Amir Tsarfati says he was ready to commit suicide when he encountered Yeshua, the Messiah. Tsarfati was born to a Jewish family, but after his parents got a divorce, he grew up in the foster care system.

He says, “I really saw no hope. I decided that I should put an end to my life. I was about to do it. Then I felt that something is telling me that I may have not given the world enough chances. I decided to give the world one last chance.

“That week, my friend’s family—they’re all holding hands, closing their eyes, and the father says, ‘Let’s pray.’ And they ended the prayer with a very interesting thing. They said, ‘B’shem Yeshua’—’in the name of Jesus.'”

That intrigued Tsarfati. To hear what happened next, watch his video testimony here.

David French authored a piece in National Review titled “Franklin Graham and the High Cost of the Lost Evangelical Witness.” In it, he seeks to demonstrate that “Graham’s willingness to abandon Christian principles when it’s politically expedient has cost the church dearly.”

This is the same David French whom anti-Trumper Bill Kristol in 2016 was trying to recruit to run as an independent for the presidency. Had such a catastrophically misguided effort come to fruition, it would have taken away votes from then-Republican nominee Donald J. Trump and so effectively cleared the way for a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Never-Trumper absolutists keep plodding along in this fashion toward 2020.

Jesus was neither on the ballot in 2016, nor will He be in 2020. Like all of us, President Donald Trump should take spiritual counsel from Solomon: “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips” (Prov. 27:2).

“Self-praise is unfitting because it destroys one’s relationship with God and people. The Lord detests the proud, and society dislikes and discounts the boaster. Instead of exalting the boaster, self-praise diminishes one’s status and suggests that one is proud, feels undervalued, and is socially insecure” (Bruce K. Waltke, Proverbs commentary).

Jewish Hebrew scholar Michael V. Fox added: “Modesty is a tactical as well as moral virtue, for others are more likely to speak of a person’s virtues and accomplishments if he himself is silent on them, and ‘He whose spirit is humble will hold honor’ [Proverbs] 29:23.” (Proverbs commentary)

President Trump has shown in the dismal Russian collusion flop a distinguishing feature of his personal nature that Christians should take to heart. “It is when a man is hemmed in and trapped by adverse circumstances that his powers of endurance are stretched and an estimate of his toughness and stamina can be made … an all-around grittiness and sinewy determination that includes physical endurance, but also embraces mental toughness” (William McKane, Proverbs commentary).

And courage!

Let’s examine candidate Trump’s campaign promises of 2016:

• Defend religious liberty.
• Stand for the unborn.
• Defund Planned Parenthood. [Blocked by House.]
• Build a Wall on Southern Border.
• Appoint conservative jurists to the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts.
• Reinstate the Mexico City Policy [block U.S. federal funding of abortion].
• Rescind the Johnson Amendment [alias the pastor muzzle act].
• Recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American Embassy to the Holy City.

Before Donald J. Trump’s swearing-in in January 2017, former Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke the now almost prophetic words: “I just hope that Trump doesn’t lose his nerve.” Gingrich identified both the direct threat posed to Donald Trump by the ‘deep state’ as well as the long-term threat to sustainable freedom in America. The ‘deep state’ has yet to be dealt with.

When we look at Jim Daly and his Focus on the Family’s punctuation of David French’s deep-seated ill will towards Trump, we have to ask ourselves what possibly could be behind Daly’s spotlighting of a negative Trump piece in April 2019, just 18 months before the election? The answer must be to inject the leaven of the Pharisees, in an attempt to suppress evangelical voter turnout on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020.

Does Mr. Daly realize the consequences of shrinking 2020 evangelical voter turnout by 3-5%? If not, let’s make it clear: conservative Christian governors, members of Congress, state representatives and state senators, city council members, Christians running competitive races for school board and other local races will lose by a percentage point or two, thus enabling liberals to impose their values and write in stone a culture devoid of God.

Christian leaders will have to take their political game and skills to a whole new level if America is to survive. Not only do we Christians as of now not ‘do politics’, we also have a negligible influence on the intellectual, educational, economic, and vocational cultural mountains of influence in America.

