African American Christians typically vote for Democrats. But because
same-sex marriage is a key issue this year, some say they’re not sure how they will vote.
Kimberly Daniels paces across the platform at Truth and Deliverance International Ministries in Chicago, telling the mostly African American congregation that this November isn’t a good time to play civil rights politics.

“Secular humanism is why we’re struggling to maintain the foundations of marriage in this country. We are not warring against flesh and blood!” shouts Daniels, founding pastor of Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida, a church that emphasizes deliverance from demons.

Daniels hammers her point forcefully: “It is not about a political party! It is not about black and white! It is about light and darkness! A line is being drawn in America, and the next election will prove whose side everybody is on!”

This sermon is unlike any other message heard in a black church in Chicago. And Daniels is no ordinary black preacher.

Raised in a tough inner-city Jacksonville community, the daughter of a civil-rights activist father, she is an upper-middle-class African American baby boomer who plans to support President Bush in the upcoming election. She says many African Americans vote blindly for Democrats out of tradition.

“Those who are the sons of God have to be led by the Spirit of God,” she told Charisma later. “When I go places, people repent [of racism and of hating Bush] because I don’t give them my opinion; I give them the Word.”

Travel 820 miles east of Chicago to Mount Vernon, New York, and you’ll get a totally different sermon. “George Bush is a mean-spirited man,” pastor Carlton Spruill told congregants at Allen Memorial Church of God in Christ (COGIC). “He’s gone back on his promises of faith-based charity. Everybody knows he’s lying about Iraq.”

But 46-year-old Spruill, a registered Democrat, has taken issue with his own party. “The Democratic Party supports same-sex marriage. Homosexuality is a perversion that will destroy America, just as it destroyed Rome and Sodom and Gomorrah,” he says. “I know that voting is a precious right, but this time I don’t see how I can vote. I’m very challenged by this dilemma.”

A Tough Choice

Whether they embrace Daniels’ position or identify with Spruill, many African American Christians say they’re in a quandary this year. Though they vehemently oppose gay marriage, most aren’t willing to re-elect Bush to a second term in office. That opposition to Bush isn’t unlike the last presidential election, when more than 90 percent of African American Christians supported Al Gore, while 80 percent of white Christians voted for Bush, according to a University of Akron poll.

For many conservatives, including some blacks, it’s ironic that African Americans would be so strongly opposed to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the president who issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But the Republicans who freed slaves in 1863 aren’t the same Republicans often branded as racists by many African Americans today.

Those Republicans emerged in the 1960s, at the height of the struggle for civil rights. Southern “Dixiecrats” such as Strom Thurmond switched parties to resist liberal Democrats’ efforts to desegregate the South. Meanwhile President Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon Johnson, endeared themselves to African Americans by supporting racial integration, voting rights for blacks and equal employment opportunity.

When the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, hundreds of thousands of Southern blacks registered for the first time, siding with the group that had shown them the most support: the Democratic Party.

That allegiance continued through the 1970s, as many opposed the Vietnam War, a conflict that cost a disproportionate number of African American lives. It continued in the 1980s, when President Reagan opposed affirmative action and cut funding for unemployment, housing and education programs that many African Americans supported.

“Reagan’s policies set African Americans back by 20 years,” says one Florida resident who asked to remain anonymous.

It was also during the 1980s that the divergent political views between black and white Christians became apparent. As the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition emerged to lead the fight against abortion, it quickly became evident that African Americans, a community well known for its deep Christian devotion, would not be allies.

“The reason why abortion was never a major issue in the African American community is because the African American community never really was … pro-abortion,” says the Rev. Frank M. Reid, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore.

A Fierce Battle

Reid, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1996, says many of the more politically active black pastors are both socially and morally liberal because they attended liberal seminaries. Their members, however, are largely “progressive” on social issues but conservative on moral ones.

He says abortion “was something that the majority of our members just didn’t even consider. … So it became difficult for that to become an issue that would wedge us away from the historic social investment the Democratic Party had made.”

Though white women had more abortions in 2000 than any other ethnic group (41 percent), 32 percent of abortions that year were performed on black women, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute. Its 2003 report also noted that black women were more likely than other ethnic groups to resolve an unintended pregnancy through abortion.

“I think the reason we didn’t see what we traditionally believe about abortion translate into a vote at the polls is because our leaders didn’t address this in a political sense to their congregations,” says pastor Darryl Foster, who leads an ex-gay ministry in Atlanta called Witness Freedom Ministries.

“This is different with same-sex marriage. We’re seeing prominent African American bishops, pastors and apostles come forward and move this issue to the forefront of their congregations.”

Indeed, this summer the nation’s three largest African American denominations registered their opposition to gay marriage. The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) issued a proclamation denouncing same-sex marriage, while the National Baptist Convention USA stated that it doesn’t support same-sex marriage. The AME Church voted that its clergy could not perform marriages for same-sex couples.

At its annual convention, the predominantly black Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship collected 8,000 signatures on a petition supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The group planned to urge the Congressional Black Caucus to support the amendment when it was presented before the House of Representatives in September.

Other leading black pastors have led marches supporting traditional marriage, with Seattle-area pastor Ken Hutcherson planning a Mayday for Marriage rally in Washington, D.C., this month. Ministers such as Reid have preached strongly against homosexuality.

