THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
Dr. Ben Carson has previously rejected liberal arguments about race, but last week he spoke at Reverend ‘s National Action Network and, in a piece for National Review today, talks about how both he and Sharpton “have the same goal.”
Carson says he was encouraged by the “productive dialogue and conversation” he engaged in at the event, and said both he and Sharpton just want an America “that provides equal opportunities and access to the underserved and forgotten.”
Carson touts how he rejects a “victim mentality” that others have perpetuated.
For his part, when Carson spoke days ago, Sharpton spoke of the potential GOP candidate in good humor:
“I think Dr. Carson and I don’t even agree today is Wednesday. We’re going to show we can listen and we make intelligent decisions. You cannot deal with putting things on the agenda in 2016’s election unless those that are running can be heard—and they have to hear us.”
QUOTE: "Powell donated the maximum allowable amount to John McCain's campaign in the summer of 2007 and in early 2008, his name was listed as a possible running mate for Republican nominee McCain's bid during the 2008 U.S. presidential election. However, on October 19, 2008, Powell announced his endorsement of Barack Obama during a Meet the Press interview, citing "his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities," in addition to his "style and substance." He additionally referred to Obama as a "transformational figure"."
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson (shown) answered "probably" to the question of whether the federal government should increase the minimum wage. The retired neurosurgeon has staked out a position that is at odds with the view that the free market — not government — should decide wages and prices.
In an interview with John Harwood of CNBC, Carson appeared to favor a higher minimum wage as a way to encourage those who draw government benefits to join the work force. "In several states you can get as much or more on government assistance as you can by working a minimm wage job," said Carson, adding that he could not "necessarily blame people" for taking the attitude of simply drawing government assistance rather than working. "I can stay home and I can make this money, or I can go and work this little chicken job that doesn't have many benefits," is how Carson summed up the attitude of many beneficiaries of government assistance.
"However, recognize that if you go and take that chicken job, you gain skills, relationships, the possibility of moving up the ladder," Carson argued. "So a year or two or five down the road, you're no longer in that position. This is what people have forgotten."
Carson's reasoning seems clear. If the government were to raise the minimum wage, then the higher wage would make a job more desirable than the government "assistance" the person is presently receiving. Following through on his line of thought, if the government forced a business owner to pay his workers higher wages, then the taxpayer would not have to pay for their government benefits, and the person would become a productive member of society, instead of a drain on others in society who must pay taxes to fund those government benefits.
While this may seem logical, Carson's scenario neglects to mention the negative consequences of the minimum wage. First, if the government should be able to set a minimum wage, why not a maximum wage? After all, why should neurosurgeons make more than a bus boy in a restaurant? In a free enterprise situation, the supply of those who can perform highly techical surgeries is quite limited. The supply of those who can bus tables, on the other hand, is quite high. The argument usually made by advocates of raising the minimum wage is that those receiving the present minimum wage cannot support a family on it. Under this reasoning, since Carson received far more as a neurosurgeon than what was necessary for him to make a living, then the government should have capped his wage.
Why does a business owner hire anyone? The answer should be obvious. He believes he can make more money by adding that additional employee than by not. In a growing and strong economy, the minimum wage usually becomes irrelevant. This is because more businesses are in need of more employees to care of the increased number of customers, making them pay a higher wage for those additional employees.
In an economic downturn, however, the minimum wage forces the business owner to make some difficult decisions. While he may need an additional worker, with business activity down, he may simply not be able toafford another employee. Because of the minimum wage, the business owner often decides he can make more money by laying off one employee. After all, the owner opens up a business to make money for his own family, not to give someone a job. It should also be noted that a person takes a job for his own family's benefit as well, not to help the business owner make more money.
As Adam Smith observed many years ago in his famous book Wealth of Nations, the butcher does not prepare us our supper for our benefit, but his own. However, the only way the butcher can benefit himself is by preparing us our supper.
The cold, hard reality is that if the minimum wage is higher than the market price for that worker, then the business owner has limited options. He can, of course, raise his prices to pay for the additional worker; but in a stagnant economy, this may not be possible. Raising the price of the product might actually lead to even fewer customers, and reduced income for the business. If the business owner is unable to get his customers to pay the higher wage through higher prices for the product, then he must resort to cutting staff. Whereas before, the business may have operated witth seven workers, now it might have to cut back to six, or even five.
