At the outset, it should be stated that the provocative title, “Jesus was a free marketer, not an Occupier” wasn’t chosen by me or my team at FRC. CNN changed the title which was originally “Jesus: Occupy Wall Street.”  CNN’s title doesn’t capture the nature of my argument, which was simply that given the Biblical affirmation of work from Genesis through Revelation, Jesus’ use of a market-based system of remuneration in this parable is instructive. Unlike some of those currently “occupying” around the nation, Jesus did not condemn the distribution of wealth based on initiative and diligence.

During my recent appearance on CNN I reiterated that parables use common activity to express a spiritual message.  In this particular parable, Jesus is telling his followers that the kingdom of God they believed he was going to set up on earth was not going to happen for a while, and he goes on to give instructions on what they should do with their lives until His return.  To do this he draws a parallel to certain positive functions of the business world.  He says, “Occupy until I return.”  In the Greek the term actually means “be engaged in business.”  This positive portrayal suggests that return based on honest effort is a just outcome.

Of course, this is in no way an endorsement of unethical or illegal activity that some on Wall Street and in business have engaged in.  Instead, Jesus’ parable refutes the idea that we will or should all be given the same outcomes regardless of what we do

Friday, Scot McKnight shared via Twitter:

“Read K Snodgrass, Stories with Intent. The parable has nothing to do with free enterprise but with kingdom responsibility.”

I agree with McKnight that the spiritual lesson here is primarily about kingdom responsibility. However, implicit in the parable is the idea that merit justifies greater reward – a principle essential to free-market capitalism.

Where greed, graft, and abuse have distorted the marketplace and exploited the vulnerable, Christians should rightly be brokenhearted and pursue justice. Yet to advocate, however, a government system which redistributes wealth en masse as a response to the abuses of the few, would mean losing the benefits of free moral agency available in a free market. One need look no further than levels of charitable giving prevalent in America as compared to socialized Western Europe.

The way to remedy exploitation and injustice is not by destroying the free market but repairing those elements of it which need restoration.  We cannot change human nature, but we can provide safeguards that restrain the excesses of human evil in the context of economic liberty — a liberty that promotes prosperity, freedom, and the health and well-being of individuals, families, and society.

It is true that social conservatives suffered a defeat in the vote to repeal the 1993 law against homosexual conduct in the military. (It is also significant that the repeal bill was forced through a lame-duck Congress using desperate maneuvers at the last minute, because they knew that the new Congress—the one that actually represents the contemporary political consensus—would never pass it.)

However, to say that social conservatives should surrender to the forced affirmation and celebration of homosexual conduct, because of a single legislative defeat, is like saying the Green Bay Packers should have forfeited the Super Bowl once the Steelers achieved a first down.

And to walk off the field because the far-left advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center throws the “hate” label at pro-family groups would be like retiring from the sport because one loud-mouthed fan of the opposing team yells, “You stink!”

The biggest trophy that homosexual activists now seek is the redefinition of “marriage.” Currently, only five states call same-sex unions “marriages,” while the other 45 all continue to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. In what sport would a team leading by a score of 45-5 be “losing?” Furthermore, where the people have decided, 31 out of 31 states have upheld marriage as a male-female union. A 31-game winning streak rarely signals a losing season.

The rest of Krattenmaker’s argument is as weak as his football analogy, as it totters between ignorance and slander.

Krattenmaker claims that conservative warnings of a threat to religious liberty from same-sex “marriage” rest merely on fear that “Christians do not get to dictate the law of the land.” But it is nature (which says that it takes one man and one woman to procreate) and social science (which shows that children do best with a mother and father) that “dictate” that marriage should be the union of a man and a woman, not Christianity. Yet legalization of same-sex “marriage” would result in zero tolerance of those who believe in natural marriage, threatening the livelihoods of religious marriage counselors, adoption agencies and educational institutions.

Krattenmaker says that “many Americans . . . live and work with gay people . . . [and] have family members . . . [and] people in their lives who really matter to them who are gay.” There is no disputing this. He also urges adherence to “a foundational Christian principle: Treat others as you wish to be treated.” I agree whole-heartedly.

