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Contents , / ,
42 Agent exegesis
The IRS targeted more than Tea Party groups for special investigations. The agency also went after religious, pro-life, and pro-marriage groups, wanting promises not to protest Planned Parenthood and seeking details about group prayers
50 Sequester break
Slowed spending and a better economy cut the deficit, but the problem is far from solved
56 Serving the sparrows Forget armed rescues. Christian volunteers fight sex trafficking by building relationships
62 Crowdsourcing adoptions
One of the latest social media tools is a website that helps couples adopt their children
66 The Word on the street 52 Cuomo’s crusade New York’s governor wants to expand legal abortion in an already abortion-heavy state
New Yorker Bethany Jenkins jumped the corporate ship to write an email devotional that is catching on with the professional class :
13 News 22 Quotables 24 Quick Takes
29
29 Movies & TV 32 Books 35 Q&A 38 Music
62
71 Lifestyle 74 Technology 76 Science 77 Houses of God 78 Sports 80 Money 82 Religion
56
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VISIT WORLDMAG.COM FOR BREAKING NEWS, TO SIGN UP FOR WEEKLY EMAIL UPDATES, AND MORE
10 Joel Belz 26 Janie B. Cheaney 40 Mindy Belz 95 Mailbag 99 Andrée Seu Peterson 100 Marvin Olasky
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“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” —Psalm 24:1 EDITORIAL editor in chief Marvin Olasky editor Mindy Belz managing editor Timothy Lamer news editor Jamie Dean senior writers Janie B. Cheaney, Susan Olasky, Andrée Seu Peterson, John Piper, Edward E. Plowman, Cal Thomas, Lynn Vincent
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Joel Belz
Rotten to the core?
Pervasive corruption could be harder to correct than wrongdoing at the top
>>
W three significant scandals now afflicting the Obama administration day in and day out (and the mainstream media regularly calling all three “scandals”), the altogether natural question in the minds of millions is: Just how high within the Obama team did these illegalities rise? What did the president and his top aides know— and when did they know it? For most thoughtful people, that’s a perfectly legitimate question. Forty years ago, during the Watergate crisis, we learned not to take at their word the loyalist fall guys who swore, on oath, that their bosses were innocent. We learned to keep digging. We learned that, just maybe, the man at the top was himself involved and altogether guilty. The only way to clean up a terrible mess was to hold the top man, and his top people, responsible. So it’s altogether natural for us to be asking those same questions now. But could it be that in our fierce search we might discover something much worse than complicity at the top? Might there be a situation in which we find our plight to be more ominous than having a president who issues a few blatantly illegal and unconstitutional orders? Here’s what is worse—and maybe a lot worse. What if the whole governmental structure is so bad, so rotten to its core, that no one at the top even needs to issue any perverse orders? What if the inclination to
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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CAMERON THORP
abuse the power of the Internal Revenue Service, and to invade thousands of taxpayers’ privacy, is so thorough that it’s just an expected modus operandi? What if no one has to tell a third-level operative in the Justice Department that the way to move ahead is to hack some journalist’s cell phone? What if everyone “up there” understands that cover-up always trumps telling the truth—and cover-up becomes a habit? No one has summarized this frightening idea more pointedly than James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal: “[T]he scandal is actually much worse,” he writes, “if the IRS was acting without guidance from the White House. A corrupt administration can be ousted through resignation or impeachment, as in . If the IRS and other permanent institutions of government are fundamentally corrupt, reforming them would be much more complicated and effortful.” So now we’re no longer talking, as Richard Nixon’s attorney John Dean did, about “a cancer on the presidency.” Now we have to talk about “a cancer on the whole government.” And which do you suppose is easier to treat? But hold on. There may be something more troublesome yet. There may be a scenario a thousand times more to be feared. That situation comes when the people being governed themselves no longer own the kind of moral compass that helps them judge between good and evil. That may be because they simply no longer care, and have become numb to such distinctions. Or it may be because they too have been taught that all morality is relative—and out of conviction they simply aren’t ready to pass judgment on anyone or anything. It was a shrewd observer who, sizing up the political realities of the world, said, “People pretty much always get the kind of leaders they deserve.” It’s clear now, if it wasn’t before, that we have a president who doesn’t care much about constitutional freedom or truth telling in public life. And it’s clear he’s put into high office a worrisome number of folks who don’t care about freedom and truth telling any more than he does. And it’s left to the rest of us to discover anew that accurately assigning the ultimate blame for all this is a tedious task. But what if, in the process, we learn that the millions of voters who put this prevaricating crew into office don’t care about truth telling any more than their government does? If the whole society proves rotten to the core, who’s going to be left to write up those articles of impeachment? A
Email: jbelz@worldmag.com
5/28/13 4:15 PM
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Dispatches News > Quotables > Quick Takes
MAY 20: Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary School after a tornado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma City. Paul Hellstern/The Oklahoman/AP
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Dispatches > News T h u r s d a y, M a y
Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called for a “full-scale” investigation of Houston-based abortionist Douglas Karpen, who allegedly performed illegal late-term abortions amid “appalling sanitary conditions in his clinic.” Photos of well-developed babies with gashes in their necks suggested that the babies may have been born alive.
We d n e s d a y, M a y
Killing babies F r i d a y, M a y
Killing non-Muslims
Targeting ministries
With Islamic extremists controlling some northern Nigerian towns and villages, president Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency. Since Islamic fighters have killed more than , Nigerians, and the country’s military said Islamists now use anti-aircraft guns mounted on trucks—in some areas outgunning the country’s thin security forces.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse announced that the IRS targeted both ministries last year after BGEA ran newspaper ads opposing same-sex marriage. Georgia officials decided the First Amendment did not require them to remove privately paidfor Bibles from privately owned cabins in Georgia state parks.
Awarded President Barack Obama signed a bill May to posthumously award the
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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Jihadist groups in Syria reportedly suffered setbacks, as Arab states cut arms support in response to U.S. reservations about enabling a victory by a rebel movement linked to alQaeda. Some rebel groups are targeting Syrian Christians, forcing them to flee their villages or face penalties under Islamic law.
