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DOMINO EFFECT OF GAY MARRIAGE IS NOW COMMERCIAL SURROGACY

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, I want to take you out of a story out of CNS News. On March 12th, the governor of Washington signed into law a bill amending the state’s Uniform Parentage Act. This act officially permits women to be paid for carrying someone else’s child — in other words, surrogacy. It legalizes commercial surrogacy.

Sponsors of the bill insist that the legislation is to reduce suffering of infertile couples, but its real-world result would be to further commodify human life and exploit desperate women.

A 2016 Chicago Tribune study of fertility clinics in several different cities found that 10 to 20 percent of donor eggs are actually going to gay men having babies via surrogacy and, in a lot of places, that number is up to 50 percent from just five years ago. These “suffering infertile couples” — well, of course they’re infertile because they’re homosexual couples.

Harry, how is it that this community has had so much leverage on an issue that is so controversial?

DR. REEDER: There’s a couple of things here, Tom. First of all, in terms of your direct question, the LGBTQ community, which has 3 percent of the population, has an outsized effect in the culture because it is able to tap into the heartbeat of a secular culture, which is propelled by what Romans 1 reveals.
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WORTHY IS THE (CONOR) LAMB? COLUMNIST THINKS SO

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry will recognize the Scripture, “Worthy is the lamb who was slain.” That is also the title of a New York Times column by David Brooks that was published back on March the 15th, “Worthy is the Lamb.”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t looking at Easter; he was looking at a political event, particularly, Conor Lamb’s victory in Pennsylvania. Our listeners will likely remember that Conor Lamb beat Rick Saccone in that special election for Congress outside of Pittsburgh.

David Brooks looks at Conor Lamb’s victory and says, “This is a glimmer of home that the Democrats may go the way of morals and character.” He points out that Lamb was a military veteran; that Lamb was careful to put the problems of his district first — the opioid crisis, retirement, security, labor issues; he emerges from a serious moral tradition — he’s a Catholic and attended parochial school run by Christian brothers; he campaigned in a way designed to bridge divisions, not exacerbate them; and he opposed both Nancy Pelosi in Congressional leadership races.

Moral character, Brooks said, is always the same essential things: putting a higher love like nation over a lower love like party.

WHY USE SCRIPTURE TO SUPPORT POLITICS?

DR. REEDER: Whenever someone takes a statement assigned in Scripture in singular glory to the God of glory, specifically to my Savior, as the phrase, “Worthy is the lamb,” which is declared in Heaven … The apostle, John, is on the isle of Patmos and he is overwhelmed with the question, “Who can open the seals of the redeeming work of Christ?” — the seven seals — and then he hears a voice saying, “Look, there is one who is worthy.” And then he says, “I looked and, behold, the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah.” And so, the lion has become the lamb to redeem us from our sins and the lion who has become the lamb is worthy to open the seals.
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TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, today, I want to trade the headline news for the Good News. Today is Maundy Thursday and tomorrow we celebrate Good Friday. Harry, I can remember as a child going to Good Friday services around the Easter celebration and I always thought to myself, “Why in the world do they call it Good Friday?” I can remember watching the movie, “The Robe,” with Victor Mature many decades ago and thinking, “What a terrible tragedy this is. Why would they call it Good Friday?”

DR. REEDER: Maybe I can put it this way: The death of Christ is tragic, but not a tragedy. It is tragic in the sense of all of the issues of one completely innocent being put to death in an unjust verdict and yet it is not a tragedy because the sovereign Godhead ordained all of this to provide an atoning death on behalf of sinners whereby we can be saved.
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WHAT DOES CELEBRATION OF NATIONAL SINGLE PARENT DAY SAY ABOUT OUR COUNTRY?

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, first there was Mother’s Day, then there was Father’s Day, and now we have Grandparent’s Day. Interestingly, another day has popped up, which I wasn’t aware of until recently, March 21st is National Single Parent Day. That caused somewhat of a debate between The New York Times syndicated columnist, Robert Samuelson, and Tucker Carlson. Harry, the bottom line on this debate is being a single parent — is that a detriment to a family and to a society?

DR. REEDER: Single parenting, in many cases, is heroic. Single parenting is something to be avoided if possible. Here’s the reality: We live in a broken world, so what happens? A spouse dies or a marriage gets broken because someone is unfaithful. And then what happens to the children? Well, they’re in a single-parent home. Then the single parents who remain in that home and faithful to those children are engaged in a heroic struggle.
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KICKED OUT OF CHRISTIANITY CLASS FOR DEFENDING CHRISTIAN IDEALS?

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, a number of pundits have said, concerning the California Supreme Court case where pro-life centers have been asked by the State of California to promote state-funded abortions, “You better be careful. This is not just a freedom of religion situation. This is a freedom of speech situation.”

DR. REEDER: Tom, there’s a very interesting case here in the United States on one of our campuses. In a class on Christianity, there was an attempt to promote a transgender ideology in opposition to a Biblical world and life view of gender. When the professor was confronted with a simple statement of the student, freedom of speech became an issue then.
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PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT IN THE COURTS, TESTING CONSTITUTIONALITY

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, last week, we talked about the California case that had their oral arguments before the Supreme Court. It’s a situation where pro-life centers in California were being forced to say certain things in promoting state-supported abortion facilities, telling women that they had that as an option. Obviously, that is something that goes contrary to what the pro-life centers wanted to promote. Harry, today, I’d like to take this a step further and talk about the bias that’s going on in certain cases in courts and in the media that perhaps are trying to influence what’s going on at the Supreme Court level.  

DR. REEDER: You and I have noticed that there is an upsurge in judicial and governmental silencing, shaming and marginalizing of the pro-life movement. You have to realize that the secular elite, which affect so much of the government and so much of the media, has a vested interest in promoting abortion and the murder of unborn children in the womb.
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NEW MOVIE ROCKS BOX OFFICE WITH CHRISTIAN MESSAGE

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, so often on this podcast, we have to talk about situations that are in the news that aren’t overly pleasant or exciting and sometimes they can be downright depressing.

Today, I want to talk about something that, in fact, your church, Briarwood, has been involved in. It’s an outreach event but it’s also an entertainment event. It’s the new movie that’s just out, entitled “I Can Only Imagine.” It’s a faith-based film from Roadside Attractions. Friends who have been on this program before, directors Andrew and John Erwin, are the directors.

It surprised a lot of people this past weekend, Harry, as Variety reports “I Can Only Imagine” hauled in $17.1 million at 1,600 movie theaters across North America. The estimates put it originally at the $2 million to $8 million range, so it has exceeded everyone’s expectations.
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SUPREME COURT HEARS CALIFORNIA CRISIS CENTER CASE

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, today, I would like to take you to a story that The Washington Post has covered. As we record this program, there are oral arguments going on before the United States Supreme Court dealing with a California abortion law, which is supposed to protect women but what it does is it forces pro-life clinics to deliver a message they abhor. That is, they’re supposed to promote the fact that the State of California provides contraceptive services and abortion services for women.

DR. REEDER: This is absolutely astounding that the California law is still standing. This law, which is basically telling over 200 crisis pregnancy center-type clinics that receive no state funding, “You have to give a message that affirms abortion, and venues for abortion and that the state will pay for your abortifacient contraceptives or the abortion procedure.”
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HOW PORNOGRAPHY AFFECTS CHRISTIAN LIFE

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, I would like to take you to an interview today that Evangelical Focus did on pornography and sexual distortion. It was done with Glen Harrison. Dr. Harrison is a British psychiatrist and he’s also a Christian author. He says that pornography creates an illusion of control because it offers access to sexual stimulation so quickly and easily. He talks about the number of young people — I mean young, young people — who are now getting caught up in pornography and how it is distorting their whole view of sexuality.

DR. REEDER: This epidemic of pornography has produced not only distortion of God’s precious gift of sexuality, it has also produced anarchy. People will say that pornography is a “victimless crime.” Well, I would just have you go back to the month of December in 2017 when six of these porn stars took their lives in depression. There they were in their early 20s.
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CHRISTIAN STUDENT GROUP FIGHTS UNIVERSITY IN COURT AND WINS

TOM LAMPRECHT: Fox News is reporting, Harry, a Christian student group has been welcomed back on campus at Wayne State University after threatening a lawsuit for being unfairly booted out. It was the InterVarsity Program, a program that had been at Wayne State University for 75 years. Now, nothing has really changed with InterVarsity so why did they get booted out? When they decided to recertify themselves as an official student organization, they wrote on the form as they had every other year before that InterVarsity is committed to welcoming all students but they would not necessarily have all students be a part of their group’s leadership selection.

DR. REEDER: Well, first of all, I’m grateful that they’re back on campus. And notice they got back on campus when they said they were going to go and challenge the ruling in court. Now, I think they were brought back on the campus, not because the administration changed its mind, but the administration knew they were going to lose in court. (more…)

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ABC NEWS AFFECTED BY NEWS ANCHOR’S ATTACK ON CHRISTIANS

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, in the ABC News Department, they’ve got a program that, many may be surprised to know, it’s a part of their news department, “The View”. One of their panelists on this show, Joy Behar, recently made a comment concerning Mike Pence and his Christian faith. She said she understood how Christians prayed to God, but she went on to say, “When God starts talking to those people, don’t they call that mental illness?”

