SURGEON GENERAL WANTS TO LEGALIZE DRUGS?—Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders demands public subsidies for abortions and distribution of condoms in schools where sex education, she says, should be taught to pre-kindergarten children in daycare centers. Now recently she says legalizing drugs might reduce our crime rate. Indeed it might, just as legalizing speeding would reduce traffic violation rates. This is similar to her contorted logic that "we need safer guns, we need safer bullets! But drug prices would plummet, and usage would soar. Drugs can kill both minds and bodies, ruin futures, and increase medical costs and highway deaths. Legalization would be devastating to children born addicted to drugs. In states like New York, up to 50 percent of patients admitted to hospitals through emergency services are mentally ill drug users. (2/10 CVN). Our Surgeon General is advocating dangerous and immoral policies, and may be hazardous to our health.

CHRISTIANITY AND PSYCHOLOGY—Why can't we use the best insights of psychology along with the Bible? Isn't all truth God's truth? The real question is: "Is the Bible sufficient for dealing with our deepest psychological and emotional needs or not? Second Peter 1:3 and 2Tim. 3:16-17 indicate it is. The list of the fruit of the Spirit ("love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" Gal. 5:22-23) describes an emotionally balanced, psychologically stable person. If God's Word and Spirit can produce this, why do we need to turn to worldly psychology? The Bible warns us against turning to the world's "wisdom," since it is opposed to God's wisdom. "But," some counter, "the Bible isn't comprehensive. We use modern medicine; why not use modern psychology?" The answer is that the Bible doesn't claim to be sufficient for dealing with medical problems; but it does claim to be sufficient for dealing with problems of the soul (Gr. psyche). [Adapted from article by Steven J. Cole, PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter]

SO. BAPTISTS PAN CLINTON HEALTH CARE PLAN—The Southern Baptist Convention has outlined a set of principles for health care reform that takes issue with the Clinton proposal to include abortion funding. It says: "It is embarrassing that a president who claims the Baptist heritage of religious freedom would consider so violating the consciences of millions of pro-life Americans by forcing them to pay for abortion with their taxes." (2/7 CN). The 2/7 New Amer. said its special 11/1 issue "provides a comprehensive look at the massive fraud being perpetrated by the Clintons and their media allies in their deceptive crusade to replace the finest, most advanced healthcare system in the world with a socialist system of rationed medicine that will bankrupt the nation while excluding from care those who do not meet the government's 'quality of life' standards."

THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT—Some describe the New Age movement as a revival of ancient occultism and satanism, some see it as a universal religion based on Eastern mysticism and pantheism, while others say it is Western-style Hinduism. Still others will argue that it is a socialistic political movement. In fact, the New Age Movement is "all" the above woven into a philosophy or world-view that is in complete opposition to the Christian world-view (12/93 FWR Rept.). New Age programs are into many U.S. schools, but parents are winning victories against them in some states.

WHAT CAUSES HOMELESSNESS?—"Homelessness...is a condition of disaffiliation, a lack of bonds, a pathology of connectedness, and not an absence of proper housing." (12/1 CC). "[It] isn't the result of a lack of dry, warm abodes in the U.S. It's the result of mental patient deinstitutionalization, de-facto legalization of drug use, elimination of intellectual standards in public education, destruction of urban neighborhoods through infringements on property rights and many other things the Left holds dear."(Amer. Spect.). The homeless need more than a home--they need Christ.

FARRAKHAN REPUDIATED AIDE'S RACIST REMARKS...OR, DID HE?—Bowing to pressure from black and Jewish leaders and from members of Congress, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan condemned the tone of top aide Khalid Abdul Muhammad's racist speech (see 2/15 CC) and demoted him, but did not repudiate the offending message (2/14 USN&WR). He said, "I stand by the truths that he spoke."

NRB '94 REPORT—The National Religious Broadcasters (an arm of the NAE) celebrated its Golden Jubilee in Washington, DC, Jan. 29 - Feb. 1. Pres. Clinton deliberately was not invited to speak, breaking a precedent dating back for over a dozen years. Pro-Catholic ecumenical Charles Colson, of recent Templeton Prize notoriety, was the keynote speaker and was introduced by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Other main speakers included: Tony Evans (IFCA's 1993 Convention speaker), Charles Swindoll, and John Hagee. Other participants/speakers: Campus Crusade's Bill Bright, James Dobson, and Haddon Robinson. Steve Green, The Gaithers, and others performed. Most of the music was "big beat" contemporary. The NRB's prestigious Milestone Award was presented to several groups, including The Voice of Prophecy, a Seventh-day Adventist program! Sponsors of other NRB functions included: Radio Bible Class, Rapha, and American Bible Society. The new NRB chairman is Robert Straton, grandson of 1920s famous fundamentalist John Roach Straton. The NRB continues on a broad road of confusion, compromise, and inclusivism, and speakers with ties to the Catholic Church, the Jewish faith, the NCC/WCC, and the charismatic movement. [Most info for this article came from an excellent, comprehensive first-hand report by ACCC Exec. Sec. Dr. Ralph G. Colas, available for $2 from: ACCC, PO Box 19, Wallingford, PA 19086.]

