Students’ academic success is a sigh of God’s blessing
When I was growing up in the 1960s, I watched my grandfather build a successful contracting business. Granddad had attended school only through second grade because he had to start working at the ripe old age of 8. Yet he had learned to read very well and became a model Christian businessman by the time he reached adulthood. My grandfather attained
success in the classic rags-to-riches motif.

Granddad, like many blacks of his generation, harped on the importance of education. Therefore, my father became the first person in the family to go to college and receive a degree.

My family considered it a privilege to attend great schools and universities. Unfortunately, today’s families are often settling for mediocre training for their children. We are also forgetting the fact that the world is becoming smaller. The globe is much more interconnected than ever before. Because of these factors, America is losing the battle for international education.

Generally speaking, black, white and Hispanic kids are lagging behind world-class achievement levels. The “digital divide” is creating an educational gulf between those who are technically literate and those who are not. In addition, there are many in our urban classrooms who have not mastered the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic. Social promotion has allowed many students to graduate from high school without the ability to read or perform basic math tasks.

I believe that as our country begins to make a moral recovery and we continue on this path, one of the signs of the Lord’s blessings upon our nation will be the accelerated academic, emotional and spiritual growth of our children.

The scriptural basis for my proclamation comes from an Old Testament promise given to Israel by the prophet Isaiah. Despite the Hebrews’ previous rebellion, the Lord promised to restore wayward Israel. Not only would these people be lifted up in their generation, but also God would accelerate the learning and emotional health of their kids. Specifically, Isaiah 54:13 says, “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children” (NKJV).

In a very practical way, the No Child Left Behind Program of the Department of Education seems to be reversing some of the downward trends everyone has been observing in our children’s academics.

First, the achievement gap among black, white and Hispanic students is narrowing in both reading and mathematics. Second, America’s 9-year-olds—from all ethnicities—are posting the best scores in reading and math in the history of the nation’s Report Card, which has been administered by Congress for more than 30 years.

 
Finally, the report shows that kids are starting to read with better comprehension and in many cases, more volume. Some are reading more than 20 pages a day for school.

To help promote excellence in education I recommend every parent or relative of a student do the following:

1. Pray for your student and quote the Isaiah 54:13 blessing.
2. Meet with your student’s teachers for all subjects at least once per semester.
3. Find out one good thing your student is doing that should be celebrated and one problem area to improve.
4. Become active in the local PTA or support the efforts of a member of your church family.
5. Run for the school board of your district or encourage a member of your church to run.

We can change America on our watch! We can release generational blessings to a nation because of the faithfulness of a righteous remnant.

Ten years ago I had the opportunity to debate one of the Nation
of Islam’s leaders before the group held its Million Man March here in Washington, D.C. Articulate and poised, clean cut and well-dressed, the Nation’s freshly minted communications director was positioned to project a new image for the organization. His predecessor had been so vehement with anti-Semitic rhetoric he was publicly silenced. The march was important to the Nation because it would place its leader, Louis Farrakhan, in the mainstream of the black community’s leadership.

Inside his state-of-the-art television studio, a nationally known talk-show host sat with a Jewish spokesperson, this Nation of Islam representative and me. Although the debate was intended to be informative and conversational, it evoked strong reactions from viewers.

After I read racially incendiary comments directly from The Final Call and other Black Muslim publications, I was barraged with calls from African Americans who claimed I wanted to keep blacks from doing something “positive.” The communications director said repeatedly, “The Nation has changed.”

The next day, I was interviewed on a nationally syndicated radio program with the same man. Before the interview, one of his bodyguards tried to persuade me to change my stance against the march. He quoted the Bible, questioned my blackness and even attempted to intimidate me. I secretly asked the Lord to allow the true colors of Black Muslims to be revealed.

During the interview, I told of my father’s experiences with lynching. Dad had seen several men’s bodies hanging from trees. On the other hand, benevolent whites were the first to encourage him to attend college. The host sat in rapt attention as I talked about the power of forgiveness. My Black Muslim counterpart listened as long as he could before he countered: “I don’t forgive my enemies; I destroy my enemies!”

An outpouring of hate followed. What a departure from the conciliatory demeanor he had projected for two days!