Another tactic used by business owners who are looking for ways to reduce their costs of doing business (and labor costs are usually the most expensive single item) is to experiment with some technology. After all, if you have a machine to take orders, you don't have to worry about it calling in sick (or just not showing up). If a machine is cheaper than a human being would be after an increase in the minimum wage, then a business owner who must put his own family first could very well opt to cut staff.
While these basic economic principles are no doubt not taught in medical school, there are multitudes of physicians who have demonstrated their understanding of liberty and free market principles. Former U.S. Representative Dr. Ron Paul and now-deceased former U.S. Representative Dr. Larry McDonald are just two examples who come to mind.
Carson's scenario that a person may opt to take a job rather than continue to simply draw government benefits no doubt could happen. As the great French philosopher Frederic Bastiat said, however, that is what is seen. Not seen are those employees who are willing to work for a lower wage, but cannot get a job because the minimum wage has priced them out of a job. It is also not seen when the minimum wage actually forces a business owner to close. Perhaps the owner would have taken a chance on a low-skilled, inexperienced person at a lower wage, but would not take that chance at the higher wage. All this is not seen.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an open socialist, favors raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. That should really get some fellow off the couch to take a job! But, we must ask Sanders (running for president on the Democratic ticket) and even Carson a pertinent question: If $10 an hour is good, and $15 an hour is better, why not just make it $100 an hour? Ludicrous? Of course. But once one accepts the premise that it is the proper role of government to set wages at all, why not?
The truth is, wise men have always realized that in a free society, wages and prices should be set by the free market, not by government.
Christine Tamke-Barbara Maintains Common Core Fight: "My Kids Don't Have 10 Years For Bill Gates"
Published on Mar 23, 2015
GARDEN CITY, NY-- Christine Tamke-Barbara, mother of two and co-founder of Stop Common Core on Long Island (SCCLI) will not stop fighting Common Core until kids are safe and learning appropriately. "My children don't have 10 years to give to Bill Gates" experiment. March 22, 2015
Stop Common Core on Long Island was founded by a group of moms who have come together to raise awareness and take action against Common Core, having witnessed the effects that this ill-conceived and developmentally inappropriate curriculum has had on their own children both in and out of the classroom.
Marco Rubio, said to be the favorite of Republican voters for the 2016 presidential race, wants to extend the NSA’s unconstitutional surveillance program.
“The government is not listening to your phone calls or recording them unless you are a terrorist or talking to a terrorist outside the United States,” Rubio writes in a USA Today op-ed posted on May 10. He insists there “is not a single documented case of abuse of this program.”
“Despite recent court rulings, this program has not been found unconstitutional, and the courts have not ordered a halt to the program,” Rubio adds.
He then cites the secret court responsible for issuing surveillance warrants as a benchmark. “In fact, this program has been found legal and constitutional by at least 15 federal judges serving on the FISA Court on 35 occasions,” Rubio claims.
Rubio conveniently ignores the fact the surveillance program has operated without the consent of Congress or the American people since its inception. The Florida Republican excuses this illegality by saying “the federal government mobilized to defend the country and prevent further loss of innocent life” after September 11, 2001. He also mentions the PATRIOT Act.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled last week that the NSA surveillance program is rogue and is not authorized by section 215 of the PATRIOT Act (the act was ruled unconstitutional in 2007, a violation of the Fourth Amendment).
“We hold that the text of § 215 cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it, and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program,” the Court of Appeals ruling last week reads. “We do so comfortably in the full understanding that if Congress chooses to authorize such a far-reaching and unprecedented program, it has every opportunity to do so, and to do so unambiguously. Until such time as it does so, however, we decline to deviate from widely accepted interpretations of well‐established legal standards.”
The NSA has routinely violates rules set down by the secret FISA court. Information from Intelligence Community Documents Regarding Collection under Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reveals the agency crossed referenced a selected list of some 16,000 phone numbers against databases which contained millions of records on Americans’ telephone numbers.
US District Judge Reggie Walton, who oversaw the secret court, said in 2009 he was “deeply troubled” by the NSA accessing domestic phone records without “articulable suspicion.”
Moreover, an independent government review board said last year “certain aspects of the program’s implementation raise privacy concerns” and the NSA has pushed “the program close to the line of constitutional reasonableness.”