This bruhaha recently came to the ABC shareholders’ meeting in which Bob Iger, who is the president of ABC News, said he was happy to report that Joy Behar made a personal phone call to Mike Pence and apologized for her comments. However, while the White House is saying while he appreciates the apology, Joy Behar needs to apologize to the millions of Christians she insulted over the program.

DR. REEDER: Now are there some Christians that believe God is directly speaking to them with special revelation? Yes. Has God done that? Yes, that’s how we got the Bible — 40+ human authors through which God spoke. When they write, they don’t write, “Thus says Paul about God,” but they write, “Thus says the Lord,” so God has engaged in revelation, that is, He through divine inspiration, has given us His Word, praise the Lord. (more…)

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EDITORIAL SAYS ABORTING DOWN SYNDROME CHILDREN IS “FOR THEIR OWN GOOD”

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, just this past weekend, The Washington Post ran an editorial. It was written by abortion advocate, Ruth Marcus. She argues in this piece that women should have the right to abort a baby with Down Syndrome. “Those babies need to be eliminated because they are, through bad eugenics, undesirable humans from the gene pool. It’s for their own good,” she says.

Marcus is being heralded as brave and thought-provoking for her approach, which argues that both families and those with Down Syndrome would be better off if the condition was simply eradicated through selective termination.

DR. REEDER: Tom, this follows on some other programs that we’ve done where we’ve noticed that Denmark, and Iceland and other places are heralding the fact that they have eradicated Down Syndrome in their population. What they’re saying is, with the screening process in pregnancy, when they spot the possibly Down Syndrome child, now the social pressures and desires are, “Just go ahead and eradicate the child.” Just as this Ruth Marcus says, “The child is ‘undesirable.’” Undesirable because of its median cognitive ability. (more…)

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POLITICAL SPEECH BRINGS ABOUT “FACT-CHECKING” ON ABORTION

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, I want to take you to a story out of the news site, Daily Caller. It deals with PolitiFact. Now, PolitiFact is the organization that Facebook has employed to help rid the world of fake news. The interesting thing is that PolitiFact has now come out and declared that the killing of unborn babies in abortion is a disputed fac

DR. REEDER: They said that it falls under “fake news.” Of course, what they’re dealing with in the context of the story, Tom, was a congressman in the state of Texas who, when he went to speak to the League of Women voters, just told them that he would do his best to defund Planned Parenthood and he would do his best to rid us of the genocidal destruction of the unborn babies in the womb. (more…)

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FLORIDA HOUSE PASSES BILL TO PREVENT FURTHER SHOOTINGS

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PEGGY NOONAN DESCRIBES WHY CULTURE HAS BECOME TOXIC

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OSCAR VIEWERSHIP IS DOWN, BUT VIRTUE SIGNALING IS UP

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, I want to take you back to last Sunday night. It was the 90th edition of the Oscars. I have to admit I did not watch it, but I’ve done a lot of follow-up with stories about it.

Gary Oldham, who was the lead male actor and won an award for that in his movie, “The Darkest Hour” — he played the part of Winston Churchill — it was interesting to hear the audience basically sit on their hands as he praised America giving him a great opportunity to play the part of Winston Churchill. He also thanked Winston Churchill and, again, the audience basically sat on their hands.

On the other end of the spectrum, you had Jimmy Kimmel, who hosted the Oscars, mention that Academy Award nominated movies like “Call Me By Your Name” most likely wouldn’t get a tick of approval from Vice President Mike Pence. He said, “We don’t make films like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ for money — we make them to upset Mike Pence.”

By the way, “Call Me By Your Name” is based upon the book by the same title. It tells the coming of the age story of a 17-year-old boy and his romantic relationship with his father’s 24-year-old male research assistant.

Also, an interesting thing to note, just a few years ago, there was 40-some-million people watching the Oscars. This past week, there was only about 25 million watching.

DR. REEDER: I’m like you, Tom — first of all, I have to acknowledge that I did not watch it. In fact, the last time I watched an Oscars was with the anticipation of “Chariots of Fire” in 1982 winning the Best Picture award. I just absolutely loved that film.

As one of my compatriots that makes comments concerning these matters from a Christian world and life view said, the Oscars are probably the most refined effort and institution of self-congratulation in the world.

If you want to know who should get awards, go to the people that you’re making the movies for and what do they respond to? Well, of the ten nominees for Best Picture, most of them did not make money. Now, it’s not that I think making money is the end-all, but it does tell you whether people responded.

WHO EXACTLY IS PREACHING VIRTUE TO US?

Clearly, Hollywood has unabatedly, even with its scandals, decided, “We are going to be the institution to promote the new morality and virtue signaling of what ought to be acceptable in the American culture. Therefore, the patriotic statements, as you mentioned, that did make their way into the Oscars ceremony were either panned or you could hear the gasps — at the most, some polite applause.

However, let’s stop back for a minute. Who are these who have now taken upon themselves a calling to signal the new morality to promote the sexual revolution but, by the way, also now have the challenge of the #MeToo because of all of the harassment and molestation and even rape of women. Well, this is the institution that not only promotes, but secures, unbelievable numbers of abortion and is dominated by drugs and alcohol abuse and addiction. This is the group that now bands together to tell us what it is that we ought to believe and embrace in terms of morality as it promotes the sexual revolution, the new normalcy of gender identity.

HOLLYWOOD’S DISDAIN FOR CHRISTIANS

And then, of course, you see what’s at the heart of how they view anything that comes from a Christian world and life view. Jimmy Kimmel’s statement was highly revealing. He said, “We do these movies not for money — we do this movie to annoy Mike Pence.” Well, listen, Mike Pence is a stand-in for Christians.

They know that Christians have a sexual ethics, they know that Christians have certain virtues and, from a Christian world and life view, there are certain things that are important such as marriage between a man and a woman, sex within marriage, the family, the sanctity of life.

And what he’s saying is, “We’re going to do movies that are going to annoy you, we’re going to do movies that confront you and we’re doing movie whereby we’re trying to remake the culture into a culture of death, a culture of sexual anarchy, a culture of depression, a culture of destruction, a culture of addiction.” That’s the culture of Hollywood that is signaling to us what our culture ought to be and that are making their speeches and their statements accordingly.

SADNESS AT MISUSE OF TALENT

Well, I have another reaction when I look at all of this, Tom, and my reaction is one of a broken heart for these people. It is such a flight into the fantasy of sin and rebellion against God, whereby men and women revel in taking their God-given gifts to rebel against Him. And all that is true and all that is good and all that is beautiful is assaulted in order to declare that which is ugly and destructive and that which brings depression and death — to declare all of that as normal and to embrace all of that and, in the name of compassion, to promote that which destroys.

At one time, the Oscars were viewed because it was the moment where those who used their abilities to give us stories that intrigue us, that bring challenges to our thinking and that affirm those things that undergird a society would get together, make their presentations and it was a moment of entertainment that, yes, had a world and life view, but it was that which was wrapped around, to some degree, those things that truly are virtuous as revealed by the God of glory in His Word and in life — to some degree, not perfect by any means.

And it was a recognition that, “We are entertainers. That’s what we do.” Now, entertainers, as well as athletes, have decided, “No, we are commentators upon society to promote a culture that will destroy the culture and that is destroying it.”

OSCARS HAVE CHANGED INTO TOXIC CULTURE-CHANGER

In fact, Tom, tomorrow, we’re going to actually look at what Peggy Noonan says about our culture. She calls it “The Air We Breathe” and one of the contributors to the air we breathe that produces mass shootings in schools, that produces an avalanche of documented depression in our rising generation, that’s who decided to signal the virtue of rebellion against God and that’s who decided to make the moral declarations of that which is destructive, calling it that which is to be valued. That’s what was done in the Oscars.

I am grateful to see the plummeting viewership but what, in my heart, I long to see is for people who are unbelievably gifted, know how to use those gifts with a world and life view that lifts up a nation and a culture instead of destroy it, erode it and eat away at its very foundational institutions.

However, I know that that means the second thing is that I long to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ to move. No longer would there be a motivation to make movies that annoy Christians, but now there would be the ability to make movies that inspire, that encourage and that affirm that which is good and beautiful and true with skills that are extraordinary, with technology that is amazing and which could lift people up with an element of life that, again, would be beneficial in our society, the element of entertainment. And those who are entertainers would enjoy being entertainers and would enjoy it because they are using their gifts in a way that will honor the Lord.

PRAY THAT HOLLYWOOD CAN CHANGE INTO BEACON OF HOPE

May I finally say, Tom, that I would ask our folks not only to pray for the Gospel to be at work in “Tinseltown,” but would you also pray for those marvelous, brave, courageous and competent Christians who are entering into the industry of telling stories for entertainment that actually make a difference to communicate that which is inspirational in a manner that is inspirational that also provide instruments for us that not only could our families enjoy, but our families could use to encourage other families because the story they tell is not only well-told and well-depicted and well-acted, but is that which is excellent and of good repute so that our minds might dwell on those things.

COMING UP TOMORROW: PEGGY NOONAN’S DIAGNOSIS OF OUR CULTURE

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, as you just mentioned a few moments ago, tomorrow  we will deal with that column that Peggy Noonan recently wrote, entitled “The Air We Breathe: What’s Gone Wrong with Our Culture.”

