VOL. XI  NO. 2   NEWS & VIEWS, NOTES & QUOTES, TO WARN & INFORM   January 15, 1994

ALCOHOL 'BENEFITS' ARE A MYTH—A new study by medical researchers in Oregon disputes a recent Harvard report of health benefits from alcohol--that moderate drinking reduces heart attacks. The Oregon study says that alcohol in fact depresses heart function, and says: "Alcohol is a toxic substance--a poison--and shouldn't be used for health."(1/3 H.Times). Misuse of alcohol accounts for 100,000 deaths each year, and about 18 million Americans suffer from alcohol dependency. About 76 million people are affected by alcohol abuse at some time. In 1992, at least 347 of Alabama's 1,031 traffic fatalities, or 34 percent, were attributed to drunk drivers. Alcohol is a killer!

ISLAM GETS AWAY WITH MURDER—Islam is the fastest-growing religion, now at one billion. Nearly 90 percent of converts to Islam in the U.S. are African-American men. At the present rate, major U.S. metro areas will be mainly Islamic by the year 2020. The 11/93 Charisma says 400 Christian churches in London have been converted to Islamic mosques in the last 20 years. Muslims have used petrodollars to expand. Islam retains its people by intimidation. Iran and Saudi Arabia ban all non-Muslim worship, and any Muslim leaving Islam is subject to the death penalty. Muslims in Sudan wage genocidal campaigns against Christians that the international media ignore. In 1992, Saudi Arabia beheaded a convert from Islam who was evangelizing. (12/13 CT). We see a double standard here. Suppose for a moment that the U.S. made Christianity its state religion and executed someone for becoming a Moslem. Imagine the outcry in the UN and world media! Yet, when Christians are persecuted--or even killed--in countries like Saudi Arabia, the silence is deafening (Chr.News).

JESSE JACKSON SPEECHLESS: BABY VS. SLAVEWashington Post columnist Nat Hentoff wrote: "I reminded Jesse Jackson awhile ago that when he was a spellbinding pro-lifer, he used to liken the claim of ownership of the unborn child to the slave-owning plantation owner who said he could do anything he liked with his property. Jackson did not deny having said that, but, looking uncomfortable, he said nothing more to me." (10/1 CACC). Liberals are silent about abortion murders.

GAYS ARE AN OPPRESSED POWERLESS MINORITY?—Homosexual activists portray homosexuals as a poor, powerless minority who lack traditional civil rights. In reality they demand government-enforced special privileges to gain acceptance for their dangerous perversion, which spreads AIDS across our land. College campuses now accept and greet homosexuals with outstretched arms. Politicians cave in to their clout. Hollywood, the media, and the judiciary enforce their "politically correct" agenda. In 1993 the top six gay lobbies raised over $12.5 million. They have less family responsibilities, and thus have large discretionary incomes. The average homosexual earns $55,430 per year, compared to $32,144 for heterosexuals (10/30 World). Homosexuals contributed heavily to President Clinton's campaign, and he has appointed at least 17 open homosexuals to political positions. So why do we need to pass further special legislation for this "oppressed" minority?

GOVERNMENT EDUCATION A TOTAL DISASTER—America's education system has collapsed. Multiculturalism and self-esteem have replaced knowledge as the goals of education. Little children are taught to despise their country for killing Indians and ruining the planet. High schoolers are the civilized world's worst science and math students, yet such is the power of the system's "self-esteem" training that they believe they are the best. Instead of working to improve the schools, the teachers' unions spend their energies protecting incompetent employees and furthering their leftist political agendas. And the universities have become bastions of political correctness, despising Shakespeare for his sexism while lauding banal works written by third-world lesbians and other certified "victims." (9/93 Heritage Foundation letter). O.B.E. "reform" is not the answer.

A CHARISMATIC ROCK CONCERT—Tim Stafford in the 11/22 Chr. Today reports on a Jesus Northwest music festival in Vancouver, Wash. Tim LaHaye is a speaker at most of these, and in 1992 was joined by Tony Campolo and Mike Warnke. It's mostly a weekend of one rock band after another all day, and Stafford said: "The rockier the band, the more they like it." Other quotes: "Contemporary Christian music [CCM] dates from the Jesus movement of the 1970s...CCM lets a kid be different without being weird. Stylistically, CCM is derivative: whether it's rap or heavy metal or pop, the music is indistinguishable from its secular counterpart, except for the lyrics...Christian stations, which once played only music with Christian lyrics, now play romantic [rock] music if it's recorded by a known Christian (e.g., Amy Grant)...CCM became a business headquartered in Nashville...The goal of the record companies is to make money, and if you have a great ministry, that doesn't bother them at all...Gyrating teens, purple fog, [rock] music--and they call it ministry."

LUIS PALAU IS AN ECUMENICAL EVANGELIST—Luis Palau, "the Billy Graham of Latin America," is a graduate and board member of Multnomah School of the Bible. Multnomah was heavily involved in Billy Graham's 9/92 Portland Crusade which had typical Catholic-liberal-charismatic involvement (8/15/92 CC). Palau's crusades feature similar unholy amalgams. (See 3/15/93 CC concerning Palau's Jamaica Crusade). The 10/31/92 Az. Republic said, of his Phoenix Crusade: "Luis Palau likes to preach to the things Protestants and Catholics have in common." Rappers were his biggest draw to this crusade's youth night, and had teens clapping their hands and dancing.