“I wanted our people to be clear that we love the homosexual; we don’t love homosexuality,” he says. Meanwhile Foster is running an ad campaign declaring that gays can change their orientation through faith and counseling.

But if conservatives think opposition to gay marriage in the black church will translate into black votes for Bush, they will have to think again. Reid is a registered Democrat and is still undecided.

“Both candidates have serious weaknesses around issues that are very important to me–budget deficits … [the war] in Iraq, and the alleged oil involvement of Vice President Cheney,” he says. “Kerry doesn’t have a sterling record either.”

“I’m hearing pastors say they are strongly opposed to gay marriage, but that they are not willing to cross the line to vote for Bush,” says COGIC’s presiding bishop, G.E. Patterson. He is warning COGIC’s 10,000 pastors to “examine and strengthen their relationship with Christ” because a battle to stop pastors from preaching against homosexuality is on its way.

Foster agrees, saying that if gay marriage is legalized, condemnation of homosexuality could be deemed hate speech. He plans to support Bush in November because “if [Christians] ignore [gay marriage], then down the road Satan will use this against us in a way I don’t think we’ll be prepared for.”

But for other African Americans, concern about gay marriage takes a back seat to such issues as economic opportunity, quality education and health-care access– interests that many say have been better served by Democrats. Still, Reid says the black Christian community “is in an extremely dangerous political transition.”

While maintaining its commitment to uplift the needs of the poor, the black church must discuss its political priorities based on both its social and moral agendas, Reid says. “Our political position and our vote cannot separate when it comes to where we stand on these very important moral principles that American secular religion is really attacking,” he says.

“If we don’t wake up and see that there is no division between our social stance and our moral stance, and begin to plot out a direction together, then what might happen is the black church might become apolitical and not support either party.”

That, he adds, would be tragic because the black church would lose its political influence. He hopes one day African Americans will make both parties fight for their vote. In the meantime, he is not optimistic that the Democratic Party will change its position on abortion and gay marriage, even with prodding from African American Christians.

“The Democratic Party, on issues of biblical morality and biblical principles, is so sold out to the extreme left that I think the possibility of African American clergy who hold these views influencing the party is very small,” the pastor says.

Reid sees a little more hope among the Republicans. “If the Republican Party woke up and began to really seriously dialogue and change some of their
hardhearted positions on issues that are central to the African American community, it is possible that over the next 12 years they could chip away at that Democratic stronghold,” he says.

Foster believes the nation is going to be surprised by African American voters next month. “We’ve got a lot of issues to sort out before November, but I think we’re going to see some things in the black electorate that we’ve never seen before,” he says. “And I think the driving issue may be same-sex marriage because of our need to cling to what we know is right as opposed to issues that may, say, make us more prosperous.”

Karynne Turner, Ph.D., isn’t sure who she’ll vote for, but she’s leaning toward John Kerry. “In the past I’ve voted for Democrats, and unless the Lord leads me differently, I’ll probably vote Democratic again this year,” the Georgia State University business professor says.

Part of a multicultural charismatic church in Atlanta, she hears some Christians talk about how moral Bush is, “But I don’t see him that way,” she adds. “The war, the economy, the fact that he seems to not take time to re-evaluate things. I don’t think he’s willing to listen to people who have a different viewpoint than his.”

She says she’s concerned about gay marriage, but she’s also alarmed by the size of Atlanta’s homeless population. “Is it moral to see people poor and not help them? Is that any more immoral than gay marriage?”

As African American believers enter polling stations around the country to vote, a right their forefathers never had, they will face a huge dilemma. Do they stay with the party that defends civil rights and the poor? Or do they choose a party that rejects abortion and gay marriage?

Some black leaders told Charisma off the record that they don’t plan to vote this year. They can’t stomach another four years of Bush, but neither can they throw their hat in the ring with Kerry, who comes from the same state that legalized homosexual marriage.

Others will go into the voting booth on November 2 and vote their conscience. Some will vote for the Democrat, others will vote for the Republican. And all of them will insist they were led by God.

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Adrienne S. Gaines is the news editor for Charisma. Valerie G. Lowe is an associate editor for the magazine.

‘Creation care’ advocates say protecting the environment is part of biblical stewardship
For the last 20 years, charismatic pastor Leroy Hedman has taught his small Seattle congregation that caring for the environment is part of being a good Christian.

“Romans 8 says creation is in travail, and we can help that as Christians,” said Hedman, pastor of the nondenominational Georgetown Community Chapel.

The congregation of several dozen grows a large vegetable garden that it uses to feed people in the community. And in 1999, Georgetown became the first U.S. church to be awarded an Energy Star Award from the Environmental Protection Agency for its use of energy-efficient appliances, lighting, heating and cooling, which Hedman said has cut its electricity bill down to $25 a month.

He said the savings are used to fund outreach and missions activities. “It honors Christ to serve the creation,” Hedman told Charisma. “Why should the New Agers be the ones gathering the attention for preserving ‘Mother Earth’?”

For many Christians, environmental issues haven’t been high on the list of social concerns. But that may be changing as a small but growing number of believers begin to view “environmental stewardship” as part of their Christian responsibility, and examine ways to become more vocal about such issues as global warming, air and water pollution, and species extinction.

