OUR PROUDLY PRO-HOMOSEXUAL PRESIDENT—Congressman Barney Frank blew kisses to a group of 600 homosexual journalists Oct. 19. Senior White House advisor George Stephanopoulos told them Pres. Clinton supports a bill to ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation and intends to get back a large portion of the gay and lesbian vote. (12/95 Nat'l Liberty Jrnl.). Stephanopoulas detailed the president's record with gays, including being the first president to appoint an openly lesbian federal judge, increasing AIDS funding, creating an AIDS housing office, allowing AIDS victims to enter the U.S. to take part in the "Gay Games", and appointing an AIDS policy director. The 12/18 USN&WR said Clinton last week "staged the first White House conference on AIDS and HIV." It said Reagan and Bush wouldn't do it. Kristi Hamrick of the Family Research Council calls this the most pro-homosexual administration in U.S. history.

CIA & PSYCHICS—All forms of spiritism are severely condemned and forbidden by Scripture. We were disappointed to hear of Nancy Reagan's use of an astrologer concerning her husband's scheduling. We recently learned that our CIA used psychics for 20 years at a cost of $20 million, but has dumped the program because it "saw no value in it" (12/3 HT). A University of California professor of statistics said the government psychics were accurate about 15 percent of the time (11/29 HT). Billy Lyon sent us an article from the 9/11/94 Dallas Morn. News which said New Ager Shirley MacLaine predicts the next big earthquake to be in November 1995. It didn't happen! Psychics sometimes have demonic powers, as Alice Braemer has attested to from her travels with Jeane Dixon, but often amateur guessing is just as accurate/inaccurate.

TRASH TV-MUSIC-MOVIES—A move is afoot to shame corporations that sponsor daytime racy TV talk shows that focus on salacious behavior. P & G has already yanked its ads (12/18 USN&WR). *** Entertainment Monitor made a list last month of who's naughty and nice, finding only 10 of 40 popular albums on sale for the holiday season free of profanity or lyrics dealing with drugs, violence or sex (12/11 HT). *** Hollywood likes to pat itself on the back for its capacity to inspire and to elevate the national conscience, to make a good powerful social impact. But "if we show people blowing each other's guts out, setting each other afire, or really enjoying rape, mayhem and dismemberment--hey, it's only a movie. Make believe." (12/3 HT). Sorry, but if you boast of the talent and the means to inspire and elevate, you must accept the blame if you use these tools to degrade and depress.

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC—Forty years ago the music of the Church was distinctively different from that of the night club. Even the ungodly could identify a hymn of the Church then. Today's contemporary Christian music (CCM) makes no distinction between Christian and non-Christian... Contemporary music, its sensual sound and style which demands and encourages applause, lands a devastating blow to true worship and the spiritual life of the Church (Focus). Charismatics are a main cause of the increasing worldliness and perversion of music in our churches today.

WORLD VISION LEADER PRAISES UN—Dr. Robert A. Seiple, president of World Vision, says the UN is bloated and in need of reform but that it fills a necessary role Christians should support (12/11 Chr.Today). He said: "Evangelicals must change their basic attitude toward the United Nations. Instead of demonizing it, we should work toward persuasive influence and constructive policy formation..." The UN is an ungodly vehicle for establishing a New World Order, a one-world government of anti-Christ. World Vision is a radical new-evangelical relief agency that has used funds donated by Christians to help Communists, Muslims, and Catholics (see 12/1/93 CC). Seiple has called for diplomatic relations and trade with Communist Vietnam. According to the 12/9/91 USN&WR, World Vision supplied free condoms from the U.S. government for distribution in Kenya.

CATHOLIC CHARITY HELPS RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH—One of the world's leading Catholic charities, Aid to the Church in Need, has come under fire for financially supporting the Russian Orthodox Church at a time when fresh revelations are emerging about ROC collaboration with the KGB.

ETS MEETING—The Evangelical Theological Society held its Nov. 1995 47th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The Adventist Theological Society, or ATS, apparently met concurrently with ETS(12/4 C.News). Solid contingents from Dallas, Talbot, and the SBC were there. The largest contingent from one school were the 16 men from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School which in recent years has been under fire from the Geisler-Harris controversy over Christ's resurrection body. Plenary sessions were addressed by philosopher J.P. Moreland (Talbot), Liberty University's Gary Habermas, George Knight III, and Thomas Oden. Speakers at about 200 parallel sessions included: Norman Geisler, Millard J. Erickson, Roger Nicole, John W. Montgomery, Greg Bahnsen, and Wayne House. Speaker Thomas Oden, a longtime professor of theology at a thoroughly liberal United Methodist seminary (Drew University), believes the mainline [liberal] Protestant denominations have a promising future because of the [charismatic] renewal movements within them. The ETS meeting featured three lectures on the Toronto Blessing "revival." The 1988 and 1992 ETS meetings featured pro-homosexuality lectures by Latin American Mission author Thomas Hanks(see 3/15/89 & 7/1/93 CCs).