Here’s how I would wish to be treated. First and foremost, I would want to be told the truth. Homosexuality is not an “identity,” as Krattenmaker describes it—it is a behavior. There are abundant secular grounds to be concerned about homosexual conduct, such as the physical and mental health problems that are associated with it. These are not fabricated by social conservatives—they are well-documented in the medical literature and have even been summarized by the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

As to theology, one newly-published book by a liberal theologian cannot overturn two thousand years of Christian sexual ethics. The Bible depicts a wide variety of sexual behaviors, from polygamy to incest to rape, because it is an honest book that shows the truth of human experience. But its references to homosexual conduct, in both the Old and New Testaments, condemn such conduct in every case.

If family members saw that I engaged in behavior that put my physical health at risk, I would expect them to warn me and urge me to stop. If my closest friends believed I was in a harmful relationship, I would want them to tell me, and help me escape it. And if I were falling into sin, I would want my brothers and sisters in Christ to call me to repentance.

What I would not want is to be told soothing falsehoods—that I was born this way, I can never change and that all my problems are somebody else’s fault. Such a message is comforting in the short run, but far from loving in the long run.

We will continue to speak the truth—even hard truths. We will continue to do so in love—though love must sometimes be tough. There is one thing we will not do—we will not be silent.

As a nation – and maybe it’s in our nature as Americans – we like to be the first.  Tiny Delaware crows about being the first state to ratify the Constitution.  Today it’s more likely to be the first place you send your credit card payment.

And Bakersfield is no different.  I understand that there’s been a controversial competition going on between this city and the cities of Fresno and Merced about where the first leg of the state’s bullet train will be built.  I don’t know which side of that debate you’re on, but wanting to be first just comes naturally to most of us.  We’re even here at the First Assembly of God.

It’s the same way with mottoes.  When I use the phrase, “Cradle of Liberty,” which city in America do you think of?  For me, Boston comes to mind.  Even a specific place in Boston — Faneuil Hall.  Boston has a pretty good claim to the name, of course, dating to before the Revolution.

Yet “firsts” are not always good things.  A few years ago I had the chance to walk most of the Freedom Trail while I was filming some videos in an effort to pass a state marriage amendment in Massachusetts.  Massachusetts’s Supreme Court was the first state supreme court to strike down marriage.

Other competitors exist for the title, “Cradle of Liberty.”  Some residents of New York City have launched an effort to have this designation.  New Yorkers wanting to be first – can you believe it?  Then there’s the city two hours southwest of New York, the home of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Continental Congress, and dozens of other landmarks.

You may remember the phrase Cradle of Liberty from Philadelphia because that’s the name adopted by the Boy Scouts Council that lost its meeting place on city land because the Scouts will not admit homosexuals to serve as scout masters.

When you think about it, Philadelphia has a strong claim to be the intellectual birthplace of our nation – a political Cradle of Liberty.

Well, we had some news from Philadelphia last week that tells us a great deal about the condition of our land and the state of our liberty.  While we have made progress in advancing life, as long as abortionists can continue to carry out their deeds under the cover of government indifference, we remain a nation of broken cradles and shrunken liberty.

I’m sure you’ve seen the headlines.  At a place so wrongly named the, “Women’s Medical Society,” a man – I can’t bring myself to call him a doctor – stands accused of killing one of his patients and as many as hundreds of live-born infants.  He is formally charged with murdering seven of these children.

Now, we’re gathered for a banquet this evening and for a celebration of Life – of all that the Bakersfield Pregnancy Center does to bring light into the darkness and hope for mothers in need.  Because of its work, “Hope” does indeed “have a name.”

So I won’t dwell too long on the details of what took place in Philadelphia, and what the Grand Jury report says went on in Kermit Gosnell’s charnel house. And yes, that is their wording: charnel house.  But it is important for us to understand the times in which we live and the challenges we must overcome.