Despite my protests and those of others, many churches endorsed the original march. Surprisingly, as Farrakhan prepares for his Millions More March next month, several nationally known pastors are again lending their support.

Though I share Farrakhan’s concern about such issues as the breakdown of the black family, I object to the march on three grounds.

First, the Nation of Islam has a long history of inciting racial division. One foundational tenant of its faith is that whites are evil—which is ironic considering that its founder, Master W. Fard Muhammad, was white.

Second, the Nation has historically advocated violence as a legitimate way of solving national race problems. Though it claims to be a religion of peace, the organization reached the height of its popularity in the 1960s when former leader Malcolm X urged blacks to gain their freedom “by any means necessary.”

Finally, the Nation seeks to blur the lines between Muslims and Christians. Its leaders quote the Bible when it meets their needs, yet they believe Allah is the only true God and Jesus was merely a prophet. The Nation even claims that Master W. Fard Muhammad was the Messiah!

Second Corinthians 6:14 clearly warns us not to be yoked together with unbelievers. It’s time for the black church to resume its social and civic leadership. But this leadership is not simply for blacks—it’s for the whole nation. We must sidestep the Millions More March and other causes that will mute our voice and dim our vision.

The church must remember Jesus’ mandate to show compassion toward those in prison.
I believe one of the most disturbing biblical passages is Matthew 25:41-46. In it, Jesus promises eternal punishment for those who do not serve Him by reaching out to those who are foreign, hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, impoverished and even incarcerated.

For many of us, it is easy to show compassion to those who by no fault of their own find themselves in need. It’s harder to find sympathy for the thieves, rapists, murderers and drug dealers in correctional facilities across the nation.

Fortunately, Christ puts no limitation on His grace. And that truth begs a question, Don’t we as the church have a responsibility to advocate that prisons become places that offer opportunity for salvation and personal transformation?

In 2004 approximately 10 million people were released from city and county jails. Another 600,000 were released from state and federal prisons–that’s roughly the same number of people living in the District of Columbia.

Time in prison does not always have a healing, restorative effect. Too often, inmates spend their time improving their criminal prowess. And in many cases inmates don’t find freedom from the underlying drug addiction that research shows influenced some 84 percent of those incarcerated to commit their crimes.

While restorative justice is not a new concept, it received a renewed thrust in December 2003 when Florida Gov. Jeb Bush dedicated the nation’s first “faith-based prison,” which houses some 800 inmates from 26 different faiths. As one might imagine, the efforts at Lawtey prison have drawn sharp criticism.

However, the facts show that Jesus makes a difference in the lives of inmates. A 1997 study by the University of Pennsylvania Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society found that graduates of Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship were less likely to return to crime.

Providing spiritual counseling, job training and mentoring to inmates nearing the end of their sentences, the Prison Fellowship program produced graduates who were half as likely to be reincarcerated as other ex-prisoners studied.

“We’re not asking the secular world to accept the faith, which is a matter of an individual relationship with God,” Colson said in response to critics. “What we’re asking them to do, however, is accept the consequences of that faith, which is something that can no longer be denied.”

As Christians, we already know the “consequences” of our faith, which is why I believe we should support efforts that offer inmates a second chance.

In January, President Bush proposed a new prisoner re-entry initiative that would expand job training and placement services, and provide transitional housing. Last June, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced the Second Chance Act, which would allocate $113 million to help ex-offenders with “a continuum of housing, education, health, employment and mentoring services.”

This is a great beginning, though $113 million would not go far enough to correct all the problems we face. Government is only part of the solution for curbing crime. There must be prevention before incarceration, ministry within prisons and aftercare upon release.

We also need overarching policies that will help bring social renewal. To this end, I recently crafted the Black Contract With America on Moral Values, which addresses six important areas: family reconstruction, wealth creation, education reform, prison reform, heath-care reform and African relief.

The High Impact Leadership Coalition, which introduced the contract in February, is seeking 1 million signatures in support of the document to present before elected officials. This will let them know there is broad support for prioritizing initiatives with a biblical base and forging greater partnership with faith-based groups.

We are asking Christians of every ethnicity to sign, which can be done by visiting or checking out our ad in this issue.