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PUTS MONEY INTO ABSTINENCE EDUCATION

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, there are a number of stories I want to take you to today, which come out of CNS News, Life News, World Magazine and The Daily Wire. They deal with the pro-life movement and they deal with euthanasia.

Let me give you one headline out of Life News: “Planned Parenthood already hates the Trump administration but they will hate it even more when they discover the administration will be diverting sex education funds to abstinence programs.”

DR. REEDER: Actually, they’ve already started doing this, both the Health Department leadership and the Education Department leadership under Trump. I don’t know what role he is playing in it other than he has positioned some very effective leaders in these areas.

And one of the things that is happening is the elevation and the teaching of abstinence until marriage with ethical dimensions as well as medical benefits. Of course, Planned Parenthood, any time there is abstinence, their business just goes down. They are not in the business of reducing abortions — they’re in the business of doing abortions and the normalization of abortion.

And so, they will clearly strike back at this and, I am waiting on the Republicans that have been elected on a platform that said, “We will defund Planned Parenthood,” I’m waiting on them to do it and I’m grateful that it’s already happening on the state level.

MORE THAN HALF OF CHILDREN IN SOME STATES BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, perhaps one of the reasons the Trump administration wants to promote abstinence programs is reflected in an article in CNS News: “Babies born to unmarried women, in Mississippi, that percentage is 53.2%, Louisiana 52%, New Mexico 51.1%, nationwide 39.8% of babies born are to unmarried mothers.”

DR. REEDER: Tom, the statistic that you just surfaced is just simply an unsurprising result of the sexual revolution. The sexual revolution, which is why abortion is so important to the current sexual revolution in the culture, because when you have sex, you will have children and you get the result of a child that’s not wanted, then you’ve got to have abortion to get rid of the inconvenient and the unwanted and that’s why abortion has become the sacrament of the secularist movement and the sexual revolution.

You have the “live together culture” — which we used to call “shacking up” — that now is embraced as a normal way of life and courtship. The result is, of course, what? That’d be children outside of marriage so now a child comes into the world and the child is not illegitimate, but the arrangement of the parents is illegitimate and it’s wrong and it will have an effect in the life of the child.

And guess what happens? Now we have an entire generation growing up in abject depression. Why is that? One of the contributing reasons is broken homes and the attempt to normalize children in homes where either the parents of the children are not married and without a covenantal commitment for life or where there is the absence of a parent or that we put them in “same-sex” homes in which there is the absence of either a father or a mother by definition.

CANADIANS TURN TO EUTHANASIA FOR CHILDREN

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, let me switch gears a little bit here and go from the abortion issue and the pro-life issue to the euthanasia issue, which obviously are related. “Health care professionals in Canada are increasingly being approached by parents of never-competent infants and children — including those too young to make reasonable decisions — to discuss whether or not these children, what they call “mature minors,” should be put to death via euthanasia if they’re imperfect.

DR. REEDER: And, Tom, it’s right for you to connect those two because just stop and think about what is being said. Now, this is a law that was introduced with all the assurances that, “All we’re talking about is doctors assisting people who obviously are dying, who don’t want to go through the throes of death and they want a doctor to simply put them to death as painlessly as possible, ‘death with dignity.’”

And so, it was put in place with all the assurances that’s all that’s desired. No, now we find out that they wanted people who have mental derangements that those who are their guardians can speak for them and their need to be put to death and now we’re moving into the area of adolescents. The first step is to the “mature minors,” if they want to be put to death.

Well, to begin with, to want to be put to death as a minor is not mature — that is an oxymoronic statement to begin with — but what we really have now is the fact that you’re going to have people who are making decisions of what minors are saying in depression about their life to take their life and they can overrule parents with this law — parents who would intervene to say, “No, you can’t do that.”

And you’re right to tie this back to abortion because now we have mandated abortions as well as elective abortions of the inconvenient and the unwanted. Well, now we have children who were born wanted but now have become unwanted and now, if they become unwanted, there’s an avenue to get rid of them as well.

WHEN PERSONAL CHOICE BECOMES BEING PUT TO DEATH

TOM LAMPRECHT: In fact, it’s gotten so bad over in Belgium that you have euthanasia advocates rebelling against the movement because of individuals who don’t want to die but are being put to death.

DR. REEDER: Even some euthanasia advocates see where the needle has been moved and say, “Oh my goodness, how did it get there?” By common grace, they’ve got some common sense in this regard. It’s a long way away, Tom, from when you and I were children and there was the Hemlock Society that argued for people’s privacy to put themselves to death and now we have destroyed the medical profession, which has now become a profession that has violated its very first ethic, which is to do no harm and now the profession can be hired out as assassins in the womb and assassins at the end of life. That is a demoralizing effect upon the entire profession that used to be held in esteem for the lengths that it would go to in order to save life, promote life, and preserve life.

GERBER BABY OF THE YEAR HAS DOWNS SYNDROME

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, we’ve talked about before how, in certain European countries, you do not see any children with Downs Syndrome — they literally have all be aborted. Let’s end with some good news today. The Gerber Baby Food Company has decided to select this year’s Gerber Baby that will appear on their jars of baby food: a baby with Downs Syndrome.

DR. REEDER: Not long ago, there was the trumpeting news that Downs Syndrome children are decreasing in society in number. Isn’t that wonderful? No, it’s not. The reason they are decreasing as a factor of society is because we are killing them. In some countries, over 90 percent of the children who are diagnosed with Downs Syndrome through pregnancy testing, are now put to death. That’s why we don’t see them in society is because we are killing them before they can get into this society because these precious children are declared as unwanted and inconvenient because of their imperfections.

SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS HAVE A SPECIAL ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND GOSPEL

I would love for people to experience these precious children. They started with me with a little Downs Syndrome child in my first church. I had one Downs Syndrome child, Peter, who would greet me every day coming from the sessional prayer time on the way to the pulpit and make me stop while he banged down on the piano. I don’t know what he played and he didn’t know what he was playing, but he was convinced it was “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” And he would sing it and then he’d say, “Okay, Preacher, you can go now.”

From then on, I just said, “I’ve got to be involved in special needs ministry,” and I’m grateful that we’re able to do that. And I love the fact there’s always the Gerber Baby of the Year. Not only is the child beautiful, not only is the child attractive and not only is the child clearly a Downs Syndrome child but the child is placed there as one who is worthy of affirmation because the child is made in the image of God. And, yes, sin’s curse has marred the child’s physical capabilities, but you would be surprised how easy it is for a Downs Syndrome child to understand the Gospel and respond to the fact that Jesus loves them.

I am so grateful that Gerber, against a lot of opposition, had the courage to do that. I was diagnosed with an ulcer when I was in the third grade — my parents may have thought I was the ulcer but, no, I was diagnosed with an ulcer — and I remember my doctor put me on a diet and the diet included Gerber Baby Custard. And I have loved Gerber Baby Custard ever since so I’m going to go out and buy some Baby Custard to tell them I appreciate what they’ve done as a statement for the sanctity of life and the dignity of boys and girls made in the image of God even when inconvenient, even when imperfect.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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HARVARD CHRISTIAN GROUP DISCIPLINED FOR ENFORCING CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, I want to take you to an article that was covered by both The Harvard Crimson and The New Boston Post. A Christian fellowship was put on probation recently for forcing a junior who served as an assistant Bible course officer to resign because she embraced homosexuality.

College officials say the group violated the Student Handbook, which says student organizations can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, but the Christian fellowship didn’t do that. Christians who belong to a Christian group told someone no longer live in a Christian way she could no longer have a leadership role in her group. For that, Harvard suspended the group.

DR. REEDER: Are you going to suspend Muslim groups if they turned down a Christian who wants to be president? Are you going to suspend a climate change group if they turn down someone for leadership who claims that climate change is a hoax and has written books on it?

HARVARD HAS GREAT CHRISTIAN LEGACY

Now, what’s really interesting, Tom, is the origin of Harvard. Here is our oldest university in the United States, all the way back to the 17th century. It was founded by a Puritan pastor by the name of John Harvard. It got started with a small amount of money he was able to leave in a very significant library.

It’s really a take-off from what happened in the Reformation where the Reformers began to institute educational institutions in order to ensure a Biblically educated clergy and access to education for the public. And so that was one of the great Reformation blessings or consequential action is the elevation of Christian education as a dynamic factor within the development of Western Civilization.

When our forefathers land on the shores of this country, the first thing they would build is a church and the next thing they would build is a school. And the school had two purposes, as did Harvard: The No. 1 purpose was to educate the next generation of clergymen and No. 2 was to make education accessible for others and, by the way, male and female.

This chapter at Harvard that is being disciplined because of its faithfulness to confessional Biblical Christianity, they’re a part of what’s called The Christian Union, which is a wonderful organization with an evangelical witness among the Ivy League schools. Most of the Ivy League schools are the products of the first Great Awakening and became focused areas of the Gospel movement in the Second Great Awakening.

As a Christian historian, I love to see the history that’s related to those schools, which they’ve gone far away from. The original motto was “Veritas,” and they later added “Truth for the Glory of Christ.” The shield of Harvard has three books on it. All three are open but two are open facing the one who views the shield and one is opened and it’s turned around. What it was saying was God has revealed truth to us three ways: the book of history, which God reveals to us who He is in Providence; the book of creation, by which God reveals Himself in all that has been created; and then the book that’s turned around, not because you can’t study it, but because you cannot ever fathom the full depths of it, is the Word of God.”