A little history: In 1991, Focus on the Family left California with 400 of its finest employees and moved to Colorado Springs. Colorado conservatives imprudently came to believe that Focus was home to political master minds, and by subscribing to their self-professed political judgment skills watched their state go from red to blue. With zero influence in the public square, Mr. Daly, just last year, stood by as his state elected the nation’s first openly gay governor.

The good news is that God is sovereign. As we begin the political machinations for 2020, we call to mind our own prediction the night before Election Day 2016, “There is no way in the world, politically, that Donald J. Trump can be elected president.”

We would do well to heed A.W. Pink’s advice:

Beloved reader, apply now this principle to your own individual life. Are you anxiously exercised over God’s delay? He has some wise purpose for it. He had with Abram, and He has with you. From 75, his age when he left Haran—to 100, when Isaac was born—was a long time to wait, but the sequel evidenced the Lord’s wisdom. God has more than one reason for His delays. Often it is to test the faith of His children, to develop their patience, to bring them to the end of themselves. His delays are in order that when He does act His delivering power may be more plainly evident, that what He does may be more deeply appreciated, and that in consequence He may be more illustriously glorified (Pink, Gleanings in Genesis).

We can be sure that He won’t let us down. Thankfully, Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand.

The need to address revival and the vital role of the Holy Spirit is as relevant today as it has been throughout church history. The key is to find the biblical balance. The Holy Spirit is not some weird, mystical force. He is part of the triune nature of God. The Bible says that the Spirit intercedes, leads, guides, teaches and so on (see Rom. 8:26, Acts 8:29, John 16:13).

He enables and empowers us to hunger and thirst for righteousness and to boldly live for Christ. God’s Word becomes living and active in the life of the believer who is continually filled with the Holy Spirit. Charles Spurgeon adds, “What can a hammer do without the hand that grasps it, and what can we do without the Spirit of God?”

I was disheartened a few years ago when I attend a conference about the Holy Spirit in Southern California. Men I look up to were trivializing and mocking deep spiritual experiences that authors such as E.M. Bounds often write about.

E.M. Bounds, who was born in 1835, began his three-hour prayer routine at 4 a.m. To him, prayer was not a short prelude, but an empowering priority. Edward Payson, who ministered during the Second Great Awakening, was said to have worn grooves into his hardwood floor as a result of prayer.

It was said of John Hyde who left for the mission field in 1892 that he would stay on his face before God until the answer came. It was not uncommon for the great Scottish preacher John Welch, who died in 1622, to spend four to six hours in prayer. John Fletcher, one of the leaders of the Methodist movement, stained the walls of his room with the breath of his prayers until his death in 1785.

Why mock these types of experiences? Is it because most have never experienced the overwhelming power and presence of the Spirit? Should we not pursue the deeper life? Listen to the message, “A Demonstration of Power,” for more on this. Would be to God that more men and women sought God with all their heart. America might actually experience revival.

By age 28, my life was filled with what the world offered, but I was empty inside. I was at a turning point. I could choose to turn fully to God and stop “playing church” or continue to reject Him. By God’s grace, the prodigal came home. I repented and put my complete trust in Christ.

Although I am far from perfect, God radically transformed and redirected my life through the power of the Holy Spirit. He can do the same for you. Acts 1:8a identifies this experience: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you shall be My witnesses.” The power of the Holy Spirit is like dynamite that ignites a hunger for God so intense that every aspect of life is changed—we become bold, not passive; stable, not fanatical; and committed, not wavering.

Within the months that followed, I truly experienced the infilling of the Spirit that is seen throughout the Scriptures (e.g., a transformed life resulting in a love for God and His Word). From this experience, came books, articles, speaking engagements and ultimately, a church.

I, like many Christians, tend to be “safely” conservative when considering the power of the Holy Spirit; however, Scripture clearly supports the miraculous work of the Spirit today. I’m open but cautious. We need sound doctrine and the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s possible to be “Bible taught” but not “Spirit led”—straight as a gun barrel theologically, but just as empty. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (see 2 Cor. 3:6).