Whether in this way or through some other method, we must show Christ’s compassion to “the least of these,” including those in prison.

We must look beyond clichés to understand what same-sex marriages will cost the black community.
Francis Scott Key penned the words of The Star-Spangled Banner from Fort McHenry, not far from my home in Maryland. Key was a lawyer who appeared many times before the U.S. Supreme Court in legal defense of the nation.

One evening, pen in hand, he saw 1,000 brave Marylanders crush the English in the attack known as the Battle of Baltimore. This devout Christian was so moved he wrote the poem that became the lyrics for our national anthem.

Like Key, we as Christians find ourselves observing a battle of epic proportions in America. But the bombs are not aimed at military outposts; they are aimed at our families. The United States stands in the middle of a moral war that jeopardizes the very definition of who America is and what she stands for. Let me take a moment to go a little deeper.

It is no secret that black families have been under assault. African-American households have been suffering from fragmentation since slavery, when husbands were often sold away from their wives and mothers from their children. Today divorce, teenage pregnancy, fatherless homes and the alarming spread of HIV/AIDS are threatening the black family landscape.

Unbridled same-sex marriage will have a striking impact on African-Americans, who have historically been morally conservative and politically liberal. This issue changes that truism. A May 17 Gallup poll showed that 72 percent of the African-American community supported protecting marriage as a union between only one man and one woman versus 59 percent of the mainstream community.

A handful of elite black leaders have taken it upon themselves to use their influence to undermine God’s first institution, marriage, and the foundation of every community, the family. Their views simply do not reflect the true feelings of African-Americans.

They purport a belief that blacks consider the struggle for marriage similar to our struggle during the civil rights movement. Nothing could be further from the truth. Civil rights are not the same as sacred rights. We must look beyond clichés and superficial arguments to understand what same-sex marriages will cost the black community.

Currently, only one-third of all black babies are born into a two-parent, married family. Same-sex marriage would aggravate this crisis.

The experience of other nations demonstrates that the imposition of same-sex marriage and civil unions leads to a weakening of the institution of marriage. In Scandinavia, the system of marriage-like, same-sex partnerships established in the late 1980s has contributed significantly to the ongoing decline of marriage in that region.

In the Netherlands, same-sex marriage has increased the cultural separation of marriage from parenthood, resulting in a soaring out-of-wedlock birthrate. Scholars warn that same-sex marriage could widen the separation between marriage and parenthood here in the United States.

Further, renowned British anthropologist J.D. Unwin, whose studies chronicled 86 different cultures throughout history, discovered that every nation that rejected monogamy in marriage disintegrated morally in less than one generation.

History has proved that it is necessary to eliminate loopholes in legislation. For example, when the Emancipation Proclamation was written, a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery in every state also was needed. The same process is necessary to protect marriage today.

Federal judges have consistently challenged the Defense of Marriage Act. Because of the Full Faith and Credit Article of the Constitution, it is imperative that one man-one woman marriage be uniformly protected in every state.

What is at risk is not our sovereignty but our dignity. What is at risk is our nation’s moral authority to be a bastion of freedom and strength–a model for the whole world. We, however, cannot look from a distance. We must get involved. The eyes of the nation are upon us.

We have an opportunity to advance the Lord’s agenda to create a godlier America.
The last national election seems to have been a watershed moment for the church. For too many years the majority of churchgoers seemed to think that politics were simply a necessary evil. But in 2004, born-again people showed up at the polls and made their voices heard.

This unprecedented turnout was largely due to the grass-roots efforts of many Christian organizations that correctly urged believers to stand against same-sex marriage and the rising tide of abortion on demand in America.

The energy that motivated many of us in 2004 was righteous indignation or even fear. But in 2005 we need to rise to an even higher level, one of vision and faith.

Instead of moving defensively to protect America, we have an opportunity to advance the Lord’s agenda to create a godlier America. In order to do this we must hold our recently elected officials accountable to a godly political agenda.

What would a Christian America look like? Or perhaps more important, What would Jesus advocate if He were leading both the House and the Senate?

I believe if Jesus were grading the church on its representation of His glory, He may well say we earned an A in the first-semester course on righteousness, but our second-semester score will depend on how we deal with justice.