That was the original shield. Well, now you’ve got an organization that is being faithful to the book of creation that God has made man male and female with sex belonging in marriage — a creation ordinance; they are faithful to history — the building block of cultures whereby human flourishing is possible is when you have foundational institutions such as marriage, such as family, and sexuality and its practice is found within that marriage of one man, one woman for one life; and they are teaching the Word of God so that you continue to properly understand creation and providence as God makes Himself known in history and in all that he has created.

NOW HARVARD CHRISTIANS MUST MAKE A CHOICE

And, as they’re doing that, this organization that is the epitome of the founding values of the institution is now disciplined and removed. What will this organization do? Will they capitulate in order to have a place on the campus or will they, first, reason with the authorities that, “If you want a college with the free exchange of ideas, why would you marginalize and exclude the very ideas that gave birth to the college, which is a Christian faith rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who died for our sins and rose again and Who has given us His Word whereby we are to live life for Him and we are attempting to live that life for Him in that He said, ‘This is my will, that is, you flee immorality and pursue sexual purity and chastity.’ Our leaders must embrace the ethic that sex belongs in marriage of one man and one woman, which is the Biblical and historical faith, but yet you’re willing to exclude that from the college campus and what you are excluding is actually a part of the foundation of the campus from the very beginning.”

TOM LAMPRECHT:  The fact that they’re turning their back on Christianity, even though it’s 350 years later, is still sad. As we talked about yesterday, we’re seeing evangelical organizations turn its back on Biblical issues now within decades. What does that tell us?

ATTACKS WITHIN CHURCHES ARE COMMON AND NEED TO BE RECOGNIZED

DR. REEDER: You remember what Paul said when he left the church at Ephesus? I call Ephesus the epicenter church of the Gospel. The Gospel was radiating out of Ephesus all over Asia Minor. Churches were being planted. But when he left them, after a three-year ministry in their midst, he said, “Upon my departure, Satan will come among you” — who was the you? It was the elders, the leaders of the church — “There will rise up false teachers who teach perverse things and there will rise up false leaders who lead the disciples away from Jesus to themselves.”

That’s what always happens in organizations. The people are dependent upon godly leaders to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Remember, Satan has three strategies:

• He loves to intimidate the church.
• He loves to imitate the church. Remember the tares in the wheat.
• He loves to infiltrate the church and filtrate its people with grumbling and gossip and filtrate its leaders with false teachers and false leaders.

350 years? My goodness, it happens in 40 years, almost always. Here’s what needs to be understood: Every church in every institution has that 40 to 80-year mark in which Satan attempts to lead it into apostasy through false leaders and false teachers.

But what is the answer? Good leaders and good teachers. I praise God for my president, Peter Lillback at Westminster Seminary. I praise God for my friend who is the chancellor of Reformed Theological Seminary, Ligon Duncan. I am grateful for those leaders who are willing to take the shots and say, “Not on my watch. On my watch, we’re not only going to be faithful, we’re going to take this to another level of faithfulness. We’re going to build on what we’ve been handed, not diminish what we’ve been handed.” You need to pray for your Christian leaders and we need to intentionally multiply and mobilize such Christian leaders because that is what is always necessary.

What you always look for in the church and in these institutions is a top-down leadership effectiveness and faithfulness and a bottom-up grassroots bubbling up of a love for Christ and the Gospel of grace and the two work together so that the organization remains faithful.

HARVARD ORGANIZATION, DON’T GIVE UP

Therefore, that’s what I would tell this organization at Harvard: You must not sacrifice your commitments to be accepted. You will lose any ministry that you have. You will simply become another piece of the furniture of secularism within the culture of that college. Even if you have to meet off-campus, you must remain faithful to the Word of God.

To the churches in the area, we pray for God to raise up a clarion voice that is faithful to the Word of God and His Historical Biblical Christianity to reach into that college as well as campus ministries. And it really comes down, functionally, to the matter of leadership. Ultimately, to the sovereignty of God that He would pour forth revival from Heaven, functionally, through leaders who preach, pray, evangelize and disciple the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are committed to teaching and preaching the whole counsel of God.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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POLL DATA SHOWS ALARMING STATISTICS ABOUT CHRISTIAN ACCEPTANCE OF ABORTION

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, the Pew Research Center just came out with a survey that is rather alarming. It deals with abortion and, specifically, it deals with the acceptance of abortion in a number of evangelical and mainline denominations.

One of the areas that was extremely alarming, Harry, was the Presbyterian Church in America. Members of the PCA are the highest ranked evangelicals in support of legal abortion at 54 percent, according to this survey. Other denominations, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 46 percent, the Southern Baptist Convention, 30 percent approval.

Harry, there are a number of different percentages across the map. The Presbyterian Church in America in and the Catholic Church are pretty close and what’s interesting about that is both the PCA and the Catholic Church have come out with statements affirming the fact that abortion is wrong, it’s sinful, and we need to do all we can do to prevent it from happening.

DR. REEDER: A very vigorous statement on the sanctity of life in both the Roman Catholic Church and the PCA, which have similar marks. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church has less acceptance of abortion than this Pew Research says that PCA churches have.

TOM LAMPRECHT: Do you think this is an outlier?

DR. REEDER: Tom, I don’t know what to do with it. When I read it, I said, “There’s something got to be wrong here.” And then I got to thinking through it a little bit. The air you breathe in the culture is that abortion ought to be acceptable. Now, the only way that that’s going to be undone is by a vigorous communication of the Word of God in the process of evangelism and discipleship.

The Bible says that we’re to go and make disciples. First of all, we evangelize people to come to Christ and then Jesus says, after they’re baptized and they’re brought into the body of Christ, you are to, “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Now, that means a number of things, not the least of which would be the Ten Commandments, and of the Ten Commandments, not the least of which would be the commandment “You shall not murder.”

That is exactly what abortion is, yet strangely, our pulpits are silent. Therefore, the people who are professing Christ are not being taught that you come out of a culture of death and, as a Christian, you need to address that. Now, many of our pulpits will address the issue of racism and rightly so; many of them will address the issue of sex trafficking and rightly so, but they’re strangely silent on the matter of sexual ethics and also strangely silent on the matter of the culture of death, both on the abortion side and the euthanasia side.

THE DATA IS TRUSTWORTHY BUT ALARMING

I’ve come to the conclusion this is not an outlier — this actually probably is accurate. First of all, the Pew Research, this is no fly-by-night organization, and they did a lot of work on this and they came up with their analysis that 54 percent of the PCA have come to terms with accepting abortion as a legal fact within our culture, not to be opposed but just to be accepted.

Why is that true? I think it’s true because of the pulpits of the PCA. The pulpits are silent on the matter of abortion because most of those in the pulpit have bought into the fact that the only sins that are safe to confront from the pulpit are those that the culture approves us confronting and those that the culture has already come to terms with, such as abortion and euthanasia, you don’t want to confront those because, if you do, then the people in that culture may not come to your church to hear you.

And that’s “unloving” for you to do that. Well, I would love to sit down and ask them, “Just how loving is it for the inconvenient to be put to death through our ever-expanding euthanasia policy? Just how loving is it for those who are inconvenient at birth?” How is it that our pulpits can be silent on those matters and still say we teach and preach the whole counsel of God?

The Bible tells us to, “Hold fast the faithful word.” The Bible tells us to hold fast the faithful word and to teach and preach the whole counsel of God. Do we primarily communicate those essential truths called the Gospel? Yes. We also communicate all of God’s Word from a Gospel perspective and that includes the commandments, “You shall not murder.” The Bible does say that God created us man — male and female — and therefore how can you be silent in the current transgender ideology that is warping the minds and the hearts of our children if you’re going to be faithful to the Word of God?

WHAT IS THE CAUSE?

What I’m trying to say, Tom, is I think it is accurate. I think the problem in the pew comes from the pulpit and the problem in the pulpit is either a cowardly or misdirected silence on the matters that are facing the culture and the inability to be prophetic in the preaching of the Word of God.

When was the last time your pastor dealt with the subject of Hell from your pulpit? When was the last time he dealt with the subject of abortion from the pulpit? When was the last time he dealt with the subject of euthanasia from the pulpit?

These are expositional sermons that, when you come to the issue of life and the sanctity of life, they apply it into the sins that are being promoted and perpetuated throughout our culture. When was the last time they spoke prophetically to the culture in order to highlight the reality of sin that is destroying men and women and to highlight the reality of sin because you can’t preach the Gospel, good news, without proclaiming the bad news.

The Gospel that Jesus loves you, a sinner — no one is going to be amazed at that love of Christ for me as a sinner until they understand what sin is and you can’t understand what sin is until sins are identified.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, I look at this list of the different denominations and those who support abortion. Presbyterian Church in America 54 percent, Southern Baptist Convention 30 percent, Assemblies of God 26 percent. Assemblies of God have the best numbers but, still, a quarter of the membership of that Bible-believing denomination would support abortion. Where do we go when our evangelical churches are so lost on this issue?

DR. REEDER: Well, of course, we go to prayer first of all. Prayer is that instrument that God uses to accomplish his purposes. And I would pray for my pastor, I would pray for the pulpit, I would pray for the seminaries, that they would start equipping pastors on how to deal with these issues and how to address them effectively within the culture. That’s what I would begin to do.

