Harold Camping is confident it’s the end of the world as we know it. He’s prophesying the rapture of the Church on May 21, 2011 at 6 p.m.

If Camping is right, that gives us less than two days to eat, drink and be merry—and, of course, preach the gospel to the lost. But few are buying into the “Judgment Day in May” hype as Camping has presented it—and some in the Body of Christ are vehemently calling him out as a false teacher.

Despite all of the criticism, Camping, who earned a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California in 1942, isn’t backing down from his fear-laden prophetic word. The founder of Family Radio is sticking by his dreadful prediction. The hype—which has spread via radio, billboards and websites like WeCanKnow.com—has scared many, including Camping himself.

“Well, I am trembling. I have never been at this place before,” Camping told CNN. “When we are only a few days away from the last thing that has to happen—the whole world destroyed by God–I have never been here before.”

Ninety-eight percent of respondents to a Facebook poll sponsored by the King James Bible Online aren’t bearing witness to the prophecy. Instead, they are sticking to the Word of God, which clearly states that no one knows the day or the hour of the Second Coming. Still, about two percent of survey-takers are standing with Camping in the unscientific poll.

“The Bible strictly states that no one knows, not even Jesus Christ himself, when the judgment is. Man always wants to think that they know as much as God, but that will never be,” says Sarah King, a King James Bible reader from Avondale, Ariz. “You are supposed to live each day as if were your last. Tomorrow is not promised.”

Few believe Camping’s prediction is true. But is it actually dangerous?

Doug Batchelor, a pastor and the president of Amazing Facts, a Christian ministry known for its Bible prophecy presentations, thinks so. In fact, he challenged Camping with a $100,000 prize to hand over the deed and rights to the Family Radio network following the May 21 deadline. So far, Camping has not taken Batchelor up on his offer.

“Christ also warned that in the last days, there would be many false teachers. It is worth asking then, does Camping’s prediction match what the Bible really tells us about Christ’s return? I don’t believe it does,” Batchelor says. “But if Camping is right, he deserves the money to spread the message; if he’s wrong, he should not own a radio network.”

As Batchelor sees it, reckless predictions of the second coming of Christ create an artificial excitement among believers followed by a corresponding depression. What’s more, he says, it hardens skeptics in their unbelief and provides new fodder for cynics to mock the Christian faith.

Batchelor points to hundreds of Family Radio listeners across the country who are quitting their jobs and selling their possessions—and he believes these same believers are going to be red-faced on May 22 when they wake up to an altogether different reality than Camping predicted.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Camping has pulled an end-of-the-world stunt. He did the same thing in 1994. And of course, he’s not the first one to make such predictions of Jesus’ return.Those other predictions turned out to be just as false.

With that in mind, Steve Wohlberg, director of White Horse Media, is making a bold statement about Camping: he is a false teacher. “On May 22, both the old man and his devout followers will still be on earth,” says Wohlberg. “Camping’s ideas reflect poorly on Christianity itself. His views are pure nonsense.”

Glenn Lee Hill, retired pastor from Rocky Mount, N.C., agrees that Camping’s prediction is false. He calls it a misunderstanding of God’s Word.

“This false prophecy is a sad development for all Christians. Why? Because when it fails, all of us who believe in Jesus will become fodder for the comics, the late-night talk show hosts, and others who are always looking for a new excuse to mock our faith,” Hill says. “Christianity, the name of Jesus, and all of us who love Him will bear the embarrassment of this false prophecy.”

So why do these false prophecies get so much airtime? According to Miguel De La Torre, professor of Social Ethics at Iliff School of Theology, the end of the world fascinates many people in today’s culture.

“If you give enough leeway and imagination and you provide enough Scripture, you can predict almost anything,” De La Torre says. “Whether or not it will happen on a particular day is a different story. No one knows when the world will end. It could end up May 21 this year, next year, or a hundred or a thousand years from now. We don’t know. What we do know is that people who have taken predictions of the last day of the earth and did all matters of things that could not be undone, that their lives were destroyed. One needs to be careful not to fall into that trap.”

Dr. Jim Dixon, senior pastor at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colo., says it’s ridiculous for anyone to set a date for the return of Christ. He says it’s ridiculous now, it’s been ridiculous in the past, and it will be ridiculous in the future.