As I have tried to articulate God’s heart for justice to believers, I have been drawn repeatedly to Proverbs 29. If we think about the words of wisdom offered to a king as God’s recommendations for a presidential administration, we can hear a clear mandate. Proverbs 29:4 says, “By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down” (NIV). Verse 14 says, “If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will always be secure.”

In these verses of Scripture, I hear the Lord promising that He will protect our country more effectively than the Department of Homeland Security does. As we meet the requirements of the Scriptures, God will place a shield of protection around our nation, and He will supernaturally empower our administration to thwart the plans of terrorist and enemy regimes. If we’ll give God justice, He’ll give us security. So, what is justice again?

Justice isn’t what you believe; it’s what you do for others. Justice is an atmosphere that we create in the earth to make it more reflective of God’s character. The Bible teaches that both righteousness and justice are the foundation of the throne of God. The book of Isaiah alone pairs righteousness and justice 44 times as twin sisters that produce God’s greater glory in the earth.

What would God’s justice look like in legislative form? Though we could work on justice issues for an eternity, there are six areas upon which the church needs to focus:

God desires to lavish His mercy on the needy of the land.
The church’s responsibility to address the plight of the poor is fundamental to biblical faith. From the Bible, we understand that God hears the cry of the poor. Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is a powerful example of God’s justice on behalf of the needy (see Ex. 2:23-24; Ps. 68:8-10).

Old Testament law structured the life of Israel so that the poor could be touched by His love. Many special privileges were given to the landless poor (see Deut. 23:24-25). In fact, every seventh year financially weakened neighbors were given large amounts of food with dignity. Exodus 23:11 says emphatically: “But during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it” (NIV).

In addition, creditors were instructed to cancel the debts of their neighbors in the seventh year (see Deut. 15:1-2). This concept has made its way into American law. Our credit history in the United States is reported only in seven-year increments.

God desires to lavish His mercy on the needy of the land. Proverbs 28:27 says boldly, “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing.” Yet the verse doesn’t stop there. It promises a penalty to those who overlook the needy: “But he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.”

I don’t want the curses. I want to walk in the goodness of God that I see in Proverbs 19:17: “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given” (NKJV).

When talking about the needs of the poor, believers often quote John 12:8, “For the poor you have with you always,” as a quick response to appeals for offerings earmarked for the needy. This statement on Jesus’ part was not a cynical denunciation of the abilities of the poor. Jesus knew the hardness of men’s hearts. His words reflected His recognition of the choices of men and society.

In contrast to man’s priorities, God exhorts us to be generous. Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 15:11: “There will always be poor in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land” (NIV).

Regretfully, our generation is not serious about reaching the needy. Let’s face the facts; we have a hidden problem of poverty in our nation. Further, poverty is worse in minority communities. It works like this:

According to the Department of Labor, unemployment of those 16 years and older has risen 9 percent among whites, nearly 11 percent among blacks and 35 percent among Hispanics in the last 10 years.

In 2001, the Associated Press reported that the income of black and Hispanic college graduates lagged white income by 38 percent and 46 percent respectively. By most accounts, the overall poverty level is increasing as the middle class shrinks.

How do we stop the madness? A practical answer may be to follow the example of Dennis Bakke, an impressive evangelical businessman. In a press conference some years ago in Brazil, he expressed the purpose of his energy company, AES Corp.

The conference was held around the time of Mother Teresa’s death. With godly inspiration Bakke placed the celebrated nun’s picture on the podium and discussed his concept that businesses exist to help a community, not to strip it. The newspapers celebrated his speech, but the headlines read, “Christian or Communist?”

Bakke just shrugged off the criticism. He let the financial results of his “godly experiment” speak for themselves. Bakke’s company yielded unprecedented growth, reaching $40 billion in assets, with revenues of more than $10 billion per year before he sold it in 2002.

The kingdom of God needs four partners to reflect God’s love toward America’s poor–government, business, church and individual people.

What can we do as individual Christians? There are many options.

First, we can join Project Angel Tree, sponsored by Prison Fellowship International, and help the families of incarcerated prisoners by giving Christmas gifts.