Let me read you just one paragraph from the Grand Jury’s 281-page report, which details how Gosnell operated by night to kill babies in the sixth and seventh month of pregnancy:

There remained, however, a final difficulty.  When you perform late-term ‘abortions’ by inducing labor, you get babies.  Live, breathing, squirming babies.  By 24 weeks, most babies born prematurely will survive if they receive appropriate medical care.  But that was not what the Women’s Medical Society was about.  Gosnell had a simple solution for the unwanted babies he delivered: he killed them.  He didn’t call it that.  He called it ‘ensuring fetal demise.’  The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby’s neck and cutting the spinal cord.  He called that ‘snipping’.

Ladies and gentlemen, 38 years after the legal crime called Roe v. Wade, this is what has become of one of our Cradles of Liberty.  What Gosnell stands accused of doing is nothing short of a “total birth abortion.”  Liberty has become a barbaric license to crush the very cradle and with it our future.

As appalling as all this is, what is more appalling is the number of government officials who knew that this – and other kinds of mayhem and fraud – were going on and did nothing about it.

We’ve read the New Testament and know how the Lord looks upon the high and mighty who passed by the man who fell among robbers and was beaten within an inch of his life.

In Pennsylvania, a state ranked as having the some of the most pro-life laws in the nation, this house of horrors has operated without interference since 1993.  Since 1993. Visitors to the Women’s Medical Society reported it to health authorities many times, we’re told.  Gosnell continued to kill human beings and shred all record of their births.  No one followed up.

We must demand that officials in Pennsylvania get to the bottom of these crimes.  Anyone who buried these citizen reports, just like those who buried or burned the bodies of babies, should be found, fired, and prosecuted under the law.

But ladies and gentlemen, taking these remedial steps will not get us to the root of the problem.  The root of the problem is that we as a nation have forgotten our heritage.  We have turned our back on God, the God who our Founders knew gave us Life and Liberty, as Thomas Jefferson said, at the same time.  And from the beginning of time, in His holy Word, our God has told us that He values life from the instant of its creation in the womb.  Why?  Because each human being is made in His image.

Tonight I ask you to ponder with me, to reflect for a moment, what God means by a Cradle of Liberty.

I remember seeing a poster years ago that was all about celebrating life and welcoming children.  It was not an anti-abortion poster but pro-lifers loved it.  It was picture of an African-American boy, two or three years old, standing outside a shack of a house, a cap on his head, suspenders holding up his baggy pants, and a big smile on his face.  His parents stood behind him on the porch of the shack, gazing down at their son.  The yard and porch were littered with rusted farm tools.  A few chickens pointed in all directions.  And the caption said, “I know I’m a somebody, because God doesn’t make junk.”

This set me to thinking about the cradles in Scripture, and how, almost without fail, God’s message is to look past how the cradle is made, how its worth is measured in human terms, and instead to look inside that cradle to see His wondrous work and find the thing of lasting value.

I turned to the Book of Exodus, chapter 2, verses 1 through 3.

Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son.  When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.  But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch.  Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.   His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank.  She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby.  He was crying, and she felt sorry for him.  “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. (NIV)

Papyrus, tar and pitch.  You won’t find a cradle like that at an upscale Baby Boutique.  (Nor at the Bakersfield Pregnancy Center, either!)  An observer from the Egyptian social register would look at this account of the infant Moses and call it a “rags-to-riches” story.  We know it as something else – a slavery- to-freedom story.  Were papyrus, tar and pitch a fit resting place for the towering figure of history who would lead the children of Israel to the verge of the Promised Land?  Maybe not by man’s standard, but in God’s story, yes.  Oh, definitely yes.

Flash forward with me to the most famous first resting place in all of human history.  The hinge of history.  It was a place of straw, crowded with stinking beasts, creviced to the night air.  Some cradle.

But laid down there in that foul and unlit quarter was the King of Kings, the son of the living God, the author, lover and fulfiller of our deepest longings.  Our truest liberties.

Was this a fit resting place for the figure who towers above all history?  Would this impoverished family, far from home, have been seen by the world’s potentates, sitting in their marble palaces, as a couple worthy of their honor, much less their hosannas?  Would this family whose son had no place to lay his head – would they not have been candidates in the views of the rich and powerful to abandon that child on a windswept hillside?  Or leave him to the tender mercies of a false doctor?

