Volume 9, Number 2

The Sins of the Nation
by Thomas V Parrish *
In the Bible they called it the choice between God and Garlic (Numbers 11: 5). Our nation faces the same dilemma only now we make the choice between God and the stock market. Pastor Parrish claims the impeachment of the President reveals more about America than it does about Mr. Clinton.
The last eight months in Washington D.C. have revealed more aboutthe state of the American people than they have about the sins of the President. It has been astounding and saddening to watch poll after poll declare that as a people we don't care about our leaders' character or morality. What we seem to care about is our well being, our security, and the stock market. This prevailing attitude will have more impact on the future of this nation than the indiscretions of any president.
Many Christians have spoken to me from across the country and their questions are the same, "What's going on in America? What has happened to morality and character? Where are the Christian values in American life?" These are very good questions! How is it possible that the most powerful nation on the face of the earth, built upon the revealed truth of the Bible, is now turning a deaf ear to the character of our nation's leaders?

The Real Issue
Judge Robert Bork in his new book, Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, says that the real issue is a misuse of the Word of God. The prime example is found in luke 6:37, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned." The idea that we ought never to "judge" someone or hold them accountable for behavior has become the cornerstone of tolerance. This thoroughly misses the truth of God's Word.
As we look back through the 1960's to the present, there has been a war of values going on in America. That war has been waged in the classrooms, the public area, and even the church. What has been the focal point of this war? Truth has become replaced by tolerance, love is devoid of right or wrong. "Live and let live" has become the highest form of morality. Those who claim that there are absolutes of truth and morality are portrayed as bigots. Anyone who claims that a lifestyle or behavior is taboo is labeled as being out of touch or as having a "phobia."
Like the frog in the kettle, truth, right and wrong, and traditional morality have been slowly but surely replaced with the new ethic of liberalism. The major vehicle for this new ethic has been the media. The media have embraced nearly every belief and lifestyle as healthy and normal, except those that are distinctly Christian. Even within portions of the Christian church, a new generation of leaders has emerged that has also embraced this liberal agenda. Many of these leaders have come out of the 1960's era, understanding full well that their agendas are best served by taking the long road of scholarship and church leadership. We are witnessing the results. What was at one time called sin is now an alternative life-style. Issues that would have resulted in leaders being kicked out of the church are today called topics of dialogue and understanding. Those who oppose this agenda are seen as the unenlightened fringe of Christianity.

It's No Surprise
Therefore we ought not to be surprised when so many still believe that character and morality are not vital issues in church or national leadership since we all sin and no one ought to judge anyone else. The majority of Americans who hold such views are only reflecting what they have been spoon fed for nearly three decades. Just as an ostrich puts its head in the sand, believing that all is well if it sees no danger, so America is putting its head of morality and character in the sand attempting to bury the truth. This approach to the central issues of life does not eliminate the truth of judgment of Almighty God.
One of the hallmarks of traditional Lutheranism was the insistence on law and Gospel. law points out our sinfulness and need for a savior. The Gospel points us to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. As we repent and walk in the truth of Jesus Christ, we have peace with God the Father. As I was taught in catechism and in the study of God's Word in seminary, this "grace" does not eliminate the judgment of God; it has only redirected it in our Savior, Jesus Christ. His death on the cross paid the penalty of my sin. As I trust in Jesus and put faith in Him alone, I walk in confession and repentance letting my mind be changed by the Word of God. God's wrath which I deserve is turned away, and I experience His grace. I am called to walk in this grace all the days of my life until the day of Jesus Christ.
We must not foolishly believe that any law, any speech, any edict from our leaders, both politically or in the church, will in any way defuse or sidestep the truth of God the Father in Jesus Christ. We may be like the man who jumped out of the ai rplane at 10, 000 feet without a parachute believing that all was well until that dramatic and sudden stop at the bottom. In just the same way, the majority of Americans can reject morality and character as vital to leadership, but that will not deflect that sudden stop at God's truth.