I wouldn’t stop there — I would challenge the seminaries, “What are you producing to send to our pulpits?” We now have church planters and we now have pastors that are going to pulpits that will not address these issues. Then, secondly, I believe church members need to go to their pastor, “How come we’re not being equipped to handle this issue in our pulpits?”

RECOGNIZING HYPOCRISY AND A CALL TO ACTION

As you went down into the survey and pointed out, two things just stood out to me. First is the Roman Catholic Church, like the PCA Church, has a very clear sanctity of life statement and that abortion is wrong — both of those denominations have a significant number of members that have embraced abortion in opposition to the public statements of the denominations. That tells me the public preachers of the denomination are silent.

Another thing that confronted me is the hypocrisy in the PCA between what its leaders claim to embrace and what they preach and do is even greater than the hypocrisy in the Roman Catholic Church because the numbers of people that have made peace with the abortion percentage-wise is greater even in the PCA than it is in the Roman Catholic Church.

I believe, like almost everything else, it’s a crisis of leadership — leadership that either lacks competency, content or lacks character. Our preachers are much more concerned of getting the applause of the culture and the acceptance of the culture than they are in addressing the issue of sin from the Word of God, which then allows you to address the only antidote to sin, which is the Gospel of saving grace in Jesus Christ.

I can’t speak to other denominations, but I’ll speak to my own. I’ll just ask every PCA pastor, “Explain to me why we’re silent on this matter, the sanctity of life? By the way, while we’re talking, explain to me why ours is any different than the confessing evangelical church in Germany with the Holocaust that they closed their eyes to its reality and closed their mouths to its confrontation?”

We desperately need that prophetic voice in the pulpit if we are to do true evangelism and discipleship.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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NBC NEWS ATTACKS BILLY GRAHAM AS ANTI-LGBTQ

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, as the Graham family lays Billy Graham to rest, evangelicals across the country continue to mourn his death. They look back on his life in a positive way as he influenced not only America, but countries around the world. And yet NBC News has gone out of their way to do a story recently saying Billy Graham has left a painful legacy for LGBTQ people.

They go back and cite a statement back in 1993 that Billy Graham made concerning AIDS, “Is AIDS a judgment of God? I could not be sure, but I think so.” However, Graham quickly retracted those remarks, saying, “To say God has judged people with AIDS would be very wrong, very cruel. I would like to say I’m very sorry for that.”

But there are other quotations in this piece by NBC News that makes Billy Graham sound like he was more interested in politics than the Gospel and that he was somewhat of a hate-monger amongst those who didn’t share his ideology.

REACHED OUT TO OPPOSITION WITH GENTLENESS

DR. REEDER: I don’t know of anyone who more gently and respectfully and carefully would reach out to men and women who were in opposition to him than Billy Graham — I know of no one. Billy’s under attack not for being Billy, but because of what Billy believed and what he did.

Now, was he a perfect man? Absolutely not. He’d be the first to tell you, when he was invited into the power circle of presidential authority and power, he quickly later said, “Boy, I tell you, I was manipulated and I was used and it’s my fault.” He didn’t play the victim. He said, “It was my fault and I’m going to make changes,” which he did. Billy set aside the practice of love offerings for evangelists, took a salary that was published instead, put together a board to govern his association instead of running it, himself.

UPHELD SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE

He was always careful that his love for Ruth Graham would remain unchallenged and his testimony for Christ in terms of marital faithfulness would always be front and center and not only because he didn’t want to bring dishonor to the Lord with any unfaithfulness or any hint of it, but because he wanted to promote the blessings of a Christian marriage and a Christian family.

In terms of sexual ethics, he was very clear: He believed that sexuality was a gift from God, it belonged in a marriage and marriage is one man and one woman. What he said was sinister was the effects of homosexuality, not homosexuals. He would reach out to them like anyone else.

USED APOSTOLIC BIBLICAL METHODS TO SPEAK TO SINNERS

In other words, Billy Graham took the very direction of the apostle Paul. What was the direction of the apostle Paul? It was simply this: “Do you not know that no effeminate, no drunkard, no murderer, no thief, no glutton, no homosexual, no adulterer shall enter the kingdom of God and such were some of you.”

Now, where was Paul? Paul was in Corinth. It was known for its sexual promiscuity and perversion, but the apostle Paul came with a clear message: Sex is a gift from God; it belongs in marriage. If you make sex your idol and you rebel against God with sexual perversion, then what you do is stand under the judgment of God.

But this same God has loved you and He has given His Son on the cross to die for murderers, adulterers, homosexuals, effeminate, gluttons, etc. He names these nine sins that dominate into a lifestyle of rebellion against God. He wasn’t trying to give an exhaustive list of sins — he was just talking about those sins that were dominant in this culture of Corinth.

And then he showed how not only, people, how they were forgiven when they repented of those sins, but they were set free from the power of those sins. And so, the LGBTQ agenda, through the lapdog media, has now decided to attack Billy because Billy has held to a consistent ethic of marriage and sexuality. He would identify sin, but he would reach out to sinners.

And it’s back to this canard that you are hateful if you hate sin. No, you are hateful if you hate people. You don’t have to accept sin to love sinners — you don’t have to accept rebellion against God to love those who are in rebellion against God. In fact, when you do love someone, you will tell them of the destructiveness of the behavior that they are embracing.

The LGBTQ, in its incessant and insistent drive to make normal the abnormal before the holiness of God, now turns upon a preacher who says, “Here is the message that says Jesus loves you and wants you to have eternal life, but you must repent of your sins and put your trust in Him. And rebellion against God sexually is sin; therefore, sexually promiscuous and sexually perverted behavior must be identified and we must repent and come to Christ. And I warn you, if you don’t, it has its own judgment.”

Do you believe that AIDS is a judgment upon homosexuals? Billy, after reflection, would say, “No, I cannot say that.” Why? Not because God doesn’t bring judgment upon people — my goodness, all of history bears the evidence that God brings judgments and there is a judgment yet to come and the wages of sin is death. However, what he was saying was, “I don’t have the information to know is this Divine Judgment upon homosexuals.”

SIN DOES HAVE ITS CONSEQUENCES

Now, having said that, let me now speak forth. I do believe that AIDS, just like all sexually transmitted diseases is a judgment upon sexual rebellion and sexual sins. I believe it’s a judgment upon homosexuality. Sexually transmitted diseases are a judgment upon adultery. You cannot break God’s law with impunity.

There stand the commandments of God: “You shall worship the Lord your God alone. You shall not make for yourselves any graven images. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. Remember the Sabbath day. That you’ll honor your father and mother.” If you say no to those and go in another direction, it’s going to have judgment in your life. There’s going to be ramifications in your life. “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not lie. You shall not steal.”

If you decide you’re going to say no to God’s Biblical ethics that he gives to us as to how we can love him with all of our heart, soul, and mind and our neighbors as ourselves — if you decide you’re going to stand in rebellion against that, that behavior of rebellion will have consequences. It does have it’s own inbred, innate judgments that come.

When you say no to God’s prescription of sex within marriage, then whether it’s sexual perversion or sexual promiscuity or sexual anarchy, it is going to have consequential judgments attached to that in your life. There are going to be consequences psychologically, spiritually, there are going to be consequences physically. Sin never brings what it promises. It brings despair and death and destruction.

BILLY GRAHAM ACTED WITH GOD’S LOVE TOWARD THE SINNER — AND SAVED MANY

And I think that’s what Mr. Graham was attempting to get to. The greatest act of love to the LGBT community, the greatest act of love to anybody and everybody who is born into this world as a sinner is to say this: “Your sins bring death physically and spiritually, but there is hope and it is a sure hope. And that hope is in Jesus Christ. The answer is not in attempting to normalize sin. The answer is to repent of our sin and come to Christ, Who accepts us through the blood of Jesus that paid for our sins. We who are forgiven of sin’s penalty are liberated from sin’s power by God’s grace, be on a journey to be liberated from sin’s practice and, one day, we will be liberated from sin’s presence.

You can certainly attack Mr. Graham for seeking to be faithful to what he always used as the rudder and light of his life, “The Bible says” — how many times have I heard him say that — “there are two main messages: Sin will kill you, Christ will save you from your sins. You come to Him.”

NBC News, you can certainly do your hit piece, but I want you to know, in the heavens, there are many, many people. I know they’re laying aside the body of Dr. Graham today, but he’s already with the Lord. Can you imagine — can you imagine — the number of people that have come up to him and, in the name of Christ, said, “Thank you for telling me about Jesus”?

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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EPIDEMIC OF ADOLESCENT DEPRESSION DRAWS UPDATED GUIDELINES

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, NPR recently ran a story with the headline “Only about 50 percent of adolescents with depression get diagnosed before reaching adulthood.” The story goes on to say as many as 2 in 3 depressed teens don’t get the care that could help them.

Dr. Rachel Zuckerbrot, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and associate professor at Columbia University, along with the American Academy of Pediatricians, has issued updated guidelines that call for universal screening for depression in teens.

DR. REEDER: Tom, it’s really interesting how this “discipline and science” of psychology carves out its space pretty profoundly but I do believe they have their finger on an issue and that issue is the rising evidence and the rising incidence of depression.

WHAT DOES CHRISTIANITY SAY ABOUT DEPRESSION?