Don’t get me wrong, theological and expositional teachings are essential to Christian living, but how often are theology students encouraged to fast and pray as well as study? How often are they taught brokenness and repentance in addition to translating the Greek language? How often are they taught the surrendered life? We can sometimes be more concerned about a Master’s degree than a degree from the Master.

The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures and empowered Jesus and the apostles. We are desperately remiss if we fail to recognize His vital role in our lives. I agree with Leonard Ravenhill: “We need to close every church in the land for one Sunday and cease listening to a man so we can hear the groan of the Spirit which we in our lush pews have forgotten.”

It’s no secret that our culture is on a steep spiritual decline. Perhaps this is because Christians have been slow to wake up and are only beginning to do so now as more of our freedoms are being taken away.

But how do we make a difference? Greg Swan, a marketing and brand strategist, discovered something interesting while working on his wife’s Congressional race and, later on, 17 other Republican campaigns. By targeting churchgoing Christians, all 17 Republican politicians won their races.

I interviewed Swan about his discovery on my “Strang Report” podcast. (Listen to it in this article or by clicking here.)

“My observation is that this market [of evangelical Christians], which I’ve known since 1993, is the most powerful, underserved market in the majority market out there,” he says.

Swan knows this because, as a marketer, he has spent years researching different demographics, especially the evangelical market. He says that in the U.S., there are 77 million evangelicals, 68 million Catholics and 50 million others who aren’t evangelical but who identify as Christian.

But in order to engage this giant Christian demographic, difference-makers have to know how to tap into it. Thankfully, that’s also something Swan learned in his experience with political campaigns.

“We’re looking for the ones who actually go to church,” he says. “And they’re all over the place. The numbers are staggering. In the United States, there are 331,117 churches. In my state of Michigan, there are 10,007. We focused on that for the congressional race.”

Swan focused on reaching this market directly through their cellphones. His political team bought Sprint and Verizon first-party data. Privacy requirements prevented Swan from knowing immediately who on the list went to church and who didn’t. But he was able to conclude who were churchgoers because their devices would register in physical church locations.

Although Swan’s wife ended up losing the Congressional race, the results for other Republican races were encouraging.

“We ran 17 campaigns for this—all primaries, all for Republicans, and all of them won,” he says. “So that’s all we know. We did a test on 17, and they all won. It was a much higher than average response because the contextual relevancy because of who we were focusing on. Christians who go to church give more, and they generally do better because of the principles of giving more and living a balanced life.”

But just because this nation has so many Christians doesn’t mean the culture follows biblical principles. During his wife’s political campaign, Swan saw just how corrupted the political world is.

“My experience with politics was really eye-opening,” he says. “We put a lot of our personal money into it and then found out that a guy I’ve since I was 9 betrayed me and stole my hard-earned petitions. … People sell their souls in this business. It’s bizarre. I never saw anything like it. People lie. People steal, and they’re not truthful. We came in, made a big splash through the media, and we were immediately a mark. We were sent someone from an enemy camp to take us out.”

In his political and marketing experience, Swan has also seen just how strong the leftist agenda is in our nation.

“[Democrats] have moved on us because they’ve had a long-term agenda, like China has had and like Russia has had,” he says. “And if you look at 1950 versus now, they’re winning. … It’s the slow, one-degree-at-a-time boiling that frogs go through and the agenda. We’ve been acted on for a long, long time. And we’re just waking up.”

But Swan sees something in the evangelical community that’s strong enough to reverse the tide. He believes this is why Trump’s agenda has withstood media scrutiny and leftist attacks.

“The attitude, the power and the brains are all there,” he says of the Christian demographic. “Plus, most importantly, the majority. If the media for two years and [all its] negative stories can’t take a dent out of Trump, and then when the Mueller report comes out, it shoots up … He knows who’s in charge. It’s the evangelical Christians.”

With marketing help from strategists like Swan, Christians can tap into America’s giant evangelical demographic and actually make a difference. And Swan says it’s all about connecting on the popular level.