Our Response
How ought we to respond to those who believe that private behavior does not affect public policy? First and foremost, God's people must stand up for truth, for Jesus Christ, and for personal character. We must be bold, speak out, and not apologize for the truth. At the same time, we must speak with passion, integrity, intelligence, and mercy. We need to become the voice of reason and truth in this time of incredible confusion. Second, we must resist any urge to withdraw or hide away from the public arena. Just as the early Christians went into the arenas with the lions, so must we go into politics and the media with our Christian beliefs and convictions. Third, we must make sure that our private behavior is the same as our public behavior. We need to look deeply within ourselves and repent of sin. If we have hurt others, cheated them in any way, or neglected our responsibilities, then we must make restitution and seek to bring healing. Fourth, we must pray for our leaders and cry out to the lord for mercy. Finally, we must trust in Jesus who will have the final word in all matters even when justice and truth are steamrollered by those who oppose what is right.
The current crisis in the White House is truly the crisis of the nation. It is not merely whether this president will be preserved in office, but whether this nation can long survive. Any house built on the sand, says Jesus, will crumble and sink when the storms of life come along. Any house built on the rock will survive. Pray that this nation will come to repentance and embrace the truth of Jesus Christ and rebuild on the solid rock of morality and character.

*Thomas Parrish is the pastor of Vision of Glory Church, Plymouth, Mn., and an Advisory Board member of FOCl-POINT.

FOCL SATIS-EST Scholarships Granted
Mrs. Dee Posey, Hollister, CA., chair of the Satis Est Scholarship Committee of the Fellowship of Confessional Lutherans (FOCl), announced the awarding of a second year "Satis Est" scholarship to Pastor Ken Sundet Jones, St Paul, MN. The stipend of one thousand dollars was granted at FOCl'S quarterly board meeting, and is for the current school year.
Sundet Jones is an Iowa ElCA pastor, currently studying systematic theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul. Posey, who is also a board member of the Women of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said, "Persons applying for Satis Est scholarships must be pastors serving ElCA congregations and be between the ages of 30 and 55."
According to Dr Herbert Schaefer, former Education Secretary for the Lutheran World Federation, and currently President of FOCl, the Satis Est scholarship program of FOCl is to "further the equipping of pastors to preach and teach the Scripture as the source and norm of all theology and life, and rightly to administer the Sacraments in accordance with the Ecumenical Creeds and the Lutheran Confessions. Our program for the theological enhancement of ElCA clergy has been so named," said Schaefer, "for this is the only principle (Augsburg Confession, chpt.7) according to which the Lutheran Church is to determine its partnership
"The scholarships," Schaefer continued, "are intended for those who profess the infallibility of the Scripture for our salvation, and who hold the Lutheran Confessions to be a true exposition of the Holy Scripture which serve as a guide and test for the study and pursuit of theology.
"By enabling confessionally faithful pastors to continue their education," Schaefer said, "it is hoped this scholarship program will further 'encourage biblical, evangelical and confessional faithfulness to our Christian heritage within the ElCA,' as FOCl's mission statement affirms. The annual grants are another of FOCl's efforts to help bring the ElCA once again to a strong proclamation of the Gospel of Christ's mission in the world."
Addressing FOCl supporters and fellow-concerned across the nation, Schaefer said, "If you want to be part of this worthwhile endeavor, send a contribution to FOCl, 333 EI Molino Way, San Jose, CA 98119. We feel that there is no better way to help the ElCA be a confessional church than by investing in the training of competent confessional pastors."

Called to Common Mission: A Minority View
by Prof. Tod Nichol
Dr Nichol, faculty member at Luther Seminary, St Paul, was one of three chosen to redraft the unaccepted Concord of Agreementfor "full communion" between the Episcopal and ELCA churches. The committee issued its revision as Called to Common Mission (CCM). Nichol submitted a "minority report" when the document was sent on to the ELCA for action at its Assembly this year. In an unusual move, the other two members of the drafting team, in conjunction with ELCA Ecumenical Affairs officer, refused to circulate his dissent with their majority opinion. As a service to the church, we reprint his slightly abridged report.

