Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 213

April 15: a Day of Fasting and Prayer for North Korea

Believers around the world are setting aside this Sunday, April 15, as a day of prayer and fasting for the country of North Korea and the believers who live there. The situation in North Korea is increasingly problematic with the country facing its worst food shortage in a decade. (Millions are at risk and according to UNICEF, 80% of North Korean children are malnourished.)

For believers, the difficulty is compounded since North Korea is still the most hostile place in the world to be a Christian. Open Doors USA shared the following:

On April 15 all of North Korea will celebrate the “Day of the Sun” in honor of Kim Il-Sung’s 100th birthday. To the outside world, the picture will be one of prosperity and wealth; that North Korea is a great place to live under their caring leaders. But outside of the media’s eye the vast majority will continue to quietly suffer extreme poverty and starvation.

For Christians, as the birthday celebration draws near, their fear has increased as their actions are watched closer than before. They know that outwardly they must participate in the nationwide celebrations to avoid arrest …but in their hearts they will be celebrating the true “Son” Jesus Christ.

North Korea is the most hostile country in the world to live and practice the Christian faith. Estimates report that 25 percent of the Christian population is suffering in labor camps for their refusal to worship founder Kim Il-Sung’s cult religion called Juche. Enormous statues of the “Great Leader” are prominently displayed throughout the country. Kim Il-Sung is exalted and revered as a god to be followed with obedience. Citizens are required to bow down to pay their respects, wear a lapel pin with his image on it and prominently display photos of both Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il (both deceased).

As North Korea celebrates the “Day of the Sun” let us unite our efforts by drawing on the power of the Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Show your solidarity on April 15 by praying for believers in North Korea and taking a day off of food – or perhaps one meal – to remember the suffering of the North Korean people.

Prayer isn’t passive, it’s active. It’s really doing something. Prayer isn’t the least we can do, it’s the most. We pray now in faith, believing our prayers are making an eternal difference; we anticipate Heaven, where we’ll learn God’s breath-taking answers to our prayers, including many that seemed unheard and ignored.

To register to receive information on how to pray for North Korea, sign up at the Open Doors website. (On April 15 they will be posting hourly updates from their Facebook and Twitter accounts to keep you engaged in prayer.) 

      

map credit

The Contraception Controversy Is about More than “Just Contraception”

I have a lot of respect for Chuck Colson, who is in the hospital with a serious condition, in need of our prayers. I appreciate his involvement in helping the Christian community develop a godly worldview by keeping us informed about timely issues facing our nation. Before his hospitalization, Chuck sent this to the signers of the Manhattan Declaration, including me:

Any paper you pick up or TV show you turn on will talk about the “contraception controversy.” 

That’s how the media and the “reproductive rights” crowd have framed the Obama Administration’s outrageous demand that religious organizations violate the tenets of their faith by offering insurance to their employees that covers abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization.  

But all you ever hear from newsmen or politicians is that this is all about contraception. And sadly, according to the polls anyway, they’ve been successful in shaping the argument.

Friends, this controversy is NOT about contraception.  It is about the ability of the government to limit the free exercise of our religion.  This is a religious liberty question.

I’ve gone out of my way in conversations with people to straighten them out on this, and it immediately changes their point of view.   What’s really at stake here is whether the executive branch of the government can enforce administrative orders that violate the Constitution and trample upon the Bill of Rights.  

If Christians are to do anything in the public square today, it is to raise the rallying cry of freedom.  Remember freedom is the created condition of humans made in the image of God, who Himself is free.  This is being taken away from us right under our noses.

You are one of the 525,000 people who have signed the Manhattan Declaration.  If you and every single signer would explain this issue in simple terms to your neighbors, we would turn the polls around.  This is a winning issue for us, but only if we do not allow the other side to frame the debate. 

Please, talk to your friends.  Visit the Manhattan Declaration website to read more about the issue.  We’ve even posted a couple of my BreakPoint commentaries that deal with this. 

The case is simple; it is not about contraception.  It is about religious liberty, the first of all our freedoms.   God bless you!

Yours and His service,

Chuck Colson

      

 

The Contraception Controversy Is about More than "Just Contraception"

I have a lot of respect for Chuck Colson, who is in the hospital with a serious condition, in need of our prayers. I appreciate his involvement in helping the Christian community develop a godly worldview by keeping us informed about timely issues facing our nation. Before his hospitalization, Chuck sent this to the signers of the Manhattan Declaration, including me:

Any paper you pick up or TV show you turn on will talk about the “contraception controversy.” 