CAMPUS CRUSADE'S BILL BRIGHT AT NRB—Campus Crusade sponsored an All-Media Breakfast at the recent 50th Annual Convention of the National Religious Broadcasters, at which its president Dr. Bill Bright recounted NRB's major role in the goals and growth of Campus Crusade. He promoted the ecumenical/evangelistic program of A.D. 2000 and said Campus Crusade now has 44,000 full-time workers. Dr. Ralph Colas, who reported on the NRB meeting, said Bright did not share how many of these staff members are Roman Catholics. The 2/94 Charisma lists Bright as a speaker at a charismatic/ecumenical/evangelistic conference at Oral Roberts University.

JOHN HAGEE AT NRB, ORU—Dr. John Hagee, popular pastor of the large charismatic Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, was a main speaker at the recent National Religious Broadcasters Convention. He preaches strongly against sin and the moral and social decline of our day, much like Jimmy Swaggart in the mid-80s, and is popular on Paul Crouch's charismatic TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network). He was a listed speaker for the charismatic 1992 and 1993 Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship Int'l (FGBMFI) world conventions. His honorary degree was conferred by Oral Roberts University. He has spoken at charismatic "signs and wonders" healing conferences there for the past two years, and is on ORU's "International Charismatic Bible Ministries Executive Officers and Committee" list.

URBANA '93 DIFFERENT FROM URBANA '90?—Urbana '93, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's 17th triennial student missions convention, met in late December. The 17,000 attendance figure was the lowest since 1981. Nearly 40 percent, an all-time high, represented ethnic minorities and over 25 percent had Asian-American backgrounds (2/7 Chr. Today). Karen Mains was chair of the IVCF USA board. IVCF Pres. Dr. Stephen Hayner was listed in the 10/4 CT as a conference speaker in Dr. Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in late Jan. IVCF's Urbana '90 conference was replete with heresies (ecumenical, charismatic, radical feminist, psychological, New Age) and was new-evangelicalism at its worst.

TIM LEE - CURTIS HUTSON CONTROVERSY—Evangelist Tim Lee is a dynamic preacher who hobnobs with conservative Southern Baptist and Southwide Baptist Fellowship (& BBF) preachers, and seeks (with Dr. Jerry Falwell) to "build bridges" between them. He routinely pulpit-shares with New Evangelicals and "fundamentalists," and thus calls himself an "evangelical fundamentalist." Both Lee and Sword of the Lord Editor Dr. Curtis Hutson have been featured at SBF meetings as speakers in recent years. Hutson for the past five years or so has warned about Lee's non-separatist stance and practices. Lee now, in a recent 7-page mailout to over 15,000 preachers, accuses Hutson of lying and deceit. He quotes from Hutson's 1984 New Evangelicalism booklet where he spoke against "secondary separation." We do not defend the booklet (nor Hutson's stance regarding Dr. Jack Hyles, etc.), but Dr. Hutson's later writings in the Sword have defined a stronger position in this area. We applaud a move to a stronger stance. Hutson has at times been in a difficult position. His predecessor Dr. John R. Rice, in the 10/12/79 Sword, accused Blu-Print Editor Dr. G. Archer Weniger of "slander" for articles exposing Dr. Falwell's Moral Majority ecumenical ministry, etc. So, if Hutson later "changed" as Falwell's alarming compromise increased and became more evident, it is commendable. We would hope that Rice also would have "changed." It would take many pages to fully discuss all this. Please pray for Drs. Lee and Hutson. We see a distinct danger of Tim Lee leading the SBF further into New Evangelicalism. That would be tragic. Evidence of this is seen in the mix of SBF and SBC speakers in Lee's March 13-17 CORE meeting in Montgomery. Speakers include: Drs. David Bouler (TTU), Bradley Price, Randy Ray, Adrian Rogers (SBC), David Ring (SBC), and Jerry Falwell.

SPURGEON ON SEPARATION—Complicity with error will take from the best of men the power to enter any successful protest against it...Fellowship with known and vital error is participation in sin...As soon as I saw, or thought I saw, that error had become firmly established, I did not deliberate, but quitted the body at once...(N)o protest could be equal to that of distinct separation from known evil...That I might not stultify my testimony I have cut myself clear of those who err from the faith, and even from those who associate with them.

DALLAS SEMINARY FACULTY ITINERARY—Dallas Seminary's Jan-Apr Kindred Spirit lists the Feb.-April speaking schedule for its faculty. Howard Hendricks, ever ecumenical, is listed to speak at GARBC-approved Grand Rapids Baptist College and Seminary Feb. 21-25, and at Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists (Collegedale, TN) March 10. Other schools and conferences on the list are mostly New Evangelical, such as: Word of Life, Wheaton, National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Cedarville College (GARBC), and Multnomah. Dallas planned to send a delegation of students, faculty, and staff to IVCF's Urbana '93 as it did to Urbana '90. Dr. Charles Swindoll is Dallas's new president, effective July 1.

MELVIN TO RETIRE AS HEAD OF NAE—Dr. Billy A. Melvin has announced plans to step down as executive director of the National Association of Evangelicals on March 31, 1995, after 28 years in the NAE top post. Assembly of God minister Dr. Don Argue is president of this mainline New Evangelical group, the fourth Pentecostal to hold this post. The NAE's 52nd Annual Convention is set for March 6-8 in Dallas.

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