Second, we can give Jesus a birthday gift by helping two needy families, one in the church and one outside.

This Christmas, let’s be kind to the poor and watch the Lord repay.

To turn the tide of the gay agenda we must counterattack with great spiritual insight and operational wisdom.

Tuesday, July 13, was a pivotal day for me. That’s when I met with about 25 spiritual leaders in the office of Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, to prepare for a national press conference about the Federal Marriage Amendment. We gathered on the eve of an important Senate vote.

Like a championship football team heading for the field, we put on our game faces, entered the Hart Building elevators, boarded the private underground Senate subway to the Capitol and ascended the escalator to our meeting room. I spied Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton moving in the opposite direction on the same escalator, while entertainer Pat Boone emerged with a wide supportive grin as we took our posts.

Everything seemed dreamlike, surreal. As cameras flashed and microphones captured every potential pin drop, I thought: How can this be? We are fighting to define marriage as being only between a man and a woman? This certainly is not my grandmother’s America!

After Brownback’s cogent preliminary remarks, six of us addressed the press. Our unity was impressive, although each of us had a slightly different perspective on America’s marital dilemma. Unfortunately, our comments did not sway the Senate’s vote the next day. Tuesday, July 13, did not change America, but it profoundly changed my heart.

I realized more than ever that America has fallen to a shocking moral nadir. Psalm 82:5 best describes this, “They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are unstable” (NKJV). This darkness can be seen as moral ignorance and apathy.

Gays have been at the helm of a fourfold strategy for years, but the wisdom behind their spiritual, cultural, political and generational tactics is clearly satanic. To turn the tide of the gay agenda we must counterattack with great spiritual insight and operational wisdom. Let me explain the tactics we must use to transform America.

1. Spiritual. Doctrines of moral inclusion have refused to call sin by its correct name. Ordaining openly gay ministers has been tolerated because individuals, churches and entire denominations have been seduced into ignoring the clear teaching of Scripture.

Paul told the Corinthians that pride had kept them from renouncing the serious sexual sins and marital violations of their day (see 1 Cor. 5:1-5). We must repent
of sins within the walls of the church before we attempt to call the nation to repentance. When we have restored our moral authority to speak out against the sin of homosexuality, we will find that God will back our message with amazing impact. Judgment must begin in the house of God (see 1 Pet. 4:17).

2. Cultural. The gay community has used a definitive public relations strategy aimed at changing the way it is perceived and received. TV programs such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Will & Grace have elicited sympathy for gays and lesbians, while Christians are increasingly being viewed as bigoted and insensitive. We must make a concerted effort to openly reach out to unchurched gays without condoning this kind of sin.

3. Political. Although more than 37 percent of adults in America knew nothing about the Senate’s vote this summer, 97 percent of gays and lesbians were totally tuned in. The church must make a lot of noise about this issue. Everyone reading this article should contact their congressional representatives to declare their support of the marriage amendment. Let everyone running for office this November know that this amendment is the No. 1 issue of the election.

4. Generational. The gay community has made inroads in the area of adoption. Children raised successfully in gay homes suggest that gay “families” are real families. We must pray against these kinds of adoptions and the effect they will have on family structure in the future.

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4).

As we use our spiritual weapons with strategic cultural, political and generational wisdom we will win the war for America.

We must follow President Bush’s lead in asking forgiveness for inappropriate actions in this war.
In recent years, televised footage of various military strikes has become commonplace. I have watched entire cities destroyed while munching on popcorn in the comfort of my home. I must admit that I have gradually become desensitized to the high price of war.

I never watched the news accounts with the grizzly ardor of a gladiator fan, yet I took comfort in our superior military strength. I simply wanted us to win decisively.

Suddenly, things changed with the Abu Gharib prison scandal. The war became personal for many of us. Even our most hardened political pundits became consumed by the idea that America had lost her aura of heroism and integrity.

The Holy Spirit must have used the pictures from the prison to smite our collective conscience. Americans intuitively understand that we have been given a noble role to play in international affairs. We are not like everyone else. We can either live up to the high calling given us or diminish it by our actions.

I personally became intrigued with the question, “How did we get here?” The answer for me was very simple: National indignation and a legitimate need to protect ourselves caused us to create an atmosphere in which these abuses could take place.