Addie Mae Collins
Denise McNair
Carole Robertson
Cynthia Wesley
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Congressional Gold Medal to four African-American girls killed in a bombing in Birmingham, Ala. September will mark years since a white supremacist planted dynamite under the front steps of the th Street Baptist Church—a hub for the civilrights movement—murdering the four while they attended Sunday school.
Syria
GOSNELL: YONG KIM/MCT/LANDOV • SYRIA: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • GIRLS: AP
Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, sentenced to two consecutive life terms on Tuesday for killing babies born alive, received a third life sentence. Three jurors who spoke with the media after the sentencing hearing said Gosnell’s practice of slicing through babies’ spinal cords “to ensure fetal demise” convinced them of his guilt.
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SWEDEN: FREDRIK SANDBERG/SCANIPX SWEDEN/AP • GARIPOVA: RAGNAR SINGSAAS/GETTY IMAGES • TORNADO: SUE OGROCKI/AP • ROSEN: FOX NEWS • SOBIECH: MKL RECORDS
A Texas Gosnell?
A woman carries her child through a field near the collapsed Plaza Towers Elementary School
GOSNELL: YONG KIM/MCT/LANDOV • SYRIA: MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • GIRLS: AP
SWEDEN: FREDRIK SANDBERG/SCANIPX SWEDEN/AP • GARIPOVA: RAGNAR SINGSAAS/GETTY IMAGES • TORNADO: SUE OGROCKI/AP • ROSEN: FOX NEWS • SOBIECH: MKL RECORDS
S a t u r d a y a n d S u n d a y, M a y -
Stockholm syndrome Hundreds of young people, largely immigrants from the Middle East and Somalia, rioted in Sweden, a country famous for tolerance and lavish social services. With attacks on police and rescue workers, the riots spread to Stockholm suburbs over four days.
Song war The Russian contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest finished fifth, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov threatened vengeance. Lavrov said Russia’s Dina Garipova should have received more points: “That points were stolen from our contestant during the Eurovision contest does not make us happy. ... The outrageous action at Eurovision regarding the Russian contestant will not go unanswered.”
M o n d a y, M a y
Oklahoma terror A tornado at least a half-mile wide roared through Moore, Okla., a suburb of Oklahoma City, destroying entire neighborhoods with winds reaching mph, setting buildings on fire, and landing a direct blow on Plaza Towers Elementary School. Students were still in classrooms on Monday afternoon when the tornado nearly leveled the structure. Workers pulled dozens of children from the rubble, passing little ones to safety down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. The tornado killed children and adults.
‘Co-conspirator’ Court documents released by The Washington Post revealed that the Justice Department had spied on Fox News correspondent James Rosen and named him a “co-conspirator” in a leak of classified material. No journalist has ever been prosecuted under the Espionage Act, and analysts on the left and right labeled it an abuse of power: Gathering information from sources is a basic tenet of good reporting, even when it involves state secrets.
Can you spare a dime? Conservative groups announced their filing of a class action lawsuit against the IRS for what the groups call “illegal and harassing behavior in the handling and processing of their applications for non-profit status.” One group said the IRS demanded names of every donor who had given more than a dime, full copies of every speech given at events, and minutes from private board meetings.
Died Zach Sobiech, the inspirational singer who survived four years with rare bone cancer, died
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May at the age of . Sobiech underwent surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy after being diagnosed at age . He released the song “Clouds” in December, which topped million views on YouTube and reached No. on the iTunes singles chart in the days after his death. At Sobiech’s funeral, more than , mourners sang “Clouds” by memory while releasing balloons.
Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
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JUNE 15, 2013 • WORLD
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Dispatches > News Tu e s d a y, M a y
License to kill A panel of the San Francisco–based th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Arizona’s ban on abortion after weeks of pregnancy, absent a medical emergency, violates a woman’s constitutionally protected right to kill her unborn baby before he or she is able to survive outside the womb.
Mercy mission
Barred Iran’s ayatollahs barred two leading contenders from the ballot for the June presidential election—guaranteeing that the next head of government will be loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The council approved eight names (out of registered) but barred former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and current presidential aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.
We d n e s d a y, M a y
Taking the Fifth
IRS director for tax-exempt organizations Lois Lerner, invoking the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination, refused to talk with House of Representatives investigators about her orders to scrutinize conservative groups.
Murder Two men on a busy London street yelled “Allahu akbar” (“Allah is great”) and hacked to death with knives and a meat cleaver a British soldier who served in Afghanistan. The two men rushed at police, who shot and arrested them. One is suspected of ties to Somali militants, and British police arrested other suspects in connection with the murder.
Announced Anthony Weiner, , who resigned from Congress two years ago after sending women sexually provocative messages and photographs, announced he is running for mayor of New York. Weiner’s wife was pregnant with their first child when the “sexting” became public. Weiner described himself as a “family man” and said he “let a lot of people down.”
CREDIT AYATOLLAH: OFFICE OF THE SUPREME LEADER/AP • LERNER: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP • LONDON ATTACKER: YOUTUBE • WEINER: JASON DECROW/AP
Oklahoma Baptists deployed more than volunteers to the tornado disaster site to assess damage and begin setting up relief centers. The group worked with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army to distribute supplies and to direct homeless victims to emergency shelters. Relief efforts include mobile kitchens and teams to help with debris removal and cleanup work.
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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Dispatches > News F r i d a y, M a y
Timing is everything No fatalities followed the collapse of an Interstate bridge in Washington state. The bridge suddenly fell into the water around p.m., but only two vehicles were on it, and rescue crews pulled two drivers and a passenger to shore. If the bridge had collapsed just hours earlier, at the peak of rush hour, many may have died.
Gay Scouts More than , delegates at the Boy Scouts of America’s national meeting passed a resolution that will allow homosexual boys to participate fully in its programs. More than percent of the delegates voted for the proposal. Homosexual adults will still be banned from leadership in Scouting.
Religious liberty Hobby Lobby lawyers argued before the full th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Christian-owned arts-andcrafts company should not be forced to provide employee health insurance that includes abortifacient drugs. So far for-profit businesses have won temporary injunctions against the mandate on grounds it violates their religious freedom. Six have lost their cases.