In June, about 30 ministry leaders–including representatives from the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), World Vision, Southern Baptist Convention, Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and Charisma magazine–convened at the Sandy Cove Christian Retreat Center outside Baltimore for a “creation care” conference aimed at raising awareness among Christians about pressing environmental issues.

Organized largely by the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), the invitation-only meeting included presentations from Sir John Houghton, an evangelical British physicist who is widely considered to be a leading authority on global warming; Howard Snyder, an Asbury Theological Seminary professor who discussed developing a theology that embraces creation care; and Larry Schweiger, a Christian who was recently named president of the National Wildlife Federation.

Several participants were hopeful that Christians would one day reclaim biblical environmental stewardship from radical extremists who have been accused of valuing trees and birds over humans. “Many people believe that in order to be concerned about the environment, you have to embrace liberal politics,” said NAE President Ted Haggard. “That is not true, and we need to reverse that stereotype.”

The three-day conference ended with participants agreeing to give further study to environmental issues, to educate their constituents about them and to develop a formal position on global warming within a year.

For people like the Rev. Jim Ball, who has been trying to mobilize Christians around environmental causes for 10 years, the meeting was an encouraging sign. “This [conference] was to reach out to those key leaders who really hadn’t thought about [the environment] much,” said Ball, executive director of the EEN (www.creationcare.org). “This is what we were hoping to achieve, that they would be open to listening to what other evangelical leaders were saying about this issue.”

Last year, Ball organized the What Would Jesus Drive? campaign to challenge Christians to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles. It is widely believed that fuel emissions from cars are raising the level of carbon in the atmosphere, which some, such as Houghton, say is causing the earth to grow dangerously warmer. Other scientists say the warming trend is part of a natural weather cycle.

The debate, and the complicated scientific jargon, is what has kept many Christians from engaging environmental concerns, said NAE Vice President of Governmental Affairs Richard Cizik, who attended the creation care meeting with Haggard. Although both men say they are committed to addressing environmental issues, they want to find solutions that nurture free-market capitalism. “There are over 6 billion people on the earth. During our lifetime it could go up to 9 billion,” Haggard said. “The only way to provide enough goods and services is through capitalism.”

But for many other Christians, environmentalism is not a debate about science or economics; it’s about theology. “Any time Christians get seriously involved in public policy issues, Christians have to be clear that they understand how things work and that they’re not being taken advantage of by the left or the right because you’re bringing the moral authority of the church [to the debate],” said Gerald Zandstra, programs director for the Acton Institute, a Christian think-tank that studies religion, economics and public policy.

Cheryl Johns, professor of church formation at the Church of God Theological Seminary and a participant in the Sandy Cove meeting, said Christians have a unique responsibility toward the environment. “I think most Pentecostals and charismatics understand that Jesus saves, but He also heals,” she told Charisma. “God is at work restoring and bringing healing. We participate in that as people of God. We participate in the creation being restored. To care for creation, I think, is to participate in healing.”

Snyder has studied renewal movements extensively, and he said mobilizing charismatic and Pentecostals around this issue would cause a significant shift in momentum, as that demographic is believed to be the largest segment of Christianity worldwide.

“The same God who is concerned about the renewal of the church is concerned with the renewal of creation,” Snyder told attendees at Sandy Cove. “The same Spirit who hovers over the church hovers over the waters and wants to bring both into reconciliation under the headship of Jesus Christ.

“If we are concerned about revival in its truest sense, we will be concerned about creation care. Conversely, if we are genuinely concerned with creation care we will want to see the Holy Spirit renew God’s people, sending a revival of such depth that it not only stirs our hearts but also heals our land.”

For Francis MacNutt, a longtime leader in the charismatic renewal, change begins when individuals decide to do something. In 2002, he bought a Toyota Prius, a hybrid car that gets an estimated 52 miles per gallon in the city, compared with 36 miles per gallon for a nonhybrid Honda Civic and 22-25 miles per gallon for the more fuel-efficient SUVs.

“It would take a million people driving Priuses to make a dent in [global warming]; I know that,” MacNutt said. “But it’s something I can do.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Christian leaders are still urging support for laws banning gay marriage despite the Federal Marriage Amendment’s failure to pass in the Senate.

The American Family Association (AFA) is encouraging supporters to visit www.nogaymarriage.com and sign a petition calling for an amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. The AFA hopes to present 3 million signatures to the House of Representatives before it votes on the issue in September.

Other efforts are under way to get gay marriage banned on the local level. So far the November ballots in nine states will include referendums calling for amendments prohibiting gay marriage.

On July 23, conservative Christian leaders welcomed the passage of Indiana Republican Rep. John N. Hostettler’s Marriage Protection Act in the House. The bill limits the jurisdiction of federal courts over questions arising from the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1996. The act protects states from having to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.

But limiting the scope of federal judges is a secondary strategy in the battle to defend traditional marriage, which some say could be a 10-year fight. Several conservative Christian leaders say amending the Constitution is the most certain way to bar gay marriage.

Bishop Paul S. Morton plans to submit 8,000 petitions collected during his Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship convention to the Congressional Black Caucus. He is calling for its opposition to same-sex marriage and noted that his group would “remember those who do not support family values.”

