When I felt led to start a small church magazine, I barely knew what
God had in store. That magazine released 36 years ago today, so I
thought it was appropriate to reflect on what’s happened, and more
importantly what is on the verge of happening as we move boldly into the
digital world.

Many of you know Charisma started at a megachurch in central
Florida. I was working full time as a newspaper reporter then. My, how
the media world has changed! The staff found this in the archives: a
black-and-white photo of me holding a copy of The Rock, a youth newspaper that I published before Charisma.
They had me hold an iPad to show the contrast. Back then I could have
never imagined today’s iPad! Yet I dreamed that maybe somehow we’d reach
a million people. Do you know how many trees you’d have to cut down to
print that many magazines?

So from 1975—before the personal computer was invented and a time
when the electric typewriter I used was considered
high-tech—fast-forward more than three decades and now Charisma (and our other magazines) are available in digital format that’s almost beyond belief.

This is your invitation to be a charter subscriber to Charisma Digital.
In mid-September it’s available on the iPad; in mid-October it’s on the
Android. About the same time it will be available as single issues on
the Nook and Kindle.

I got an iPad a few months ago and I enjoy reading magazines on it.
It’s a pleasant experience—a lot nicer than sitting in front of a
computer screen. (I’m reading The One Year Bible every day on my
iPhone!) Of course Charisma Digital has been available online
for more than a year and still will be. We sent it as an attachment to
an email, and we sent it for free. Many of you like it. Most of you have
never seen it. We developed a horizontal format to make it easy to
read, and people in the industry even complimented and copied the way we
did things (the sincerest form of flattery).

But
most of the magazines available digitally are almost all secular and
many are nasty. We will be one of the first Christian magazines out
there, and our voice is needed. In the last month Al-Jazeera and the New York Times
have quoted us on controversial spiritual issues such as spiritual
warfare or Christian Zionism. This shows that our voice is being heard.

But to move ahead we need your support. In fact our vision is to get
100,000 subscribers right away. Then we’ll have the momentum to grow and
reach out even overseas and make not only Charisma available, but many other specialty magazines. The possibilities are endless.

We’re devoting our October issue to highlighting how ministries are
now using digital technologies in new and exciting ways. For example,
TBN is launching iTBN, which is like Hulu with every TBN show ever
aired. When Paul and Jan Crouch started two years before Charisma
did, they could have never imagined such a thing. I remember how they
almost didn’t make it until people caught a vision for the need for
Christian TV and its potential to reach the world.

Magazines like Charisma—and Christian Life before
us, going back to the ’40s—have been limited by the need to print on
paper and pay the post office to deliver. It’s costly and time
consuming. Now the Postal Service wants to cut back post offices, days
of delivery and also go up on rates. But now our day has come! We can go
around the world instantly via the Internet and Wi-Fi and be delivered
to your computer, Nook, Kindle, iPad, etc. and soon the iPhone too.

We put our digital version on hiatus for a few months until we could
work out a better way to deliver it to you. We’re finalizing our app
called “Charisma Media,” which is how we’ll deliver all our magazines to
you. The cost is about the same as print. When you subscribe you get
access to all the platforms so you can read it when you want to, where
you want to. And the experience includes videos, links, music and ways
to order things that aren’t available with ink on paper.

Now it’s available and I’m asking you for a show of support by subscribing now.
Our vision is to reach 1 million people with the message of the power
of the Holy Spirit, to stand for righteousness and to encourage people
to radically change their world. If this resonates with you, go ahead
and subscribe early. It’s a show of support. We’ll notify you as soon as
these new platforms are available. And if you’re not happy you know you
can trust us to give your money back.

Think of the ways we can advance the gospel. Think of the witness we
can be in a marketplace that barely hears the name of the Lord, let
alone the power of the Holy Spirit. I know you support many ministries.
We are not asking you to support us with a donation, but your subscription is a huge blessing and for me personally it will be a show of support.

A month or so ago I sent out a tweet saying we planned to launch the
digital issue and asked who was interested. Five people actually
subscribed sight unseen. (They are a part of our beta test as we perfect
the product.) So you can’t literally be the first, but you can be a
charter member by subscribing before Dec. 31. You can also help us by subscribing for friends or by forwarding this to others you think love Charisma and want to see it on the iPad and these other platforms.

The technology is changing fast. Sometimes our supplier delays or
Apple will toss a curve ball, so it’s possible these dates will be off.
But we’ve worked hard and we feel confident we can deliver a good
product. We need you to be flexible though, and help us and even give
feedback. We can’t wait to offer subscriptions until every bug is worked out.

Is this appealing to you? Do you want to be among the first? Do you
want to support our vision to provide spirit-filled journalism not only
to the body of Christ but also to the world? If so, sign up today.

Dr. Morris and Theresa Cerullo are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary today.