While establishment Republicans and Democrats alike insist the illegal surveillance program prevents terrorism and stops the “further loss of innocent life,” as Rubio writes, studies reveal NSA spying on the American people does nothing to prevent terrorism.
“Our investigation found that bulk collection of American phone metadata has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism and only the most marginal of impacts on preventing terrorist-related activity, such as fundraising for a terrorist group,” said Peter Bergen, director of the New America Foundation. The group analyzed cases involving 225 people recruited by al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
Despite the findings by the New America Foundation, government officials continue to claim terror threats have been averted as a result of massive, unchecked and unconstitutional surveillance.
“Fifty-four times this and the other program stopped and thwarted terrorist attacks both here and in Europe — saving real lives,” Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said in July, 2013.
The claim, cited initially by NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander, has been debunked.
“We’ve heard over and over again the assertion that 54 terrorist plots were thwarted” by NSA surveillance, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Alexander at the Judiciary Committee hearing in October, 2013. “That’s plainly wrong, but we still get it in letters to members of Congress, we get it in statements. These weren’t all plots and they weren’t all thwarted. The American people are getting left with the inaccurate impression of the effectiveness of NSA programs.”
Real Reason for NSA Surveillance Grid: Political and Social Control
Congress continues to promote the fallacy that the NSA is valiantly protecting American innocents from evil terrorists because the surveillance grid now in place is required by the state and the elite that control it.
“These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power,” whistleblower Edward Snowden said in December, 2013.
“Instead of focusing on catching actual terrorists, police spy on Americans who criticize the government, or the big banks or the other power players,” notes Washington’s blog.
The FBI and its precursor at the Justice Department have used surveillance and sabotage to undermine and neutralize political movements for more than a hundred years.
The behavior of the government in response to the nonviolent Occupy movement bears out this assertion. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and elements of the private sector — a combination that represents the true nature of fascism — teamed up to undermine and destroy the movement.
“Do we hear an echo from the abyss of the counterintelligence programs of the 1960s and 1970s, when FBI memos — I have some in my own heavily redacted files obtained through an FOIA request — were routinely copied to military intelligence units? “ asks Washington’s blog.
It should come as no surprise the leading presidential candidates, with the notable exception of Rand Paul, all routinely support illegal and unconstitutional NSA surveillance of Americans.
As the Occupy experience and earlier COINTELRPO operations reveal, the elite need massive and unprecedented surveillance to maintain control of politics in America. The NSA is not concerned with a handful of unruly and largely ineffective terrorists. The NSA and the state are seriously concerned about the real enemy — the American people. ______________________________________________________________
Marco Rubio Champions For The NSA:
Published on May 14, 2015
“The government is not listening to your phone calls or recording them unless you are a terrorist or talking to a terrorist outside the United States,” Rubio writes in a USA Today op-ed posted on May 10. He insists there “is not a single documented case of abuse of this program.” http://www.infowars.com/presidential-...
ALEX JONES:
"This Man Is An Enemy Of This Country"
Former NSA Head Exposes Agency's Real Crimes
Published on Apr 30, 2015
William Binney, a legendary NSA mathematician developed the revolutionary logic and architecture that is now used to spy on everybody in the world. When the NSA decided to use his programs on US citizens he became one of the biggest whistleblowers in the history of the NSA. He started the debate and the avalanche of understanding in regards to illegal surveillance, and is revealing inside knowledge on some of the biggest government secrets to date.
THE PROOF THAT RUBIO MAY BE DECEIVED OR COMPLICIT:
NSA scours web for images to use in facial recognition program
Published on Jun 2, 2014
The National Security Agency is collecting millions of images via social media and private communications to use in a facial recognition system, according to new leaked documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden. Saturday, journalists James Risen and Laura Poitras published an article in The New York Times detailing an increasingly complex facial recognition system used by the spy agency. Also included in the documents are mentions of plans to use iris scans to compliment the program. Discussing these latest NSA revelations with RT's Lindsay France is John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute.
John Whitehead - US is a police state
Uploaded on May 28, 2011
"What stands between us and an authoritarian state is the Constitution," says Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead. Unfortunately Whitehead says the government is bypassing the Constitution, particularly the 4th Amendment, thanks to the Patriot Act. As activists are arrested and fear spreads across America, Whitehead says we are watching the US transform into a police state in front of our very eyes.