“In the old days, … you had one of three ways to get the message out,” Swan says. “Now, you have smart, sophisticated marketers like us who can get around anything to target the right person, the right demographic—and you’re not stunted by media.”

To listen to my full interview with Swan, click here or scroll to the top of this article. And if you enjoy my podcast, I encourage you to rate and review “The Strang Report” show on iTunes!

This important story has been out for some days now, but I waited before writing. Why? It’s because I did not want to write yet another article on transanity. Another article on extreme transgender activism. Another article on the world being turned upside down.

But this is too urgent. Too disturbing.

In a totalitarian regime, it’s a parents’ worst nightmare.

I’m talking about government intervention. About hostile, outside forces coming right into your home and usurping your authority. About the courts forbidding you from parenting your child. And, worse still, threatening to punish you if you dare try.

Allow me to jar you with a totally accurate, non-exaggerated headline: “Orwellian Attack on Parental Rights: Court Warns Father He’ll Be Arrested if He Calls His Daughter a Girl.”

Had I made this story up, you would not believe it.

Had I predicted it 10 (or even 5) years ago, you would have told me I was crazy.

But the story is true, straight from our northern neighbor, Canada, a country that is becoming more Orwellian by the day. (That is, if you’re an outspoken conservative Christian.)

As reported by Tyler O’Neil on PJ Media, “Last month, the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued an order that a father (referred to by the pseudonym ‘Clark’) may not refer to his 14-year-old daughter (pseudonym ‘Maxine’) as a girl or by her original name, whether in public or in private. Doing so has been ruled to constitute ‘family violence’ because Maxine identifies as a boy. According to a separate protection order, police may immediately arrest Clark if they suspect he violated this Orwellian order.”

Specifically, the court ordered that Clark “shall be restrained from: attempting to persuade [Maxine] to abandon treatment for gender dysphoria; addressing [Maxine] by his birth name; and referring to [Maxine] as a girl or with female pronouns whether to [Maxine] directly or to third parties.” (This court order “will last for one year.”)

Not only so, but the court order “prohibits Clark from ‘directly, or indirectly through an agent or third party, publish or share information or documentation relating to [Maxine]’s sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental or physical health, medical status or therapies,’ besides the Court, legal counsel, medical professionals, or any person authorized by Maxine or the Court.”

O’Neil shares further details in his article, but you’ve already read more than enough, especially if you’re a parent.

But if you are a parent, can you imagine this happening to you? Can you imagine being told—as a parent, by the court—that you cannot call your 14-year-old daughter by her birth name, even in the sanctuary of your own home? That you cannot refer to her as a girl, in public or in private?

Regardless of what you think about trans-identified children, who gave the courts this kind of power? Since when did they have the authority to tell a parent what words he or she could say in their own homes? If this is not overreach, what is?

And should this concerned father dare to challenge the court’s order, he can be arrested on the spot.

I doubt that Orwell himself could have imagine a scenario like this. Arrested for calling your daughter by her name. Arrested for referring to your daughter as a girl. What kind of madness is this?

Since when did the courts have the right to tell parents how to raise their own teenagers? Since when did the courts—not the parents—know best?

It would be one thing if a child was being starved or abused.

It is another thing when parents do not affirm a child’s gender-identity. Another thing when they do affirm biological realities. Another thing when they believe they know what’s best for their child. It is, after all, their child.

Again, regardless of your view of transgender issues, do the courts dictate the speech of racist parents whose teen child is dating someone from another race? Or, if the teen child of atheists becomes a devout Christian, can the court order the parents to cease mocking that child’s faith? Or conversely, can the court order Christian parents not to warn their atheist teenager about hell?

Put another way, if a father referring to his male-identifying daughter as a girl is “family violence,” why aren’t these other examples instances of family violence?

And in the case of Maxine, what empirical, scientific evidence tells us she is not Maxine? There’s a growing number of terribly disturbing stories about teens who have been deeply confused about their gender identity, only to make tragic, irreversible personal choices.