Since his call to the ministry at the age of 15, God has used Cerullo to reach multitudes of people around the world in over half a century of ministry. He was raised in a Jewish Orthodox Orphanage until the age of 14 when he gave his life to Christ.

Theresa has been ministering alongside her husband for over 57 years as a key part of the Morris Cerullo World Evangelism ministry. She serves as the official corporate secretary and treasurer. She is lovingly referred to as “Mama” by the millions of people around the world.

The Cerullos have three children, David, Mark and Susan. David serves as CEO of Inspiration Network.

With Gov. Rick Perry’s controversial prayer event just a week away, Pastor
Steven Andrew is joining a growing crowd of voices calling on Christians in the United States to repent for the sins of the nation. The founder of USA Christian Ministries wants to see God’s healing come to our land according to 2 Chronicles 7:14.

“God has an answer for the crisis the USA is facing. He asks us to turn
from our wicked ways as a nation and by doing so He will heal our land—He will fix the economy and give us strong families,” says
Steven. “God loves us.”

Andrew pointed to a famous quote from President Abraham Lincoln: “It is the duty of all nations … to confess their sins and
transgressions … with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to
mercy and pardon” and suggests a two-step national repentance plan.

The
first step is to agree with God to repent of personal and national sin.
The second step is to actively promote righteousness. Christians are
encouraged to call talk shows and read 2 Chronicles 7:14, blog about
God, run for office, bring back the Bible and Christian prayer to
schools and get involved in other creative ways.

Andrew has identified the key sins for which he is calling the U.S. to repent. The sins include:

• A lukewarm church (Revelation 3:16)
• Separation of church and state lie (2 Chronicles 15:2)
• Not raising children in the Lord (Ephesians 6:4)
• Allowing 53-plus million abortions (Exodus 20:13)
• Not honoring our father and mother (Deuteronomy 5:16)
• Condoning sexual and homosexual sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
• Serving money instead of God (Matthew 6:24)
• Voting for ungodly people (2 Chronicles 19:2)
• Putting trust in something other than God (Proverbs 3:5-6)
• Not seeking God’s counsel (John 15:5)
• Unbelief that God will heal our Christian nation (Zephaniah 1:12)
• Allowing foreign gods (Judges 10:13-14)
• Being divided instead of keeping the unity of the Spirit (Matthew 12:25)
• Selfish individualism and other sin (John 13:34)

“I am asking every American to give all your heart to
Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered on the cross and died for our sins,” Andrew says. “Let’s ask God to fill our government, schools and
courts. We need God in America.”

A federal judge’s Wednesday ruling allows the federal government to continue funding embryonic stem cell research.

As U.S. District Judge Royce Lambreth sees it, his hands are tied by an appellate court decision that reversed his August 2010 order to stop funding based on a federal law prohibiting the practice.

“While it may be true that by following the Court of Appeals’ conclusion as to the ambiguity of ‘research,’ this Court has become a grudging partner in a bout of ‘linguistic jujitsu,’ … such is life for an antepenultimate court,” Lambreth wrote in his ruling.  “Therefore the D.C. Circuit’s conclusion that the term ‘research’ in the Dickey-Wicker Amendment is ambiguous binds this Court.”

The White House applauded the ruling. “Today, patients suffering from diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and heart disease and their families got good news when a federal judge ruled in favor of the government in a lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration’s work to support stem cell research,” said Stephanie Cutter, assistant to President Obama.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, together with Samuel B. Casey of the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and Tom Hungar of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, are weighing all appeal options.

“Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments and violate federal law,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden.

“The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

Hungar argued the case, Sherley v. Sebelius, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in December of last year with regard to the original injunction. They, together with Advocates International and ADF attorneys, represent doctors opposed to an Obama administration policy that authorized the National Institutes of Health to fund additional research projects that destroy human embryos even though a federal law known as the Dickey/Wicker Amendment specifically prohibits such funding.

Long-time supporters of Israel, Daystar founders Marcus and Joni Lamb are broadcasting Celebration, a television broadcast that features moving testimonies, top best-selling and new Christian authors, and leaders in faith and business, live from Israel.

“This is historic, so as Jesus told His disciples, ‘Watch and pray!,”
Lamb says. “The Lord has really blessed us for Daystar to own this
building and for it to have new HD equipment.”

The Lambs are producing the popular broadcast from Daystar’s Jerusalem Studio on Mt. Zion. The show airs at 11 a.m. CT. The broadcast will be replayed at 8 p.m. and midnight.

The weeklong Israel-based broadcasts comes just a week after Daystar aired “A Night to Honor Israel,” an expression of Christian solidarity with the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

The World Trade Center Memorial seems like a logical place to erect a symbol of Christianity. But an atheist group is challenging the cross at this historic location.