Government turning America into 'electronic concentration camp'
Published on Jul 29, 2013
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency have received a lot of unwanted attention after the two agencies secret spying practices surfaced in the past few months. Many privacy advocates claim that by the government eavesdropping on its citizens, the US is slowly transitioning into a police state eliminate the right to free speech. John Whitehead, constitutional attorney and author of A Government of Wolves joins us to discuss the ever-growing police state and how it is threatening our First Amendment rights.
All of the Ways Big Brother Is Watching You
Published on Mar 16, 2015
Privacy as we once knew it is dead. We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology—specifically the technology employed by the government against the American citizenry. As a result, warns John W. Whitehead in this week's vodcast, we are becoming a nation where even the most virtuous citizen risks becoming an outlaw.
The Electronic Concentration Camp
Published on Mar 4, 2014
The electronic concentration camp—as John W. Whitehead has dubbed the American surveillance state—is perhaps the most insidious of the emerging police state's many tentacles, impacting almost every aspect of our lives and making it that much easier for the government to encroach on our most vital freedoms, ranging from free speech, assembly and the press to due process, privacy, and property, by eavesdropping on our communications, tracking our movements and spying on our activities.
"JESUS CALLING" JUST ISN'T AN APOCRYPHAL BOOK OF THE BIBLE IN THE CATHOLIC MANNER. BUT THEN AGAIN, RAISED AS A LIBERAL BAPTIST HE WOULDN'T FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH CATHOLICISM, WOULD HE?
SCOTT WALKER WRAPS HIMSELF IN THE FLAG, BUT NOT THE BIBLE;
PREACHES FROM NEW AGE CHANNELED BOOK
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker reads from "Jesus Calling," a devotional book, during the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition event for potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders at the Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Iowa, April 25, 2015. Nine declared or likely Republican candidates descended on a large church in Iowa on Saturday to court evangelical Christians.
WHAT? ANOTHER "ALLEGED" CHRISTIAN REPUBLICAN FOR PRESIDENT?
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Scott Walker, the son of a Baptist preacher, learned a lot about being a politician by going to church.
He was introduced to glad-handing while greeting worshippers beside his father after Sunday services. His confidence as a public speaker began at 2, when he delivered a Christmas greeting from the pulpit, and it blossomed when he preached occasional sermons as a teenager. And now, Walker's lifelong church involvement may be a powerful asset as he positions himself to run for the Republican presidential nomination and focuses on early primary and caucus states dominated by evangelical voters.
Already a hero to fiscal conservatives -- both the Tea Party base and billionaire donors like Charles G. and David H. Koch -- Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, planned to make his most explicit appeal yet to the Christian right last week before hundreds of social conservatives in Iowa. His implicit message is that in an unusually fractured Republican field, with 10 or more candidates potentially on the ballot in the Iowa caucuses next year, he is best positioned to unite the party.
Ahead of Saturday's candidate event -- organized by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, part of the national group led by the religious activist Ralph Reed -- Walker hardened his positions on issues considered litmus tests for social conservatives, including abortion and immigration. He suggested in an interview with Glenn Beck on Monday that there are too many legal immigrants, a position to the right of other 2016 hopefuls.
But it is Walker's biography that could make him especially attractive to Christian conservatives. A life story that began in the Baptist churches his father led in Colorado, Iowa and Wisconsin continues today at the nondenominational evangelical church he attends in his hometown, Wauwatosa, Wis.
"My relationship with God drives every major decision in my life," Walker said in an emailed statement. While that relationship does not direct his daily decisions, he said, "our walk of faith helps us prepare for those decisions and provides us comfort as we seek to do God's will."
During his political rise in Wisconsin, Walker did not often emphasize his faith. But evangelicals make up nearly 60 percent of Republican caucus-goers in Iowa. They are an important factor in Southern primaries. And they continue to have an outsize influence on the Republican nominating process.
While he was raised a dutiful "P.K.," or pastor's kid, Walker's spiritual journey has not been without conflict. Over the years, his political views have sometimes made him a source of controversy in the places where he has worshipped.
Walker's father, the Rev. Llewellyn S. Walker, was a minister in the American Baptist Churches USA, a more pluralistic denomination than the conservative and better-known Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor Llew, as he was known, is a Republican, but politics and the social causes of the day did not animate his First Baptist Church in Delavan, Wis., where Walker lived from age 10 until he left for college. His father was foremost "a caregiver to the congregation," said the church's current pastor, the Rev. Michael Ida. He would spend half a day sitting in the hospital room of an ailing church member, praying and shooting the breeze.