Since I favor the earliest possible acknowledgment of communion in Christ by the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I regret that I cannot endorse Called to Common Mission.
I see it as my task in this brief statement to describe several of the most significant objections that Lutherans may have to Called to Common Mission .... I confine myself here to what I take to be the most fundamental procedural and theological matters .... A fuller discussion would also take up vital questions related to ethos, practice, and the place of both churches in the American and global contexts for mission ...

... [M]any Lutherans will find much in this document to affirm, notably its expression of "Agreement in the Doctrine of the Faith." .... At the same time, Called to Common Mission is very similar to the previous Concordat.

Procedure
Some Lutherans will object to aspects ofthe procedu re by which Called to Common Mission was developed.
1. The instructions delivered to the Lutheran members of the drafting team by Lutheran authorities specifically stated that a revised and rewritten statement must include an agreement on the historic episcopate. This precluded discussion among the Lutherans of the drafting team of the matter most controversial and divisive among Lutherans.

2. Called to Common Mission differs from other ecumenical agreements to which the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is party. It requires substantial internal changes in the polity and practice of this church. It would at a minimum result in a reordered ministry, constitutional amendments, and liturgical revision .... There is, [some] Lutherans will maintain, not sufficient internal consensus in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to warrant the undertaking of such changes in good faith with an ecumenical partner. ... Some will also ask about the relation of this [CCM] statement to the decisions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America regarding [against the Episcopalian "three-fold"] ministry, in 1993, taken after protracted internal study.

Theological Substance
1. Called to Common Mission expects the intro uction of the historic episcopate into the Evangelical Lutheran Church for the realization of full communion between the two churches. The statement does not require Lutherans to subscribe to a theological assertion that the historic episcopate is necessary to the unity of the church and is deferential to traditional Lutheran formulations regarding the unity of the church and the office of the ministry, but it does insist on certain invariable practices for the realization of full communion.

While this proposal avoids the use of the term "condition," an agreement resulting from it would in practice impose conditions on both churches. Episcopalians are asked to suspend temporarily the preface to their ordinal so that they may acknowledge the full authenticity of presently existing ordained ministries within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Lutherans are asked to receive the historic episcopate and to make substantial constitutional and liturgical changes for the sake of full communion with a church with the historic episcopate.

Those Lutherans who hold that the right preaching of the Gospel and administration of the Sacraments are sufficient for the unity of the church will object to conditions in practice asked [by the CCM] of either church by the other. [They] ... hold that neither the Holy Scriptures nor the Lutheran Confessions permit episcopal or any other historical forms of the ordained ministry to be explicitly identified as necessary conditions for full communion will object to the proposal. They will regard it as inconsistent with Scripture and contrary to Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession .... They will not agree to theological assertions or practices that they consider unnecessary [" adiaphora"] when partners in discussion declare the same assertions or practices to be necessary.

2. Some will maintain that certain other elements and implications of Called to Common Mission concerning the nature of the public ministry, call, ordination, and the office of bishop are not warranted by Scripture and inconsistent with the Augsburg Confession (e.g., Articles 5,14,28).

3. Some Lutherans, [on the other hand] who may not share the objections above, will contend that Called to Common Mission does not commit Lutherans to a theological rationale for the historic episcopate that wou Id make it integral to the ordering of ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ... that will make full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and visible unity with the Orthodox Churches immediately possible.

Other prospects
Again, I want to say that I favor the earliest possible acknowledgment of communion in Christ by The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America .... [T]he debate over Called to Common Mission will be a debate about means rather than ends.