Now, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has forbidden a concerned parent from helping his daughter through the most difficult period of her life. The justices are forbidding him, under penalty of arrest, from potentially saving her from a lifetime of regret.

This is absolutely chilling, and it really is a parents’ worst nightmare under a totalitarian regime. (The other, related nightmare is for the courts to take the children out of the parents’ home entirely. That, too, is already happening with trans-identified children, even here in the United States.)

Big Brother is flexing his muscles, and no one is standing in his way.

America, are you watching? Parents, are you listening?

Pastor Michael Green led a thriving Spirit-filled church in New Orleans before what he calls the “evil woman” came through and changed the lives of Green and his family forever.

That evil woman was Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

The storm destroyed their 170 square-foot church, as it did many others, and Green and his congregation had to start from scratch. With the help he received from many national ministries, he began to see God’s goodness and mercy in a different light. And now, the pastor of LifeGate Church in Metairie, Louisiana, says he embraces God’s call of “building Christ into every life.”

“With Hurricane Katrina, we and many believers that went through it understand that God would navigate them through that storm,” Green told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of “Greenelines” on the Charisma Podcast Network. “When I started preaching again, I knew these people were suffering.

“I spent six weeks going through the story of Joseph and talking about undeserved tragedy, what the devil intended for evil and how God would turn it around for His good. I began to encourage people and speak blessing to them. And now, I try to speak encouragement in every avenue and everywhere I go.”

For the rest of Michael Green’s testimony, listen to the podcast below.

Jenny Weaver is a Spirit-filled worship leader with a prophetic anointing. But she wasn’t always filled with the joy of the Lord. At a young age, she turned to witchcraft for a sense of power and control in her abuse-filled life.

“In the dark place of my life that I was in, I didn’t see [witchcraft] as a bad thing,” she says. “I saw it as a good thing. I thought, Wow, I’m going to make my parents pay for what they’ve done. I’m going to get the kids back at school. So I began to study the religion of Wicca, and I became a practicing witch at a very young age.”

But witchcraft didn’t solve Weaver’s problems. She struggled with depression, cut her wrists almost every day and fell into a dangerous drug addiction.

Weaver also found that indulging in witchcraft opened the door for scary supernatural encounters. She was able to see into the spirit realm—but not the way Christians do.

“Drugs began to take over and I would see things move in my room,” she says. “I would go to open a drawer, and my hand would be almost touching it, and the drawer would open on its own. I would point to something on the wall, and it would fall off the wall. We would be talking about, ‘Hey, do you feel that weird spirit?’ And all of a sudden, light bulbs would break over our heads.”

Fear and addiction became bigger strongholds in Weaver’s life until one day, she found herself pregnant and alone in jail. Listen to the interview to find out how God broke through and healed her heart. {eoa}

Read articles like this one and other Spirit-led content in our new platform, CHARISMA PLUS.

Cedarville University celebrates the legacy of Warren Wiersbe, one of the foremost Bible teachers, professors and authors of the 20th century. Known as the pastor’s pastor, Wiersbe passed away Thursday, May 2, at the age of 89—two weeks before his 90th birthday.

Last year, Wiersbe and his wife, Betty, announced their plan to gift his immense personal library of books to Cedarville University. This impressive collection of commentaries, nonfiction publications and works of literature, estimated at between 13,000 and 14,000 titles, will be housed in the Warren and Betty Wiersbe Library and Reading Room, to be located in Cedarville’s Center for Biblical and Theological Studies.

“Warren Wiersbe was a personal hero, faithful preacher, wordsmith and a dear friend,” commented Cedarville president Dr. Thomas White. “We will work hard to continue his legacy of service to our Savior at Cedarville.”

Wiersbe began his ministry in 1951 at Central Baptist Church in East Chicago, Indiana, where he served until 1957. Next, he spent four years at Youth for Christ as director of the literature division before he became the pastor at Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky, from 1961 to 1971.

It was during his ministry in Kentucky that he became a frequent guest speaker in Cedarville University’s chapel program. Then Cedarville president Dr. James T. Jeremiah often returned the favor, preaching at Calvary Baptist when Wiersbe had engagements that called him away from his duties there.