CONFUSION OVER TONGUES—Researcher George Barna says his recent survey indicates that speaking in tongues remains a "point of fascination, confusion and contention" and divides the body of Christ (12/4 C. News). It found that one-fifth of all adults deny that the gift even exists, and another fifth have no idea what to believe about it. About 8 percent of adult Americans declared speaking in tongues is evidence of demonic possession (10/28 H.Times). Of the 72 percent who have heard of it, 35 percent say that those who do it are usually sincere, but it is likely an unbiblical emotional outburst.

CHARISMATIC-CATHOLIC-EVANGELICAL UNITY—John Robbins, in the Autumn 1995 Focus, said: "The charismatic movement is open to new evangelicals and Roman Catholics. Romanism is open to Pentecostals and new evangelicals. Not to be outdone, new evangelicalism is open to Pentecostals and Roman Catholics. This apostate trio is moving closer and closer together in a growing bond of sympathy. There is a theological reason for this. Each emphasizes inner experience. The uniting factor is that the message of each movement--Romanism, new evangelicalism, and the charismatic movement--is the centrality of religious experience. "Experience" is important, but is a dangerous substitute for doctrine as the basis for scriptural unity.

ASBURY LEADER PRAISES ROSARY—United Methodist minister Dr. Maxie Dunnam became president of Asbury Seminary in 1994. He is a member of the Roman Catholic-Methodist Int'l Dialogue Commission (see 6/15/94, 7/15/95 CCs). In the Autumn 1995 Asbury Herald he says: "We all need rituals; symbols...The Roman Catholics' use of the Rosary in prayer has always intrigued me. The use of the Rosary has diminished, I understand. That may be unfortunate, if people are praying less. The Rosary was not only a reminder to pray--it was a guide to prayer [primarily addressed to Mary], and we all need that... [S]omeone has suggested that Protestants use the Cross as a kind of rosary...." An editorial page article praised Catholic nuns as being the secret of a Salvation Army officer's "conversion and healing." Dr. Thomas Oden, Professor of Theology and Ethics at ultra-liberal Drew University, recently lectured at Asbury.

GRAHAM'S DISOBEDIENCE—O Timothy Editor David Cloud (Vol. 12, Iss. 11) lists and discusses some of the reasons why fundamentalists must warn against Dr. Billy Graham's disobedient ministry: He says Graham: Accepts degrees from Catholic Colleges and says the Catholic gospel is the same as his own; has turned thousands of converts over to apostate churches; thinks the Pope is a great evangelist; thinks there is special power in infant baptism; does not believe Hell is a place of literal fiery torment; invites Catholic bishops onto his platform to bless those who come forward at his invitations; praises Christ-denying modernists; and has promoted practically every perverted Bible version to appear in the last four decades.

GARBC PASTORS PARTICIPATE IN PROMISE KEEPERS—A fax from a former GARBC pastor states that the Battle Creek (Mich.) Youth for Christ is organizing a group of 80 pastors to attend the Feb. '96 Atlanta Promise Keepers conference. Pastors from United Methodist, Presbyterian (USA), Regular Baptist, Christian Reformed, etc., churches are all "flying together, staying together, praying together and trusting God to give us a vision to win Battle Creek together." (We have heard of other GARBC-pastors' involvement in PK.) Speakers at this ecumenical event include: E.V. Hill, Jack Hayford, Joseph Stowell, and Chuck Swindoll. Over 70,000 clergy from every denomination will participate.

MARK NOLL'S CONFUSING BOOK—Wheaton College evangelical historian Mark Noll in his 1994 book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, says it is a tragedy that modern evangelicals have failed as intellectuals (see 5/1 CC). He wants Christians to apply Christian thinking to the whole spectrum of modern learning (arts, politics, economics)--to all areas of human endeavor. Mark Sidwell responds: "The question confronting the Christian evaluating such an approach is whether truth will be sacrificed in order to gain secular respectability." (BJU's 11/95 Biblical Viewpoint). He cautions: "Intellectually respectable orthodoxy must still remain orthodox." New-evangelical theologian Carl F.H. Henry says Noll in his recent book "sells inerrancy down the river." Noll signed the 1994 "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" document.

ECUMENICAL CHUCK SMITH LOOKING FOR SUCCESSOR—Chuck Smith pastors the huge Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, Calif. He came into prominence over 25 years ago as a leader of the Jesus Movement. John Wimber's Vineyard movement is an offshoot of the Calvary Chapel movement. Evangelicals label Calvary Chapel as charismatic, while some charismatics view it as too conservative. Members are discouraged from speaking aloud in tongues unless an "interpreter" is present (10/ 95 Charisma). Smith is presently planning for retirement and looking for a successor. Greg Laurie, Calvary Chapel's most visible leader and a disciple of Smith's from the Jesus movement, is an obvious choice but Smith isn't saying. The 12/95 Sojournal says Smith is ecumenical. It quotes from his 1993 book: "Paul points out that some say, 'I'm of Paul,' while others say, 'I'm of Apollos.' He asked, 'Isn't that carnal?' But what's the difference between saying that or saying, 'I'm a Baptist,' 'I'm a Presbyterian,' 'I'm a Methodist,' 'I'm a Catholic'? I have found that the more spiritual a person becomes, the less denominational he is. We should realize that we're all part of the Body of Christ and that there aren't any real divisions in the Body. We're all one...."

Send comments to ccemail2015@gmail.com