Speech, speech In a speech at the National Defense University, President Barack Obama defended his administration’s use of drone strikes to kill terrorist suspects, including U.S. citizens. At the same time, he said, “This war on terrorism, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. It’s what our democracy demands.”
BRIDGE: ELAINE THOMPSON/AP • HOBBY LOBBY: ED ANDRIESKI/AP • GAY SCOUTS: STEWART HOUSE/GETTY IMAGES • OBAMA: CAROLYN KASTER/AP • BACHMANN: JIM COLE/AP
T h u r s d a y, M a y
Retiring Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, , announced May that she will not run for office in . The Tea Party favorite and one-time GOP presidential contender said she is “even more concerned about our country’s future than I have ever been in the past,” but hopes to serve outside politics. Bachmann faced a stolid opponent in and allegations of financial impropriety from her campaign, but said those were not factors in her decision.
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NIGERIA: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ROGERS: JEFF GROSS/GETTY IMAGES • MEMORIAL DAY: WARREN DILLAWAY/THE STAR-BEACON • ABBAS: SANA/REUTERS/LANDOV
Muzzled Uganda’s government continued a week of media crackdowns that included closure of Kampala’s Daily Monitor, one of East Africa’s largest newspapers. Two newspapers and two radio stations were closed after they reported on an alleged government plot to assassinate politicians opposed to President Yoweri Museveni’s son’s taking power.
M o n d a y, M a y
BRIDGE: ELAINE THOMPSON/AP • HOBBY LOBBY: ED ANDRIESKI/AP • GAY SCOUTS: STEWART HOUSE/GETTY IMAGES • OBAMA: CAROLYN KASTER/AP • BACHMANN: JIM COLE/AP
NIGERIA: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ROGERS: JEFF GROSS/GETTY IMAGES • MEMORIAL DAY: WARREN DILLAWAY/THE STAR-BEACON • ABBAS: SANA/REUTERS/LANDOV
Day of remembrance
S a t u r d a y- S u n d a y, M a y -
Nigeria’s violence Terrorists burned three churches in Borno state and vandalized a clinic, with at least one person killed, despite claims by the Nigerian government it is routing Boko Haram militants who are attacking Christians. The government sent in troops to combat the terrorist group, which operates out of Borno, after declaring a state of emergency across parts of northern Nigeria. But attacks continue, and analysts now say northern Nigeria is the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian: percent of the world’s targeted killings of Christians are taking place there.
From Robinson to Robbie Soccer player Robbie Rogers became the first openly homosexual male athlete to compete in an American professional sport, and L.A. Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan compared him to Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball’s color barrier in . Robinson endured substantial opposition. Rogers endured an ovation, along with media fawning.
Let it snow Mountains along the New YorkVermont border received over feet of snow— making for record late snowfall, and Memorial Day weekend conditions more ripe for skiers than hikers.
On Memorial Day Americans across the country remembered servicemen and -women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the United States— including , killed in the war in Iraq and , killed in Afghanistan. Military leaders also renewed focus on the spike in suicides among U.S. combat veterans— in , or nearly one per day.
Escalation Russian officials, failing to reach an agreement on Syria in the latest round of talks in Brussels, announced they would provide surface-to-air missiles to the government of President Bashar al-Assad to deter “hotheads from escalating the conflict to the international scale.” The EU failed to agree on an arms embargo, also potentially escalating Western weapons deliveries to rebels. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon promised, should a Russian air defense system reach Syria, “We will know what to do.”
Chemical evidence France’s Le Monde offered evidence that Syrian forces aligned with President Bashar al-Assad have used chemical weapons on rebel fighters. President Obama has called such use “a red line” that must not be crossed, but has deferred action to the UN Security Council.
Shot A rebel sniper shot and killed Syrian journalist Yara Abbas while she was covering clashes near the Lebanon border on May . Abbas was a prominent reporter for the pro-government Al-Ikhbariyah TV and became the th journalist killed in months of fighting, according to Reporters without Borders. Another seven journalists are missing and about citizen journalists have been killed in the civil war.
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Dispatches > News
June 10
LOOKING AHEAD June 13 The Duchess of Cambridge Cambridge,
Tu e s d a y, M a y
Consumer confidence A Standard & Poor’s report showed U.S. home prices jumped nearly percent in March compared with a year ago—the sharpest -month increase since April . That gave more fuel to a stock price rally and to American consumer confidence, higher than at any point in the past five years.
. For more about late-May events, breaking news throughout the first two weeks of June, and website-only writing by Mindy Belz, Andrée Seu Peterson, Marvin Olasky, and others, visit worldmag.com.
known as Kate Middleton until her marriage to Prince William, will have a busy summer. On June , the Duchess will follow tradition and help christen the newest ocean liner in the Princess Cruises fleet. The ceremony at Southampton will come three days before the Princess Royal is due to make her maiden voyage.
June 10 Barring an
unforeseen delay or dismissal, George Zimmerman goes on trial today in Florida for the high-profile killing of Trayvon Martin. The February episode that left the -year-old Martin dead ignited a national discussion about race and self-defense. Lawyers for Zimmerman will argue the neighborhood watch volunteer was acting in selfdefense when he shot Martin from close range.
June 14 Iranians may go to the polls today to pick their next president, but he already will have earned the approval of the nation’s Guardian Council and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. With current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unable to run again due to term limits, the religious leaders in the Islamist nation have vetted their slate of replacements. That means whoever the Iranian people select today to replace Ahmadinejad, the policies of the prickly republic aren’t expected to change much.
June 18
Scandal-plagued, President Barack Obama may be relieved to travel overseas. The president is scheduled to arrive in Berlin on June for two days of talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel following a G summit. It will be Obama’s first trip to Germany as president, and will roughly coincide with the th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.
Abused
Imprisoned Chinese pastor Gong Shengliang’s life is in “serious danger” after authorities refused him medical treatment following a stroke late last year. Shengliang’s daughter made the announcement in an open letter to China’s new president, Xi Jinping, in which she said her father can no longer walk or talk. Shengliang, , was sentenced to death with other house-church leaders in for allegedly “using a cult to undermine the enforcement of the law.”