“People continue to do this and I marvel at why they would do this. First of all, it’s suicidal for your career because the date comes and Jesus doesn’t and where do you go from there?” Dixon asks. “But I think whenever you see someone setting a date, one thing you know instantly is that it’s wrong—at least the overwhelming odds are that it’s wrong.”

Sue Thompson, author of The Prodigal Brother, is mystified by Camping’s prediction as she is mystified about anyone’s insistence on knowing specific dates. As she sees it, such predictions have to do with a desire for certainty, and perhaps that is fitting in a world which is so wildly uncertain.

“Mr. Camping asserts that the truly faithful ‘know the day and hour.’ What disturbs me about this assertion is that only those who purport to know the day and hour are the truly faithful! This, of course, effectively negates the entire message of the gospel of access to the Father through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus,” Thompson says.

“If only those who are believers and believe they know the day and time of judgment are going to heaven, then what Jesus did matters nothing. Eternal fellowship with God depends solely on whether one subscribes to Mr. Camping’s dates, because he says that those who do not agree with him on the day and hour are deluded and lost. I just can’t find that verse in the Bible that says, ‘Whosover will may come, after they’ve accepted the true date and hour of my judgment.’ That’s just one condition I simply can’t fathom.”

Stephen Hawking says there is no heaven. Kirk Cameron begs to differ.

The Growing Pains actor-turned-evangelist responded on Wednesday to the famous physicist’s comments claiming there is no heaven or afterlife. Hawking called heaven a “fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Cameron took to Facebook to express his views on Hawking’s flawed theology.

“To say anything negative about Stephen Hawking is like bullying a blind man. He has an unfair disadvantage, and that gives him a free pass on some of his absurd ideas. Professor Hawking is heralded as ‘the genius of Britain,’ yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything (Sir Isaac Newton called atheism ‘senseless and odious’) and that life sprang from non-life,” Cameron says.

As Cameron sees it, to speak on issues of science and violate its essential laws is like playing checkers with a someone who changes the rules when he’s losing.

“Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking’s writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came? He says he knows there is no heaven,” Cameron says.

“John Lennon wasn’t sure. He said to pretend there’s no heaven. That’s easy if you try. Then he said he hoped that someday we would join him. Such wishful thinking reveals John and Stephen’s religious beliefs, not good science. They may imagine all they want, but I lost my faith in atheism long ago and prefer to stay within the realm of reality.”

Cameron is a television and film actor, noted recently for his work in the inspirational film Fireproof. He is also known for his memorable roles on the Left Behind movies, and co-host of The Way of the Master television series.

A pastor in Kirkuk, Iraq, told
Compass that sources close to a Christian reportedly kidnapped, tortured
and murdered by al-Qaida over the weekend said the kidnappers had
pressured his employer to fire him because he was a Christian.

The
body of Chaldean Christian Ashur Issa Yaqub was found on May
16 with marks of severe torture and mutilation. He had worked as a
construction worker from the northeastern city of Kirkuk, and al-Qaida
members demanded $100,000 for his release, according to Agence
France-Presse.

“It seems that the contractor that
Ashur was working for was told he had to fire Ashur because he was
Christian, but he refused,” said the pastor, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. “Because the contractor was rich and they couldn’t do
anything to him, they kidnapped Ashur, and unfortunately they killed
him.”  

When a police patrol found his body on May 16, his head was nearly severed off, according to the Agence
France-Presse.

The 29-year-old Yaqub, whose surname is also spelled Jacob, is survived by his wife and three children.

Chaldean
Catholic Archbishop of Kirkuk Louis Sako told Compass by phone from
Rome that he was shocked to get the news of Yaqub’s death. While noting
that the murder was unusually brutal, the archbishop said it was
probably the work of criminal opportunists trying to make money, and
that Yaqub was not necessarily targeted as a Christian.

“It
was horrible,” Sako said. “When I heard it, I was ripped. He was
kidnapped for money. That happens, but kidnappers don’t usually torture
and kill this way. This wasn’t human … this is like they were beasts.
They killed him immediately to scare the people of Kirkuk and send the
message that if they are kidnapped they have to pay.”

Yaqub’s
body bore marks of dog bites and torture; his legs and arms were tied
together and his clothes were covered in blood, according to the Agence
France-Presse.
His eyes were gouged out, his ears were cut off and his face was
skinned, according to the Assyrian International News Agency.