American Athiests wants to tear down the World Trade Center cross at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City and has filed a lawsuit, American Atheists v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, in New York state court Monday. But Christian legal experts say the attempt is completely out of step with the Constitution.

“One atheist group’s agenda shouldn’t diminish the sacrifice made by the heroes of 9/11,” says ADF Senior Counsel Byron Babione. “A cross like this one simply does not amount to a government establishment of religion under either the U.S. Constitution or the New York Constitution.

“The cross is not only known far and wide as a religious symbol, but also as a symbol of death, remembrance and honor for the dead. Americans have long recognized this. Nothing in the Constitution authorizes atheists to scour the landscape on a mission to seek and destroy memorial crosses.”

The American Center for Law and Justice plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief backing the legality of the Ground Zero cross on behalf of a former 9/11 firefighter and first responder.

“This is another pathetic attempt to rewrite the Constitution and rewrite history by removing a symbol that serves as a powerful remembrance to that fateful attack nearly 10 years ago,” says Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ. “This lawsuit is deeply flawed and without merit. It is just the latest chapter of an anti-God strategy employed by atheist organizations across the country—a strategy offensive to millions of Americans, a strategy that we’re confident will ultimately fail in court.”

The ACLJ’s amicus brief supports the legitimacy of the cross, formed by two intersecting steel beams that withstood the Twin Towers’ collapse on Sept. 11, 2001. Among those represented by the ACLJ in its brief is former NYC firefighter and first responder Tim Brown, who lost nearly 100 friends in the attack.

“We will aggressively defend the placement of this cross,” says Sekulow. “This memorial, a powerful part of the history of 9/11, serves as a constitutionally-sound reminder of the horrors that occurred nearly a decade ago.”

Now in its third week, Morality in Media’s month-long “Be Aware: PORN HARMS” National Awareness Campaign is focusing on the links between pornography and sex trafficking.

“Pornography is not only used to train those being trafficked, but it also breaks down the conscience of its viewer,” says Patrick Trueman, president of Morality in Media. “Men are encouraged to act on what they see, and often times those actions are taken out on victims of trafficking.”

Dawn Hawkins, Morality in Media’s executive director and director of the Be Aware: PORN HARMS campaign, says this week’s events will shock viewers who think sex trafficking only takes place in foreign countries.

“People will be surprised to know how much sex trafficking goes on right here in the U.S.,” said Hawkins. “A recent trend involves pornographers offering their viewers the ability to create custom live porn, where victims are forced to engage in heinous sexual acts on a web cam.”

Although sex trafficking statistics are difficult to pinpoint due to the clandestine nature of the crime, a University of Pennsylvania study estimated nearly 300,000 youth in the United States are at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses—most of them runaways or throw-aways. As of 2005, the Department of Justice reported there have been an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 sex slaves in the U.S. since 2001.

Displays of the Ten Commandments continue to offend secular humanists. But Christian legal groups continue to defend the right to allow them in the public square.

The Liberty Council on Tuesday filed a Notice of Appeal on behalf of Dixie County, Fla., at the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to defend the county’s Open Forum policy. The policy allows private displays of law and history, including the Ten Commandments.

Liberty Counsel represents Dixie County in a federal lawsuit the ACLU filed in 2007 after the county permitted a local resident to erect a Ten Commandments monument outside the county courthouse, where other private displays are also allowed.

Joe H. Anderson, Jr., a longtime resident, businessman, and benefactor in Dixie County, erected the Ten Commandments monument in question. Anderson placed his monument in the Open Forum without any government funds with the county’s permission. Anderson owns and maintains the monument, not the county.

The U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida ruled against Dixie County, ordering the Ten Commandments monument be removed by Aug. 14. The court claimed it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Noteworthy is the fact that the plaintiff the ACLU represents does not live in the county, has never lived in the county and has no intent to ever return to the county.

“Dixie County is not establishing a religion by allowing a private
individual to place a monument in a location where similar monuments may
be placed,” says Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean
of Liberty University School of Law. “Dixie County should be applauded,
not sued, for fostering open and robust speech in a public forum. Rather
than take advantage of the forum, the ACLU prefers to censor speech
with which it disagrees.”

Liberty Counsel will argue on appeal that the case should be dismissed because the plaintiff has no standing to sue. Liberty Counsel will also argue that the case presents a free speech, not an Establishment Clause, issue. The Open Forum policy allows private citizens to erect private historical displays at their own expense. 

 “The Ten Commandments are universally recognized as a symbol of the law and are appropriate for display in courthouses and similar settings,” Staver says. “Public display of the Commandments is consistent with our nation’s history and with the First Amendment. There are more than 50 depictions of the Ten Commandments at the U.S. Supreme Court, and there have been thousands of displays throughout the country for many years.”