Wiersbe spent a large portion of his ministry at Chicago’s Moody Church, named for 19th-century American evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Wiersbe ministered over the radio through his “Songs in the Night” program while at Moody and with Back to the Bible radio network from 1980 to 1993. He had an active conference speaking ministry until 2004.

Wiersbe was a prolific author, writing more than 170 books, including his very popular “BE Series Commentaries,” which characterizes books or sections of Scripture with a “being” verb matched with a descriptor, such as “Be Free” for the New Testament book of Galatians or “Be Amazed” for his commentary on the minor prophets.

He taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, from 1978 to 1982 and is a former distinguished professor of preaching at Grand Rapids (Michigan) Theological Seminary.

Jason Lee, dean of the Cedarville School of Biblical and Theological Studies, along with Cedarville’s president Dr. Thomas White, visited with Wiersbe last fall.

“Dr. Wiersbe loved the Word,” Lee said. “He took a strong stand on the authority of Scripture. And now our students can be shaped by the same resources that shaped him. He spent decades investing in the church through his teaching of the Word, and now he’ll be able to continue that through students picking up the same resources for the same purposes.

“When we were with him, he said to Dr. White and me, ‘Preaching is loving people through the Word.’ We hope our students catch that spirit.”

“Dr. Wiersbe’s life and ministry has been committed to the right handling of the Scriptures, and pouring into others who would do likewise,” noted White. “Cedarville has been blessed with the privilege of stewarding a portion of Dr. Wiersbe’s tremendous legacy. This considerable collection, which is more than books on shelves because of the marginal notes and observations, is the accumulated wisdom and insight of one of the great servants of the church in the 20th century. We thank God for this amazing privilege.”

“The constant loneliness and the constant grief—it was so heartbreaking to see.” That’s how Christian singer Holly Starr remembers her grandmother’s season as a widow.

May 3 is National Widow’s Day, and Starr wants everyone to know it. She has spent much of her time this past year building awareness of widows through The Yes Necklace, a ministry tool she developed to enable and encourage people to reach out and spend time with widows. Many folks aren’t aware that National Widow’s Day exists, and Holly wants to change that.

“When I told my mother-in-law (who was widowed in 2017) that we’d like to do something special with her this year for National Widow’s Day, I couldn’t help but notice the big smile that crossed her face.” shares Starr. “I’ve been blown away at the response we’ve had to The YES Necklace when I share about widows at our live shows. The overwhelming response has shown me how great the need is for reaching out to widows.”

For those looking for ways to reach out to widows, watch the video above and visit .

Holly Starr will be kicking off The Yes Tour this summer with a focus on raising awareness for loving on widows.

For more on widows and widowhood, check out the podcast below featuring Dr. Carol Peters-Tanksley, an OB/GYN, doctor of ministry and recent widow, sharing about her journey through grief.

Holly Starr is a Christian worship artist. Follow Holly on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Did you see the front cover of Time? It features a picture of Mayor Pete Buttigieg and his “husband,” with the caption, “First Family.” Why this exaltation of a fairly obscure, outlying political figure?

Could it be that he’s a white male?

If anything, that would be a disqualifying factor for a Democratic presidential candidate today, even though Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are still frontrunners.

Could it be that he is young (just 37 years old)?

So are Beto O’Rourke (46), Tim Ryan (45), Andrew Wang (44), Julián Castro (44), Wayne Messam (44), Seth Moulton (40), Eric Swalwell (38) and Tulsi Gabbard (37).

Could it be his policies?

Nope. Do we even know his policies? How much has he articulated so far? What are the Buttigieg distinctives?

Could it be his political experience?

Hardly. Although he’s been in politics over half of his life, he’s a still a newbie on the national scene, and rather than being a governor or a senator, he’s the mayor of only the fourth largest city in Indiana.

Could it be that he was elected by a large percentage in what had been a Republican stronghold?

That’s certainly a factor, but it can hardly be the driving factor. That’s why the Time article was titled, “Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s Unlikely, Untested, Unprecedented Presidential Campaign.