Think of poor Joseph.  He who could have built a cradle of remarkable beauty had his shop and tools been close at hand, standing there in the dead of night feeling helpless because he had brought his pregnant wife to such a habitation.

Another husband, out on the road, failing to make a reservation.

Was this not a most unpromising beginning?

Yes, and yes again, in the human version of the cradle story.  But not in God’s story, not in His perfect plan.

I have a final cradle to call to mind tonight.  And rather than just ask you to visualize my meaning, I’ve brought some pictures along with me.  These are the smiling faces of the children the world knows as Snowflake Babies.  Their earthly parents now are men and women who, with the help of the Nightlight Christian Adoptions, reclaimed them from America’s infertility centers.

The cradle of these children was, for months and even years, a stainless steel canister containing liquid nitrogen.  Frozen as embryos, suspended, not developing, not dying, they waited.  Wanted perhaps, but not now, not yet.

We know that the manger in the Nativity story is sometimes depicted as a cold and forbidding place.  But swaddling clothes would be no help at all at the temperature of liquid nitrogen.  How cold is that?  A tad below negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit.  In other words, just a little below Minnesota.

We can ask ourselves, who could choose such a cradle?  But that is not the proper question.  The proper question is, “How can God use such a cradle?”  And in the stories of Scripture and of Snowflake Babies, He has given us an answer of overwhelming warmth.

Tonight you can be a part of spreading the warmth of God’s love by partnering with the Bakersfield Pregnancy Center.  Through their work and their love and their faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in the last year alone, more than 100 babies have been rescued from abortion and their mothers have been rescued from the idea that no one cares.

You know, it was Martin Luther who referred to the Bible as “the cradle wherein Christ is laid.”  What a beautiful image.  What a comforting reality.   Tonight let’s rededicate ourselves to go, time and again, to that cradle, the font of liberty.

And let us pray that our nation will become once more a Cradle of true Liberty.  Let us pray that every state and city will soon compete to be the first where the scourge of abortion is no more.

Let us strive to become, maybe for the first time in all of human history, a nation that knows what God can do with even the rudest of cradles.  Let us make our real rags-to-riches story the salvation story of leaving the slavery of casual sex and abortion and finding the freedom of a God who does not make junk.

And as we pray let us also work to see the cradle of true liberty restored for all.  There is no question in my mind that God is at work in our nation.  The question is, will we join Him?

Let us join our hearts and hands in hope that, as Abraham Lincoln said, this nation, under God, will have a new birth of freedom.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

The shipping container remains in customs.  With the help of Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) office, we were able to determine that the hold up is over the yet-to-be-assembled bunk beds not being reported as lumber.  So the federal agency in charge of wood will have to determine what permit and fee is required.  The Honduran infrastructure may be lagging behind us, but its ability to find creative ways to tax is sure on par with our government.

We were able to provide another day’s worth of medical treatment for the children in the village of Tornabe on Monday.  One little girl, who is nine-years-old, came to see the doctors and join us for a church service.  She was born with what our doctors said was a correctable birth defeat that caused her feet to turn under.  She can only take a few steps by walking on the top of her feet; most of the time her mother carries her.  Honduras has public health care, but it is very rudimentary and surgeries like the one this girl would need to correct her feet are nearly nonexistent.  My daughter Kendal and she quickly became friends.  We are hopeful that we might be able to find an orthopedic surgeon who would treat her.

Once the final disposition of the shipping container is determined we will be sending a small team back to Honduras, hopefully in August, to assemble the beds and distribute the supplies to the children in Tornabe.

A week in Honduras, or most any foreign country for that matter, is a reminder of how blessed we are to live in the United States—a country that has enjoyed the fruit of a nation with a Christian foundation upon which our ordered liberty was built.  It is also a reminder of what America could become if we lose that liberty.

We joined the congregation at our mission church for a Saturday evening service followed by an authentic Honduran meal.  The meal and the fellowship were outstanding.  The church has just called a young new pastor, Pastor Gerson David, so we were able to hear him share his heart for reaching the people of Tela with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Last night our team cooked for the folks at Tornabe, and then we joined them for Sunday night service and listened to Pastor Marvin preach.  He leads the small church that is host to the outreach to the nearly 100 orphans in Tornabe.