That’s how the media and the “reproductive rights” crowd have framed the Obama Administration’s outrageous demand that religious organizations violate the tenets of their faith by offering insurance to their employees that covers abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization.  

But all you ever hear from newsmen or politicians is that this is all about contraception. And sadly, according to the polls anyway, they’ve been successful in shaping the argument.

Friends, this controversy is NOT about contraception.  It is about the ability of the government to limit the free exercise of our religion.  This is a religious liberty question.

I’ve gone out of my way in conversations with people to straighten them out on this, and it immediately changes their point of view.   What’s really at stake here is whether the executive branch of the government can enforce administrative orders that violate the Constitution and trample upon the Bill of Rights.  

If Christians are to do anything in the public square today, it is to raise the rallying cry of freedom.  Remember freedom is the created condition of humans made in the image of God, who Himself is free.  This is being taken away from us right under our noses.

You are one of the 525,000 people who have signed the Manhattan Declaration.  If you and every single signer would explain this issue in simple terms to your neighbors, we would turn the polls around.  This is a winning issue for us, but only if we do not allow the other side to frame the debate. 

Please, talk to your friends.  Visit the Manhattan Declaration website to read more about the issue.  We’ve even posted a couple of my BreakPoint commentaries that deal with this. 

The case is simple; it is not about contraception.  It is about religious liberty, the first of all our freedoms.   God bless you!

Yours and His service,

Chuck Colson

      

 

The Hunger Games and a Hunger for the Real Life

I’ve received notes from readers asking about my take on The Hunger Games movie and books. I haven’t personally read the books or watched the movie, but I’m sharing some thoughts from Julia Stager, graduate student in theology and support staff here at Eternal Perspective Ministries. (For a review of the movie’s content, I recommend checking out PluggedIn.com.) I especially appreciate Julia’s admonition to use this cultural craze as one more way to point to the gospel and the hope of Christ:

The Hunger Games is a sensation in America (and abroad) today. At this point it seems there is no avoiding it, so how can we, as servants of the kingdom of God, address this mania in a way that glorifies God?

The premise of The Hunger Games is that a teenage girl, in post-nuclear holocaust America, sacrifices her freedom to go in her sister’s place (her sister had been selected by chance) to enter the annual Hunger Games, where twenty-four teenagers fight to the death. It’s a grim tale. This story has violence and manipulation, but instead of focusing on those (though they should be addressed in the proper place), I propose we also use this opportunity to talk about hope.

The Hunger Games is set in a hopeless world. Its characters fight to survive, but to what end? As Christians we understand life is a precious gift and that we are created in the image of God. Though we face many trials, we have an expectant hope that in the end a just and merciful God will set things right. Through the blood of Jesus Christ we can become children of this God who is life and love. Our hope cannot be taken away.

What if we use the book and movie as a bridge to the gospel? What if we ask our friends and family who are not yet believers if they feel like they are living in a world, like that of The Hunger Games, a world without hope? Even though this movie is not Christian and never mentions God, it gives us an opportunity to share truth and light with those who are living in the dark.

This cultural sensation can serve as a reminder to all: to those of us with hope it reminds us what we’ve been saved from, and it reminds those without hope that there must be something more.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 says, “…in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

      

 

“Monumental” Movie Tells an Important Story

While visiting friends in Texas last week, Nanci and I saw Kirk Cameron’s documentary Monumental. We found it interesting, inspiring, and very well done. It’s very engaging, and tells an important story. I appreciate the fact that Kirk doesn’t look to politics as the main solution to our problems. He believes our first concern shouldn’t be the White House but our own houses.

Check out the movie trailer:

Monumental is the story of America’s beginnings. Presented, produced, and starring Kirk Cameron, the 90-minute true story follows this father of six across Europe and the U.S. as he seeks to discover America’s true “national treasure” – the people, places, and principles that made America the freest, most prosperous and generous nation the world has ever known.

Monumental is heralded as “inspiring,” “beautifully executed,” and “powerful.”

Long regarded as “the land of opportunity,” there’s no question the tiny band of religious outcasts who founded this country hit upon a formula for success that went way beyond what they could have imagined. How else can you explain the fact that they established a nation that has become the best example of civil, economic and religious liberty the world has ever known?

