AMY GRANT & HUSBAND SEPARATE - Amy Grant began her career as a CCM singer, but crossed over into secular rock, throwing the CCM industry into an identity crisis. Now, she and husband Gary Chapman are splitting up after 16 years and three children (1/11 CN). Her music remains in SBC's Lifeway Christian Stores.

ENGLISH'S SLOW COMEBACK - Top CCM award winner Michael English left Contemporary Christian Music in disgrace in 1994 after it was revealed that he had an adulterous relationship with another CCM'er. He said he rebelled and "went crazy" for a time after that. He said, "I felt that if I didn't have Christian music, I couldn't be a Christian. I based my whole self-esteem on being a Christian singer... ." (1/99 Charisma). CCM/rock is very much a self-esteem/money thing, not really a Christian ministry. "Where [Amy Grant] once discussed her relationship with God, she now focuses on her relationships with other people - and herself." (10/1 CC).

MICHAEL W. SMITH MARKETS MUSICAL 'GOSPEL' - The 1/16 Huntsville Times reporting on an upcoming Jan. 25 Michael W. Smith concert at a local So. Baptist church quoted Smith as saying: "Now... we're getting better marketing, and we're doing whatever it takes to get it out there and get people to hear it." He quoted St. Francis of Assisi (RC): "He said 'Preach the Gospel... and if necessary use words'." Smith owns the Rocketown teen dance club-outreach haven in Franklin, TN where the music isn't all Christian. He defends this teen outreach, saying: "If Jesus were here today physically, I'm not really sure He'd be in the churches. He'd be hanging out at the bars, with the desperate and lonely... ." (8/1 CC).

CLINTON, THE PRO-ABORTIONIST LIAR AND ADULTERER, 'MOST ADMIRED' - This is the heading supplied by Christian News to a RNS article in the 1/11 CN that showed our president ranked as the #1 "most admired" man in a Gallup Poll. Pope John Paul and Billy Graham were named the second and third most admired.

HOWARD-BROWNE GOES TO NEW YORK - South African "laughing evangelist" Rodney Howard-Browne has scheduled Madison Square Garden for a series of meetings, July 7-Aug. 13, resulting from a Feb. 1998 dream conversation he had with Billy Graham (2/99 Charisma). He says: "We're not coming to New York with judgment to say that God is going to send Americans to hell if they don't repent.", but, "We're going to tell them that God loves them and forgives them." The prophet Jeremiah had a different message for his sinful nation. Instead of laughter and love, it was tears and judgment. Howard-Browne has dubbed himself a "Holy Ghost bartender" serving up the "new wine" of Pentecostal fervor. He said (9/1 CC): "One night I was preaching on hell, and [laughter] just hit the whole place. The more I told people what hell was like, the more they laughed." This sounds demonic. Hell is no laughing matter nor joke.

AMERICA IS 'MORALLY CHALLENGED' - America is the greatest nation in the world - the richest, most powerful, and most envied. Yet we lead the industrialized world in rates of murder, violent crime, imprisonment, divorce, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, single-parent households, teen suicide, cocaine consumption, and pornography production. We have become the kind of place to which civilized countries used to send missionaries (12/98 Imprimis). But if we criticize our president for adultery, lying, perjury, etc., we are said to be "judgmental." We're not to "judge" right and wrong, moral sins, since all is relative. But what if a jury was "nonjudgmental" of sex abusers, rapists, embezzlers, etc.?

AFEC RESOLUTION ON ECFC AND SEPARATION - "... It is unfortunate yet necessary that the [Assn of Fundamentalists Evangelizing Catholics] separate from the organization 'Ex Catholics For Christ' because of the doctrine of Separation. The founding body of ECFC (while having the same ultimate goal as AFEC, desiring to reach precious Roman Catholic people with the Gospel) has chosen... a more Neo-Evangelical approach... .The ECFC has allowed Pentecostals and Charismatics the freedom to participate on their platform. One speaker stated in a letter in 1989, 'I had what I considered to be a genuine experience of being baptized in the Spirit and later had the experience of speaking in tongues.' Giving the brother a forum, even though he did not use the occasion to teach error, is a dangerous practice. [Those] who believe in works to be saved or to maintain salvation are as lost as the Roman Catholic people we are seeking to bring to Christ. A denomination that believes that speaking in tongues is a necessary part of or the evidence of salvation has fallen into the same trap as Romanism... ."

VOICE OF MARTYRS YOKES WITH YWAM - Richard Wurmbrand's "The Voice of the Martyrs" has provided Bibles and literature for decades to persecuted peoples over the world. But we have warned of his sometimes strange theology and lack of discernment (see 7/1/94 CC). We now see that Voice of the Martyrs is working in partnership with Youth With A Mission, providing it with literature, resources, and finances (1/11 Chr. News). YWAM is charismatic, ecumenical, has long been engaged in bridge-building with Roman Catholics (in Eastern Europe and Ireland, e.g.), and has had a Catholic director (see 4/15 & 9/1/93 CCs). YWAM now has 10,500 missionaries. Its new director is Frank Naea.

SCHULLER WARNING - Robert Schuller has shared pulpits with New Agers, Mormons, and Catholics. Some of his teachings and actions are liberal, postmodern and heretical (1/1 CC). He writes: "I don't think that anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality, and hence counterproductive to the evangelistic enterprise, than the unChristian, uncouth strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition." (1/4 CN). Be warned, be wise, beware!