“This
was exceptional, but there are other cases where they killed them or
left them half dead, like Sameer the doctor,” Sako said, referring to
the case of a Christian, 55-year-old Sameer Gorgees Youssif, who was
kidnapped and released in 2009. “They paid, but they had tortured and
hit him.”

In Kirkuk another Christian, Iyad Daoud,
was kidnapped on Feb. 14 but was freed after ransom was paid for him,
according to Iraqi online publication Assafir Press.

Noting
that Christians are not the only victims of kidnapping, Sako said
Muslims and other nationals living in Kirkuk have been abducted.
Although he said he didn’t believe the attack targeted Yaqub because he
was a Christian, he said Christians were very shaken by the attack, and
he feared that many would leave the city as a result.

“I
don’t think this was against Christians,” said Sako. “This one was very
poor. We can’t imagine; this was someone with three kids, a wife, and
poor, really poor. They killed him for nothing … they have no sense of
humanity and religion.”

Over the last few years, Christian
and Muslim leaders in Kirkuk have joined forces to condemn the violent
acts of insurgents against their communities through joint statements,
among other efforts to promote peace and conviviality. Things “were
calm” in the last year, according to Sako, making this brutal attack
perplexing.

“After this, everyone, not just Christians,
was shocked,” he said. “In Kirkuk, very few Christian families had left
the city, but this is shocking. I think that after this they will
evacuate, because this is very serious. What is this? Torturing and
killing someone; there are no words to explain this.”

General
Secretary of the Chaldo-Assyrian Student and Youth Union Kaldo Oghanna
described the mood among the Christian community in Iraq as miserable.
He said by phone that he was at a loss for words to describe what had
happened.

Oghanna said he thought only al-Qaida could be capable of such an act.

“It’s a very bad situation, and everyone, the youth, they are feeling hopeless,” he said. “This kind of attack is – beastly.”

He
said that the murder of Yaqub took away the glimmer of hope that Iraq’s
youth had for the future and further eroded their faith in the
government.  

“We describe this brutal murder of Ashur as a
heinous act – a heinous crime against religion, the nation and
humanity,” Oghanna said. “Today we can’t trust our governments on the
issue of establishing security.”

Oghanna said that he is
planning a conference to examine the challenges that youth face in Iraq
and the causes and consequences of their migration from the country.

“Today
the situation in Iraq is complex,” said Oghanna. “Up to now the subject
of the government’s performance has not been decided. There are the
demands of citizens, and terrorist operations of al Qaeda. We fear that
the coming days will be hard for us as Christians.”

Christians in Iraq asked for prayer that extremist thinking and acts be eliminated in Iraq, he said. 

Are you building walls of religion or towers of prayer? Your answer could denote the difference between a woe-filled fate and a fulfilled destiny.

Prophets obsessed by the fear of man or unholy desires will not fulfill God’s ultimate plan. We must be careful, then, not to prophesy according to the party line in order to establish and preserve popularity in ministry circuits. If we fall into this trap we find ourselves in danger of perverting the gift of God by building walls of religion.

True prophets are not always the most popular five-fold ministry gift on the block because they are bold enough to release a word of the Lord that deals with sin or that warns the local church of potentially unpleasant circumstances coming down the proverbial pike. In order to properly carry this mantle, genuine prophets must build towers of prayer.

False prophets build walls of religion that lead people astray with fabricated edification, misleading exhortation and counterfeit comfort. “These evil prophets deceive my people by saying, ‘All is peaceful’ when there is no peace at all! It’s as if the people have built a flimsy wall, and these prophets are trying to reinforce it by covering it with whitewash! Tell these whitewashers that their wall will soon fall down” (Ezekiel 13:10-11, NLT).

Verily, verily, the whitewashed walls of religion are going to come tumbling down in a heap of self-righteous rubble and the false prophets are coming down right along with them. Let’s not forget that Jesus pronounced woe on the Pharisaical hypocrites, calling them whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean (Matthew 23:27).

You can’t whitewash sin, you can’t whitewash religion and you certainly can’t whitewash false prophecy. We must guard our hearts in order to maintain a pure prophetic flow and a life of prayer that will wash away the plans of the enemy instead of fortifying his deception by watering down the truth for the sake of acceptance.