What formula did they discover? What motivated them to come here in the first place? More importantly, how can we apply these same foundational truths today?

Joni Eareckson Tada writes, “I came away from watching Monumental with ‘I never knew that!’ ringing in my head! I learned etched-in-stone truths about America's foundations that, to me, were a marvel. Monumental awakened my understanding of what common citizens need to actually DO to regain this country's greatness. Informative… Enlightening… Amazing… these are the words that aptly describe my response to this remarkable movie. It's a ‘must see’ for every American family who wants to make a lasting difference in our culture!"

Francis Chan says, “Monumental inspires me to live more like the godly men and women who founded this country. It opened my eyes to the beauty of how our country was founded. I was amazed at how much they left out of our history classes. Makes you wonder... After seeing this film, I have never been more proud of our country’s heritage and more concerned about our future.”

The movie is playing in select theaters across the U.S, but the more people who request a showing in their area, the more chance it will be shown in a theater near you. (The DVD can be preordered but won’t be available until this summer.)

      

 

"Monumental" Movie Tells an Important Story

While visiting friends in Texas last week, Nanci and I saw Kirk Cameron’s documentary Monumental. We found it interesting, inspiring, and very well done. It’s very engaging, and tells an important story. I appreciate the fact that Kirk doesn’t look to politics as the main solution to our problems. He believes our first concern shouldn’t be the White House but our own houses.

Check out the movie trailer:

Monumental is the story of America’s beginnings. Presented, produced, and starring Kirk Cameron, the 90-minute true story follows this father of six across Europe and the U.S. as he seeks to discover America’s true “national treasure” – the people, places, and principles that made America the freest, most prosperous and generous nation the world has ever known.

Monumental is heralded as “inspiring,” “beautifully executed,” and “powerful.”

Long regarded as “the land of opportunity,” there’s no question the tiny band of religious outcasts who founded this country hit upon a formula for success that went way beyond what they could have imagined. How else can you explain the fact that they established a nation that has become the best example of civil, economic and religious liberty the world has ever known?

What formula did they discover? What motivated them to come here in the first place? More importantly, how can we apply these same foundational truths today?

Joni Eareckson Tada writes, “I came away from watching Monumental with ‘I never knew that!’ ringing in my head! I learned etched-in-stone truths about America's foundations that, to me, were a marvel. Monumental awakened my understanding of what common citizens need to actually DO to regain this country's greatness. Informative… Enlightening… Amazing… these are the words that aptly describe my response to this remarkable movie. It's a ‘must see’ for every American family who wants to make a lasting difference in our culture!"

Francis Chan says, “Monumental inspires me to live more like the godly men and women who founded this country. It opened my eyes to the beauty of how our country was founded. I was amazed at how much they left out of our history classes. Makes you wonder... After seeing this film, I have never been more proud of our country’s heritage and more concerned about our future.”

The movie is playing in select theaters across the U.S, but the more people who request a showing in their area, the more chance it will be shown in a theater near you. (The DVD can be preordered but won’t be available until this summer.)

      

 

Dan Franklin on the Growing Consistency of the Pro-Choice Position

Recently my son-in-law Dan Franklin, married to my daughter Karina, wrote a very insightful article on his Facebook page. Dan is the teaching pastor at Life Bible Fellowship in Upland, California. Dan takes a fresh slant on new developments in the abortion debate. I concur with his analysis and am grateful he gave us permission to post it here as a guest blog:

For most of my life I have been struck by the inconsistency of the pro-choice position. If a woman is happy about her pregnancy, then she is carrying a baby; otherwise, she is carrying a fetus. An unborn child can be aborted, and yet we are mortified when pregnant women drink or smoke. No one posts ultrasound pictures to Facebook and says, “Look at my fetus!” We celebrate unborn children when we want them, but we distance ourselves from them when we don’t want them.

And this position, while inconsistent, makes sense to me. It is hard to hold a consistent pro-choice position. It requires us to say and do things that are distasteful to us. It would require us to listen to a pregnant woman go on and on about her baby and say to her, “Well, it really isn’t a baby yet.” It would require us to be utterly unsentimental about ultrasound pictures. It would require us to stop telling pregnant women how to take care of their bodies while pregnant. I am not surprised that the pro-choice position is typically inconsistent because there is a level of proper shame that keeps us from that kind of consistency.