From a Christian world and life view, I’d like to draw a distinction. I believe that this three-fold view of humanity that you are spiritual, physical, and psychological, that does not stand the scrutiny of Scripture.

The Bible teaches that man is made up of two parts, male and female, are physical and spiritual. Now, they are entwined with each other and the physical affects the spiritual and the spiritual affects the physical so there are some physical causes of what we would call depression: loss of hope, loss of any joy, any happiness, a pessimistic view of life that has eventually led some people, obviously, to the taking of their life. It’s heartbreaking for all of us when we see that and then when we see people in the throes of depression.

PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL DYNAMICS

I believe it’s caused physically because we’re fallen human beings, physical dynamics, where the body is not functioning right. There’s certain chemical things that are going on like synapses misfires and all of that that’s taking place can lead to depression and those should be treated medically — very carefully, now, because there have been a number of cases of suicide when people are not properly cared for when they’re medically treated for physical causes of depression.

And then, of course, is the spiritual dynamic. The Psalmist speaks of this a number of times: “My soul, why art thou disquieted? Why are you cast down?” We find it in the very first incident of the Bible where God gives the diagnosis of depression: “Cain, why is your face cast down?” We find it in Nebuchadnezzar, whose arrogance had led him into the field to live with his face down like an animal and there is a spiritual dynamic that can lead to depression. And then, sometimes, obviously, there can be the two at work within each other.

WHY THE UPTICK IN INSTANCES AMONG TEENS?

Now, we want to ask ourselves a question at the moment, though, is why is there such a plethora? Why is there almost an epidemic of this depression? Now you are putting children under a mandate to be screened by people of various levels of competencies in which parental rights can be set aside by the “profession” of psychology and its screening process.

Now, having said that, is there an almost epidemic of depression among the rising generation? And I think the answer is yes. We need to ask ourselves, “What are the causes of it?” Tom, I think it’s very clear, as a pastor, I am running into ministry counseling issues of depression among young people much more than I ever had 20 years ago. I look back at my own childhood and I don’t ever remember anything like this — I’m sure there was to some degree, but nothing like this.

NEW CULTURE WITHOUT GOD, WEAK CHURCHES AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Why is it? Well, I think we need to take a look at the environment in which our children are being raised. The secularization of our culture, the message of a God-centered life which brings hope in the God of Glory and grace is now diminished and set aside by the pressures of the culture and the cultural elite, the curtailing of the First Amendment, both in terms of freedom of speech and the free practice of religion — so that whole element of the dynamic of hope that comes through a vibrant Christianity is lost.

Secondly, within the church, we have lost our focus upon the Gospel which gives hope that we use to pour forth into the culture and then, when we’ve got hope pouring forth from an institution like the church of Jesus Christ and the people of God, that’s going to make a difference and we ought to be bringing that message. Somehow, we have gotten sidetracked into other messages and causes other than the cause of getting up on the mountain and announcing good news.

A third thing, I think, is social media, where kids, their whole life is determined by how many likes they have and things that people can say through social media without being face to face with an individual.

CHURCHES MUST SPREAD SPIRITUAL HOPE

Do I believe that there are some physical reasons for depression that can be treated? Yes, but I think the vast majority is a spiritual depression that is coming from a society that has vacuumed out of its existence the message of hope in Jesus Christ. It does not want to hear the bad news that we’re sinners. Therefore, it does not want to hear the good news that you can be saved from your sins.

Now, the question is will the church of Jesus Christ tackle this or not and I believe the Bible calls us to keep up our message and step up our game into the world with the message of hope for the sake of young people who need to hear the hope of the Gospel.

DO NOT DEPEND ON GOVERNMENT TO DIAGNOSE AND TREAT

Dare I say one more thing, Tom, about that? If there is an epidemic of depression — and I actually believe there is — I don’t think the answer is to create a cast of individuals that the government forces you to go to to get their approval and then to be given medication upon their decision or not. I do think parents ought to be educated on what do you look out for in terms of depression, but I think what we really need is a vibrant, healthy church of Jesus Christ that is on-mission with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

CHURCHES, SEE THE NEED AND SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF HOPE

And, boy, you’re talking about a rich harvest field in a culture that’s in despair because of its secularization. That is a rich harvest field for us to come and say, “Listen, there is no hope there and you see where it’s headed but, over here, let me tell you where there’s hope,” and then for the church of Jesus Christ to redouble its efforts to bring the power of the Gospel to bear upon relationships so that kids see their hope in true friendships and true fellowships that are permeated with the hope of Christ, and that they see their hope that they are ambassadors of Christ that are sent into the world for Christ and they have a glorious mission and a glorious message to take.

There is much reason for hope: You are someone that Jesus Christ has died for, you are someone that the Spirit of God dwells within, you are someone that has a task and a mission and a message that counts for all eternity and what you do matters for all eternity. There is the hope of a vital relationship with God that gives you meaningful relationships and responsibilities in life.

And then for us to disciple families in which, once again, children are raised not in the hopelessness of broken homes, not in the fear that the home is going to break up, not in the violence that is now invading homes and abusiveness, not in the despair of the sexual revolution that destroys bodies and hopes and lives and dreams, but in the hope of Jesus Christ.

And we see that in stronger marriages, we see that in stronger families, we see that in stronger churches that get back to what they’re supposed to be doing, which is evangelizing and discipling and worshipping in the community of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ in which you reach out to people by bringing to them the hope of the Gospel and bringing them into relationships that are meaningful so they get a taste of what it means to be loved in Christ and what it means to be loved by the power of the Gospel of grace.

I think that’s the great hope. The hope is not in the creation of a new cast of professionals. Unlike what the secular culture says, you do have a soul, and unlike what the secular culture says, you do have hope, and that hope is blessed — the blessed hope Christ the Lord of Glory.

COMING UP FRIDAY: BILLY GRAHAM’S LEGACY ATTACKED

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, on Friday’s edition of Today in Perspective, the family of Billy Graham will lay their father, their grandfather, their great-grandfather to rest as the world watches and yet I want to take you to a story out of NBC News that says Billy Graham has left a painful legacy for LGBTQ people.

DR. REEDER: Let’s take a look at this assault on Billy Graham and, coinciding with that, an assault upon Christianity. Let’s take a look tomorrow.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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HUNGARY PRIME MINISTER TOUTS CHRISTIANITY AS LAST HOPE FOR EU

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, there are three different stories I’d like to cover with you today. The first deals with Victor Orban. Now, a lot of our listeners probably don’t recognize that name — he’s the prime minister of Hungary. His hope for Europe is not in more secularism or a hope for open borders, but a hope for resurgence in Christianity. According to LifeSite News, Orban gave an address to his nation warning that the EU and its open borders policy with Islamic nations has opened the way to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam.

DR. REEDER: Tom, basically, what he ended up with was this statement that, “Christianity is Europe’s last hope.” Thank you for the open door, but Christianity is not Europe’s last hope — Christianity is Europe’s only hope.”

And that’s what’s happening in a secularized culture, which is about 20 years down the road from the United States if the continued success of the sexual revolution and the secular elite that promote the sovereignty of man over the sovereignty of God — that man is the measure of all things and what he desires and what he wants — that unrestrained death spiral of a culture.

SENTIMENT IS STRONG, BUT JESUS IS NOT A LAST RESORT OR TRIBAL DIVISION

Now, I don’t know what’s happening in the prime minister’s personal life, but it doesn’t seem to be coming out of a personal spiritual awakening, but just an assessment that the current immigration policies are bringing in waves of Islamic immigrants. It’s not that many Europeans are being converted to Islam, but that they’re being overwhelmed by the immigrants that are coming in. That means the leftover remnants of the effects of Christianity and the culture of Europe, in general, and Hungary, in particular, where he is the prime minister, is such that he sees utter destruction of what is happening in the social fabric of the nation.

I would just say to the prime minister that Jesus does not exist and the Gospel does not exist as a tribal God for any nation or the European Union. Jesus is Lord of all and Jesus is King of Kings and He has proclaimed not as the answer to a nation’s problems so that the nation continues to stand supreme. When the Gospel is proclaimed, it certainly benefits a nation and it certainly benefits a culture, but that’s not its purpose. The purpose of the Gospel is for men and women to be right with God.

Now, by the way, when you get right with God, then God gets right within you. And when God gets right within you with His Word and the Holy Spirit and He begins to change you — and that changes your family and that changes your neighborhood and that changes your city — but that’s the consequence. The purpose of Christianity is not for Christianity to be the handmaiden of a nation to make it a great nation — the purpose of Christianity is for people to worship the great God of glory and grace. When that happens, that brings greatness all around it and that certainly brings the blessings of the Lord’s presence, but that’s not the purpose of it.

Therefore, it’s not simply that Jesus is the answer to a failed immigration policy; it’s Jesus is the answer to sinners and, when sinners are saved, then their lives are changed from the inside out and that changes everything around them.

ON THE FLIP SIDE, SAN FRANCISCO BECOMING CITY OVERTAKEN BY FILTH AND DESPAIR

TOM LAMPRECHT: Well, Harry, the opposite is also true. Fox News is reporting San Francisco, which has a reputation as one of the prettiest cities in the world, in a recent survey of more than 150 downtown blocks in San Francisco has revealed some staggering statistics and some unfortunate findings, including streets covered with garbage, human excrement and hypodermic needles spread across the city.