Should either or both churches decline to approve Called to Common Mission, I believe that there remain other promising paths toward full communion to explore .... [I]t would require both churches to develop fundamentally new approaches to ecumenism. This would likely be an ecumenism more oriented to recognition of Christian commonality in Christ than to exacting agreements in theology and ecclesiastical practice ....

As an evangelical Lutheran and as a member of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, I look forward to the time when all Christians will be able to recognize the unity they have in Christ and to enjoy the diversity in theology and practice permitted them by the generosity of God. Such recognition will revise and renew Christian ecumenism, serve the spread of the Gospel, build up the Church on earth, and express a communion in Christ that already exists without our acknowledgment of it ...

One ofthe more perplexing aspects of the abortion holocaust is the support some church members give to it-up to and including the ELCA's giving medical coverage for abortion on demand. Have they been hypnotized by a slanted media?

Consider the following:
In a five-year content exhaustive analysis of abortion news on television networks, in news magazines, and in national newspapers since 1993, the Media Research Center exposed the establishment media as nothing more than an extension of the pro-abortion movement that has grossly misinformed the public.

Media Bias
MRC analysts studied morning, evening and magazine shows on ABC, CBS and NBC as well as nightly programs on CNN; analysts also examined reports in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report as well as newspaper coverage in the Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.

"As the abortion issue returns to prominence with congressional votes on partial-birth abortion and parental consent, it is imperative to reveal to the public that the national establishment media cannot be trusted to effectively inform them about this issue. Ou r review of coverage over the past five years repeatedly - and disturbingly - shows the national media to be pro-abortion advocates with an unrestrained megaphone," said MRC Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham who conducted the study.

How The Media Use Labels
The pro-life side is presented as motivated, and therefore marginalized, by ideology, but the pro-abortion side is not. MRC's review of 1 050 news stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today during 1995 and 1996 (the '96 election cycle) mentioning revealed the pro-life groups were labeled as "conservative" almost half the time, in 47 percent of the stories.
The pro-abortion groups were labeled "liberal" in only 3 percent of the stories.

Abortion Is Made A "GOP Problem
The MRC found that the media, especially the network television news shows, only emphasized the abortion issue as a division among Republicans. Rare was a story about how several members of the congressional Democrat leadership - as well as many Democrat members - voted to override President Clinton's veto of the partialbirth abortion ban last year. As many as one-third of House Democrats voted against abortion bills; pro-life Democratic speakers like Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey were denied the right to speak at the Democratic conventions in 1992 and 1996. Pro-life Democrats seem to be an endangered species in the media. In the three months before both conventions, the GOP struggle over abortion elicited 60 network news stories to just one for the Democrats.

Distorting Partial-Birth Abortion
In a 14-month study from November 1995 through 1996, the MRC found one-third of network news stories on partial-birth abortion have offered inaccurate claims and statistics. Many stories called the procedure "rare" or "little used" without investigating, until abortion advocate Ron Fitzsimmons admitted he'd "lied through his teeth" in calling it rare on national television. He then suggested up to 5,000 a year were committed, many when baby and mother are healthy.

Ignoring Pro-Life Marches And Activities
The MRC review found the annual March for Life in Washington on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision has either been ignored or only given a scant few seconds of coverage on network newscasts. Liberal marches and protests (sometimes involving far fewer participants) draw more attention. While the March for Life has drawn more than 1 OO,OOOAmericanstoWashington, only to be blacked out by the networks, just 100 people standing in front of a gun factory to push gun control makes all the networks.

