”

D. James Kennedy, Ph.D., from the website of Evangelism Explosion, which Kennedy founded. The site also has a video memorial tribute and timeline on this amazing man’s life.

Dobson calls late pastor “a giant in the battle to restore traditional values in our nation”

  We certainly echo the statement of Dr. Dobson below. Dr. Kennedy’s worldly detractors — focused as they are on politics — most likely are unfamiliar with his true passion of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through his entrepreneurial genius — and programs like Evangelism Explosion — he made it easier for millions of believers to share the truth of God’s gracious way to heaven, where Dr. Kennedy surely is today. — Peter LaBarbera

Focus on the Family Statement

Dr. Dobson Remembers D. James Kennedy

Calls late pastor “a giant in the battle to restore traditional values in our nation”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 5, 2007

Colorado Springs, Colo. — Focus on the Family founder and Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., issued the following statement today upon learning of the death of Dr. D. James Kennedy:

“The Church has lost one of its truly significant figures, and American families have lost one of their most passionate, effective defenders. For decades, Dr. Kennedy has been a passionate defender of biblical truth in a culture that increasingly forgot it. He was a giant in the battle to restore traditional values in our nation.

“Most importantly, I believe, Dr. Kennedy would want to be remembered as a man whose greatest desire was to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Believers around the world are indebted to him for holding firm to that important calling.”

###

Contact: Eric McCoy, assistant to the director, Coalition of Conscience, 704-782-3760, emccoy@fire-school.org. The following is Coalition of Conscience’s press release:  

Can You Be Gay and Christian?

Evangelical Christian Leader in Charlotte Invites Local Gay Clergy to Participate in a Public Dialogue on the Bible and Homosexual Practice

CHARLOTTE, NC, August 22 /Christian Newswire/ — Dr. Michael L. Brown, director of the Coalition of Conscience, has extended an invitation to Charlotte’s gay clergy to participate in a public dialogue on Thursday night, September 20th, from 7:00-9:30 PM. The event will be hosted by FIRE Church, located at 4323 Concord Pkwy S., Concord, North Carolina.

Brown said he was prompted to call for this public dialogue after reading an article in Q-Notes, the gay newspaper of the Carolinas, which stated that Pride Charlotte would feature a “Booth of Truth” that would offer “truthful, gay affirming information about spirituality.”

Said Brown, “This is a highly divisive issue that is of paramount importance to tens thousands of Christians in the greater Charlotte area, and it’s about time that we bring the relevant issues to light in a mutually respectful, Christlike manner. Hopefully, clergy in the gay and lesbian community will be willing to come out on this issue too.”

DATE CHANGE FOR AFTAH BANQUET!

 Charlene Cothran and David Parker: two heroes for truth coming to Chicago.

Folks, you won’t want to miss Americans For Truth’s first annual banquet, on Friday, Oct. 5 at 6:00 PM, outside Chicago, Illinois. This surely will be one of the most compelling and exciting evenings for defending truth in the area of homosexuality that you will ever experience!

Our dynamic speakers represent both sides of pro-family advocacy on this issue: the loving Gospel message of hope through Christ in overcoming unwanted same-sex desires — and the bold defense of truth in the public square, in this case parents’ right to protect their children from manipulative, pro-homosexual lessons in taxpayer-funded public schools. Here are the details:

WHAT: Americans For Truth Dinner Banquet: Celebrating Truth and the Freedom to Be Moral

 

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 5: Silent Auction 6:00 PM, Dinner 6:45 PM

 

WHERE: Lombard, Illinois, west of Chicago, location TBA; call AFTAH’s Banquet Coordinator at 312-315-6152 for information on room reservations for those coming from out of state. (It is easy to get cheap flights into Chicago’s O’Hare or Midway airports.)

 

WHO:  Keynote Speakers:

Charlene Cothran
Former lesbian who, after her dramatic Christian conversion, retooled her Venus Magazine from a publication for fellow “gay and lesbian” African Americans to a Christian magazine seeking to help men and women overcome homosexuality through Christ 

 

David Parker
Caring father who became a nationally known parents’ rights crusader after being arrested at his 1st-grade son’s Lexington, Mass., elementary school for insisting that he and his wife be notified before their son was exposed to any pro-homosexual teachings

ADMISSION:  $50 per person; table of ten, $500. Pay online HERE.

 

PAYMENT AND RESERVATIONS:  E-mail Americans For Truth at americansfortruth@comcast.net; or call AFTAH’s Banquet Coordinator at 312-315-6152 to reserve your seats. SEATING IS LIMITED SO DON’T DELAY.  Pay using your credit card using AFTAH’s new and improved Online Donation Page (designate “Banquet” in the comments section). Or send checks payable to “Americans For Truth” at $50/person to: AFTAH, P.O. Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522.  You may also pay by credit card by calling 312-315-6152.  

 

WHY:  At this special event, pro-family leaders will celebrate God’s power to transform men and women struggling with homosexuality; and expose the relentless attack on children’s innocence, parental rights and religious freedom by a “gay/transgender” lobby that seeks to discredit and silence the voice of faith in America.   

By Dr. Peter Jones

Published by CWIPP, Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet

In 1974, when I left the States to teach in “godless” France, the cultural revolution was a Left coast/San Fran’ phenom’, and America was still “Christian.” When I returned in 1991, I was in for culture shock, but still never imagined what lay ahead.