DR. REEDER: Tom, it’s very interesting. I will not name the three cities, but there are three cities that, as I have to travel various places to fulfill my calling, there are three cities that I utterly feel the oppressiveness of darkness — just moral darkness — when I step into those cities. I will tell you San Francisco’s one of them, which breaks my heart for the city. I want the city to be won to Christ.

I’ve been very disappointed that two church-planting initiatives in San Francisco have actually been absorbed by the culture instead of standing firm for Christ and I see the powerful movement of the secular elite and what they’ve done, but I also see what always happens whenever you elevate rebellion against God, rebellion against God’s Word, rebellion against the sovereign claims of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There will always be the death spiral of that culture and its dissipation and its degradation.

WALKING AWAY FROM CHRIST LEADS TO EMPTINESS, ON PERSONAL AND COMMUNITY LEVEL

Tom, I know that because it happened in my own life. As I walked away from all that my parents had brought to me in Christ, I saw the dissipation and the despair and the emptiness of my life and God graciously rescued me and brought me to a saving relationship with Christ and then my life goes in the other direction.

Well, what’s true in an individual is also true in a city and in a culture. What you see in the streets of San Francisco is heartbreaking when you see the broken bodies, broken lives, broken lifestyle, the degradation that is all around and the dissipation that is there.

And so, what is needed is a clarion call of the Gospel. We need evangelical churches that are alive for Christ — that aren’t playing secular games, but bringing the testimony of Christ and the glorious message of the Gospel to impact that city. That city’s problems are not going to be resolved by renouncing being a sanctuary city. What we need to see is the movement of the Gospel that enables men and women to renounce sin, and turn from it and trust in Christ the Savior, and live for Christ and then see what will happen in that city by God’s grace.

If I could just draw a parallel, the prime minister of Hungary is turning to Christianity because of the effects of the open borders of immigration policies, but in San Francisco what you see is the attempt to say, “Our lives and our city are going to be open borders to do anything we want. Christianity will confine me.”

Oh, no, no, no. When you come to Jesus and repent of your sins and put your trust in Him, you get the free gift of eternal life and then he sets you free. Here’s what Jesus says in John, Chapter 10: “I am the door. If any man come in by me, he will go in and out and find pasture.”

In other words, “I will not only set you free from sin’s guilt and shame, I’ll set you free from sin,” and there is true liberty that you find in Christ. Apart from Him is desolation — in Him, is glorious liberation, not only from the penalty, but the power and practice of sin.

MEANWHILE, CHURCHES THAT SEEK TO SPEAK TRUTH ARE SILENCED AND THREATENED

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, we do know, when churches do stand up for what is right, for example as reported in Breitbart News last week, the Metro City Church, which has campuses in Riverview and Taylor, Michigan, they were putting together a workshop on Biblical sexuality, the pastor there said that the response from the community has been unbridled hate and vitriol.

DR. REEDER: Right. Death threats, threats of lawsuits, assault. This church, I don’t know all of the dynamics of what they’re doing in these seminars that they were offering but, if you attempt to invade the cultural commitment to the sexual revolution and self-gratification and its abuse of sexuality from a gift within marriage to an unbridled commitment to self-gratification, once you do that, you are going to get the ire, anger and focused power not only of the culture, but the fascist power of the state is going to be brought to bear against you.

STAY STRONG, CHRISTIANS, AND PROCLAIM TO THE WORLD

The Reformers faced the threats of the state and the government and monarchies — so can we — but just remain faithful to Christ. If you’re going to be a Christian in the present sexual revolution that is driving our culture at the moment, if you attempt to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who saves sinners and the love of Christ to them to call them to repentance and to receive the gift of eternal life, unless the Lord goes before you and gives eyes to see and ears to hear, you’re not going to be met with open arms.

There’s nobody going to throw a parade for you. What you need to do is remain faithful, even upon the threats that come against you. And, believe me, you will not be able to hide. If you’re going to be a committed Christian and if you’re going to commit yourself to Jesus Christ and the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, you will be tested to see if you will be faithful. This culture will not tolerate the Gospel of Christ, but that does not stop us — we aren’t asking for toleration. We will simply, even if it costs us our lives, engage in the proclamation to the world, and to our cities and to those who are broken by the sexual anarchy of the sexual revolution.

No matter what is brought against us, we will bring Him to you and, when He is lifted up, He will draw sinners to Himself.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ADDRESSES PORNOGRAPHY

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, The Daily Wire is reporting out of Florida lawmakers in the House of Representatives declared pornography a public health crisis. In January, Republican representative Ross Spano addressed Florida’s House Health and Human Services Committee about the dangers of pornography, which he said includes a correlation between porn use and mental illness and dangerous sexual behavior.

DR. REEDER: When the character of an individual and the character of leaders of institutions is lived with propriety, there’s usually a need for fewer regulations and there will usually be less litigation but, whenever you lose character, then you begin to have to multiply litigation and legislation trying to maintain order.

Normally, what I like to aim at is the character and the soul and heart of leaders in order to affect an institution, a society, a city, a state and a nation but there are times when laws are needed and I am almost persuaded that some kind of a law to outlaw pornography — not that it would eradicate it and I know it would create a black market for it and I’m well aware of all of that — but it’s like the stop sign out here not far from my house that people go through it all the time and they don’t obey it, but at least it slows them down.

WHY IS PORNOGRAPHY SO DANGEROUS?

Pornography objectifies women, it destroys the sanctity of sexuality, it destroys marriages and it destroys families. It even has physical effects — the people that did the report that you referred to had a lot of interesting facts that they had documented, Tom.

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Matt Walsh wrote, back in November, “We dedicated well over four and a half billion hours as a nation to watching porn on just one porn site in one year.”

DR. REEDER: In one year.

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Just on porn sites, humanity spent twice as much time viewing porn in a year as it spent existing on Planet Earth. The site had over 90 billion video views, 44,000 visitors every minute of every day — it all adds up to 500,000 years’ worth of porn consumed in the span of 12 months.

HOW DOES PORN AFFECT PORNSTARS?

DR. REEDER: Many of us have been told, as ministers of the Gospel, that likely up to 70 percent of the men and a significant rising number of women now either view porn or are becoming addicted or are fully addicted to pornography. And it has its effect. People say, “Well, that’s just a private sin.” No, it’s not. Just think of the women — the daughters of families and individuals and people just like your sister that you may be thinking of right now — who have been brought into the pornography industry.

Tom, just in the last month of December, five of these so-called “celebrated” pornographic stars, young women, all committed suicide just in the month of December and that’s an untold number of despair, discouragement, suicide, the drug addictions that come with the pornography industry. Not only does it objectify women and destroy the lives of women, but it also destroys marriages. It even has a destructive dynamic physiologically.

PORNOGRAPHY HAS REAL PHYSICAL EFFECTS ON INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY CRIME

TOM LAMPRECHT: Indeed. A German study revealed the brains of men who consume a lot of pornography tend to be smaller in certain key areas and have fewer connections than those of other men.

DR. REEDER: It also leads to rape — if you’ll go, again, to these studies, you’ll find that approaching 50 percent of the rapes were generated by those who had been addicted to pornography and that many of the rape events were pornographic simulations.

I can affirm to you, pastorally, Tom, that much counseling that takes place is the shame and degradation that women bring because of the demands of husbands that have been viewing pornography and how it has destroyed what ought to be the sacred dynamic of intimacy within marriage as the marriage bed has now become defiled.

Well, I could go on and on so, Florida’s move to outlaw it, I’m not sure it’s not a good move. Not that I think it’ll get rid of it — I think it’ll only restrain it. I cannot help but think that it would have a salutary effect to have laws against its production and stiff penalties for those who produce pornography. It is a blight upon humanity. There is nothing redeeming about it. It has a demeaning and disastrous effect upon people emotionally, psychologically and physiologically.

WHY AREN’T #METOO SUPPORTERS ALARMED BY PORNOGRAPHY?

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, the irony of this is there’s going to be a lot of pushback from progressives and yet they’re the same ones who have recently been up in arms over the #metoo movement.

DR. REEDER: It feeds into the sexually charged dynamics of cultures in the athletic world, in the celebrity world and in the corporate world. Not only are these viewing habits of pornography affecting the way that men are functioning in those arenas of life, but we have documented that, in many of these corporate offices, men — and to some degree now increasingly women — are engaged in pornographic viewing while at work. And, if you don’t think that affects the way a man would get up from the computer and begin to talk with fellow workers throughout the office, then certainly you’re living in a fools’ paradise.

Now, Tom, one of the great challenges of this is the fact that pornography is probably the single most profitable industry in the United States and the United States is the largest exporter of pornography around the world. When you have industries such as pornography that are so financially profitable, you can be assured that every possible effort will be made to maintain its unhindered productivity and distribution in our country and beyond our country throughout the world so, Tom, it’s going to be a big battle.

THERE IS AN ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM: JESUS AND HIS CHURCH

Now let’s back up and finish this way, Tom. We know what the answer is. The answer’s the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the answer to everything. Please listen to me: If you’re there today, we will be more than happy to connect you to counselors who are able to help you from a Christian world and life view to get liberated from the addictive — and it is addictive. You’re not a victim of pornography, but you can victimize yourself in pornography and then it brings a destructive dynamic in your life. In fact, it begins to seer imagines upon the brain through a chemical process that just cannot be eradicated.

