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      July 16, 2008

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     "One-Night Stand"

 

Drugs. Abuse. Neglect. The background of Hollywood's latest dysfunctional 'bad boy' giving excuses for his recent trip to rehab? Somewhat ironically, these are the "highlights" of the childhood of Pastor Greg Laurie--a pioneer of the evangelical mega-church movement and modern-day evangelism--detailed in his new autobiography titled Lost Boy (Regal, 2008). Though many would assume that the pastor of one of the largest churches in America who has drawn some 4 million people to evangelistic events worldwide has had a perfect life, the truth is far from ideal: Laurie grew up fatherless and nearly motherless as his Marilyn Monroe look-alike, alcoholic mom wounded her way through seven marriages. As a teen in the 1960s hippie era, he experimented with drugs and alcohol to help ease the pain of his personal life. He lived well into his forties believing his mother's first husband was his biological father, only to discover that he was the product of an earlier "one- night stand."" . . . It's not hard for me to put myself in a nonbeliever's scuffed shoes. I've walked in them. I was full of skepticism and doubt; I thought I would never make it as a Christian--I did not see myself as the 'religious type.' Thankfully, God doesn't look for the 'religious type.' He looks for the 'sinner type.' I qualified." (Lost Boy, Page 142). Despite--and perhaps because of--his scandalous beginnings, Laurie is pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif.--drawing more than 15,000 each Sunday--and founder of Harvest Crusades, innovative, high-tech, rock-and-roll evangelistic events that have packed stadiums and arenas around the country and abroad for the last 18 years. Laurie serves on the boards of both the boards

  

of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse international Christian relief organization. Franklin Graham calls Lost Boy, available in bookstores now, "a picture of God's grace, protection and love." Packed with footage of Laurie's past and music from the era, a 90-minute film version called Lost Boy: The Documentary is available at www.harvest.org. "If there's redemption for me and my situation, there is redemption for everyone," says Laurie.

    
   
 

Time is running out on the statute of limitations for charges brought against Planned Parenthood of Overland Park, Kansas, for performing illegal late-term abortions and then falsifying documents to prove otherwise. A grand jury, convened by thousands of signatures in Sedgwick County, is still waiting to see records subpoenaed months ago that would prove or disprove allegations against abortionist George Tiller and Planned Parenthood. The grand jury has been extended to accommodate the interminable delays perpetrated by attorneys general Paul Morrison and Stephen Six and the Kansas Supreme Court, who finally ruled that the records could go to the grand jury a month ago but so far have not been produced. The grand jury is in danger of running out of time to do the job the people of Sedgwick County asked them to do, since the statute of limitation is five years and the original charges were filed in 2003. Judy Smith, State Director of Concerned Women for America (CWA) of Kansas, states, "Kansas is on the front lines these days against a common enemy, the abortion industry. However, even more than the obvious worldview clash we have against abortion, the rule of law is being challenged in our state. Our state officials are choosing to make the abortion industry an exception to the rule of law. This, if unchallenged, will undermine the rule of law in all areas of our lives, leaving us vulnerable to the whims of the courts and the executive branch, clearly a departure from what the founding fathers intended." Kansas has strong pro-life laws with strict prohibitions on late-term/post-viable (babies able to survive outside the womb) abortions on the books. Timeline of Injustice

 
The report defies belief. A Washington, D.C.-based organization that lobbies Congress for programs that serve runaways and homeless youth has been testing an Internet fundraising campaign that is based on soliciting young people to post videos of themselves strip-teasing. The perverse "idea" behind this campaign, called "Strip2Clothe," was that certain companies would donate clothes to the homeless based on the number of times the homemade videos were viewed. The project was sponsored by Virgin Mobile and National Network 4 Youth, NN4Y, the national lobby for a coalition of service organizations that includes many faith-based social agencies. The coy tagline of the campaign: "You take off yours; we donate ours." Campaign sponsors argue they would only post videos in "good taste." The firestorm was immediate, led by Minnesota-based service providers including Catholic Charities. At FRC, we know that runaway and homeless youth have a high incidence of sexual abuse because pimps and other sexual predators target them. They are often forced into prostitution. What were these campaign developers thinking! Fortunately, the campaign website appears to have been taken down, at least temporarily, because of criticism of the program. But a deeper question needs to be asked. Who authorized this profoundly misguided and potentially illegal campaign? Heads should roll and no federal agency should again fund a project involving the people and advertisers who dreamed it up. In addition, federal policy does not now encourage abstinence programming for runaway and homeless youth. This underscores why it should.

 

ABC's "Primetime: Crime" is about to take a rare look inside the dark and violent world of domestic sex trafficking. On Wednesday, the show will examine how American teens are being lured and sometimes kidnapped into sexual slavery. "Primetime" (check local listings) gained exclusive access to two Ohio victims. Teen cousins Carol, 14, and Kimberly, 15, were on their way to buy milkshakes when they were kidnapped on Toledo's, Main Street and forced into a world that demanded sex with men for money. "There are children throughout the United States who are being sold as prostitutes," FBI special agent Mike Beaver said. "It's not uncommon to see 12- and 13-year-olds out. What we've learned is if you have adult prostitution in an area, there's probably child prostitution occurring as well. It's more of a black market; it's more underground, but it's there." The FBI estimates there are 100,000 minors in America being forced to trade sex for money.
 
 
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or as she is called on the Big Dogs blog, "the worst speaker in the history of Congress, " explained the cause of high oil prices back in 2006: "We have two oilmen in the White House. The logical follow-up from that is $3-a-gallon gasoline. It is no accident. It is a cause and effect. A cause and effect." Yes, that would explain why the price of oral sex, cigars and Hustler magazine skyrocketed during the Clinton years. Also, I note that Speaker Pelosi is a hotelier ... and the price of a hotel room in New York is $1,000 a night! I think she might be onto something. In response to the 2003 blackout throughout the Northeast U.S. and parts of Canada, Pelosi blamed: "President Bush and Rep. Tom DeLay's oil-company interests." The blackout was a failure of humans operating electric power; it had nothing to do with oil. And I'm not even "an oilman." But yes -- good point: What a disaster having people in government who haven't spent their entire lives in politics! That explains everything. A government official with relevant experience or knowledge about an issue is obviously a crisis of gargantuan proportions. This is Not a Drill
 
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