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Egypt’s quest to repatriate artifacts originally discovered near the Pyramids of Giza will be highlighted as Berlin’s Egyptian Museum holds its ceremonial inauguration today. The museum brags that it is the only museum outside of Egypt to house and display Egyptian antiquities exclusively, including a bust of Nefertiti, a boast grating to Egyptians who claim the antiquities were looted.
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rilliantly illustrated, this rewrite of Bunyan’s classic on the Christian life should anchor gospel truth in many children’s hearts, especially if read aloud to them and talked over with them.”
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Dispatches > Quotables ‘If he really wants to close it, turn it into a government-funded solar power company. The doors will be shut in a month.’
DENNIS JERNIGAN, worship leader at First Baptist Church in Moore, Okla., during a prayer service following the massive tornado that hit the town on May .
‘Um, the Easter Egg Roll with my kids.’ Former IRS Commissioner DOUG SHULMAN, when asked at a congressional hearing why he visited the White House times in and . He went on to list additional reasons for the visits.
‘This evacuation is obligatory; it’s not voluntary.’ Chilean Interior and Security Minister ANDRES CHADWICK on the evacuation of , people within a -mile radius of the Copahue volcano as the volcano became more active in late May.
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‘At a time we need resolve the most, we’re sounding retreat. … I’ve never been more worried about our national security.’ U.S. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C., after President Obama’s May speech on national security.
‘Our ambition is really to do as little as possible.’ Stockholm Chief of Police MATS LÖFVING, in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Expressen on the police strategy of dealing with Muslim immigrants rioting and burning cars in Stockholm.
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‘We choose not to walk as victims.’
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5/29/13 11:47 AM
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Late-night comedian JAY LENO, on President Obama’s stated intention to close the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay eventually.
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5/29/13 11:06 AM
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Dispatches > Quick Takes If he had Superman-like vision, David Gonzalez of Elbow Lake, Minn., might have noticed it sooner. But it wasn’t until he was remodeling his home that Gonzalez found a rare and valuable comic book being used along with old newspapers as wall insulation. The comic book was a copy of Action Comics No. , which in introduced a character called Superman. Gonzalez is now auctioning the comic book, and bids are reportedly going above ,. Auction expert Stephen Fishler told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the value would be even higher but for a tear Gonzalez caused on the back cover when he and family members grabbed at it in the excitement of the discovery. According to Fishler, auctioneers officially downgraded the condition of the comic book because of the back cover: “That was a , tear.”
Turns out the manly advice to rub some dirt in your wound may not be such bad advice after all. Scientists at the Arizona State University Biodesign Institute say they’ve found an antibacterial clay capable of killing a host of pathogens. The clay contains metallic ions that can kill E. coli and other pathogens. But not all clays are alike, so researchers caution against rubbing just any sort of dirt into wounds.
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5/29/13 9:53 AM
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The Colonel’s secret recipe for finger-lickin’ good chicken has an extra step in Gaza: smuggling. A smuggling operation advertising itself on Facebook as al-Yamama says it can get KFC fast food chicken into Gaza (where there is no KFC) in just three hours. Once a customer makes the call, smugglers go to a KFC miles from the increasingly porous Egypt-Gaza border in Al-Arish to pick up the food. From there, delivery men take the food through one of the numerous smuggling tunnels for frontdoor delivery in Gaza. According to customers, the delivery fee means the fried chicken comes at triple the price. But with about orders to the smuggling group per week, it’s apparent some hankerings know no boundaries.
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For a moment it seemed like Cliff Kluge had struck it rich with his discovery. Earlier in May, Cliff Kluge made news when he claimed to have stumbled upon the original Coca-Cola recipe in a box of letters dated from he bought at a Georgia estate sale. Rather than attempting to mix up a batch of the soft drink for himself, the Georgia man put the papers on eBay with a buy-itnow price of million. And on May , someone apparently clicked the link and ended the auction at Kluge’s asking price. Problem: The “buyer” was a -year-old boy who apparently doesn’t have million. Other problem: Coca-Cola insists it has the only copy of the -year-old recipe hidden in a vault.
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There’s Maserati money, and then there’s this. According to Chinese media sources, an unidentified Chinese man became so furious with the company tasked to repair his , Maserati super car, he hired men to destroy the car with sledgehammers. The bashing took place May outside the Qingdao Auto Show where three hired men slung sledgehammers at the man’s Maserati Quattroporte. Speaking with local reporters, the wealthy Chinese man said he was upset that the Furi Group, the company responsible for repairing the super car, used secondhand parts in a repair job. Rather than quibble over the bill, the owner decided to destroy the car in the most public way possible. The Maserati’s destruction isn’t unprecedented in China: In , a Lamborghini owner smashed up his own car outside the same auto show as a protest against the Italian maker’s customer service.
Want a faster way around Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and don’t mind teetering on the boundary of outrageous? One Florida travel agent has just the thing. Dream Tours Florida promises it can provide you with a handicapped tour guide—called a black-market guide by some—for the price of per hour, or just over , for an -hour day in the park. The advantages? Because the party is traveling with a handicapped guide, the group is allowed to skip every line.
While celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray and Ellie Krieger failed to bring about change in school lunch programs across the country, fourthgrader Zachary Maxwell may have found a recipe for success. Grossed out by his lunch choices at his New York City elementary school, Zachary began video recording the fare served in the cafeteria. Zachary then spliced the clips together and created a -minute documentary. At first, the -year-old’s goal was to convince his mother to pack him a meal for school. But Zachary managed to edit the -minute film well enough to earn it a spot in the Manhattan Film Festival in June. Officials at Zachary’s school argue the fourth-grader’s film distorts reality by showing only the grossest of the cafeteria’s options. But administrators with the city’s Department of Education Office on School Food have asked the youngster to serve as an advisor to help solve the problem.
Woody Allen, original hipster
Put off by scads of thick, black frames bearing lenses that may (or may not) be prescription strength, one Brooklyn school has laid down a new edict: no more hipster glasses. Students at Bobover Yeshiva B’Nei Zion school in trendy and fashionable Brooklyn have been banned from wearing the thickframed retro eyewear because the Orthodox administrators consider it too flashy.