Before the elder Walker retired in 1995, at the age of 56, he struggled with depression, Ida said. His wife, Pat, and the teenage Scott Walker shouldered some of his pastoral duties.
"There were Sundays when Scott would preach the sermon," Ida said.
As an adult, Walker moved to Wauwatosa, a Milwaukee suburb, in search of a Republican-leaning district in which to run for the state Assembly. He and his wife, Tonette, joined another American Baptist congregation, Underwood Memorial Baptist Church, which had a history of social activism.
A dozen years later, in 2005, Underwood voted to affiliate with the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, a gay-accepting national group, and a small rainbow flag was affixed to its signboard. (The hiring of a woman as pastor in 2003 had accelerated its progressive tilt.)
Walker, by then a candidate for governor, left the church.
"Tonette said they were looking for a more family-friendly place," said Marilyn Carrington, a longtime member.
Some members believed he had cut ties because of Underwood's liberal drift.
"As soon as we put the flag on the sign, he was out of there," said Kevin Genich, a former church member who knew Walker.
After a campaign event in Iowa last week, Walker deflected a question about whether he had left Underwood because it openly embraced gay members. He said there were few children the ages of his sons there.
"Ultimately, we wanted to go to a place where our kids would have the ability to interact with other kids," he said.
Walker's parents, who in retirement had moved to be near their son and joined Underwood, had no objections. They continue to worship there.
Meadowbrook Church, where Walker now worships, is politically and theologically conservative. It is accepted among the church's clergy and congregation that the Bible is the word of God, "without error," and that Christ's return is "imminent." It is led by a council of elders that is open only to men.
While the Rev. Jamie Washam, the pastor of Underwood, opposed a Wisconsin ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage in 2006, Meadowbrook's pastor urged members to vote to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
"The church cannot recognize any alternative arrangements as being God's will for any persons or society," the pastor, John Mackett, wrote on a church blog.
At the same time, Meadowbrook is not politically active on issues like abortion. Sermons hew close to Bible readings.
Mackett, who stepped down as pastor last year, said he had often received text messages from Walker on a Monday discussing his sermon.
"It was never a trite remark," he said. "It came out of a thoughtful reflection on something that was said or happened in church."
Describing the governor as "a very disciplined man," he said Walker followed a morning routine that included exercise, prayer and Bible study. Before being elected governor, Walker and his wife met with other couples for Bible study Sunday evenings in their home.
"Scott's seeking God is a 24/7 thing," said Mackett's wife, Betsy. "It's not just checking a box on Sunday."
But Meadowbrook did not escape the political convulsions touched off during Walker's first term as governor. In a speech to the congregation during its annual meeting in 2013, Mackett pleaded for an end to the "turmoil" caused by "slander" and "name calling" among members divided by politics.
He declined to elaborate in an interview. But Lee Heyward, who succeeded Mackett as head pastor, said, "John and Meadowbrook were going through a really tumultuous time during that whole season of Act 10," referring to the law Walker signed in 2011 that stripped Wisconsin's public employees of most bargaining rights.
The church has many members who are teachers, Heyward said, and they vociferously opposed the governor.
"There were people in the church that wanted John to come out and speak against Gov. Walker and his policies," Heyward said.
There also were supporters of the governor who wanted to hear their pastor defend him. Mackett refused to introduce politics into his sermons. Some people on both sides left Meadowbrook.
Walker said that when tens of thousands of protesters filled the state Capitol during the debate over Act 10, "my faith helped me stay calm and focus on the issue instead of matching anger with anger."
On Friday, as he began his two-day visit to Iowa, Walker indulged in the venerable political tradition of playing up his ties to the state with the nation's first nominating contest. In his case, the ties are genuine, dating to his grade-school years, when his father was a pastor in rural Plainfield. He remembered a tire rolling off his grandparents' car in Dubuque and visiting a Happy Chef restaurant.
In recalling the crucible of his political narrative, his fight against unions, Walker thanked Iowans for their moral support.
"So many of you just prayed for us," he said.
It is a line he hopes will convince evangelical voters that they speak a common language.
