TV IS RUDEST, CRUDEST EVER—Moderate Democrat Senator Joseph Lieberman (CT) has given a devastating analysis of what television is doing to America's children. He termed this fall's network offerings "the rudest, crudest, most offensive new lineup of shows in television history."(11/6 CN). TV critic Tom Shales said it's like "inviting a foul-mouthed drunk into your home." Once-taboo words, expressions and subjects have flooded family-time viewing hours.

SOVIET COMMUNISTS KILLED OVER 200,000 CLERICS—A Russian government commission reported last month that about 200,000 clerics were slain during the Soviet era--many shot, strangled, crucified, or drenched with water and frozen to death (11/28 H.Times). Over 500,000 clerics were officially repressed by either being killed or jailed. Communists destroyed 40,000 churches, and half or more of all Jewish and Muslim worship places. Communists confiscated millions of dollars worth of church valuables and land. Some of this will now be restored. Georgi Vins last summer was able to view the secret files the KGB kept on his father before his execution in 1936. In his 12/95 paper, he said in the 1930s alone, 25,000 Baptist preachers were arrested in the USSR and that 22,000 of them were shot or died in prison camps. He said spiritual awakening is continuing in Russia and Ukraine.

AIDS INFECTS ONE IN 92 YOUNG MEN—One of every 92 young men and one of every 33 young black men are believed to have the AIDS virus (11/24 H.Times). AIDS was the No. 1 killer of people ages 25 to 44 in 1993. The Center for Disease Control has counted 501,310 AIDS cases since 1981 and 311,381 deaths. The 3/95 American Information Newsl. said that of the 53 sodomite actors in a 1994 pro-homosexual film, 43 were dead of AIDS one year after the film's release.

M. SCOTT PECK, NEW AGER—Life magazine says "The Scott Peck gospel is an amalgam of psychiatry and Christianity drizzled with Greek myth and Buddhism." (11/18 World ad). Peck announced in 1983 that he had become a Christian, but his all embracing definition of Christian included no statement of faith, and "millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists, and agnostics." (11/95 Chr.Conscience). In 1988, Peck endorsed a "Cosmic New Age Christ" book by Matthew Fox, a mystical New Age Catholic priest (recently defrocked). Yet evangelical David Mains has extensively/approvingly quoted from Peck's writings on his radio broadcast. And the GARBC approved Grand Rapids College (now Cornerstone College) has carried an article in its paper by Bill Hybels which favorably quoted Peck.

DOBSON'S 'FOCUS' PROMOTES GROUP DYNAMICS BOOK—A 9/95 Focus on the Family Training "Fall 1995 Education Calendar" recommends a "Facilitators Resource" by J. William Pfeiffer, The Encyclopedia of Group Activities. This 1989 book is replete with promotion of sensitivity training, group dynamics, role playing, fantasizing, values clarification, Gestalt Therapy, crisis consensus decision-making, etc. One fantasy exploration procedure even recommended a Yoga exercise, "if the group seems to be tense."

GLOBALIST GORBY'S NEW WORLD ORDER—Mikhail Gorbachev and his Gorbachev Foundation recently sponsored a "State of the World Forum" in San Francisco. The 500 participants included New Agers, Communists, Eastern Religion advocates, and one-worlders. Attendees included: Ted Turner, Carl Sagan, former Pres. George Bush, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Gates, and Nelson Mandela. Gorbachev wants an Earth Charter and global governance with a synthesis of New Age Eastern Religion and proven collective ideas and values. He said a new set of inclusive universal values distilled from all faiths must replace the Judeo-Christian world view--that the old beliefs and political systems must be abandoned.

CBN'S GLOBAL EVANGELISM PROJECT—Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network launched a global evangelism project (WorldReach) with a week of tent "revival" services. Oral Roberts, James Robison, Robert Schuller, Benny Hinn, and Robertson took turns preaching. Robison used to be a dynamic Southern Baptist evangelist, but sadly, in recent years has praised the Pope and associates with charismatic charlatans.

MOODY FOUNDER'S WEEK FEATURES ECUMENICALS—Moody Bible Institute's 1996 Founder's Week speakers include an array of ecumenicals. First there is Dallas Seminary's Howard Hendricks-certainly no stranger to ecumenical pulpits such as Campus Crusade and Promise Keepers. Then there is left-wing/social-action promoter E.V. Hill who apparently has never seen an ecumenical forum he didn't like--be it charismatic/Catholic/NCC, or Promise Keepers. Schuller-promoter and mega-church pastor Bill Hybels is to speak. Billy Graham's daughter, Joni Tada, Tony Evans, and John MacArthur are other speakers. Evans spoke at the 1993 IFCA Annual Convention and at a recent SBC meeting. MacArthur is an IFCA member, has spoken at Cedarville College, at the SBC, and on other new-evangelical platforms. We grieve to see how far and fast MBI-president Joe Stowell has taken Moody into new evangelicalism and ecumenism in recent years. He himself is a Promise Keepers speaker.

PROMISE KEEPERS ACCOMMODATES CATHOLICS, MORMONS—The Promise Keepers "Purpose Statement and Statement of Faith" is carefully worded so that it can be accepted and promoted by Roman Catholics. The 11/95 Berean Call says the Promise Keepers' field representative for the upper Midwest, Steve Jenkins, is a Catholic charismatic and must be able to use the PK faith statement to satisfy both priests and evangelical pastors alike. Mormon leaders who were contacted felt their differences were very minor. Media Spotlight (Al & Jean Dager, P.O. Box 290, Redmond, WA 98073) has a 24-page indepth study on Promise Keepers (send offering).