SWINDOLL'S INSTANT MEGA-CHURCH - Superstar author and radio preacher Chuck Swindoll's new congregation, as predicted (9/1 CC), seems to be on the fasttrack to becoming an "instant" mega-church. It is located in a little town 30 miles north of Dallas, and is adding a second service for its 750 attendees (1/9 Dallas Morn. News). Construction is beginning on a 2,500-seat auditorium - a mere stopgap until a 6,000-seat sanctuary can be built. Swindoll is President of Dallas Seminary which celebrates its 75^th Anniversary in October with a National Leadership Conference, featuring the following ecumenical speakers (1/11 Chr. Today): Bruce Wilkinson, MBI-President Joe Stowell, Tony Evans, Howard Hendricks and Roman Catholic author William Bennett. 

JEREMIAH TO SPEAK AT GRAHAM CAMP - Dr. David Jeremiah, a popular author and teacher, is again listed as a speaker at Billy Graham's "The Cove" Training Center. He routinely speaks in new-evangelical and ecumenical - and, sad to say, GARBC - pulpits. He speaks at Moody Bible Institute and was listed with Schuller-speaker John Maxwell for a Celebrate Jesus 2000 Southern Baptist conference (1/7 Ala. Bapt.). He was listed to speak in Tony Evans' Oct. 6-9 Urban Alternative conference with Promise Keepers speakers Wellington Boone and Chuck Swindoll. He honored neo-orthodox men in a 1994 book and quoted the Living Bible (9/15/94 CC)

PENTECOSTALISM'S 'LAUGHING REVIVAL' - Rev. David Cloud's new book, THE LAUGHING REVIVAL From Azusa To Pensacola: A History And Refutation Of Pentecostalism, traces the history of the Pentecostal movement from its origin in 1900 to the current day "Laughing Revival," also known as the Toronto Blessing and the Pensacola Outpouring. It analyzes key figures in the movement: William Branham, Paul Cain, William Seymour, Charles Parham, Aimee Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, A.A. Allen, David DuPlessis, Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, John Wimber, Charles & Frances Hunter, Rodney Howard-Browne, John Arnott, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and many others. It refutes Pentecostal-Charismatic doctrine and practice (e.g., "tongues," "baptism in the Spirit," "holy laughter." It has chapters on "Charismatic Music Permeating the Churches," "Miracles," and a 10-page bibliography. Order this 186-page book from Way of Life Literature, 1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277, $8.95 (plus $3 s/h). 

TURNER RETURNS TO GRAND RAPIDS - Dr. David Turner left GARBC-approved Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary a few years ago, after 11 years on the faculty, to pursue an additional doctorate at Hebrew Union University, but returns to GRBS this fall (1/99 Baptist Bulletin). Turner denied in Chapter 9 of a Zondervan book that the heavenly city in Rev. 21 is a literal city. Dr. Clay Nuttall (now at Piedmont Baptist College), a GRBS grad and former member of GRBS's Board - and also of the GARBC's Council of 18 - wrote a critique of this chapter. In a 1/20/95 letter to the CC editor, Dr. Turner offered to explain his position on heaven. In a 1/31/95 letter, we specifically questioned him on this but never received the promised response. [See 1/1 CC for GRBS & Cornerstone's new-evangelical Bible Conference speakers.] 

WCC & CATHOLICISM - Dr. Ralph Colas, Exec. Sec'y of the American Council of Christian Churches, attended (with press credentials) the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Harare, Zimbabwe in Dec., and reports thusly: At the first press conference a reporter asked WCC Gen. Sec'y Dr. Konrad Raiser about the relationship between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church. He related that there was a joint working group regarding cooperation between the WCC and the RCC. A booklet, Joint Working Group Between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches, was given to all in attendance. It rehearsed the past seven years' work and emphasized the "growing relationship of the WCC and the RCC." The RCC is already a full member of 56 national councils of churches throughout the world. Among special guests at this 8th Assembly were many RC priests and nuns. One, the Rev. Thomas Stransky, took journalists on a brief historical tour of Roman Catholic relations with the WCC. He said in 1972 the Vatican decided not to "seek membership of the WCC in the immediate future." But Stransky said, "I do not rule out that the Roman Catholic Church may in the future be in full membership with the WCC." A formal letter from Pope John Paul II, was sent to Dr. Konrad Raiser in which he "extended best wishes and congratulations to Assembly delegates. The WCC has been a valuable instrument at the service of the ecumenical movement, contributing... to the promotion of unity among Christians, in response to the Lord's prayer 'that they may all be one'." The Pope added, "With regard to the relationship between the WCC and the RCC, it is our hope that ways of future collaboration within the framework of the Joint Working Group can be found in order to intensify the search for Christian unity, also in its visible dimension." The pontiff referred to an Encyclical Letter which stated, "This unity which the Lord has bestowed on his Church and in which he wishes to embrace all people... stands at the very heart of Christ's mission." It continued, "Such commitment is part of the Christian vocation, since every Christian by virtue of Baptism is called to promote the unity of all Christians modeled on the life of the Holy trinity." [Send offering for Dr. Colas' in-depth report to: ACCC, P.O. Box 5455, Bethlehem, PA 18015.]

McGRATH TO SPEAK AT WHEATON - Alister McGrath is a British theologian whose books are highly praised by fellow new-evangelicals such as Carl Henry, John Stott, Ron Sider, and J.I. Packer. [These men are ecumenical and some are borderline liberals.] McGrath is a "Consulting Editor" of Christianity Today, whose Board Chairman is Billy Graham. So, no surprise to see him listed (1/11 CT) as a speaker at a Wheaton College Healing, Health and Spirituality Conference, April 8-10. 

NOTE: The source for the e-mail quote in the 1/15 CC Moody article was John E. Ashbrook, New Neutralism II.

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