Meanwhile, pastor Ken Hutcherson of Antioch Bible Church in Seattle hopes to convene thousands of Christians in Washington, D.C., Oct. 15 for a Mayday for Marriage Rally (www.maydayformarriage.com). Similarly, Bishop John Giminez of Rock City Church in Baltimore plans to host an America for Jesus rally Oct. 22 on the National Mall (www.AmericaforJesus.org). The event is aimed at getting Christians to fast and pray for the nation’s future.
Adrienne S. Gaines

Organizers plan to hold a Day of Prayer for Jerusalem each October until the second coming of Christ
Christians from around the world are joining a massive army of intercessors to pray for Israel on Oct. 3, as part of an annual Day of Prayer inaugurated by Eagles’ Wings (EW) ministry based in Clarence, N.Y.

“This is a biblically mandated requirement for all who believe,” said Robert Stearns, EW executive director, at the Jerusalem Prayer Banquet held in New York City on May 20. “We have gathered here at a crucial moment in history.”

About 500 Christian and Jewish leaders attended the interdenominational gathering co-chaired by Stearns and Jack W. Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and founding pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif. Many signed a public resolution affirming their commitment to the Day of Prayer. Hayford said the signing was a significant action for the church to the biblical call to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Hayford sees Israel’s role in the end times as a turning point for the church because of the prophetic season. “I don’t mean how you read the prophetic handbook,” he said. “I mean recognizing that this is a moment that God is at work in our world. It’s manifest first in the recovery of Israel, the challenge to that recovery by hostile forces that are more than political forces. They clearly are spiritual forces that are antichrist-nourished, antichrist in spirit.”

Stearns unveiled EW’s ambitious plan labeled The Jerusalem Project, which calls for an International Day of Prayer on the first Sunday of October every year until the Messiah returns. EW (www.eagleswings.to) is seeking to enlist the support of 20,000 U.S. churches and 50 million believers in 70 countries to back the effort.

More than $100,000 was raised at the banquet to fund a $1 million budget that includes literature, videos, a Web site (www.daytopray.org), offices on six continents, and scholarships for a three-week Israel Experience college-student ambassador program.

A group of 10 handpicked students returned from the first ambassador trip in June. They met with educational, political, business and religious leaders. Members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, mentored each student for a day.

Brewing for several years, The Jerusalem Project has been warmly received by Yona Metzger, the chief rabbi of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Knesset, as well as Arab leaders in Jerusalem.

Among almost 500 international Christian leaders endorsing the idea are broadcaster Pat Robertson, Korean pastor David Yonggi Cho, prayer leader Mike Bickle, Elim Bible Institute President Paul Johansson, Charisma publisher Stephen Strang and Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

“There is going to be a massive end-times swell of prayer across the globe for Israel,” said Lou Engle, co-founder of The Call prayer events. “It’s the heartbeat and sweetheart of heaven. I have a dream to mobilize a young generation for Israel.”

In addition to Alon Pinkus, consul general of Israel in New York, members of the Knesset participated in the banquet. “I think to have friends here in the United States of America, people of the Bible, with the point of view that brings them together with us in this celebration is a unique thing,” said Binyamin Elon, chairman of Israel’s Moledet Party.

Yuri Shtern, chairman of the National Union Faction, told Charisma about the Christian Allies Caucus (CAC) formed in January. “The CAC is a group of 10 members of the Knesset from six different parties who committed themselves to developing our relationship with the Christian world,” he said. “People appreciate what the evangelical Christians are doing for Israel politically, in American politics especially.”

Shtern reported that the World Council of Churches has denounced the CAC. “They told us it’s a new provocation of the extreme Israeli right with fanatical evangelists, which I think is a compliment,” he said. “It means we are on the right path.”

Messianic believers also back the project. “There is no question Israel has risen to the center stage of Gentile and world attention,” said Felix Halpern, rabbi of Beth Chofesh, an Assemblies of God congregation in Wykoff, N.J. “God is supernaturally imparting a love for the Jewish people through a restorative work of Hebraic roots. Out of this Jewish people are being provoked for the first time in a long time.”

Stearns expects 4,000-5,000 Christians from many nations to participate in the final ceremony in Jerusalem on Sunday, Oct. 3, when the prayer resolution signatures will be presented to representatives of the Knesset.
Peter K. Johnson in New York City

Jesus House director William Bumphus says Christians don’t have to wait for grant funding to reach out to former prisoners

With tan siding, a porch dotted with oversized furniture and a fireplace in the living room, the modest, two-story home in inner-city Indianapolis doesn’t look like the cutting edge of prison reform.

But after six years in operation Jesus House boasts a recidivism rate of 6 percent, or less than one-tenth the national average. Only eight of 130 men who have lived at the halfway house have returned to prison–a feat the federal government is still trying to duplicate. Two years ago the Department of Justice announced a “re-entry initiative” to offer education, job training and substance-abuse treatment to help ex-convicts adjust to life on the outside.

Jesus House director William Bumphus is doing his part–but without any of the grants available under the Justice Department initiative. The 57-year-old founder of Jesus Inside Prison Ministry says he can’t qualify because of his insistence that residents attend two church services and a weekly men’s support group.