By the end of the night, it was theatergoer Kevin Williamson who was kicked out of the show. But many of his fellow patrons at an off-Broadway theater in New York would applaud his vigilante instinct if not his actions. The kerfuffle began when one theater patron refused both Williamson’s and a theater employee’s request that she put away her mobile phone during a May performance. That’s when Williamson, a writer for National Review and a theater critic for New Criterion, took matters into his own hands. After intermission, Williamson again asked the woman to put the phone away. When she told him to mind his own business, the writer plucked the phone from her hand and flung it across the room. The rude patron then slapped Williamson and left. A theater employee then asked Williamson to leave the show.
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JUNE 15, 2013 • WORLD
5/29/13 9:53 AM
Janie B. Cheaney
The use of a baby
A generation’s idea of ‘freedom’ challenges the human enterprise
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Vogt in the early s propelled a young biology student down the Malthusian road: Paul Ehrlich, who made himself a prophet with The Population Bomb. In his landmark work, published in , Ehrlich predicted a crushing global famine by the s. Though disaster did not arrive, he has never backed away from his central theme, claiming that the general theory still stands despite some variation in the specifics (i.e., no proof whatsoever). This would be funny were it not for some tragic policy consequences. Merchants of Despair by Robert Zubrin describes how the Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations bought into population control hysteria. In an Office of Population was created within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), headed by Dr. Reimert Ravenholt. An outspoken anti-humanist, Ravenholt nearly tripled his office’s budget in five years at the expense of USAID’s disease-prevention work (to him, pregnancy was a disease). The continuing complicity of the United States in abortion and sterilization programs in developing countries is to our everlasting shame. Back to Ben Franklin’s “What is the use of a newborn baby?” In his time, the question was understood as satirical. Babies are not “of use”; they just are. They are the future—not a sappy metaphor, but a literal fact. The current generation produces the next generation and so it’s always been. But an odd thing happened on the way to the st century: We lost faith. In God, first of all, but also in the entire human enterprise. The healthiest, wealthiest, most leisured generation in world history has disconnected itself from the past and is letting its bridge to the future fall into disrepair. Babies don’t look like hope to us; they look like a huge risk (which they are), to be taken on only when we think we are “ready” (which may be never). It’s not uncommon to talk to young women who have never even held a baby and perhaps never will, unless their biological clock sounds off. But while the population alarmists are still alarming, social observers are beginning to wonder how a shrinking labor force can support a growing retirement community. That’s a real concern but not, I think, the main one. In denying our children, we deny the best of ourselves. Many potential parents choose childlessness for the sake of their freedom, but hedging our bets and hoarding our pleasures are not marks of freedom. Instead, they are the essence of fear. A
KRIEG BARRIE
I , , Benjamin Franklin witnessed the world’s first manned flight in the gardens of the Rue de Montreuil, Paris. As he and several hundred spectators gazed in slack-jawed wonder at the magnificent hot-air balloon, rising with its intrepid aviators, an acquaintance scoffed beside him. A pretty sight, admitted the skeptic, but what use is flying in the air? To which Franklin replied, “Sir, what is the use of a newborn baby?” Fifteen years later, a mild-mannered Anglican clergyman published the first edition of An Essay on the Principles of Population. In his signature work, revised five times, Thomas Malthus presented a simple thesis: Times of peace and prosperity tended to increase the population, which would, at a certain indefinable point, begin to stretch available resources. This would lead directly to famine and disease, and indirectly to war, all of which would bring the population down to a manageable size until it began to outgrow its bounds again. The cycle was probably God’s way of curtailing human vice. Malthus had his critics, notably Karl Marx, who believed that population increased production, not want. But the clergyman’s defenders included such heavy hitters as Darwin, John Stewart Mill, and Herbert Spencer of “survival of the fittest” fame. If Malthus didn’t introduce the fear of overpopulation, he gave his name to it. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, for example, young women are never without their Malthusian belt: an essential fashion accessory with a contraceptive for every occasion. By mid-th century, even after two world wars had crimped the population, fears of overcrowding reached a crescendo. A lecture by ecologist William
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5/27/13 1:03 PM
If you long to know the mind of God, you must learn to use your own.
KRIEG BARRIE
If you’re looking for truth that can transform your life and change the world, devote yourself to diligent, disciplined study of God’s Word. Because a faith that’s truly mature requires a mind that’s well-informed. ©
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Reviews Movies TV > Books > QA > Music
Unnatural disaster MOVIE: An exciting survival tale gets weighed down with wooden dialogue and plot clichés in Shyamalan’s After Earth BY MEGAN BASHAM
COLUMBIA PICTURES
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I offering instruction to would-be novelists, the great science fiction author, Orson Scott Card, warned against using prologues, admitting, “I have never— not once—found that by skipping the prologue I missed some information I needed to have in order to read the story; and when I have read the prologue first, I have never—not once— found it interesting, helpful or even understandable.” It’s advice that writer/director M. Night Shyamalan would have been wise to heed with his new sci-fi film, After Earth (rated PG- for action violence and some gory alien attacks). Acting as a sort of cinematic prologue, the first minutes of After Earth provide a stilted, overly narrated scene-setting for the real story to
come. We learn that the time is , years after humanity has permanently poisoned Earth’s atmosphere with carbon. We learn that the global-warming survivors have escaped to a new planet outside of our solar system called Nova Prime. We learn that Nova Prime is home to an insectile breed of alien that tracks humans by smelling fear and that a few elite rangers are able to turn off their fear impulse—called “ghosting”—and, thus, are the only ones able to kill the aliens. And we learn that while General Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is the ghostiest of all the ghost rangers, his son, Kitai (Jaden Smith), is unable to match his father’s fearlessness. All of it is, if not un-understandable, at least as uninteresting and unhelpful as Card predicts. Even worse, it clutters