True prophets may not always have the flare, charisma or appeal of their false twins, but who said they are supposed to? Jeremiah wasn’t the most popular prophet in his time, nor was Ezekiel in his day. John the Baptist had his head served up on a silver platter for warning the people of the looming decision between everlasting life and eternal hellfire. But they were the unadulterated mouthpieces of God. And so it should be.

One of the key disparities between the true and the false prophet is prayer. The Bible says the foolish prophets discussed in the 13th chapter of Ezekiel did not stand in the gap or make up a hedge for the house of Israel so that it could endure the battle. These diviners did not intercede in prayer to protect God’s people.

True prophets, by contrast, may not win any popularity contests in the local church, but they will sacrifice to make intercession. Instead of building walls of religion, they build towers of prayer: watchtowers in the spirit that allow them to see the assignments coming against the local church. They take that revelation and use it as spiritual mortar to make up a hedge in prayer.

You can’t separate a prophet from prayer any more than you can separate an evangelist from preaching the gospel. The very first time you ever see the word “prophet” in the Bible, it is connected to prayer. In the book of Genesis when Abimelech took Abraham’s wife, the Lord said, “Now restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live …” (Genesis 20:7, NKJV). So while not every intercessor is a prophet, every prophet is an intercessor.

Consider the prophets of old. They were often called watchmen. Scripture reveals three types of prophetic sentinels whose mission is to stand guard, keep watch and report what they see. We find Old Testament prophets on the walls, walking in the streets of the city and in the countryside.

“I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep not silent” (Isaiah 62:6). Watchmen on the walls are positioned to see far distances in the spirit and discern whether friend or foe is approaching. The watchman gives word to those in authority so they can decide whether to sound an alarm of welcome or an alarm of war. In today’s local church these watchmen help protect against enemy attacks. Every prophet is called to this post.

“’They surround Jerusalem like watchmen surrounding a field, for my people have rebelled against me,’ says the Lord,” (Jeremiah 4:17, NLT). This relates to the prophets in the harvest fields. Prophets have a clear role in evangelism as watchmen who protect gospel-preaching efforts against the destructive work of principalities and powers that keep the lost from hearing the truth. Prophets should be deployed on local church outreaches and international missions to watch, guard, pull down and destroy opposition to the Good News.

“The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city” (Song of Solomon 3:3; 5:7, NIV). In today’s times, this watchman is assigned to stand guard over the Body of Christ to see emerging problems. This is a larger responsibility that carries with it a heavier prayer burden and greater implications for the Church at large.

The point is anyone who stands in the five-fold function of prophet should keep their spiritual binoculars around their neck and watch. But not just watch—watch and pray always. Anyone carrying a prophetic mantle needs to closely examine the fruit of his or her ministry. If we have prophesied peace unto popularity, then we need to repent. We need to trade in our whitewash for some substantive mortar and start building towers of prayer that will bring genuine edification, authentic exhortation and legitimate comfort to God’s people.

Let us not be foolish prophets who build our ministries on the sands of seduction for the sake of acceptance because Jehovah promises that rain will pour from the heavens, hailstones will come hurtling down and violent winds will burst forth against those whitewashed walls and expose them (Ezekiel 13:11-12).

Instead let us build our ministries on the Rock and prophesy the mind of Christ so that when the hurricanes of religion come against the local church and when Jezebel hurls her spiritual sleet at the sanctuary, and when the winds of witchcraft blow against the walls, the foundation of our ministries and our local churches will be fortified to stand and withstand in the day of battle.

Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma. She is also the author of several books, including The Heart of the Prophetic. You can email Jennifer at
[email protected] or visit her website at www.jenniferleclaire.org.

Kimberly Daniels is known for busting devils. Now, it looks like she may have busted into political office.

Daniels leads her opponent, attorney David Taylor, in a race for the At-Large Group One seat on Jacksonville’s City Council.

Call it a battle between two controversial public figures in a heated run off election that could end with a recount.

Daniels is founder of Spoken Word Ministries, an inner-city, multiracial church in Jacksonville, Fla. Her ministry is widely known for its focus on prayer, intercession—and casting out devils. She ran on the Democratic ticket. Rapper MC Hammer and Pastor John Hagee endorsed Daniels in the battle.

In the other corner is Republican Taylor. Taylor could “face discipline by the Florida Supreme Court after a Florida Bar investigation found he violated rules after apparently threatening and taking money from a woman who was divorcing a client he represented,” according to The Florida Times-Union.