However, there is an answer and that answer is something that fills you up to overflowing so that there’s no room for this to fill the vacuums of your life. The depth of the emptiness of the lives of men and women apart from the vital relationship with God through Jesus Christ is that men and women will go everywhere to try to fill it and there is the beckoning siren call of pornography — “Oh, it’s harmless, it’s harmless. It’ll make your life meaningful.” It’s not harmless. It is destructive physically, physiologically, socially, emotionally, psychologically, relationally but, most of all, it absolutely destroys your soul.

But there is One who can fill your soul if you’ll come to Him, repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus and there is no depth that you’ve gone to in pornography that He cannot rescue you and set you free from its guilt, its shame and its power. And you can begin to build a life that has a new obsession and that obsession is Jesus Christ. And, when you know Him, that will begin to filter into all of your relationships. It will affect you physically, physiologically, socially, emotionally, relationally and, most of all, it will affect you with a meaning for life and a solid foundation in life.

Christ the Lord of Glory loves you and He wants to set you free. You come to Him — He will forgive you and He, by the power of the Holy Spirit with the Word of God surrounded by the people of God, then you can walk in the triumph of Christ over that sin and the Lord gives you a glorious life instead of the death pornography brings into a life.

COMING UP WEDNESDAY: HUNGARY’S PM SAYS ONLY HOPE IS CHRISTIANITY

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, on Wednesday’s edition of Today in Perspective, I want to dovetail onto a story that’s very much related to what we talked about today. Over in Europe, the prime minister of Hungary, his hope — not more secularism — he says the only hope for Europe is Christianity.

DR. REEDER: And let’s see why he said that, Tom, and let’s see the implications of what he said. Let’s also consider how we can respond to it. I think there’s some great insights there, not only for Hungary, but for the United States of America.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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BILLY GRAHAM DIES AT AGE 99

TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, last Wednesday at 7:46 a.m., Billy Frank Graham went to see his Savior face to face.

DR. REEDER: Tom, as a Gospel minister, this has great significance to me, but it also does personally because our families were entwined in the Charlotte area. Billy Frank, as he was called growing up, was a “rebellious teenager” who came to Christ as a result of some revival meetings that were being held in Charlotte in 1934 under an evangelist by the name of Mordecai Ham. He and some of his buddies — Grady Wilson was one, T.W. Wilson was another — were brought to Christ and Billy began to be a testimony for Christ as a young man. He later goes off to college, really grappled with his call to the ministry and he ends up in Youth for Christ — he actually became president of Youth for Christ for a while — but sensed the Lord’s call to evangelism.

It has to be said that Billy is the most singular figure in evangelical Christianity in the 20th century. His parents were very much involved in church. For those of you that might be familiar with Charlotte, there’s an extraordinary growth area called South Park and that’s really where the Graham dairy farm was. There — and my family was actually involved in this — were prayer meetings that were being held for a revival. In fact, the prayer request in that dairy farm living room was, “God, would you please do another revival in Charlotte?” Then they went on to add, “Would you do something in Charlotte that would touch the world?”

Well, the son of Franklin Graham, who hosted that prayer meeting, Billy Frank, was playing in the next room as a little boy. These same men would be involved in calling this evangelist, Mordecai Ham, and his preaching all these young men would come to Christ. Twenty-seven notables — I won’t name them all — were converted in Charlotte that later went on to extraordinary ministry in missions, in college, in churches, pastors, etc. Billy, and T.W. Wilson, and Grady Wilson came to Christ and were called to ministry.

Late 1940s, Billy was absolutely convinced that God had called him to be an evangelist and his preaching was extraordinary. One guy said, “It is a gust of words that were understandable and overwhelming when he preached.” He always kept his message Biblical and simple. He came back to Charlotte and, in the church that had begun out of the Mordecai Ham revival, he was invited back and he held an evangelistic meeting in 1948 and a newlywed 18-year-old couple went forward and gave their life to Christ holding their baby. Their baby was me and that was my dad and mom. They had moved from my grandfather’s involvement in this to now my father and mother being blessed by it and me, “being carried along” as it were.

LOS ANGELES CRUSADES AND BEYOND

My grandfather, who was a scout for the Washington Senators, became involved in 1948 with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association that was initiated and Billy went to Los Angeles to do the great Los Angeles crusades that really launched him. Granddaddy was part of the team that went around and visited churches to get their support and Randolph Hearst, the great publisher that owned all the newspapers, was so impressed by what happened, he sent a message to his publisher “Huff Graham,” meaning, “Give him immediate attention.” And then seven notable conversions took place — a Hollywood actor, Louis Zamperini — and it became noteworthy by their testimonies and the meetings just kept expanding there in 1948 and into ’49 in Los Angeles.

He goes on to hold meetings in New York, other cities invited him, and then his mass crusade evangelism was birthed. Out of that came other ministries. He went on to start the magazine Christianity Today, The Billy Graham Evangelistic Center at Wheaton College, and we could go on and on of the various things that he did.

CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATE

He was most notable — and rightly so — for two things. One, his singular commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel should be preached to everyone everywhere and, therefore, he on the basis of a theological commitment to the Gospel, became an instrument to undo segregation. He actually came down off the platform, removed the ropes at the Chattanooga Crusade, and then stood there when they tried to put them back up and said, “If you put them back up, the crusades will end tonight,” and also brought integrated crusades to Birmingham. He was asked by a columnist named Drew Pearson, to come and hold a crusade in what at the moment was the most volatile racial division in the United States and that was Clinton, Tennessee, this small town.

Billy, who was going to much bigger cities, went there because of that, insisted on integrated seating and the president of the Alliance of White Citizens came the first night and was converted and his life totally changed. I hear people talking about the social justice issue, the social Gospel issue and I think of Billy who just kept preaching the Gospel, but he impacted social issues because he was always consistently focused on the fact that whatever we do must be framed from the Word of God and our lives must reflect the Gospel and honor the Gospel throughout all of our life and be an instrument and a platform to proclaim the Gospel.

GRAHAM STANDS UP FOR GOD’S WORD 

In Youth for Christ, he was No. 2. — No. 1 was a man by the name of Charles Templeton, who went to Princeton Theological Seminary and began to embrace liberalism and question the Bible. And they had a big debate and Billy said to him, “I must be faithful to God’s Word. I just know it’s God’s Word. I may not be able to answer all of your questions, but I rest everything on the integrity of God’s Word.” And that’s when the phrase “the Bible says” began to penetrate all of Billy’s preaching.

Chuck Templeton went on to become the evangelist for the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches, which were theologically liberal. He eventually not only questioned the faith, but denied the faith and he died a very broken man and Billy never took him off of his prayer list and kept writing him notes the rest of his life.

You’re hearing a lot of virulent tweets against Billy. I can tell you what Billy would do — as you said, Tom, when we were talking, he would put his arm around them to tell them about the love of God in Christ for them and the more virulent they would become, the more gracious and sweet would he become in his Gospel communication.

PERSONAL MEMORIES OF BILLY

In 1958, Billy came back and we had an integrated crusade in Charlotte at the Charlotte Coliseum. My dad was part of that. He actually allowed me to go with him to be an usher. I can still remember the offerings with the big buckets, and the big choir, and Cliff Farrows there at the Charlotte Coliseum and then, in 1996, I received a really sweet letter from him, sharing with me how much my grandfather had meant to him in the early years, the great memories of my grandfather’s service. He wrote a nice note in Granddaddy’s Bible that I inherited when my grandfather went to be with the Lord. And then, finally, I was able to be a part of the committee where we brought him back for what we thought might be his last crusade in 1998, there in the Carolina Panthers stadium.

END OF HIS CAREER AND LASTING RELATIONSHIPS

Billy went on to preach until 2005 with amazing crowds in New York, where he ended up, which is, in a sense, where he began in the late 1940s. He was a friend to presidents and he was a counselor to presidents. He most notably had a marvelous relationship with Queen Elizabeth that began when he went over in the 1950s for the crusades in England.

But what might be most notable is the glorious truth that he finished strong — not physically, he was very weakened at the end — but he finished strong spiritually. When I think of Billy Graham, I think of Paul’s words to the Philippians: “It is my earnest desire and expectation that I will not put Christ to shame in anything but, by all means, I might honor him in my body, whether by life or by death.” Billy finished the way he lived: with a singular focus upon the Gospel of Christ.

HOW BILLY DESIRED TO BE REMEMBERED

When it was asked, “How do you want to be remembered?” he said, “That I was faithful to my Savior, to my wife, to my family and to my calling to preach the Gospel.” I can’t imagine what would have happened in our country without the effective ministry of Billy Graham, but I do know that much more needs to happen in our country and may God bring another revival to our land that would not only transform the landscape of our culture, but also touch all the nations of the world.

Billy reframed the quote from D.L. Moody: “You are going to read in the paper that I have died. Don’t believe it. The day you read that, I will never be more alive with my Savior.”

Praise the Lord for all that he enjoys in the presence of the Lord and now may we take up that same banner of the Gospel of Christ, lift high the cross of Christ and may the Savior do a great and glorious work with the Gospel throughout our nation and build upon this marvelous legacy of this man who was a sinner saved by grace and a preacher of the Gospel that saved him.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin, editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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