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up what could have been an exciting father-son survival narrative with superfluous backstory and robs Shyamalan of precious screen time that would have been better devoted to developing fully fleshed-out characters and plugging a few planet-sized plot holes. The human-free Earth that Cypher and Kitai crash on is a thriving and beautiful, if dangerously Darwinian, paradise. Unfortunately, they are unable to breathe the poisoned air (despite the fact all the monkeys, tigers, snakes, and birds have no problem with it), leaving them just four days to locate an emergency beacon that was lost when the tail of their spaceship tore off. With both his legs broken, Cypher has no choice but to guide his son via video link through the wilderness to
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5/29/13 11:49 AM
Reviews > Movies & TV
Will (left) and Jaden as Cypher and Kitai
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DOCUMENTARY
The Ghost Army by Emily Whitten
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One reason 30,000 American soldiers of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops haven’t received their due—despite critical roles in World War II including the Battle of the Bulge—is the fact that most of them never existed. In truth, the so-called Ghost Army consisted of a mere 1,100 deception artists. In this documentary, which aired on PBS in May and remains available on DVD, producer Rick Beyer examines this special army unit, combining photographs, video footage, and interviews with both historians and members of the Ghost Army. As General Wesley Clark explains, “the essence of winning is the defeat of the enemy’s plan … and to do that requires creativity and deception.” Who better to deceive the Germans than illustrators, designers, and other creative types from art schools in New York and Philadelphia? And as it turned out, Bill Blass, who later become a fashion icon, and minimalist painter Ellsworth Kelly were among many talented artists who volunteered for the unit. The goal of the Ghost Army was to perpetrate three types of deception: visual, sonic, and radio. Visual deception Perhaps that’s because included disguising airfields, as well as creating the false while the tiger and the alien impression of occupying army units using near-empty trucks are both man-eaters, only and inflatable tanks and guns. (Video of soldiers lifting the tiger looks cute as a inflatable Sherman tanks is as entertaining today as the plush toy. original sight must have been to peasants in the French Either way, the green axcountryside.) As for sonic deception, trucks with loud grinding is as tedious as it is speakers played recordings of army movements, while radio obtrusive, operators matched visual and sonic leading to cues with fake radio transmissions. another bit Beyer doesn’t paint a rich picture of wisdom of what the men experienced or For the weekend of May 24-26 Shyamalan how war changed them. Instead he according to Box Office Mojo should have traces a narrow time line of their cautions: Quantity of sexual (S), violent picked up major conflicts, with hints of how (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 from sci-fi they used drawings and watercolors scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com master to capture the haunting beauty of S V L Card: “The battle-torn Europe. While the movie 1̀ Fast & Furious 6 PG-13..........4 6 5 least effecshows little of the carnage of war, 2̀ The Hangover Part III R........ 7 7 10 tive moral several drawings of Parisian harlots 3̀ Star Trek Into instruction are unsuitable for younger viewers. Darkness PG-13.........................3 5 4 in fiction is Still, Beyer does bring overdue rec4̀ Epic* PG......................................... 1 4 1 5̀ Iron Man 3* PG-13.....................3 7 4 that which ognition to these soldiers of World 6̀ The Great Gatsby* PG-13......5 6 3 is conWar II who never were—and the 7̀ Mud* PG-13...................................3 5 5 sciously artists who so effectively brought 8̀ 42* PG-13......................................3 4 4 inserted.” A them to life. 9̀ The Croods* PG......................... 1 3 1 10 Oblivion* PG-13..........................4 6 5 `
Box Office Top 10
the Ghost Army: PBS • After Earth: Columbia Pictures
the future-based characters seem to bear no relation at all to actual living, laughing, arguing human beings. They speak to each other with a woodenness that is far more information-laden (i.e., “happy 19th birthday” rather than simply “happy birthday”) and to-the-point (“Do you think I’m a coward father?”) than natural dialogue. Most c lichéd of all, though, is the heavyhanded moralizing that trades on the extreme environmental view that humans are a plague and the Earth would be better off without them. Toward the end of the early information dump, Cypher tells Kitai that humanity’s animal hunting nearly led to the extinction
of whales. The film closes with an ocean full of leaping humpbacks happy to see the last of the latest two Homo sapiens exiles to leave “their” planet. Ironically, though Cypher implies mankind has learned its lesson, he doesn’t seem the least bit bothered that his rangers are now killing off the natural inhabitants of their new home planet.
*Reviewed by world
5/29/13 11:51 AM
Much Ado About Nothing: Roadside Attractions • epic: 20th Century Fox
retrieve their only hope for rescue. Given that Shyamalan is one of the few directors whose films usually avoid the profanity and sexual content typical of high- profile action-adventures, it’s a shame his work seems to have grown lazier and more clichéd with each subsequent effort. Here, as in the worst of the genre,
MOVIE
Much Ado About Nothing by Alicia M. Cohn
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It would be easy to dismiss Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing as a vanity project made for the writer/director’s loyal fanbase. He cast almost exclusively from actors whose own popularity is rooted in the Whedon oeuvre (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Avengers), automatically making his black-and-white take on one of William Shakespeare’s beloved comedies a must-see reunion. Fortunately, the art film—independently produced by Whedon and his wife Kai Cole and shot in 12 days in their Santa Monica home—might appeal to a niche audience, but it demonstrates the tireless creativity and ability to reinvigorate familiar tropes that earned Whedon fans in the first place. His contemporary take on the “hey nonny nonny” song alone earns his place in the history of Shakespeare adaptations. And Whedon’s actor friends deliver performances worthy
of Shakespeare’s words, completely at ease with his syntax. Benedick (Alexis Denisof) and Beatrice (Amy Acker) are the heart of the play, and provide the film’s best moments with a blend of real emotion and ruthless banter. Whedon allows the couple to be interesting apart as well as together, which elevates the rest of the ensemble. Whedon mostly overcomes the play’s faults, but giving a girlfriend to the transparent villain Don John (Sean Maher) fails to make him less tiresome or more comical. Still, Whedon delivers a fresh perspective on an old script, using body language—including slapstick—and physical clues, such as the constant drinking that might make the central matchmaking scheme seem reasonable.