One man warned us. In 1978, Pastor Charles Mcllhenny recorded his experiences after his church fired a homosexual organist (When the Wicked Seize a City). Church property was repeatedly vandalized and his family almost killed by a firebomb. “Law enforcement” never found the culprits. Mcllhenny used San Francisco as a striking example of what America might become. Are we “goin’ to San Francisco?” as the 60s hit song asked?

If you think the homosexual activist movement and liberal media are going to lay off churches and religious groups as they promote legal rights based on homosexual sexual behavior and gender confusion (“transgender rights”), read this terrific piece by Paul Edwards.

By all indications, High Point Church in Arlington, Texas, had the right balance of love/compassion and Biblical truth, but it didn’t matter: the pro-homosexuality crowd and “mainstream” media still went after them. (Even FoxNews.com misled readers with its headline for the story.) Here is the church’s official statement on the Cecil Sinclair affair.

TAKE ACTION by CLICKING HERE to send the church a supportive e-mail and by sharing this story with your family, friends, pastor, priest or religious authority to educate them on the threat that pro-“gay” activism poses to people of faith and our freedoms.– Peter LaBarbera

__________________________

From radio talk show host Paul Edwards’ “God and Culture” blog:

The Gay Vet Memorial Flap: It’s the Lifestyle, Stupid!

By Paul Edwards

Posted August 14, 2007

The Main Stream Media wants you to believe that a conservative evangelical church deep in the Bible belt has refused to bury a Gulf War veteran because he was gay. Some in the Christian media want you to believe that the church hasn’t shown the love of Jesus to a dead man’s family. Neither is anywhere near the truth.

Here are the facts. High Point Church, a non-denominational church in Arlington, Texas, had been praying for Cecil Sinclair after Cecil’s brother, Lee (the only member of the Sinclair family who was a member of the church) requested prayer for his brother who had been awaiting a heart transplant. When Cecil Sinclair’s health became critical last week, the family called a staff member from the church to be with them at the hospital. In the hospital, in the moments immediately following Mr. Sinclair’s death, the family asked the staff member if the church would be open to holding a memorial service for their loved one. The staff member assured them the church would be available to help the family in any way appropriate, a response any pastor would give in that situation.

Cecil Sinclair was not a member of High Point Church, yet this church selflessly and sacrificially ministered to his family in the wake of his death, preparing and delivering food for the family and one hundred relatives and friends, along with many other expressions of kindness. The church offered to produce a video retrospective of Mr. Sinclair’s life for use during the memorial service. When the family provided the pictures to the church it was then that the church learned of their intention to make the memorial service a celebration of Cecil Sinclair’s gay lifestyle. One of the photos provided by the family “showed a man with his hand touching another man’s genitalia,” along with other inappropriate photos, according to a statement on the High Point Church website.

“If you hear of a brand or sect of Lutherans who are embracing wickedness and evil, look for the ELCA label.” — Mike Hein 

By Mike Hein, Christian Civic League of Maine

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s (ELCA) recent affirmation of its acceptance of homosexuality in its clergy is beyond unfortunate.  It’s beyond wrong. 

It is apostasy, pure and simple.  And it isn’t appreciated by this Bible-believing Lutheran.

I am a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), and a former member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).  As such, I can state with certainty that what the ELCA has been doing for years now, and what it continues to do, is not in the tradition of Martin Luther, the great Christian Reformer.

ELCA members are not in fellowship with the Missouri Synod or Wisconsin Synod Lutherans, and ELCA members are not recognized as Lutherans by either of these two more conservative, Bible-based denominations.  Nor are we in fellowship with Druids, Wiccans, New Age spiritualists, or any other non-Christian belief.  In reality, ELCA members are seen as little more than pagan deists by true Lutherans.

Statement by High Point Church in Dallas, Texas

Mr. Cecil Sinclair was not a member of High Point Church. Neither was anyone in his family except for the deceased’s brother, Lee Sinclair who is an employee of the church.

Lee recently requested the church to pray for his brother who was ill. The church prayed for Mr. Sinclair both enthusiastically and faithfully.

Lee called an employee of the church to inform him that his brother was in the hospital in critical condition. When the High Point Church employee arrived at the hospital, Mr. Sinclair had already passed. The church employee reached out to the family and tried to comfort them the best he could. The church did offer the family, free of charge, the use of its facility for the memorial service. It was not clear at this time that the family desired a memorial service that would openly celebrate the homosexual lifestyle of Mr. Sinclair.

The family requested that the church produce a video of Mr. Sinclair’s life for the memorial service. When the photos were presented to the church the day before the scheduled memorial service, there were some inappropriate images that alerted the church to the homosexuality of Mr. Sinclair. One photo showed a man with his hand touching another man’s genitalia. The phrase “like hugs and kisses” used by a staff member to describe to the pastor the blatant homosexual reference was mild at best.

The family desired an associate of an openly homosexual choir to officiate the service and for the choir to sing. They also desired an open microphone format to allow anyone in attendance to speak. High Point Church ministers would not be directing or have control over what was said or emphasized. It became clear to the church staff that the family was requesting an openly homosexual service at High Point Church – which is not our policy to allow.

The decision was made to retract the offer to host the memorial service based on the fact that the service requested would be an openly homosexual service celebrating the homosexual lifestyle. It is important to emphasize that this was not a funeral service with a body to be buried, but a memorial service. The family was informed of the decision.

The decision had nothing to do with the fact that Mr. Sinclair was a veteran. High Point does now, and has always, supported our men and women in the military. This decision was not based on hate, or discrimination, but upon principle and policy.