RE-IMAGINING II—"Re-Imagining," a Nov. 1993 global theological conference in Minneapolis, was denounced by many as "blasphemous," "heretical," and "pagan." It was all this and more. Another "Re-Imagining" feminist conference took place Nov. 3-4 in Minneapolis, with "songs, prayers, worship and sacred dances that [again] invoked the spirit of Sophia, who the program explained is 'a figure who appears throughout the Bible as a female personification of the wisdom of God. To her are attributed the same works of creating and ordering the universe as elsewhere are attributed to Yahweh.'" A Catholic nun made several presentations. The 1993 event attracted some 2,000 mostly women, but the 1995 gathering was limited to 400 persons. A 1993 Presbyterian leader, Mary Ann Lundy, lost her job as a result of the backlash, but is now on the staff of the World Council of Churches.

WCC LEADER WANTS DEEPER UNITY WITH CATHOLICS—ACCC Exec. Sec'y Dr. Ralph Colas writes in the 10/95 Review: "In the recent World Council of Churches Central Committee meeting in Geneva, Dr. Konrad Raiser, gen. sec'y of the WCC, called for far-reaching reforms of church structures so that the Roman Catholic Church could move closer. Raiser made a strong point of emphasizing his desire for deeper cooperation with the RC Church. He said that the WCC's ecumenical program is 'severely limited without the full participation of the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical and pentecostal churches.' Ecumenical leaders continue with their goal of building a one-world church. Such a church is seen in its climax in Rev. 17-18." Dr. Colas attended this WCC meeting and his full report is available from the American Council of Christian Churches, P.O. Box 19, Wallingford, PA 19086.

HANEGRAAFF SAYS CATHOLICISM NO CULT—Christian Research Institute president Hank Hanegraaff on various "Bible Answer Man" broadcasts warned against certain Romanist teachings, but also encouraged cooperation with Catholics in many areas. He said Roman Catholicism does not fall within his definition of a cult. He said: "We do not classify it as a cult, neither do we just categorically state that people should just get out of it as we would say with Mormonism." He added: "We can join with Roman Catholics in common cause issues that affect our culture." [5/1/95]. Regarding Pope John Paul II, he said: "I don't see the pope, particularly this pope, as the chief enemy of Jesus Christ....[He] stands with us on many common issues." [6/30/ 95]. Hanegraaff succeeded Dr. Walter Martin as head of CRI and admits to being a charismatic.

NEW EVANGELICALISM PAMPHLET—Pastor John C. Helgerson has a newly revised very helpful 8page pamphlet on New Evangelicalism. [Uses NKJV]. Available from: Church of the Open Bible, Winn & Wyman Streets, Burlington, MA 08103.

GEISLER PROPOSES WORKING WITH CATHOLICS—Dr. Norman Geisler is dean of Southern Evangelical Seminary (Charlotte, NC). As a guest on Hank Hanegraaff's "Bible Answer Man" 4/28 radio broadcast, he replied thusly to a question about Catholicism being a cult: "No, that's certainly a gross overstatement. Roman Catholics believe in the Virgin Birth...On the historic fundamentals, they believe in all of the basic fundamentals, why should we call them a cult?" [See 2/1 & 6/15 CCs]. He said Catholics are wrong on salvation. But he later added: "We have more in common with conservative Roman Catholics than we have with liberal and neoorthodox Protestants. And the greatest force for America today is conservative Catholics and evangelical Christians, and if we don't hang together we're gonna hang separately....We have...so many things we agree on as evangelicals and Catholics. Let's work together to take care of the humanists and the New Agers."

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS & INTERFAITH WORSHIP—More and more we see Southern Baptist churches becoming involved ecumenically in interfaith worship services. At Thanksgiving and Easter each year local SBC churches join with Roman Catholic, non-Christian Jewish, and liberal Protestant churches in combined services in total disobedience to Scriptural separation commands. The 10/30 Christian News reported that New York's notorious Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine [pagan, New Age] was scheduled to host a Children's Sabbath interfaith service that had Jews, Christians, and Muslims worshiping together. The article said: "This year, for the first time, the observance is expanding beyond traditional participants from the mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish communities to include Southern Baptist congregations, with special material prepared by the Women's Missionary Union [SBC]..."

WORD OF LIFE FLORIDA—The 1995 Word of Life Florida Bible Conference schedule listed the following as speakers: Ron Blue (spoke with Pat Robertson at CBN, 11/94), Tony Gibbs (with the ecumenical Walk Thru The Bible), Dorie Van Stone (Precept Ministries), and Vernon Brewer. Summer/Fall Concerts by: Doug Oldham, Florida Boys, Don/Christine Wyrtzen, and Billy Speer.

CBA SELLS BAPTIST CHURCH TO HINDUS—In 1993, Valley View Baptist Church in Northridge, CA deeded its property to the Conservative Baptist Association. This year, Southern California CBA leaders sold the church to a Hindu group. Pastor Arthur B. Houk sued, but a judge ruled in November that the CBA can make the sale but he urged it to give the church part of the money. Dr. Houk says "it was an outright sin for the CBA leaders to trick us out of our building, which we had completely paid for, and then sell it to idol-worshipping Hindus."

GET IBFNA'S THE REVIEW—The Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America was formed in 1990 by mostly GARBC pastors and laymen concerned over the GARBC's drift away from its historic position in areas such as the doctrine of Biblical separation. The current Moderator is Dr. L. Duane Brown. The Editor of its official publication, The Review, is Dr. Richard Harris. Dr. Ralph Colas has a regularly featured column. Subscriptions are $5/year, from: 754 East Rockhill Road, Sellersville, PA 18960.

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