MOVIE
Epic
by Stephanie Perrault
the Ghost Army: PBS • After Earth: Columbia Pictures
Much Ado About Nothing: Roadside Attractions • epic: 20th Century Fox
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Summer is the purview of childhood—long, hot days, goofing off in the swimming pool, Coke and popcorn at the movie theater. The felicity of adulthood is finding a film worth the cost of the overpriced concessions. With the release of Epic, the latest animated feature from the makers of Ice Age and Horton Hears a Who, at least one flick fits the bill. Epic, though not particularly grand or heroic, offers a charming story of good versus evil in a forest world beyond the bounds of human perception. One nutty scientist with motion-sensor cameras and goofy ocular headgear is the only person aware of this miniature world, where blight-bestowing Boggins wage war against hummingbird-mounted Leaf-men. The Boggins are a despicable horde of creatures hoping to transform the forest into a crumbling wasteland. The handsome Leaf-men and their flower-bud queen Tara (voiced by Beyoncé) are the only ones who can stop them.
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This is no home movie, though the modern setting seems more a necessity than a careful choice. Whedon makes the best of his resources by shooting Benedick ranting with a background of Barbies or working out during a soliloquy (this may mark the first time a Shakespearean character has done lunges). Unfortunately, Whedon also built in some modern—and gratuitous— departures that earned the movie its PG-13 rating, such as characters smoking a joint and in bed (the sexual content is mostly implicit, but not subtle).
The Boggins out number the Leaf-men, but the Leaf-men have the power of goodness on their side. If they can protect their queen and her soon-to-be-named successor, they’ll succeed in their mission. When the Boggins kill Queen Tara, uncertainty reigns. A grieving teenager named Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried), daughter of the crazy scientist, is the only person to hear the queen’s last words regarding the care of the next ruler, revealed by the blooming of an enchanted rosebud. Mary Katherine (M.K. for short) catches the magical bud and shrinks to the size of the other forest sprites. Now it’s up to her to protect the bud and make sure it blooms safely under the light of a full moon. The result is a winsome tale (rated PG for mild action, some scary images and brief rude language) children will enjoy and one their parents can use as a starting point to discuss the cancerous effects of sin and the true source of hope in our world.
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Reviews > Books
Author argues that strong families can prevent a broken church BY MARVIN OLASKY
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“T G C” is upon us, reports the National Marriage Project: The median age at which women first give birth, . years, now falls below the median age at first marriage, .. That’s because percent of all first births now come outside the comforting bounds of a two-parent family. One reason for this crossover is clearly declining faith in the cross—fewer people believe what God teaches about marriage—but will the decline in family formation lead to a further decline in religious belief? That’s what Mary Eberstadt argues in How the West Really Lost God (Templeton Press, ). She flips the conventional wisdom—first religious decline, then family decline—and argues that family formation increases religious involvement but unformed or broken families lead to a broken church. She puts her thesis in italics: “Something about living in families makes people more receptive to religiosity and the Christian creed.” ” On the way to defending her thesis, Eberstadt examines the theory that historians have exaggerated past religiosity and finds it wanting: Maybe
so, although Rodney Stark has proffered evidence that churchgoing has increased rather than declined over the centuries. She scoffs at the idea that “the unprecedented prosperity of modern times” has led more people to worship Mammon rather than God: Maybe so, although the Old
Eberstadt
S The Lamb’s Agenda by Samuel Rodriguez (Thomas Nelson, ) as a Latino uprising, and that’s inevitable because Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference—but Christians of many ethnicities should read it. Rodriguez takes on “lukewarm Christians” who “accommodate their beliefs to the dictates of the state” and calls for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit rather than “another bailout, stimulus package, or new political movement.” In so doing he is specific about our political and cultural problems. For example, he describes one result of internet pornography: “Ordinary young men are losing interest in ordinary young women. Many of them are no longer looking for girls who would be good wives and mothers. They are looking for girls who would be good performers, real or otherwise.” Rodriguez lays out a lamb’s agenda that transcends the agendas of both donkeys and elephants. He’s sound in his analysis of church-state relationships: “I have no problem if Uncle Sam comes to the church and recognizes that faith-based groups execute ministries to the poor and hurting in a more constructive and holistic manner than government ever can. … I find it entirely contrary to the spirit of the Bible for a faith-based group to approach government and beg for funding.” —M.O.
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Rousing lambs
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Family first
Testament points to the pattern in ancient Israel of more stuff leading to less interest in God. The main event, though, is Eberstadt’s search for evidence to support her family-first thesis. She speculates that parents see their children as wonderfully created, and “it is too intense for many parents to believe that the life before them has a cold, finite end.” She writes about “the selfless care of an ailing family member, the financial sacrifices made for those whose adulthood one may never live to see—even the incredible human feat of staying married for a long time.” Those examples of dying to self, she argues, make the Christian emphasis on doing that seem good and right. That’s true, as are many other points Eberstadt makes. But she leaves out the most crucial point: what God is doing. The teaching that women “will be saved through childbearing” is one of the most difficult in all of Scripture, but if Eberstadt’s thesis is correct, God uses childbearing and raising, within families, to draw women—and men—to Himself. Both women and men learn that they are not the center of the world, that they belong to their spouses and to God. Self-focus is the chief obstacle to God-focus, and when family trumps self, the road to transformation providentially becomes open.
NOTABLE BOOKS Popular theological books > reviewed by
Blood Work Anthony Carter The Christian faith is a bloody faith. Every benefit available to those who believe in Jesus Christ is connected to them through a trail of blood that leads from the cross. In Blood Work, Anthony Carter, pastor of East Point Church in East Point, Ga., demonstrates from the pages of the Bible how the blood of Christ is necessary for purchasing, propitiating, justifying, redeeming, cleansing, sanctifying, electing, freeing, and so much else. In a book that is equally descriptive and meditative, Carter forces the reader to take a look at the Bible’s blood motif and to see it as equally vile and beautiful, for the blood that flowed to demonstrate the cost of our salvation is the very thing that accomplished it.
Crucifying Morality R.W. Glenn Though we could hardly claim that Jesus’ Beatitudes are unknown or underappreciated, they are too often misunderstood and inappropriately applied. Instead of understanding them as qualities that mark the one who has been saved by grace, they are reduced to a series of commandments through which we win God’s favor. In Crucifying Morality R.W. Glenn teaches through the Beatitudes. As he does so, he battles their misappropriation, showing that Jesus “uses counterintuitive gospel logic to show us that life in the kingdom of God is completely contrary to what we expect. In fact, we could not have predicted it. Kingdom blessing looks like the opposite of everything we value.” The Beatitudes, properly understood, show a Christian who lives in the joy and freedom of the gospel.
