America is Pro-Life

The Gallup Poll does it again. Gallup, one of the most respected polling organizations in the world, regularly asks people what they think about key issues. Since the Supreme Court found in 1973 that it was OK to violate the promise of "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..." found in the Constitution, if unborn babies were the citizens, abortion has been a very hotly debated topic.

Gallup has included questions about abortion in its surveys for a long time. Now, despite the fact that almost every "news" outlet promotes abortion, most Americans do not think it is moral to abort a baby. In today's issue of the Wall Street Journal, the latest Gallup Poll tells what people are thinking today.

Asked to rate various behaviors and social policies (e.g., embryonic stem-cell research, adultery, the death penalty) as either "morally wrong" or "morally acceptable," 50% called abortion wrong, as against only 38% who said it was acceptable. Even more contentious was the finding, for the second year in a row, that slightly more Americans consider themselves "pro-life" than "pro-choice" (47% to 45%).


In other words, God's truth is marching onward and upward to bring people to a sensible position. Thank God for His love and truth.

Healing Every Day

Go to my new blog Spirituality, Healing and Growth and see a couple of two great posts on healing, prayer and forgiveness.

Kurt Warner Retires

I just posted my thought about Kurt Warner's new career on my Seasoned Believer blog. Some of you may not know I have blogged in this topic for a couples of years. I have promoted the notion of encouraging "Lay Persons" to get deeply involved in practical ministries. My blog tells testimonies about that topic as well as theological and human reasons why volunteering is important to Believers.

We are currently experiencing an enormous increase in Christian volunteering. Just think about one example, Haiti. The situation in Haiti has focused the attention of the world on the importance of ordinary men and women to help victims of natural emergencies. Millions of people have organized themselves into bands of helping hands to gather, organize and send supplies to the people affected by the earthquake.

But something else has also happened. The chronic situation of poverty, pain and abuse has been suddenly revealed to millions of TV watchers. For most it is the first time they ever heard of the decades of evil just a few miles from America. Who would have thought that there is widespread child slavery a stone's throw from the wealthiest and freest nation on the earth?

I heard on TV that between 45,000 and 50,000 Americans are in Haiti at any time. What are so many Americans doing on that tiny country? Many if not most are volunteers from US charitable organizations. WOW! That is incredible.

Here is another amazing statistic. Some 80% of the Gross National Product of Haiti comes from charity. Here is my question. How much of this volunteering and charitable giving comes from Agnostics and Atheists?

How much comes from secularists?

How much comes from Christians?

What do you think?

Oh Ye With Great Faith

I am on the list of Disabled Christianity . It is all about the need for Christians to reach out to disabled persons in our communities. They recently published an article about a miracle of faith. I hope you will read it.

We received a grant from The Hatton Foundation to do "Ethnographic Research" with families with special needs children. Last Sunday we came together to share our insights about the heroic nature of the people who are opening themselves to our probing questions.

Without exception, these folks are outstanding and hard working people. The reason each one gave for taking the time to be involved with us at least ten hours each month was, "We want to help other people." (And believe me when I say, these parents do not have the time to give ten hours each month.) They want to GIVE!

Gary Sweeten's July Report to The Hatton Foundation

We interviewed each family as a precursor to enrolling them in the project. We also asked each couple to fill out an extensive report on their situation, support systems, stresses and needs. Each family is then interviewed by a team of two persons. Every session is audio or videotaped so we can intensely review the family’s sharing. Emerging insights early in our process:

1. A strong desire not to be victims but victors that rise to meet the daily challenges of disability. This admirable attitude can, however, limit the family’s ability to seek available support.

2. The lack of coordination among treatment professionals. Families are sometimes left to their own devices to find and access assistance that is due them.

3. The immense financial costs of rearing a disabled child and the need for sensitive, well trained professionals in law, insurance, financial planning, etc.

4. The ignorance, avoidance and sometimes anger of professionals about the insights, strengths, pressures or needs of the child’s family. The approach of many professionals comes across as accusatory, punitive and distrustful.

5. The amazing level of resilience that families must possess to deal effectively with the medical, educational, insurance and personal systems while facing the pressures of caring for a family. The families that are responding best to those pressures have a great deal of help from family members, friends and church fellowships.

6. The importance of spiritual resources to the families but their paucity in the community.

7. The uneven availability of educational, medical, spiritual and psychological resources in the Greater Cincinnati area. (And, we assume, other areas as well.)

8. The importance of educating professionals and spiritual leaders about the benefits of understanding what the parents can contribute to the child’s and the medical, educational systems’ welfare.

9. The need for each family to have coaches, mentors and wise support systems in place to walk with them and advise them each step of their journey.

10. This new approach to research which actually asks the clients what they need is desperately needed by medical, educational, financial and religious systems to get the whole picture.

Go to my web page for more information.

Citizen Revolutions

For several years I have been advancing the notion that we are in the midst of The Fourth Great Awakening. Awakenings occur when revivals of spiritual life mature into a social, cultural movement.

The Sixties and Seventies saw a huge international revival. Millions came to faith in Christ and were deeply touched by the Holy Spirit in many streams of living water. These revivals were interdenominational, ethnic, various ages and explosive.

The people who came to faith almost immediately decided to live out their new spiritual desires in small groups, house meetings, choirs, quartets, communes para church gatherings and Bible studies. The primary emphasis was on individual and Small group responsibility to lea God's word and live them out every day.

These groups tended to be egalitarian, open to everyone and under no specific authority structure, denomination or theological tradition. I was Associate dean at University of Cincinnati and we saw a wave of kids who were touched by the Holy spirit and who wanted to live daily by God's truth, grace, love and power.

One of my student friends came to UC from Cleveland where he had attended a Roman Catholic high school. On a retreat with father Jim Tommy was brought to faith in Christ and was born again. He was also "Baptized into the Holy Spirit" and started to witness to his friends and spend hours in prayer, fellowship and worship.

That was the genesis of the Jesus Movement and the revival precursor to the Fourth Great Awakening we are experiencing today.