There was also talk of Taylor forging a judge’s signature on an eviction document and breaking a law related to using unlicensed contractors on homebuilding projects, the Times-Union reported. Taylor has not been proven guilty.

In the March 22 race, Taylor grabbed 47.85 percent of the vote compared to Daniels’ 42.51 percent. Steve Burnett ran independently and conceded defeat after winning less than 10 percent of the vote with nine precincts left.

Charisma News will post an update with an interview with Daniels later today.

A battle over the so-called “Bathroom Bill” is getting underway in Connecticut on Wednesday.

The Family Institute of Connecticut Action is holding a Pro-Family Lobby Day at noon at the state Capitol to stop HB 6599, better known as the Bathroom Bill. Specifically, HB 6599 is a transgender special rights measure that would permit any man who
claims female “gender identity” access to women’s
facilities, including public and private women’s restrooms, locker rooms
and showers. The bill also states that these individuals cannot be excluded from any job statewide.

“Using the language of equality, supporters of the Bathroom Bill claim that it only seeks to prevent discrimination,” says Family Institute of Connecticut Action President Peter Wolfgang. “They insist that the bill not contain common sense measures, such as preventing men dressed as women (but sexually attracted to women) from using women’s public bathrooms, showers, changing rooms and locker rooms, demonstrates otherwise.”

This type of amendment is included in Connecticut’s current gender anti-discrimination laws. Wolfgang asks a pointed question: Why not this bill?

“HB 6599 is subjective and vague. Terms such as ‘gender expression’ and ‘gender identity’ vary by person and include such vagaries as ‘mannerisms.’ Women and families that object will be bigots under the law,” Wolfgang says. “It takes away parental rights to object to cross-dressing persons—or persons who permanently express characteristics of both sexes—teaching in the classroom. It even prevents adults from regulating such behavior by the students. Parents, principals and school board members that object will find themselves bigots under Connecticut law.”

Donald Trump has decided not to run for president.

Despite plenty of speeches coming against President Obama’s views—and even calling for his long form birth certificate—the billionaire-real estate mogul will not seek the Republican party nomination. Mike Huckabee has also decided not to run, leaving  only Newt Gingrich officially in the race so far.

“This decision does not come easily or without regret; especially when my potential candidacy continues to be validated by ranking at the top of the Republican contenders in polls across the country,” Trump said. “I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election. I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half heartedly. Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector.”

It appears Trump will endorse the Republican nominee against Obama in the 2012 elections.

“I look forward to supporting the candidate who is the most qualified to help us tackle our country’s most important issues and am hopeful that, when this person emerges, he or she will have the courage to take on the challenges of the Office and be the agent of change that this country so desperately needs,” Trump said.

If perception is reality, then a godly perspective of your trials and tribulations can deliver you from your worst enemy: your own unrenewed mind.

I can’t tell you—and, in fact, I’d probably be embarrassed to admit—just how many times I’ve allowed the perspective of my unrenewed mind to dictate my thoughts, feelings and emotions in the midst of what I perceived as overwhelming pressure. I can’t tell you how many times I didn’t think I could take another step; how many times I felt like giving up, calling it quits, throwing in the towel—and moving to some remote tropical island where the devil was less likely to find me.

Then after completely discouraging myself (instead of doing what David did and encouraging myself in the Lord), I discover that the pressure isn’t as pressing as my perception of reality made it out to be. I was foiled by the enemy that is my unrenewed mind. I took the bait—hook, line and sinker—by looking at the smoke and mirrors of circumstantial evidence through eyes weary from the spiritual battle. (Can I get a witness? Surely, I’m not the only one.)

Of course, later I realize that things weren’t really as bad as they looked with my natural eyes. That’s why I have asked the Lord over the years to teach me how to quit looking at things through my natural eyes and begin looking at them through eyes empowered by a mind that is set on the things of the Spirit. Paul put it like this: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6).

See, it’s all a matter of renewing your mind to God’s perspective. Yes, that means meditating on the Word of God, rolling over scriptures in your mind that deal with areas in which you struggle (whether that’s patience, anger, pride or some other carnally-minded thing). But I’ve learned another secret: When we grow weary from well doing, we need to return to the secret place of the Most High. He never faints nor is weary—and He can give us the proper perspective on any trial we might be facing. Once we see things from the Creator’s perspective, we’ll tap into the Creator’s joy—and the joy of the Lord is indeed our strength.

