Saturday, October 25, 2014

An Appeal to Vote

Please allow me to share a huge burden. From what I have learned this past year, I am convinced that the primary cause of a decline in global baptisms and church growth is an increasingly secular and godless world-wide culture, especially propagated by America’s entertainment industry. I think a Christian has to be a bit naive not to see the bigger spiritual battle that is being fought. In most countries of the world, real Christianity is slowing, if not declining. The exceptions are in remote places that do not yet have access to Hollywood’s culture or in countries like China that largely restrict such cultural influences.

When I came to the Philippines in 1986, America was still considered a Christian country; religious freedoms in the Philippines were more restrictive. Now, religious freedoms are more restrictive in America than here and Christianity there is quickly loosing the culture war. Some examples you may have heard about…

An Idaho minister, Rev. Donald Knapp, is facing up to 180 days in jail and a fine of $1000 per day for violating the state’s new anti-discrimination law because he declined to perform a same-sex wedding ceremony.

Kentucky’s Human Rights Commission has declared that Blaine Adamson, owner of a T-shirt company, broke the law by declining to print shirts promoting the Lexington Gay Pride Festival. He has been ordered to attend “diversity training” and threatened with business closure if he refuses LGBT customers in the future.

A school district in Lincoln, Nebraska, is encouraging teachers to be more inclusive by doing away with gender-specific terms like boy/girl and ladies/gentlemen. Instead, they say, segregate children by whether they prefer skateboards or bikes, or let them make up their own identify like ‘purple penguin’.

A womens’ studies class at the Univ. of Mexico claims to welcome open and dissenting opinions. One student complained about a recent class film showing that glorified lesbianism. She was accused of hate speech and removed from the class.

Because of the Obama’s administrations refusal to acknowledge and fight evil, ISIS terrorists have targeted and killed tens of thousands of Christians in northern Syria and Iraq. The recent air-strikes have done little to stop the terrorists' advance.

The Media Research Center demonstrates with facts that a huge liberal/Democratic bias exists in the news stories from CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS, where up to 90% of their employees identify themselves as either moderates or liberals.

Houston mayor Annise Parker, a professed lesbian, led the city council to pass a transsexual ordinance that allowed, for example, a boy who thinks he’s a girl to use girl’s restrooms. She rejected a legal referendum of over 50,000 signatures who wanted to bring the issue to a vote, and is instead demanding the sermons of pastors, intimidating anyone who speaks against homosexuality.

No one died in the Watergate scandal that brought down a president. But many have died during Obama's presidency from scandals involving the Veterans Affairs, Fast & Furious, the Attorney General’s Office, Benghazi, and Immigration neglect. Yet, with the help of a liberal media, no one is held accountable.

Millions of dollars are given ever year to pro-abortion and pro-homosexual causes by wealthy donors like George Soros, Warren Buffet, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. But a $1,000 donation years ago for traditional marriage by Firefox CEO and co-founder, Brenden Eich, forced his ouster.

Please make your voice heard at the ballot box on Nov. 4. For those who may question me making such an appeal, please understand my burden as a missionary when I see Filipinos, especially the youth, adopting the values of people like Lady Gaga, Ellen DeGeneres, Justin Bieber, and Miley Cirus, and drifting further away from the teachings of Jesus Christ and the truths of Christianity. What is allowed on TV, what is seen in the theater, what is heard on the radio, soon becomes the values of a nation. The moral values we embrace and the political choices we make in America have a huge influence on cultures around the world.

“Righteousness exalts a nation” Prov. 14:34. God has called upon us to be “the light of the world.” May it yet be so.

1 comment:

Janet C Nash said...

Mark, thank you for sharing this on your blog- you are so right. We drift further and further from being a Christian nation- God help us. We, too, are concerned and continue to make this a matter of prayer. May God's richest blessings be yours in the years ahead as you minister in His name.