But that inconsistency is being challenged now.

Earlier in March a Portland couple was awarded 2.9 million dollars in a lawsuit against a hospital. The hospital’s crime? They failed to properly diagnose that the couples baby, while unborn, would have Down syndrome. The couple, whose Down syndrome daughter is now 4 years old, say that they would have had an abortion if they had known the diagnosis. They never wanted a Down syndrome child, and they never signed up for a Down syndrome child. So now, someone has to pay. (Read the story here.)

Take that in for a moment. This couple is saying of their 4-year old daughter, “We wish we had aborted you.” When I heard the story, it disturbed me deeply. It disturbed me because the couple demonstrated a lack of the normal human shame that keeps us from being consistent with a pro-choice position. The only true shame that they showed was in the fact that they didn’t want to comment on the story or sit down for an interview.

And this is not the only story about someone acting more consistently with the pro-choice position. Recently, a woman challenged Rick Santorum on his stance that pre-natal testing encourages abortion. (Here is a link to the video.) The woman spoke of her own experience with a special needs child: “Nearly two years old, he is already blind, paralyzed, and increasingly nonresponsive. I expect his death to happen this year. . .If I had known Ronan had Tay-Sachs I would have found out what the disease meant for my then-unborn child—and then I would have had an abortion."

I was shocked when I heard her response. I had assumed that she was going to say that she wished she had known more about the disease so that she could provide proper treatment for her son. Instead, she simply validated Santorum’s point. She says, “I would have aborted this son of mine, if only I had known about this disease that he would have.”

For a long time we as a society have legitimized abortion, but have sought to avoid the hard work of looking into the eyes of children and saying, “I wish I would have aborted you.” In both of the cases above, the parents have been willing to take that hard step. They have overcome the normal, instinctual shame that keeps us from being consistent with a pro-choice position.

I am sickened by the hypocrisy and inconsistency of most who hold a pro-choice position. But I am frightened when people go all the way and stay consistent. It seems like there are only two options of how to respond to this growing consistency. One option is that we finally come face to face with the horror of what we are doing and we stop. The second option is that we so harden our consciences that we allow ourselves to go even further with eliminating unwanted children.

I pray that the sad consistency of parents who say to their children, “I wish I had aborted you,” will wake us up to what we are doing and what we are approving.

      

"Eternal Perspectives": a Collection of Quotes about the Life to Come

I have always enjoyed reading books of well-chosen quotations on interesting subjects. I like the breadth, the variety, the joy of discovering a beautifully written or particularly insightful observation. I like writing that causes me to think about and to rethink positions I’ve taken for granted but may not be accurate.

In researching my book Heaven, I collected and read 150 books on the subject, and I’ve read another dozen since writing it—nearly every book about Heaven I have ever been able to locate. I underlined particularly significant portions of many of these, but only a small amount of the most interesting material made it into that book or my other books on the subject, including In Light of Eternity, 50 Days of Heaven, TouchPoints: Heaven, Heaven for Kids, and We Shall See God. I’ve often regretted that great words of insight into Heaven and the New Earth have been left to sit unseen in hundreds of files on my computer!

My new book Eternal Perspectives is the result of those quote compilations. It has over 1,500 quotes from authors, scholars, and theologians such as Augustine, Aquinas, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, C.S. Lewis, A. W. Tozer, Alister McGrath, John Piper, N. T. Wright, Joni Eareckso
n Tada, and many others.

I’m rereading the book myself, and really enjoying it (the quotes from others I mean!). Usually it wouldn’t be appropriate for an author to say, "I love this book," but I do. And since 90% plus is not by me, only compiled by me, I guess I can say it.

I share more about the book, as well as some of the quotes, in this video:

I’m especially grateful to God for the opportunity to assemble this book because my many interactions with grieving, lonely, and hurting believers have prompted me to envision how some people will use it. They will pick it up and perhaps read just one quotation or page or section at a sitting, and they will smile, nod, weep, pray, and worship. They may underline it, read a quotation to a friend, e-mail it, or post a quotation on Facebook. They may copy it and place it somewhere prominent. God may use it to touch their hearts and comfort them, or to help them find joy and prepare for the world to come. I know how deeply God has spoken to me through many of the words in this book, and I am thrilled at the thought that he will do the same for others.