CATHOLIC SEX SCANDAL A TOP 1993 STORY—Religious News Service ranked Catholic clergy sexual abuse as the second top religion story of 1993 (Waco, first). James Porter, a former RC priest, was convicted of abusing dozens of children, and sentenced to 18-20 years in prison. Eleven Franciscan friars at a now-closed California seminary sexually molested dozens of students over 20 years. Robert Sanchez (New Mexico) resigned as Catholic archbishop after accused of sex with five women. A Chicago Cardinal denied charges that he sexually abused a young man in the 1970s who is suing him. RC priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley says sex abuse of minors by Catholic clergy is widespread in the U.S., involving between 2,000 and 4,000 priests, and victims well in excess of 100,000 (4/3 HT). He said the cost of treatment, lawyers and liability settlements is $50 million a year and rising. Bishops have covered up many abuses. Rome's unscriptural "forbidding to marry" (1Tim. 4:3) teaching assuredly contributes to sexual abuse.

FULLER STUDENTS PROTEST MOUW INSTALLATION—Forty Fuller Seminary students wore black arm bands and walked out of the Nov. 8 installation of Fuller President Richard J. Mouw. Chinese seminarians, upset by the invitation to Bishop K. H. Ting, coordinated the protest. Ting is Red China's top religious leader and is under the control of the communist government. He is a master deceiver and the apostate World Council of Churches admitted his China Christian Council as a WCC member at its last meeting. Fuller no longer affirms Biblical inerrancy, promotes feminist theology, charismatics and liberals.

PEALE DEAD AT 95—Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, "who blended Christian and psychiatric principles" into a message of "positive thinking," died Christmas Eve at age 95 (12/26 HT). He and wife Ruth started Guideposts magazine in 1945. Ruth was elected VP of the United Bible Societies in 1984.His 1952 "Power of Positive Thinking" book sold nearly 20 million copies. Peale was a 33rd degree Mason and a liberal who denied key Bible doctrines (See 10/1/90 CC), such as the necessity of the new birth and the Virgin Birth. He said the latter was "some theological idea" of no importance to salvation. His "Positive Imaging" book teaches visualization and other occultic/New Age ideas. Peale's most famous protege is Robert Schuller who says Christ died to sanctify our self-esteem. Billy Graham endorsed Peale, and gave his Marble Collegiate Church the most referral cards in his 1957 NY Crusade.

TASSELL RESIGNS AS GARBC NATIONAL REP—We understand from various reports that Dr. Paul Tassell has resigned as National Representative of the General Association of Regular Baptists, effective later this year, due to health reasons. Dr. Glenn Stewart, Jr. chairs a newly-formed search committee to seek a successor.

SWINDOLL RESIGNS HIS CHURCH, TO MOVE TO TENN.—Author and preacher Dr. Charles Swindoll has resigned as senior pastor of First Evangelical Free Church, Fullerton, Calif. He and wife Cynthia plan to move to Tennessee and establish a non-denominational church. One of their children lives in Nashville. They will maintain a second residence in Dallas where Swindoll becomes president of a "kinder, gentler" Dallas Seminary July 1 (see 11/15 CC). He has been somewhat ecumenical, and is not expected to reverse Dallas's new-evangelical direction.

PRESIDENT CLINTON MEETS WITH RELIGIOUS LEADERS—Pres. Clinton and V-P Gore hosted 12 "evangelical" leaders at a private breakfast Oct. 18 in the White House. Included were: Tony Campolo, Bill Hybels, Jack Hayford, Jay Kesler, Roberta Hestenes, Richard Mouw, John Perkins, and Mark Noll. Clinton "spoke of the 'pain' he felt when conservatives attacked his policies." (11/13 World.) Hybels stayed overnight at the White House and helped Clinton set the agenda. Clinton met again Nov.29 for prayer with an inter-faith group of 14 clergy, and to discuss the AIDS crisis. Attendees included evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and Jewish leaders. Ed Dobson, seated at the president's left, led the opening prayer. He prayed that the president "would see the face of human suffering" in the AIDS crisis. He added, "And that was the spirit of the whole meeting." On the president's right, was a "minister" of the homosexual denomination, the Metropolitan Community Church. (12/11 World). Dobson, a former aide to Jerry Falwell, is pastor of Calvary Church of Grand Rapids which hosted the 1988 IFCA convention. (See 8/1 CC concerning his ministry with/to homosexuals.) Clinton's new disgraceful AIDS "Czarina" Kristine Gebbe, a Lutheran who advocates free love, also attended the AIDS-crisis prayer meeting with the President and 14 religious leaders.

VISN/ACTS CHANGES ITS NAME—Southern Baptists in 1992 linked their ACTS TV channel with the Vision Interfaith Satellite Network(9/1/92 CC). The name is now changed to the Faith & Values Channel, and reaches 20 million cable households. VISN is owned by a consortium of 59 Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish groups (12/11 HT). Bible-believing Southern Baptists are wrong to identify with cults (Mormons, Catholics, SDAs, etc.) and liberals.

MORMONISM IS A CULT—Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist (for Ariz. Republic) Steve Benson, grandson of 94-year-old Mormon prophet Ezra Taft Benson, has resigned from the Mormon Church (11/22 CT). Mormonism, with its peculiar doctrines of men and women becoming gods and goddesses, baptism for the dead, eternal marriage, polygamy, Jesus and devil being spirit-brothers, 'sacred underwear', etc., stands or falls on the testimony of one man, Joseph Smith (3-4/93 The Researcher). It has been shown that Smith gave false prophecies, proving he was a false prophet and exposing Mormonism as a false religion.

MORMON VERSION OF JOHN 3:16—The following is an interpretation/translation of Jn.3:16 based on current Latter Day Saints doctrine: "For the God of this world (one of many) was so indifferent to the world that he sent one of the gods, the Spirit brother of the Devil, a polygamist, the son of fluid or substance to die for certain less serious sins that whatever males would believe in his church would be able to work their way to becoming gods themselves and have their own kingdom."(4/93 The Evangel).

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