Things Jesus our Savior never said, but the false spirit of “Jesus Calling” did:
"When the path before you is dotted with difficulties, beware of measuring your strength against those challenges. Without Me, you will not make it past the first hurdle."
Newsmax has the story of presidential hopeful and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s extensive quoting of this problematic, theological train wreck of a book. The gov is a nice guy, but let’s hope someone close to him enlightens him about the spiritual dangers of quoting a false Jesus:
Sales of a Christian devotional book have spiked since Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin read excerpts from it during his speech at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition last Saturday.
Walker, who is considering a 2016 White House run, read from “Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence,” which was written in the first-person voice of Jesus by author Sarah Young.
Young is a former missionary to Australia and other countries, Religion News Service reports. The book was published in 2004 by Thomas Nelson Publishers Inc., a division of HarperCollins.
In his speech to about 1,000 evangelical Republicans at the Point of Grace Church just outside Des Moines, Walker read from the book’s entry on June 4, the date of his Wisconsin recall election in 2012. He had read the entry several days after winning the election — Walker said he had been too busy with the recall that day — and a friend had sent him the item in an email.
“‘Welcome challenging times as an opportunity to trust me,'” Walker began. “‘You have me beside you and the spirit within you, so no set of circumstances is too difficult for you to handle.
“‘When the path before you is dotted with difficulties, beware of measuring your strength against those challenges,'” Walker continued. “‘Without me, you will not make it past the first hurdle.
“‘The way to walk through demanding days is to grip my hand tightly and stay in close communication with me,'” he read. “‘Regardless of the day’s problems, I can keep you in perfect peace as you stay close to me.'”
Reading the entry just days after becoming the only governor in the nation’s history to survive a recall, Walker told the Iowa crowd that, “It made me realize at that moment that the best time to minister is to accept God’s calling at the time when you least expect it.”
That, he said, led to his initial decision to run for governor in 2009 — and is fueling whether he might enter the race for the GOP presidential nomination.
Within days after Walker’s speech, “Jesus Calling” rose to No. 1 on several online book lists, including Amazon, RNS reports.
According to Publishers Weekly, the book has now sold 14 million copies in its many forms — calendar, smartphone app, children’s book — since it was first published. “It’s a franchise,” Marcia Nelson, the magazine’s former religion reviews editor, told RNS. “Jesus Calling” sold about 59,000 copies in its first few years, largely via word of mouth, according to RNS. It outsold “Fifty Shades of Grey” in the first half of 2013 — and was No. 1 on PW’s list by August.
It has consistently remained among the top three books on the list. “‘Jesus Calling’ didn’t need Scott Walker to get a bump,” Nelson told RNS. “Christian publishing has had a massive hit on its hands ever since ‘Jesus Calling’ was published in 2004.” Phyllis Tickle, a former PW religion editor, said that she could not remember another book — religion or not — being read in public by another presidential hopeful. “Candidates will cite books,” Tickle told RNS, “but not like this.”
EXCERPT: "As he stood in front of the audience, Walker read an entry from the devotional — which was written in the first-person voice of Christ— from June 4, which was the day in 2012 that he won the recall election in Wisconsin,according to NewsMax.
Here’s the portion of the “Jesus Calling” text that he read just before telling the audience that the book taught him an important lesson about accepting God’s calling at the most unexpected of times:
“‘Welcome challenging times as an opportunity to trust me. You have me beside you and the spirit within you, so no set of circumstances is too difficult for you to handle.
When the path before you is dotted with difficulties, beware of measuring your strength against those challenges. Without me, you will not make it past the first hurdle.
The way to walk through demanding days is to grip my hand tightly and stay in close communication with me. Regardless of the day’s problems, I can keep you in perfect peace as you stay close to me.”"
"Standing before more than 1,000 people at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, the Wisconsin governor used part of his time to read from “Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence,” a Christian devotional written in the first-person voice of Jesus by missionary-turned-author Sarah Young." (And New Age heretic).
1) The New Age Book God Calling-"In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Sarah Young said she was inspired to receive “messages” from “Jesus” after reading the bookGod Calling. She stated:
"My journey began with a devotional book (God Calling) written in the 1930s by two women who practiced waiting in God’s Presence, writing the messages they received as they “listened.” About a year after I started reading this book, I began to wonder if I too could receive messages during my times of communing with God. . . . So I decided to “listen” to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever I sensed He was saying."