Whether our hearts are heavy or light, whether recent days have brought us joy or sorrow or both, there is something soul stirring about contemplating what God has promised us and what Christ shed his blood and rose to guarantee us—eternal life with him and his people in a land of never-ending wonder.

      

 

Detective Ollie Chandler Interviews Rebecca Butler

Recently someone mentioned on my Facebook page that he was reading Deception and laughed his way through the chapter where the main character Detective Ollie Chandler interviews an eccentric lady named Becky Butler. I really enjoyed writing that scene, which I’ve included as an excerpt in this blog.

Here's a little known fact: Becky Butler was the maiden name of Rebecca Ekstrom, a good friend who volunteers for Eternal Perspective Ministries, our ministry. Now, Rebecca is not even REMOTELY like the woman in the book, but I thought she would get a kick out of seeing that a notorious character had her name. I also named the most awful woman in the book, who appears near the end, after Brenda Meyer, another friend. She loved it. :)

Lots of friends and our kids' friends have had their names in my books. In fact, the year I wrote Deception, I put in the names of every varsity tennis player on the high school team I helped coach. I refused to tell my players where to find their names. That way they had to read it. Trust me, some of them I put in very late in the book!

Though it may still be another few years, I want to come back to Ollie. And meanwhile I am collecting Ollie-isms like this. Some are original with me, but many I have seen elsewhere and I am compiling them as candidates to use in the book. Anybody who wants to send me a possible Ollie-ism, please do so!

      

Excerpt from Deception, chapter 6

“There’s a possible witness here at those apartments with the view of Oak Street,” Manny told me on the phone. “She saw something, but she’s a case. Maybe you can charm her. She’s your type. Second floor. 205. Name’s Rebecca Butler.”

Twenty minutes later Clarence and I were standing outside apartment 205. Painted lime green, the hallway was a fake clean with the smell of heavy chemicals that sterilize dirt without removing it. Four decades of cumulative neglect.

I knocked.

“Who’s it?” a woman’s voice shouted.

“Detective Ollie Chandler. Police.”

“That spic send you?” Still shouting.

“Officer Domast? He’s my partner.”

“Too bad for you,” she said, now peering through the fish-eye. “Don’t look like a cop. Why should I believe you’re a cop? Show me a donut.”

“Crack the door, and I’ll show you my badge.”

“After you tie me up and rob me. Hold it up to the peephole.”

I held up my badge.

“Move it to the right. No the other way. No, not that close. You’re dumb enough to be a cop.”

Finally the dead bolt snapped back, but the door didn’t open.

I waited.

“You didn’t open the door,” I called, not letting my voice in on my attitude.

“You can’t open a door yourself? It’s not much harder than pickin’ up a donut.” Two donut cracks and we weren’t even in the door.

“We can come in?”

“It’s unlocked,” she called. “I’m watching my soaps.”

We walked into a living room that looked like it had thrown up on itself.

She was sitting, curled up in a seventies recliner, wearing sweatpants and a mustard-stained undersized T-shirt that showed way more than I wanted to see. She was surrounded by a bag of Lay’s potato chips and a jumbo bag of Cheetos, a liter of Pepsi plus two empties, and stained paper plates.

Her eyes were close-set, squinty and mole like, as if she hadn’t seen the sun for a year. Her age was a difficult call. Forty-five? People don’t age as much when they don’t see the sun. Cheetos and Lay’s probably help the skin too with all that oil. Like her apartment building, she was showing forty years of cumulative neglect. If she’d been painted lime green, it would have been a perfect match.

She didn’t look up until the commercial, ten seconds after we entered. “I’m Ollie. This is—”

“Who’s the black guy?”

“Clarence. He’s studying to be a cop when he grows up. Pretend he’s not here. He’s used to it.”

“Can you dunk it?” she asked him.

“I used to be able to,” Clarence said.

“Too fat now, huh?”

He said nothing, but his eyes spoke volumes. Forgoing handwritten notes, he flipped open his PDA, stylus in hand.

“I thought you people could dunk it even when you’re old and fat. Hey, do you know Stevie Wonder?”

“Not personally.”

“I like his music. Tell him for me, would you? ‘Tutti Frutti’s my favorite.” “That was Little Richard,” Clarence said.

“And ‘Hit the Road Jack.’”