However, Bumphus plans a similar approach at Freedom House, a 60-bed residential drug-treatment center that he hopes to open in 2005. With 55 percent of federal inmates locked up for drug crimes, the affable, smiling minister says it makes more sense to send them to drug treatment. When they get there, though, Bumphus wants them to find the same Savior who released him from the grip of heroin in 1978.

“I’m suggesting Christians open drug-treatment centers like Teen Challenge and deal not only with the physical and emotional part of men, but the spiritual element,” Bumphus said. “Then a whole lot of crime would go away.”

As for the expense, he thinks Christian ministries should depend on God instead of Uncle Sam. Even if they obtain funding, they still won’t be able to run such treatment centers the way they want, said the pastor of Faith Center Church, an independent charismatic congregation. “There’s enough money in the church for everyone to have a Jesus House if they wanted one,” he said.

The home’s population fluctuates between a few and 10, although its director envisions remodeling it to double its capacity to 20. Many current and former residents credit its wholesome influence with steering them straight, including its first resident director, Robert Weddington.

Scholarly-looking behind wire-rim glasses, Weddington stepped aside last fall to run a Christian bookstore and Faith Center’s men’s ministry. He still serves as an informal adviser and counselor.

“When I left prison, it wasn’t in my program to lead Jesus House,” Weddington said. “God just put it together.”

His replacement, Jerry Banks, arrived early in 2003 after four prison stays. Accepting Christ in 2001 was his first step toward reformation; coming to Jesus House marked the second. “It had a strong impact on my life,” Banks said. “I was able to maintain my Christianity and continue to be around godly men who want to grow [spiritually].”

The outreach continues despite financial challenges. Thanks to various churches donating food, clothing and other supplies, Bumphus operates the home for less than half the projected cost.

Jesus House is only one aspect of what Bumphus sees as a thriving revival in the nation’s prisons. Since 1997 the number of annual conversions he records has more than doubled to more than 2,000.

For those who would shrug at the relatively small numbers he has helped–in comparison with an inmate population in excess of 2 million–Bumphus notes that he saves taxpayers $100,000 a year for every five residents who aren’t locked up.

“[Many] guys who came through were major drug dealers; they hurt people,” Bumphus said. “[Jesus House] gives hope to thousands from all over the [nation]. We get applications from all kinds of people who want to come to Jesus House.”
Ken Walker in Indianapolis

Organizers say they hope the new group will bridge the gap between liberal and conservative ministry organizations
Despite critics who fear it will be dominated by liberals, a new ecumenical organization is forming with support from several Pentecostal and charismatic denominations.

After a three-year organizational process, Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. (CCT) plans its formal launch next year. Participants will span five major groups: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, racial-ethnic churches, historic Protestant and evangelical-Pentecostal.

Supporters say it will help bridge a longtime gap between members of the theologically liberal National Council of Churches (NCC) and the theologically conservative National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The group envisions holding annual meetings for prayer, fellowship and theological discussions, and various regional forums.

Organizers foresee participants speaking out on such issues as pornography, sexual trafficking of women, the persecuted church and poverty.

The steering committee includes three Pentecostals: the Rev. Jeffrey Farmer, president of Open Bible Churches; Bishop James Leggett of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church and Bishop George McKinney of the Church of God in Christ.

Representatives at recent meetings have also come from the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, Association of Vineyard Churches and Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.). The Missionary Pentecostal Churches of God sent an observer. Evangelicals participating included members of The Salvation Army, Free Methodist Church, Church of the Nazarene and World Vision.

“I’m extremely excited about it,” said Farmer, who joined the committee in January. “It’s an historic thing, and this time it appears it’s going to happen.”

Leggett agreed, saying CCT will create a group that is broader and more faithful to Scripture than the National Council of Churches. “There are areas of agreement and common commitment to the core of the Christian faith,” Leggett said of the two meetings he attended. “I think that is going to be the strong point.”

Though acknowledging the criticism that has cropped up because of mainline church involvement, Farmer said he and other Pentecostals made it clear they wouldn’t be involved if the NCC played an active role.

Noting that the late David du Plessis founded Pentecostal-Catholic dialogues years ago, Farmer expressed excitement about born-again Christians from various backgrounds coming together.

“Mainline denominations are losing members fast, and evangelicals and Pentecostals are at least holding their own,” Farmer said. “They’re coming to us and saying, ‘We need to hear from you.’ I think it would be a mistake not to take the opportunity.”

CCT, which has sponsored exploratory meetings the last three years, hasn’t selected the site of its next meeting or a city for its headquarters. Still, it hoped to reach its target of 25 member organizations by June and start operating in the fall of 2005.

Steering committee chairman Wesley Granberg-Michaelson expects CCT to overcome past divisions between evangelical and mainline Christians. That process has already begun through its preliminary meetings, said Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America.

In addition to fostering a deep sense of communion and fellowship, the group will help mainline churches gain valuable insights into evangelicals’ and Pentecostals’ faith, Granberg-Michaelson said. “I think they can learn that the knowledge of faith in Christ really needs to be lived out at a deeply experiential level that allows for personal freedom,” he said. “And how individuals testify to what God is doing in their lives.”