Liberty Counsel prevailed in cases at the Sixth and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeal against challenges brought by the ACLU involving government-sponsored displays of the Ten Commandments.

As presidential hopefuls continue declaring their intentions to battle President Obama in 2012, the American Center for Law and Justice is still battling one of Obama’s initiatives in court.

The ACLJ on Monday urged a
federal appeals court to reinstate its lawsuit challenging the
constitutionality of ObamaCare, explaining that its position is both
“grounded in the Constitution” and Supreme Court precedent.

In a reply brief
filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit, the ACLJ contends the arguments put forth by the Department of
Justice “lack support in the text, history or related Supreme Court
jurisprudence of the Commerce or Necessary and Proper Clauses” of the
U.S. Constitution.

“We look forward to presenting our
arguments before the appeals court in September and remain confident
that our lawsuit challenging ObamaCare will be reinstated,” said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ.

“The Constitution and Supreme Court precedent are clear: the health
care law oversteps the authority of Congress. The individual mandate,
requiring Americans to purchase health insurance, is at the heart of
this law. It is constitutionally flawed and we believe ultimately will
render the entire health care law unconstitutional.”

The ACLJ’s reply brief, posted here,
rejects the Justice Department’s position that the individual mandate
is constitutionally permissible under the Commerce Clause: “There is no
American tradition of forcing unwilling individuals to operate a
business or buy a good or service in the name of ‘regulating commerce,’
and it is not a coincidence that the Supreme Court’s Commerce Clause
cases upholding regulation under the ‘substantial effects’ test have
involved the regulation of ongoing commercial or economic activities,
unlike Section 1501. Nothing in law or logic supports Defendants’ novel
extension of this federal regulatory authority to mere inaction,
decisions, or thought processes that relate to an economic topic.”

The
ACLJ also contends that the Department of Justice has done nothing to
demonstrate that the constitutional rights of two of the plaintiffs have
not been violated by the individual mandate provision under the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA): “Defendants have not shown
that Plaintiffs Lee and Seven-Sky failed to sufficiently allege that
Section 1501 substantially burdens their religious exercise, nor have
Defendants shown that the individual mandate, as applied to Lee and
Seven-Sky, is the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling
governmental interest.”

In February, a federal district court dismissed the ACLJ’s lawsuit
challenging ObamaCare in which the ACLJ represents four U.S. residents
and federal taxpayers: Susan Seven-Sky from New York, and three Texas
residents, including Charles “Eddie” Lee, Kenneth Ruffo, and Gina
Rodriguez.

The federal appeals court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Sept. 23.

In
addition to its legal action, the ACLJ is actively backing legal
challenges by Florida and Virginia. The ACLJ filed an amicus brief on behalf of 74 members of Congress and more than 70,000 Americans at the 11th Circuit on behalf of Florida’s challenge. Also, the ACLJ filed an amicus brief at the 4th Circuit on behalf of 49 members of Congress backing Virginia’s lawsuit.

AP Images/Celina Fang

The battle over gay marriage in New York isn’t quite over yet. That’s because Liberty Counsel has discovered what it calls “flagrant violations” of the New York state constitutional and legal procedures in connection with the bill’s passage.

Armed with proof of these violations—which include alleged strong-arm tactics—Liberty Counsel filed a law suit  in the New York Supreme Court for declaratory and injunctive relief against the same-sex marriage law Gov. Cuomo signed on June 24.

“New York law requires that the government be open and transparent to keep political officials responsible. When government operates in secret and freezes out the very people it is supposed to represent, the entire system fails,” says Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University School of Law. “The back-room tactics were rampant in the passages of this law. The law should be set aside and the process should begin again to allow the people a voice in the process.”

Here are just a few of the violations Liberty listed in its suit:

• In violation of the Open Meetings Law, a closed-door session with all Republican senators and Bloomberg (registered Independent) where he lobbied them to vote for the Act.

• Bloomberg pressured Republican Senators to vote for the Act at a private meeting at the governor’s mansion and with the millions of dollars he had raised from Wall Street financiers.

• Bloomberg’s promise to make campaign contributions to any Republican senator who voted in favor of the Act, which he’s already carried through on, and to opponents of any Republican senator who didn’t vote for the Act.

• The governor’s violation of the constitutionally mandated three-day review period before the Legislature votes on a bill by unjustifiably issuing a message of necessity.

• Unprecedented Senate lock-outs during the days leading up to the vote, where lobbyists and the public were shut out from the Senate lobby and denied access to elected representatives.

• Rule changes on the Senate floor to prevent debate on the bill and to ensure it was signed in time to get coverage on the evening news.

Liberty Counsel is representing New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, and several other plaintiffs. NYCF is a statewide, issue-oriented, lobbying organization committed to voicing the pro-life and pro-family perspective to New York state elected officials. They represent constituents throughout the state of New York.