This is not unlike what happens in the life of an individual Christian when faced with tough choices. We can slowly rationalize our behavior and dull the voice of our individual conscience. The great 20th century teacher G. Campbell Morgan once said, “Conscience is that thing which calls things by their right name, refuses to allow any evil thing to be baptized by a name that robs it of its real meaning and significance.”

Let me explain how we slowly violated our corporate consciences. The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, shocked us at every level. We all felt something had to be done and done quickly.

In response to the imminent threat of violence from the Middle East, many U.S. legal minds began their war with the pen. The New York Times asserts that Justice Department lawyers created a 42-page document setting forth several legal arguments for avoiding the jurisdiction of the Geneva Conventions. These papers told us that we could still be “legal” while aggressively pursuing important information. This legal wiggle room was fully utilized in the Afghanistan conflict.

By the time the Geneva Conventions were set aside we had already stepped onto a slippery slope. I am not really surprised that things escalated beyond our original intentions.

By the time the interrogation teams had been reassigned to Iraq, they had mastered the art of bending the rules to achieve results. The regular army simply got out of their way and let them work. But why did the people who actually took the infamous pictures get involved? They obviously chose to participate.

How does this relate to our national conscience? Psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo arrived at the following conclusion, “Most evil is the product of rather ordinary people caught up in unusual circumstances that they are not equipped to cope with in the normal ways.”

This assertion also reflects the conclusions of a groundbreaking behavioral research study conducted by Stanford University nearly 23 years ago. Seventy male college students volunteered to participate in a two-week experiment based on prison life.

After just two days Abu Gharib-like action erupted. Only a clear commitment to God’s Word and the inward restraint of the Holy Spirit can help people in these kinds of situations remain sober and responsible.

We must follow President Bush’s lead in asking forgiveness for inappropriate actions in this war. We are not apologizing for defending ourselves. Nor are we condoning the barbarous retaliation of murderers and torturers. We are simply asking God and the offended parties to forgive us, while we forgive the suicide bombers for their attacks upon our citizens.

Has America disgraced herself? I don’t think so. She has simply qualified herself to give and receive the grace of God.

America needs to hear the voice of the black church today.
With the success of such movies as The Passion of the Christ, the gospel is touching people we Christians never expected to reach. God seems to be creating a “new pulpit” from which His Word will be preached.

The unprecedented harvest we face as a result will require a new kind of church to disciple those He draws to Himself. This “new church” must have a proven track record of serving the suffering while remaining in step with the culture, and it must be strategic in its thinking as well as leadership-driven.

These attributes are already operative in the nation’s best black churches. America has to be wise enough to use the black church as a resource.

Think about it this way. In 1619, one year before the Pilgrims arrived on these shores, boats such as the Amistad came carrying African slaves to the New World.

The slaves originally were not consumed with visions of the kingdom of God. Their goal was to survive, and their dream was to return home.

Yet many of them had life-changing encounters with Christ. Those who accepted Jesus became unlikely missionaries in our land, strategically placed by God in a hostile environment that would drive them into intimacy with the Lord.

This intimacy is still notable in African-American culture today. Black adults are nearly twice as likely as any other ethnic group to read the Bible during a typical week. Blacks are more likely to evangelize and share their faith. Black adults are 50 percent more likely than white adults to strongly affirm that the Bible is totally accurate in everything it teaches.

As a result of these and other trends, there are more black megachurches (2,000 or more members) than any other ethnicity. The black church’s influence upon America is not something new, however. Blacks historically have made a major spiritual impact on our nation. Let’s look at a few facts:

* During the Great Awakening of the 1740s, blacks came to Christ by the thousands.

* The Christian abolitionist movement gave rise to the sentiments that helped spawn the Civil War.

* Negro spirituals gave birth to gospel, jazz and blues–some of the few original American music forms.

* Blacks were major players in the post-Civil War reconstruction period, even to the point of helping to found the Republican Party.

* Azusa Street’s revival of 1906 influenced both the holiness and the Pentecostal movements .

* Martin Luther King Jr. helped restore America’s vision of liberty, equality and civil rights.

This list illustrates that reluctant “African missionaries” have brought major course-corrections to our nation.