But after growing up in a liberal Presbyterian church where he never heard the gospel, NAE President Ted Haggard doubts that CCT will be able to mesh such divergent views.

Noting that evangelicals and Pentecostals emphasize the born-again experience and a high view of Christ and the Bible, Haggard is wary of the influence of those who don’t uphold those positions.

If a group doesn’t stake a position on high moral ground, it inevitably becomes liberal because of the tendencies of the old sin nature, said Haggard, senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“That’s exactly what we’ve seen with the steady decline in the Methodist Church and so many others,” Haggard said. “Now many in their churches don’t even believe the Bible is the Word of God. Or they may say it symbolically, but they don’t read it and live it as if they believe it.

“I believe we need to have respectful and cordial relationships, but I’m … not going to take my time pretending that those who don’t believe in being born again are helpful to the cause of Christ.”

But Farmer, whose family was kicked out of the Disciples of Christ Church in the 1960s after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, thinks CCT will increase networking and empower Christians.

“We can speak louder to our nation at a time when our nation needs to hear from Christians,” Farmer said. “It’s all about relationships and relating to one another.”
Ken Walker

Susan Cagna says her title as Mrs. U.S. Beauties opened doors for her to encourage and pray for sick children

A Tennessee woman who turned her back on a glamorous career as a runway model after accepting Christ says God has used beauty pageants to give her an unconventional ministry platform.

Crowned Mrs. U.S. Beauties in 2003, Susan Cagna, 37, has spent the year of her reign bringing moments of sparkle to sick children in hospitals and whispering prayers in their ears. The visits, she says, are God-given opportunities for her to lay hands on children by way of hugs and pray for their healing.

“If someone thinks you’re special, even for a moment, they’ll listen to you,” Cagna said. “So with a crown on my head, I share God’s love.”

Cagna says she grew up embarrassed by her gawky height and flat chest, hanging on to compliments at ballet recitals to offset the self-critical voice in her head. She was so afraid of speaking in public that, when forced to, she would babble incoherently. Boys hardly noticed her.

Then she stumbled into the world of glamour. Having been told she was photogenic, she entered the Seventeen magazine Look of the Year contest. Out of the 75,000 applicants, she ended up in the top six. She was presented with a contract and plane ticket to Puerto Rico. Her father wouldn’t agree, but Elite Agency had spotted her, and after graduating from high school she entered their modeling school in Los Angeles.

There she was taken aback by the sad self-absorption of the models. So when she went home for the holidays during her second year and her sister presented the gospel to her, she was ready. “I knelt in the bathroom and gave my life over to God,” she said. “A warmth … poured all through my body down to my toes.”

When back in Los Angeles Cagna, then 19, was offered a job as a runway model in Paris. It highlighted how her feeling of self-worth had changed in a prayer. “I had this sense that I was wrapped in God’s love, and ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body’ came to mind. I headed home to Alabama.”

She went to college, then Bible school, got married and gave birth to a daughter, Sarah. Then one day she saw a pageant for married women on television. A search on the Internet led her to a Christian-based pageant. At the age of 35, she ballet-danced her way into the Mrs. Tennessee crown in September 2002, which a year later put her backstage at the national competition.

“I stood behind the curtain white-faced, frozen with fear,” Cagna said. “Another more seasoned contestant came over and gripped my arm: ‘You have just one shot to share what’s on your heart and tell the judges why you want this title. That’s all–just one.'”

Cagna said the woman’s words jerked her back to her mission. From the year of visiting children around her state as Mrs. Tennessee, she said she realized that what had the greatest impact on her was talking one on one with the children in hospital rooms.

She was called on stage, and she said she suddenly felt as if she were walking into a room full of friends. “In one word, what would you bring to this pageant system?” the judges wanted to know.

“Without the fear, it was like my head and my heart connected. I heard myself answer in a voice that was both gentle yet firm: ‘Integrity,'” she said.

In the last year, Cagna has visited six major hospitals across the country in her gown and crown. Ailing children light up in her Cinderella-like presence, and she lets them try on the crown and get a picture. Embracing them, she whispers a prayer. Sometimes whole families in distress join her in prayer.

Other times the children are aloof. She remembers one little boy who wouldn’t look at her despite her comment on his beautiful eyes. She stayed and told him how brave he was and how soon he’d be better, but it was clear he wouldn’t respond. “It was when I was turning to leave,” Cagna recalled, “that I saw the tears streaming down his face.”

Diane Wozniak, who founded the U.S. Beauties Pageants in 2001, said queens typically are expected to promote the pageant. “But I knew this is what God wanted for Susan, so I didn’t step in,” Wozniak said. “When Susan goes to heaven she’ll find out how many souls she touched and lives she changed by what she did this past year. She was truly an instrument of the Lord.”

As Cagna relinquishes the crown, she’ll go on to teach children the art of worshipful dance at her charismatic church, Christ Church in Nashville. In yet another way, she’ll be honoring God with her body and touching the lives of children.
Marsha Gallardo in Nashville, Tenn.

Both former Muslims, the pastors say new believers are risking their lives to tell others about Christ
Two former Muslims who are now pastors in the United States have separately launched satellite TV ministries that try to reach Muslims in a country where it is illegal to evangelize.