“Ray Charles.”

“You know them, too?”

“Yeah. Stevie, Richard, Ray, and I meet for chitlins and cornbread every Friday night.”

Not bad, I nodded to Clarence. “Mrs. Butler, could you—”

“I’m not a Mrs. My no-good husband left me.”

“Ms. Butler, could—”

“I’m not one of those either.”

“Miss Butler—”

“Do I look like I’m nineteen?”

“No,” I said. “You certainly don’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Only that you are a youthful yet mature woman. May I call you Rebecca?”

“Friends call me Becky.”

“All right, Becky, did you—”

“We’re not friends.”

“Okay... did you see a man come out of the professor’s house last night?” “Who’s the professor?”

“The man who lives in the house where you told my partner—” “The spic?”

“We prefer to call him Hispanic. You told my partner you saw a man come out of the professor’s house.”

“Whatever.”

“What did he look like?”

“The spic? Short and wiry. Burr under his saddle.”

“No. I mean the man coming out the professor’s door... the man you saw. What did he look like?”

“Like Abraham Lincoln,” she said.

Now we were getting somewhere. Abe Lincoln wouldn’t blend into a crowd. “Tall?” I asked.

“No. Medium. About my brother’s size.”

“How tall’s your brother?”

“I’m not on trial here. Neither’s my brother.”

“You mentioned your brother. I’ve not had the privilege of meeting him.” “It’s no privilege.”

“Is he six feet tall?”

“Who?”

“Your brother.”

“You’re still on my brother?”

“I’ll get off your brother as soon as you answer my question. Is he six feet tall?” “My brother? You crazy?”

“Look, ma’am, I’ve never seen your brother. I can’t begin to guess how tall he is. I’m assuming you have seen him. Could you just take a guess?”

“Six inches taller than me.”

“How tall are you?” She was still sitting, like she’d been poured into the recliner. “You going to ask me how much I weigh, too?”

“Only if you tell me your brother weighs forty pounds more than you.” She glared at me.

“Could you stand, please?”

“I’ve been up and down all day, answering the phone and the door and trying to fix the antenna for my soaps, and now you’re asking me to stand?”

My face, if it was following orders, looked earnest and sympathetic. “I’ve got all day, but I don’t want you to miss your soaps. How about you stand just for a second then answer a few more questions, and we’ll leave you alone?”

She stood slowly, but it didn’t take long for her to get straight.

Five-foot-one, at most.

“Then your brother’s about five seven?”

“You tell me.”

“If he were my brother, I would.”

“Don’t get smart with me, Kojak.”

She aimed a frown at me, and when I wouldn’t let it land, she aimed it at Clarence. It landed.

“I’m not getting smart,” I said. “You’ll know when I get smart. So was he thin?” “He used to be, but he’s been laid off and watches lots of TV. Loves the soaps and Oprah and Dr. Phil. He’s put on fifty pounds.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“My brother!” She looked at me like I was a finalist on American Idiot. “Let’s forget about your brother, okay?”

“It’s about time. I told you he has nothing to do with this. He’s written bad checks and spent time in the pokey, but he’s no killer. And for sure he doesn’t know any professors.”

“I’ll bet he doesn’t. How about the man who was at the professor’s door? Was he thin?”

“Nope. Pudgy. Like you.”

Clarence looked up from his PDA. He folded the lid.

I paused, putting my tongue between my teeth to keep them from locking. “Did I miss an episode?”

“Whatcha mean?” she asked.

“I mean...in what way did this man remind you of Abraham Lincoln?”

“He had a beard!” she said, with a look that confirmed I wasn’t merely a finalist for American Idiot, but had been crowned.

“Lots of hair?”

“He was bald.”

I stared at her, giving the words time to go through my universal translator. It wasn’t working. “Bald... like Abraham Lincoln?”

“Don’t know if Lincoln was bald. He always wore a hat.”

“Not when he bathed.”

“What are you, a pervert?”

“No, ma’am. So, you’re saying he was short, mostly bald, pudgy, and looked like Abraham Lincoln? I’m glad to hear he had a beard.”

“Of course he had a beard. How could he look like Lincoln and not have a beard?”

“Black?”

“Nope. I told you, he was a white guy.”

“Do you think he could dunk it?” I couldn’t resist. It was worth it to see Abernathy. “What I meant is was his beard black?”