Ignoring Pro-Abortion Violence
Since the 1993 shooting of Dr. David Gunn, through the current manhunt for clinic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, the networks have aired over 500 stories on violence against abortionists and clinic workers while ignoring the horrific violence of abortion against the unborn child. The networks also continue to ignore the violence and harassment committed by abortion advocates and abortionists, such as the shots fired at a pro-life demonstrator in Louisiana.
"After five years of gathering evidence the case against the national media on the abortion issue is open and shut. The media do not tell the truth about abortion. They have left the American people completely misinformed about this issue and they don't show any signs of righting themselves," Graham said.
According to the American Bible Society, comedian Jay Leno's street interview went like this: Two women were asked if they could name one of the Ten Commandments. Embarassed, one guessed, "Freedom of Speech?" Another passerby was asked, "Who was tallest-David or Goliath?" The response, "David who?"
This generation's illiteracy toward the Bible may be the surest key to the Church's thoughtless departing from the authority of Scripture that we are experiencing, also in our ELCA. Until our pastors and congregations return to studying and reflecting on the Bible in their sermons and educational activities, can we not expect that "Thus saith the Lord" will continue to be ignored? And man-made gospels will be offered in our churches in place of the Word of the Lord.

Get Rid of the Bible!
In sharp contrast to our increasing disesteem of the Bible, Ecumenical News International reports on the attitude toward the Bible in Kenya. There the Bible Society has had to send out a warning that thousands of Bibles are being stolen from churches & schools and destroyed by burning. Further, mailed solicitations are being made to donate personal used Bibles to unidentifiable "outreach" programs. But the Bibles are never traced again. All this, presumptively, by organized enemies ot t'ne Bib)e, to reduce t'ne number of Bibles available in that nation. Enemies of the Lord know the power of the Word to save and change hearts. Would that we did as well.

Let's talk it over:
In July the Missouri Synod (LCMS) convention gave support to the intention of its President, A. L. Barry, to set up talks between that Church and the ELCA. The ELCA Church Council has agreed that formal talks should begin next June. We can only cheer

Perspectives
Perspectives So that's why: and cheer again that these two bodies who profess the same faith, are willing to assess the increasing differences that have arisen between them.
It is, after all, a wondrous sight to behold: the ELCA proclaims mutual hand-holding between it and four denominations to its right and left, but can find no comradeship with the LCMS. Tension multiplied after the ELCA last year established "full communion" with three Reformed denominations in the U.S., in an agreement that denies that the doctrinal differences between Lutheran and Reformed on the presence of Jesus Christ in the Lord Supper is of consequence to us any longer.
In the upcoming talks it will be vital that both denominations come to the discussion not only willing to listen to, but also to learn from each other. We can't speak for what the LC-MS can learn, but we can invite our ELCA representatives to ponder th is question with the LC-MS representatives: "Why has the LC-MS been able to increase its world mission budget 220% in the last 7 years; why has it been able to open mission work in 20 new countries in the past decade-equal to the number of new works begun in the previous four decades combined; why has it experienced a 300 per cent increase in long-term volunteers in six years in its world mission outreach?" CQuld It.. be becaus.e t..l:\e LC-MS l<J\Q\Ns. precisely what it stands for, and believes the Bible is completely trustworthy? People who believe, have something to tell to the whole world.

Clinton, Congress and US:
In the last issue of FOCL-POINT, wonder was expressed that many church people felt the sex sins of the
President were private and could be boxed in from the remainder of his presidency. This, in view oftheir biblical guideline: He who offends in one point of [God's] law is guilty of all.(James 2:10). David Gergen, one-time White House advisor to Clinton, writing in U.S. News, puts itthis way: "Atthe end of the day, we should recognize that the heart of this case is not about Clinton, nor is it about Starr. It is about us, the citizenry: What standards do we demand from our elected representatives, and do we apply them equally, even to a popular president?
"His defenders would have us believe that lying under oath, especially about sex, is a trivial violation of the law. Not so ... .This episode challenges our political standards too. After scandals of the past, as in Watergate and Iran-contra, politicians concluded that the one thing worse than a crime is a coverup. The lesson: 'If caught, come clean.'
Should the president now go scot-free, we will teach the next generation very different, more cynical rules: 'If you're questioned, deny; if pressed, attack; if caught, lie. And if you just string it out long enough, the public will grow bored and walk away from the scandal.' Journalists, lawyers, and historians do not have the political and moral authority to speak on behalf of the nation; only Congress can do that. Our lawmakers must now render a verdict in our names."