Their groundbreaking work in Iran has resulted in thousands coming to Christ, many of whom become such fervent believers that they risk their lives to share the gospel in the Islamic republic.

“Islam has held a grip on this land for over 1,500 years,” said Reza Safa, 43, pastor of Fishermen’s House Church in Tulsa, Okla., and founder of Nejat Christian satellite TV station, which has sought to evangelize the millions of Farsi-speaking people in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan since May 2003.

Nejat means “salvation,” “freedom” or “deliverance” in the Farsi language.

“Iranians have seen the true nature of Islam and are desperate for change and the truth,” Safa told Charisma. “This is also God’s time of visitation upon that land. There is an openness and receptiveness to Jesus that I have never seen there before. Many are having dreams and visions of Him and are experiencing a tremendous hunger and thirst. … We are seeing them accept Christ instantly, which has been unheard of in Iran in the past.”

Hormoz Shariat, co-founding pastor of the Iranian Christian Church in San Jose, Calif., and founder of International Antioch Ministries (IAM), which has broadcast Iranian Christian TV (ICTV) since 2002, agreed.

“We are finding that many young people are converting their families and friends after they come to Jesus,” Shariat, 49, told Charisma. “Still, they have to hide their viewing of the Christian broadcasts, as they risk imprisonment, loss of residence and jobs, and even death.”

In December, the U.S. State Department’s Annual Report on Religious Freedom assailed Iran among the worst offenders of religious liberty in the Middle East. According to this year’s Open Doors’ “World Watch List,” Iran ranked fifth among nations that persecute believers.

A missionary working in the Muslim world who asked that his name be withheld because of security concerns said persecution of Christians has “grown sharply” in Iran, where Muslims make up 99 percent of the population.

Despite the persecution, he said, in the last decade an estimated 30,000 Muslims have become “isolated believers” through Christian radio broadcasts and Bible correspondence courses. “Satellite TV broadcasts have long been one of the only significant ways of reaching the Muslim world in any large quantity,” he said.

Safa, who like Shariat was raised a devout Shiite in Iran and became a Christian after leaving the country, said Nejat TV has seen more than 3,000 Iranians and Afghans accept Christ since they started broadcasting.

With a goal of becoming a 24-hour station in five years, Nejat TV now broadcasts four hours daily into Iran and the surrounding area. Safa has received death threats, but he also receives hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls from curious Muslims, with many calling from cell phones to avoid government surveillance.

One of Safa’s challenges is funding a religious program overseas via satellite, which doesn’t come cheap. Through donations and preaching, he has raised $250,000, with a goal to raise $1 million to continue to grow Nejat TV.

Meanwhile, Shariat said ICTV’s live call-in show has been “the catalyst” for more than 50,000 Muslim conversions worldwide. “One time we had 30 people listening in on a single phone call and all came to Jesus through our show, and we ministered to them off the air,” he said.

ICTV broadcasts 18 hours weekly over two satellites, with the telecast seen in the United States, Canada, the Middle East and Europe. Shariat said it costs $280,000 annually to broadcast in Iran over satellite. The ministry is paid for through donations, grants, partnerships with parachurch groups and tithes from IAM’s four affiliated churches.
Eric Tiansay

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For more information on International Antioch Ministries, visit www.iam-online.net or call 408-267-3274. For more information on Harvesters World Outreach, visit www.reza safa.com or call 918-488-9645.

Leaders say the Café-Bohne coffeehouse has become a surrogate church for many of the city’s disaffected teens
Christ, coffee and basketball have become unlikely tools for reaching German youth who are disenchanted with traditional church.

A ministry of Lauf Free Community Church, the Café-Bohne (The Coffee Bean) in Lauf an der Pegnitz, outside Nuremberg, acts as a surrogate church for many teens who credit the youth ministry with turning their lives around.

“I don’t go to a traditional church,” said Nicolas Schumacher, a 19-year-old café regular. “I come here, meet with friends, and attend the youth group because the people care about us and it’s a lot of fun.”

Although Germany is the birthplace of Martin Luther and other important names in Christian history, most of its centuries-old cathedrals are practically devoid of young people. “I skipped church every chance I could get,” said 15-year-old Simon Kreuz. “There, there is no faith, only a pious service.”

Many 12- to 18-year-olds find traditional churches boring and would not be involved in a Christian community at all if it weren’t for the café, said Petra Becker, who runs the ministry. According to estimates from the Lutheran and Catholic churches, only about 5 percent to 10 percent of Germans are active Christians, and Operation World reports that 53 percent of these are over the age of 50.

A recent German study by the Kinder Evangelisation Bewegung (Child Evangelism Movement) showed that 86 percent of Christians made a decision for Christ before age 15, Ethos magazine reported, making youth evangelism crucial.

In addition to being a safe hang-out spot for youth, the café, which officially opened in January 2003, coordinates a variety of activities, including weekly music jams and youth groups. The ministry also hosts an annual basketball camp, put on by Becker and her team in cooperation with the American sports missionary organization News Release Basketball based in Denver.

High school and college basketball players from the United States visit various cities in Europe each summer, helping teens not only to hone their basketball skills but also to discover the message of Jesus Christ through sports, telling them “what jocks have to say about Jesus,” Becker said.