2) Channeled “Messages” from “Jesus”-"InJesus Calling, Young writes that “Jesus” told her “to be a channel of My loving Presence.”9 Obliging his request, her book is filled with channeled “messages” and “directives” she claims to have received from God. In her original introduction, she wrote:
I have continued to receive personal messages from God as I meditate on Him. The more difficult my life circumstances, the more I need these encouraging directives from my Creator."
3) Visualization-"Sarah Young engaged in the occult/New Age practice of “visualization” when she “pictured” her family “encircled by God’s protective Presence.” “Visualization” and “guided imagery” have long been recognized by sorcerers of all kinds as the most powerful and effective methodology for contacting the spirit world in order to acquire supernatural power, knowledge, and healing. Such methods are neither taught nor practiced in the Bible as helps to faith or prayer." 4) Meditation-"Jesus Calling readers are led to equate Sarah Young’s contemplative prayer process with biblical meditation. But to “make your mind like a still pool of water” as you passively wait “to receive whatever thoughts” Young’s “Jesus” may “drop into it” is much more akin to Eastern/New Age meditation." 5) New Age Terminology-"Throughout Jesus Calling, Sarah Young’s “Jesus” casually introduces New Age terminology in his channeled messages." 6) Divine Alchemy-"By Googling divine alchemy on the Internet, one will see countless references to the occult. The term divine alchemy is frequently found in the teachings of New Age leaders such as Marianne Williamson. She uses the term divine alchemy to reference the same practice of meditation Sarah Young’s “Jesus” is advocating. She writes:
"Meditation is time spent with God in silence and quiet listening. It is the time during which the Holy Spirit has a chance to enter into our minds and perform His divine alchemy.""
7) Co-creation-"Sarah Young’s “Jesus” also introduces the key New Age concept of “co-creation.” This is a New Age evolutionary concept that falsely teaches that because man is God, he can therefore co-create with God. But man is not God.
The New Age “Christ” has a plan. He is promising the world that Armageddon can be avoided and world peace can be achieved if everyone collaborates and “co-creates” with him."
8) God’s Dream; Deceptive Scheme-"The term “God’s Dream” is yet another part of the overlapping New Age language streaming into the church. God’s Dream is a vague, loosely defined New Age metaphor that attempts to unify different religions and faith groups in an unbiblical effort to attain world peace."
9) God “in” Everything-"The New Age teaches we are all “One” and we are all “God” because God is “in” everyone and everything. This belief is referred to as panentheism and is the foundational teaching of the New Age movement."
10) Sarah Young’s New Agey Mystical Moonlight Conversion-"In the original introduction to Jesus Calling, Sarah Young described how it was a walk in “God’s glorious creation” that led to her mystical moonlight conversion—that her “heart” was “converted” to “Jesus” when she “felt” “enveloped” by the “warm mist” of His “Presence.” But after nine years of publishing the mystical conversion account above, this original account has been suddenly replaced by a different, more traditional conversion account that Young now claims to have had prior to her moonlight walk. Instead of “God’s glorious creation” transitioning into her mystical moonlight conversion, now it’s her new conversion account that transitions into her considerably toned down walk in the moonlight."
Changing “Jesus Calling”—Damage Control for a False Christby Warren B. Smith is our newest Lighthouse Trails Print Booklet Tract. Five Problems: (1) Jesus Calling was inspired by a channeled New Age book (2) Sarah Young originally wrote that she “received messages” from “Jesus” Himself 3) Sarah Young’s “Jesus” contradicts the Bible’s true Jesus Christ 4) Sarah Young’s “Jesus” stated that Abraham was guilty of “idolatry” and “son-worship” (5) “Jesus” complains about the night of his birth _______________________________________________________
ANOTHER ACT FIRST, THINK LATER CANDIDATE?
Scott Walker’s New Immigration Positions Criticized By Top Conservatives
In 2013, Walker said that he thought it “made sense” to enact a comprehensive reform plan that that would allow undocumented residents a path to citizenship after paying penalties. Critics call this “amnesty,” though the term is incorrect (it’s alternate punishment, not a pardon). At the time, many of Walker’s colleagues supported such a plan. In March of 2015, Walker admitted that he’d changed his position entirely: he no longer supports a path to citizenship for immigrants who have violated immigration law.