That really says it all: unlikely, untested and unprecedented.

How then has he surged up in the polls? Why has he become the darling of the left?

It’s because he is gay. And he is “married” to his partner. And he is a professing Christian. And he is challenging sacred biblical and church traditions. What more could the left ask for?

But there’s a nuance to this that we cannot miss.

Mayor Pete and his partner are the perfect poster boys for the gay activist agenda, a culmination of years of messaging and marketing.

They seem like really nice guys (and might well be).

They seem wholesome.

They are churchgoing.

They care about the poor.

To the best of our knowledge, they are not frequenting gay bars looking for anonymous sex encounters.

They are like your ideal neighbors, just a little different.

That’s the message that Time is sending to its readers.

It’s time to redefine family! It’s time for America as a whole to embrace gay marriage! The old era is past! May it never raise its ugly, bigoted head again!

Lest you think I’m exaggerating, let me remind you of one of the well-known gay strategies from the late 1980s as articulated by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen in their bestselling book After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the ’90s.

They called for the “conversion of the average American’s emotions, mind and will, through a planned psychological attack, in the form of propaganda fed to the nation via the media.” (Yes, these activists had a plan, and they carried it out to a T.)

They explained that “to desensitize straights to gays and gayness, inundate them in a continuous flood of gay-related advertising, presented in the least offensive fashion possible. If straights can’t shut off the shower, they may at least eventually get used to being wet.”

And, they noted, “The main thing is to talk about gayness until the issue becomes thoroughly tiresome. … If you can get [straights] to think homosexuality is just another thing—meriting no more than a shrug of the shoulders—then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won.”

This part of the strategy was called “Desensitize.”

The next part was called, “Jam,” by which they meant smearing anyone who disagrees with the homosexual agenda. Associate them with Nazis and the KKK and hysterical backwoods preachers. Anyone who opposes gay activism is a bigot and a hater!

Then, finally, the last part of the strategy was “Convert.”

How was this done?

They wrote, “In conversion, the bigot, who holds a very negative stereotypic picture, is repeatedly exposed to literal picture/label pairs, in magazines, and on billboards and TV, of gays—explicitly labeled as such!—who not only don’t look like his picture of a homosexual, but are carefully selected to look either like the bigot and his friends, or like any one of his other stereotypes of all-right guys—the kind of people he already likes and admires.”

Yes, “The image must be that of an icon of normality—a good beginning would be to take a long look at Coors beer and Three Musketeers candy commercials. Subsequent ads can branch out from that solid basis to include really adorable athletic teenagers, kindly grandmothers, avuncular policemen, ad infinitem.”

Americans must be bombarded with a new image of normal, one which included same-sex couples, one in which having two moms or two dads was exactly the same as (or even better than!) having a mom and a dad.

As for negative aspects of homosexuality (such as higher rates of promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases or “open” marriages), those should be hidden from the public eye.

And so it is that today, in 2019, Time wants to take things one step further, with Mayor Pete and Chasten serving as the perfect representatives of where America should go. The nation has been desensitized; the nation has been jammed; it’s time for the national conversion. Straight out of the pages of Kirk and Madsen! Meet the new first family!

It could well be that Pete and Chasten are really nice guys. That they’re really committed to each other. That they would be very nice neighbors.

But two men (or two women) “marrying” will never equal a man and woman marrying. Two dads or two moms will never equal a mom and a dad (nor will they ever be able to reproduce themselves physically in their offspring). Sex distinctions, established by God at creation for the good of the human race, still matter.

Consequently, while I do not have the slightest animosity towards Mayor Pete (or Chasten), what I will celebrate is the miracle of a man and a woman coming together as one. A couple joined in romantic and sexual union, reproducing the unique byproduct of their emotional and spiritual and physical lives—a literal new creation.

That’s the real first family, and it represents the fullest expression of God’s heart.

Gay families will take these words as hate-filled and denigrating, for which I’m truly sorry. I’m simply saying that God’s ways are truly best.