For the last few years, researcher George Barna and I have studied the black church’s approaches to ministry. We discovered that many of the black church’s excellent methods of ministry are based on principles that can be transferred. Our view is that the black church may be one of God’s secret weapons for turning our nation around.

White, Hispanic and Asian churches desperately need to be exposed to the best practices of their African-American counterparts. In addition, successful black pastors and leaders should begin mentoring pastors from other ethnic groups. We need what I call a “kingdom cultural exchange.”

A newsletter I received recently suggested that some of the greatest leaders of the church in the last days would come from the African-American community. It said: “Those who were the most oppressed are going to teach the world about freedom. Those who have had their families so destroyed are going to teach the world about family.”

America needs to hear from the black church, just as we must learn from Hispanic, Asian, Native American and white churches. The apostle Paul said the body of Christ “builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:16, NIV). We need each other!

Let’s put away all the stereotypes and accept each other. It’s time for life service, not lip service.

Only Jesus can truly liberate women. He is the ultimate Champion.
Last summer my oldest daugher, Joni Michele, graduated from college. It was wonderful. She walked across the stage and mysteriously became an adult right before my eyes. Her next act of womanhood was to decide on her first job. She chose a highly sought-after position in Cairo, Egypt.

But my joy for her success was tainted by visions of religious radicalism, anti-American sentiments and abject poverty. At my wife’s urging, I traveled as a “bodyguard” to Joni’s land of promise. I was her champion.

The trip opened my eyes to an entirely new world. Not only did I see the pyramids and the Nile, I also saw a society wrestling with tradition and its future. Most of the people were very warm, and I found my concern shifting from Joni’s safety as an American in the Middle East to her plight as a woman. Let me explain.

In Egypt, women seem to be treated more like valued possessions, used for the convenience of men, rather than people with unique personal identities and callings. What I learned actually brought me to tears by the end of the trip.

Female genital mutilation, often referred to as female circumcision, is still performed on girls ages 7 through 12, though the practice is becoming less common among those with more education. The procedure can range from partial removal of the clitoris, to full removal of the clitoris as well as both the labia major and labia minor. Egyptians typically practice the least severe form of circumcision.

Traditionalists say circumcision is done to “beautify the woman.” The truth is that circumcision is meant to ensure that a woman will be faithful to her future husband by limiting her capacity to enjoy sex.

We in the West may wince at such a practice, but oppression and inequity that are directed toward women come in many forms. I’m convinced that all women need a champion to survive in today’s societies. Let’s look at the facts.

The World Health Organization reports that more than 100 million women or girls have undergone female genital mutilation, and 2 million are at risk each year. Two million women worldwide are raped each year, with four women raped every hour in the United States. Further, 23 percent of all married women in the United States are battered.

If the violence statistics are bad, the economic statistics are worse. Women make up 70 percent of the world’s poor and 75 percent of the world’s sick. Women work 62 percent of all work hours, but receive only 10 percent of the world’s income. Other reports show that they own only 1 percent of the world’s property.

The arm of the flesh cannot protect women from the prevailing cultural plot to rob them of their femininity, self-worth and personal dignity. The women’s liberation movement tried to turn the tide of injustice, but it produced anger without resolution. This anger in many cases has festered, becoming a gender-based root of bitterness (see Heb. 12:15) leading to an increasing number of divorces and rampant immorality.

Only Jesus can truly liberate women. He is the ultimate Champion and protector, and He wants to use us to help set women free. He needs pastors to teach and model the difference between submission and oppression.

He needs churches to support mission outreaches to the Muslim world, America’s inner cities and every place in between. Jesus especially needs parents to invest time with their children.

Ironically, the most influential parent in the battle against abuse is the mother. Women are the primary transmitters of every major culture. Even female circumcision is carried out by women under the direction of social norms. Women with renewed minds can teach their sons to respect women and train their daughters to become women of God.

Women don’t have to wait for all the men to get straightened before they can see things change. They can begin a spiritually based women’s liberation movement that helps women fulfill their God-given purpose.

It’s the midnight hour; God is breaking the chains of injustice. Women, it’s time for you to live with the awareness that your Champion has come!