Our progress at the orphanage in Tornabe has been limited because the shipping container which is holding most of our supplies, including the beds for the children, remains tied up in Customs.  We are praying that we receive the container before we leave so that we can at least assemble the beds and put them in the rooms that are going to serve as temporary dormitories for the boys and girls.

The lack of supplies has made for an interesting trip as we’ve had to hunt locally for food and supplies.  I’ve spent a good portion of each day trying to obtain needed construction items for the church/orphanage and food and supplies for the 30 people on our mission team.  Trying to shop for groceries for 30 people here in Tela will give you a much greater appreciation for Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club!

I now know where every mom and pop grocery store and meat market is here in Tela.  I use the term “grocery store,” but they are more like a 7-11s without air-conditioning and with intense security by men with shotguns.  Fortunately, we have some great friends here, like Ester Maldonado, who, among other things, helps me overcome the Spanish labels at the “grocery store.”

Join us in praying that we get some good news on the container of supplies today!

How good is your knowledge of civics? What are the three branches of government? That is just an example of the questions that the Intercollegiate Studies Institute asked in a civic literacy survey they administered during the 2008 election year. Their findings were rather shocking, in their sampling 71 percent failed. Nationwide the average score was 49 percent.

Like other indicators ISI’s results give us a better understanding of why politics in America today are a drift from their historical moorings.

This understanding, in part, was behind the recently released Mount Vernon Statement. The one page statement, which you can read and sign online at frc.org, was signed by many of the nations conservative leaders at a special unveiling at Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington — that’s not a question on the civic literacy quiz, but its good to know.

While some on the Left have criticized the statement as a return to the past because we are in denial about the present, as one of the signers, I see it much differently.

It is important that each generation renews its commitment to the enduring founding principles that have built and sustained this nation.

What are those principles?

National security, economic opportunity, religious liberty and personal responsibility. These are the enduring principles that founders enumerated in the Declaration of Independence and established in the Constitution and now we must return them to center stage in America again.

This is a perfect time to remind America of these principles as public opinion polls show that the majority of Americans are either disenchanted or disgruntled with this Administration and this Congress.

I invite you to add your name to the Mount Vernon Statement.

You can take hope in the fact that some things never change and these principles are among them.

While Americans have literally given tens of millions of dollars to rescue and aid children and their families in Haiti, the International Planned Parenthood Federation launched a fund-raising appeal within a day of the earthquake seeking funds for their family planning clinics in Haiti.

They certainly know their business and know opportunity when they see it. In the wake of a disaster such as this and hurricanes like Katrina, pregnant mothers who have lost homes, incomes and even family members are in crisis. Planned Parenthood’s solution — charitable giving in the form of “reproductive healthcare” or in plain English, abortions. This is nothing new, after 9/11 they offered women in New York free abortions. Following hurricane Katrina, Planned Parenthood offered free “morning after” pills.

Hopefully, the Haitian people will encounter the charitable hand of Americans through the ministries and organizations that will save lives not take them. I am encouraging people to give to Christian ministries like those listed here and Christian adoption organizations like Bethany Christian Services who will offer real help to the people of Haiti.

TSAs explanation is that Mikey shares the name with another Michael Hicks who made the Department of Homeland Securitys watch list. Attempts to remove Mikey from the list have been unsuccessful.

It appears there is problem. The parents of an 8-year-old cub scout from New Jersey can get him off the watch list and a father who warned officials his son had been radicalized by Islamic terrorists in Yemen, couldnt get the underwear bomber on the list.

Look for these discrepancies to increase if President Obama is successful in securing the nomination of Erroll Southers as the head of the TSA.

Among his problems; Southers has been under criticism for misleading congress about accessing confidential records. After his testimony Southers admitted to snooping into the records of his estranged wifes boyfriend.

But thats not the most troubling. As deputy director of the California Office of Homeland Security Southers is on record highlighting the traits of home grown terrorist that he says poses a greater threat to America than Islamic terrorists. Among the traits that he identifies of those domestic terrorists: (1) anti-government, anti-abortion and Christian identity oriented.

I think Ive actually seen airport security under a Southers led TSA.