Here’s the promise: “He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).

The renewing of strength is an awesome promise. The guarantee of not growing weary and fainting … I’ll take that one, too. But I wanted to point your attention to the other part of this verse: “They shall mount up with wings like eagles.” Eagles soar higher than any other bird. Indeed, the eagle lives in high altitudes. The eagle can see at least twice as far as a human. And eagles are symbolic of prophetic ministry.

When you want a prophetic perspective—God’s perspective—on anything from your daily trials to your future decisions, wait on the Lord. Expect Him. Look for Him. Hope in Him. He will cause you to soar above the storms in your life like an eagle soars above the clouds in the sky. He will give you a prophetic perspective on your situation so you can see the proverbial forest instead of getting overwhelmed by the trees.

Now, it’s still up to you to renew your mind to that prophetic perspective. Your unrenewed mind will work overtime to walk you around the same overwhelming mountain once again. After all, that’s what the world trained it to do. It’s up to you not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).

Once your mind is renewed, you’ll have that peace that passes all understanding—and it will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Your perception will still be your reality, but your renewed mind will offer you God’s perspective of the victory that is yours in Christ. Amen.

Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma. She is also the author of several books, including The Heart of the Prophetic. You can e-mail Jennifer at [email protected] or visit her web site at www.jenniferleclaire.org.

With Newt Gingrich making a run for president, Renewing American Leadership (ReAL) Action is getting a new leader.

ReAL has appointed Jim Garlow, author, communicator, commentator, historian, cultural observer and senior pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, as its new chairman. Garlow will also serve as chair of its educational affiliate ReAL.

“Although we do not endorse any candidate, we are proud of Mr. Gingrich’s decision to continue his service to this nation and we vow to carry on the work that he inspired,” Garlow said.

Due to federal election laws, Gingrich has stepped aside from all involvement with both ReAL Action and ReAL. Garlow vowed that the organizations would remain “fiercely committed” to defending the values of family, faith, freedom and free enterprise in America.

Garlow founded and led the California Pastors Rapid Response Team, a group of several thousand pastors that was committed to preserving the traditional, natural definition of marriage as being one man, one woman, which recently experienced a victorious campaign with Proposition 8 receiving over 7 million votes, 52.3 percent of the vote.

Garlow’s voice is heard daily on more than 800 radio outlets nationwide
in his one-minute historical commentary called “The Garlow Perspective.”
He also airs a 30-minute broadcast called “The Garlow Perspective
Special.”

Newt Gingrich has thrown his hat into the 2012 presidential race.

“I’m Newt Gingrich, and I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States because I believe we can return America to hope and opportunity, to full employment, to real security, to an American energy program, to a balanced budget,” Gingrich said in a video announcing his candidacy.

Gingrich is the architect of the “Contract with America” that led the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years. Under his leadership, Congress passed the first balanced budget in a generation, leading to the repayment of over $400 billion in debt.

“I worked with President Ronald Reagan in a very difficult period. We got jobs created again, and Americans proud of America, and the Soviet Union disappeared,” Gingrich said. “As Speaker of the House, I worked to reform welfare, to balance the budget, control spending, to cut taxes, to create economic growth. Unemployment came down from 5.6 percent to under 4.”

Gingrich is known for helping to save Medicare from bankruptcy, prompting FDA reform to help the seriously ill and initiating a new focus on research, prevention, and wellness. In 2003, he founded the Center for Health Transformation to develop free market healthcare reforms to foster a 21st Century system of health.

Gingrich stressed that one person in the Oval Office can get the job done. As he sees it, Americans have to talk together, work together, find solutions together, and insist when imposing those solutions on those forces that don’t want to change.

“There are some people that don’t mind if America becomes a wreck as long as they dominate the wreckage,” he said. “But you and I know better.”

Gingrich used strong words, suggesting Americans need to “look reality in the face, tell the truth, make the tough choices, and get the job done.” But he promised that there’s a much better America ahead with “more jobs, more prosperity, a better health system, longer lives, greater independent living.” He also promised a country that is decentralized under the 10th Amendment with “power once again back with the American people and away from the Washington bureaucracy.”

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