For most, basketball is initially a bigger attraction than Jesus. “I sat through the daily Bible study, bored and uninterested,” said Kreuz, who attended the camp in 2003. “I just wanted to play basketball.”

Yet the Holy Spirit was at work in his life, and like many youth, Kreuz came to Christ the last day of camp. “What brought me to Christ were the unbelievable wonders at the basketball camp,” he explained. “Things happened there that you really can’t describe in words. … On the last day of camp, I gave my life to Jesus. This decision changed my whole life. Without Jesus you are missing the best part of life on Earth. And you are missing the eternal life, the big party in heaven.”

With more than 30 years’ experience working with youth, Becker directs the youth ministry at Lauf Free Community Church and has a degree in counseling and social work. She and her team show the teens “that they are accepted by God and others just for who they are,” Becker told Charisma. “When they feel that, then they are wide open for God’s Word. ”

Sometimes the teens just drink coffee and hang out. At other times they discuss topics from the weekly Bible studies or special youth conferences. Becker said many youth who come to Christ go on to work with other teens. “This is the joy of my life, what motivates me,” she said. “That’s the reason we make coffee.”
Rebecca K. Weber in Nuremberg, Germany

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For more information about Café-Bohne, write to Jugendcafé Johannisstrasse 8, 91207 Lauf a. d. Pegnitz, Germany; or log on to www.cafe-bohne.com.
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life'” (John 3:16).

Produced by Walden Media and Walt Disney Studios, the film is scheduled to release in late 2005

Following the success of The Lord of the Rings series, another fantasy film project with spiritual overtones is making its way to the big screen during the 2005 holiday season.

Walden Media–owned by Christian billionaire Philip Anschutz–is partnering with the Walt Disney Studios to create The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on the children’s book by C.S. Lewis first published in 1950.

Walden Media and Disney will co-finance the $100 million project, with Disney distributing it worldwide and retaining the merchandise and all ancillary rights, Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said. Plans for a Narnia video game already are in the works.

“We’re pleased to partner once again with Walden Media,” Cook said. “I think this is just the kind of movie audiences are looking for, and we’re thrilled to be able to bring it to the screen.”

The Chronicles of Narnia is one of the most successful series in the history of children’s literature, with more than 85 million copies sold to date. Walden has optioned the rights to all seven of the titles, and Disney has optioned the right to retain its partnership with Walden for the entire series.

“Disney has been a great friend and partner with our company on Holes, Ghosts of the Abyss and this summer’s Around the World in 80 Days,” said Walden co-founders Cary Granat and Michael Flaherty. “The combination of C.S. Lewis’ visionary Chronicles of Narnia with the incredible strength and uniqueness of the Walt Disney brand and organization makes this a true dream project for us.”

Director Andrew Adamson (Shrek and Shrek 2) and award-winning writer Ann Peacock (A Lesson Before Dying) signed on to bring the first of the classic tales to theaters. Although casting had not been fully announced at press time, Tilda Swinton (Adaptation, Vanilla Sky) had been cast in the pivotal role of the White Witch and James McAvoy (Band of Brothers) was to play Tumnus.

Scheduled to be filmed this summer in New Zealand, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tells the story of siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, who are separated from their parents in London during World War II and sent to the country for their own safety. Once ensconced in an eccentric uncle’s estate, the children soon discover a magic wardrobe that leads them to the mystical world of Narnia. There, a classic battle of good vs. evil unfolds, with plenty of spiritual analogy that centers around Lewis’ Christian worldview.

Special-effects studio Rhythm & Hues is expected to create more than 700 shots for the film, including matte paintings and photo-realistic, computer-generated characters, such as Aslan, the talking lion. The effects studio is known for its recent work creating digital characters for such films as Daredevil, Scooby-Doo and its sequel, and Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat.

Walden Media burst onto the film scene in 2001, co-founded by Granat, a former Miramax film executive, and Flaherty, an education reformer. Walden is part of the Anschutz Film Group (AFG), along with Bristol Bay Productions, which focuses on projects that offer “compelling and positive messages that the entire family can enjoy,” and Crusader Entertainment, which produced the Christian movie Joshua. AFG is a subsidiary of The Anschutz Company, an investment and holding company Anschutz owns.

The media-shy Anschutz, who made his first fortune in oil and founded the Anschutz Company in 1958, today owns vast holdings in real estate, transportation, entertainment, communications and more. His entertainment holdings include 78 percent of Regal Entertainment group, which includes the Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theaters and United Artists Theaters.

The privately owned company recently purchased The San Francisco Examiner and owns the Staples Center in Los Angeles as well as sports franchises there. Anschutz is also chairman and majority owner of Qwest Communications, the nation’s fourth-largest long-distance company.

Walden Media produced several highly regarded family-friendly films in its first three years, and planned to release Carlisle School, about the life of Olympic gold medal winner Jim Thorpe, in September, and I Am David starring James Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) in October. In addition, Regal Cinemas has heightened awareness of Christian music in the last year through three premieres. The company hosted DVD release parties on the big screen for Third Day and MercyMe, as well as a live presentation of the 35th Annual Gospel Music Association Music Awards on 50 theaters nationwide.
Natalie Nichols Gillespie