“Not many blacks in this building,” she said.

“How fortunate for them,” Clarence muttered.

“I repeat—was his beard black?”

“No way. This guy was... maybe Swedish. A pale face. What’s that other country that’s part of Sweden?”

“Norway?”

“Yeah, he looked sort of like one of those cow milkers with their red barns. Yellow hair. Funny accents. Go out naked in the freezing water.”

“You heard his voice?”

“How could I hear his voice? He was across the street, and Law & Order was on. It was during the last commercial.”

I jotted it down. That put it around 10:50.

“You said he was bald, but he had yellow hair?”

“Yeah. The part that wasn’t bald was blond. You know, like what’s-his-name, the football announcer... Terry Bradshaw? The guy that played for the Cowboys?” “Steelers. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

“Did not.”

“Did too. So the beard was blond?”

“Grayish. Salt-and-pepper. But more salt than pepper. More like Lawry’s seasoned salt. You know, sort of orangish.”

“An orange beard?”

“Just a tint of orange, that’s all I’m saying.”

“What was he wearing?”

“Jeans. Coat. Shoes. I dunno. Plus the stocking cap.”

“Stocking cap?”

“Yeah. It was black. Or green. Could’ve been blue. Hard to tell it was so dark out.”

I paused, sorting it through. “If he had on a stocking cap, how do you know he was bald... and blond?”

“Look, don’t try to make this my problem. I didn’t kill Dr. Einstein.”

Sometimes you keep fishing; sometimes you just cut bait and walk. “We’ll be going now,” I said. “We have business elsewhere.”

She waved her hand, grabbed the remote, and turned up the volume. “Where’s our business?” Clarence asked as we shut the door behind us. “On planet earth.”

He scrunched his face. “Maybe you cops earn your pay after all.”

“I may be King of the Idiots,” I said, “but my kingdom is vast, and my subjects are everywhere.”

Women Need Support and the Truth, Not Abortion

Guest post by Kathy Norquist, executive assistant to Randy Alcorn

Recently a Texas judge upheld a law that requires a woman to be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion. His decision was discussed on The View and Joyce Behar and Barbara Walters made the following stunning statements:

Joyce Behar: “It's very totalitarian in my opinion. I mean, it smacks of forcing somebody to confront something that they have already decided they don't want to deal with.”

So if a person doesn’t want to deal with something (in this case, someone), you just avoid it? Can you imagine applying this principle to other situations in your life? “I don’t want to deal with the fact that my daughter has been molested, so I’ll just ignore it.” “I don’t want to deal with my child being bullied at school, so I’ll just ignore it.” Countless people suffer tremendously because they don’t deal with the truth but disregard it.  Ignorance is not bliss. Proverbs 14:8 says, “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.” It is very disrespectful to women to withhold truth from them. They need to know facts and see their unborn baby before they make a decision that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Women need support, not abortion.

Barbara Walters: “I think that in order to even think about having an abortion, to give up a child that is obviously unwanted, that's why you're doing it, it is such a tremendous decision, it's involved with so much fear of what you're doing, and guilt.

Then to have to go and be forced to hear, to see the fetus, to hear the heartbeat, to put more guilt on you, I think is heartbreaking.”

So it’s all about how the woman feels, not about bringing harm to someone else? Notice her reference to “a child.” That’s no longer in question like it used to be. Now people admit it’s a child. They have to because it’s so clearly proven by the in utero technology we now have. But that doesn’t seem to matter. The message given on The View is that what really matters is what the woman wants. What selfishness! As a woman, I take great offense at these statements because they imply that what’s most important to a woman is how she feels, not what is true. “She shouldn’t be given all the facts, because that might make her feel guilty. After all, we must avoid guilt at all cost!” This undermines the strength of a woman and her ability to deal with what is true and to make wise choices in light of that truth.

And why is this such a “tremendous decision”? Why does it involve fear and guilt? Because this isn’t just another medical procedure like having your gall bladder removed. It involves another human being, a life that God ordained from the beginning of time. “For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps. 139:13).

Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). “Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39). It is always in the best interest of the woman to give life and to love another human being. That love might be expressed in the form of relinquishing her baby for adoption into a loving home or choosing to parent. But it will never be expressed by taking the life of her unborn child.

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones” (Prov. 3:7).

Kathy Norquist
Executive Assistant to Randy Alcorn