Back From The Brink
C.S.Lewis and God's Surprises
This last summer I celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of my conversion to Christ. And what was it that turned around a hardened ex-Marine, White House hatchet man? The loving witness of a friend and the writings of a tweedy, pipe-smoking scholar of medieval literature named C S. Lewis.
Because this summer was also the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Lewis' birth, I found myself reflecting on the manifold ways his writings have shaped my life and ministry.
It all began for me one evening in the home of Tom Phillips, a business colleague. Tom read a passage on pride from Lewis' Mere Christianity. Though I didn't let on, it was as if Lewis had written the words just for me. They pierced my heart, exposing my sin. That night, sitting in my car in Tom's driveway, I broke down in a flood of tears.
But I distrust emotional responses, and it was only by reading the entire book a week later that my intellect caught up with my spiritual experience. In a single page, Lewis demolished my complacent rationalization of Christ's demands, the notion that Jesus was merely a great moral teacher. Given the claims Jesus made to divinity, a moral teacher is precisely what He could not be, Lewis argued. Either He was indeed the Son of God or He was a scoundrel and a liar. Faced with this clear choice, I realized that the presence confronted that night in the driveway was truly the living God.
But Lewis' influence did not stop there. His writings came to have a decisive influence on my entire ministry. Prison Fellowship's approach is indebted to Lewis' essay "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment," which skewers the modern theory of criminal justice defining punishment in terms of deterrence or rehabilitation. Such an approach is thoroughly pragmatic, Lewis points out. It presumes that criminal justice is about achieving sociological goals. And in the process it reduces the criminal to an object to be manipulated to reach those goals. Given such a dehumanizing view of the person, no wonder the theory invariably fails

The Biblical Understanding
By contrast, a biblical understanding is thoroughly moral: Punishment is about justice. The criminal is accorded the dignity of being a moral agent, whose actions deserve either praise or punishment. This is the moral perspective under-girding Prison Fellowship's ministry.
Elsewhere, in my speaking and writing, I continue to be shaped by Lewis's writings. His Miracles (1947) was uncannily prophetic in foreseeing the emerging naturalistic philosophy, which has stripped the transcendent dimension from every area of thought, whether science or law or ethics-a theme I raise often in my speeches and radio commentaries. His The Abolition of Man (1947) dissected the moral relativism that has devastated modern education, from the college campus to the elementary classroom. In a chapter titled "Men Without Chests," Lewis puts his finger on the fatal flaw in all secular ethical systems: They address how to know what's right, but they cannot shape the will to do what's right. Finally, Lewis' eloquent arguments in Mere Christianity why Christians must stand together to defend the faith have motivated my work to bring evangelicals and Catholics together.
It strikes me as a delicious irony that this quiet Cambridge don should exert such a formative influence on me, and many others today. He was a humble' man, who probably never imagined his work would have such an impact. I picture him in his study, faded volumes of medieval literature stacked high on the shelves, thoughtfully puffing on his pipe (which is one of my prized possessions, given to me by the executor of Lewis' estate).
Never would he have dreamed that his writings would inspire a prison ministry that spans the globe, along with a speaking and radio ministry reaching much of the church.
There is a lesson here for you and me, as each of us shoulders the task God has given us. Lewis exhorted Christians to get ready for the Second Coming simply by staying at our posts, faithfully doing whatever we are called to do. And when we do, God will often use our efforts in ways we cannot imagine.
The God of whom C. S. Lewis wrote so movingly is still sovereign, and still surprises us with the way He works through humble human instruments - if only we are faithful.

-from "C.S.Lewis and God's Surprises" by Charles Colson, in Jubilee Extra, June 1998