Humble Orthodoxy Joshua Harris
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COURTNEY NAVEY/ISTOCK
In Joshua Harris released Dug Down Deep, a book challenging the reader to build his life upon robust, biblical theology. That book’s strongest chapter, a call to equal parts orthodoxy and humility, forms the basis for Humble Orthodoxy. Here Harris challenges readers to hold the truth high without putting people down. J.D. Greear aptly describes the challenge in his foreword: “Getting doctrine right is a matter of life and death, but holding that doctrine in the right spirit is essential too. A great deal of damage is done by those who hold the truth of Christ with the spirit of Satan.” Harris’ call to hold fast to both truth and love is written in and for a digital age in which words come quickly and damage deeply.
SPOTLIGHT Martin Luther said, “The highest worship of God is the preaching of the Word; because thereby are praised and celebrated the name and the benefits of Christ.” This dedication to the preaching of the Word is among the greatest legacies of the Reformation, for the Reformers held that preaching is one of God’s greatest means of grace to His people. Steven Lawson’s The Kind of Preaching God Blesses attempts to recapture the priority of biblical preaching in the face of its many contemporary counterfeits, for “As the pulpit goes, so goes the church. … The spiritual life of any congregation and its growth in grace will never exceed the high-water mark set by its pulpit.” This is a book for those who preach sermons, for it will challenge them to preach God’s Word in God’s way, and it is a book for those who listen to sermons, for it will challenge them to be satisfied with nothing less. –T.C.
Saving Eutychus Gary Millar & Phil Campbell Eutychus had a privilege we have all wished for at one time or another: an evening with the world’s foremost theologian. Yet he is known to history for just one thing—falling asleep and plunging to the ground (Acts ). Pastors Gary Millar and Phil Campbell are concerned with preaching that is boring or bad, and Saving Eutychus is their biblical, practical, and delightfully quirky antidote. They desire to equip preachers to prepare sermons that change the heart, offering powerful insights into the nature of preaching combined with practical pointers. The book’s greatest strengths come in describing sermon preparation—particularly prayer—and the intricacies of pitch, pace, and volume in sermon delivery. It is for good reason that both D.A. Carson and Alistair Begg hail it as one to read. To see more book news and reviews, go to worldmag.com/books
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JUNE 15, 2013 • WORLD
5/24/13 10:10 AM
if this is what you think of online education,
The new fully online, 36-hour Master of theological studies
Grab a seat from wherever you are.
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30%
discount for Church Staff Members
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Art Cox/Patrick Henry College
we’re changing the way you think.
Reviews > Q&A
Fifty-year calling From a front seat at the circus for half a century, CAL THOMAS has seen a lot change in the media and in America BY MARVIN OLASKY
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money: Entertainment makes the money, so the news division just does news. That gave the news division tremendous freedom to cover what actually mattered, not shark attacks, Kim Kardashian, and other goofball stuff. What’s happened ideologically over the years? Liberal then, liberal now, but what are the differences? We now have a government/ journalism revolving door, usually on the liberal side. Much of journalism today is lazy, taking what particular politicians say at face value and rarely questioning them. Any advice for young Christians who aspire to work in the mainstream media? Nobody at the national level in television is a committed believer—there is a filtration
system and you will be challenged—so go in as a servant. Before I was even a committed believer, I never turned down an assignment, including “Would you get me a cup of coffee?” Nobody else wanted to go at a.m. to
Andrews Air Force Base and set up a camera for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he came back from some place I never heard of, because he never said anything. I went. One time he actually said something. I was on The Today Show that morning. You write columns and talk on television: Which stimulates your thought process more? The column, without any question. It not only takes longer to produce, but it lasts longer. You want to see what I said about such-and-such a subject five years ago: You can
ART COX/PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE
C T, born in , was an NBC reporter during the s and s and vice president of the Moral Majority during the s. He writes a biweekly syndicated column, delivers a daily radio commentary, and appears regularly on Fox News. Here are edited excerpts of his comments in front of Patrick Henry College students. Some folks play fantasy basketball games: Boston Celtics against Miami Heat. You worked at NBC during the s: If a fantasy journalism team from that era played against one from the present, would “then” or “now” win? Then, without any question. Most journalists at that time were probably liberal and secular, but NBC President Robert Kittner said the news division didn’t have to make
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Reviews > Q&A find it. I haven’t a clue what I said five minutes ago on TV, and I doubt the audience does either. Then I’ll press you on some columns. You wrote one about “Sex in the City of Washington”: What connection have you seen over the years between sexual misconduct and official misconduct? On Capitol Hill you see all these young women around all these middle-aged or older members of Congress: The power thing is dangerous. It gets to the character question: If a married man cannot control himself in this most fundamental area. Here’s a legitimate question: “Senator, if
we have to tell other people they ought to be like us? A lot of conservative politicians are on their second, third, or fourth spouse and are talking about traditional values. That doesn’t have a lot of power. In “What Arab Spring?” you threw icy water on utopian notions concerning the Middle East. Would Egypt be better off now if Mubarak were still in power? Mubarak kept the lid on between the crazies and the more moderate types. He allowed the Coptic Christians to worship openly for the most part. Now you see Coptic Christians attacked, and the rise of extremist Islam. Take
other websites. I simply quote what the fanatics say in their media, schools, and pulpits. They say they’re coming after us. They want to infiltrate us, subjugate us, and replace the Constitution with Sharia law. They don’t believe we have any backbone to stand up against them, and they may be right. Islam is the least tolerant religion in the history of humanity. And don’t tell me about the Crusades. I won’t, but how does a “no mosque” policy go with the First Amendment? During the threat from Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II, we didn’t allow German or Japanese schools
‘I oppose same-sex marriage, but I’m much more concerned about the breakup of the heterosexual family. If we can’t keep our own marriages together, what kind of moral power do we have to tell other people they ought to be like us?’
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the time to read the charter of the Muslim Brotherhood. You’ve written, “No new mosque should be built in Western countries.” I know this is dangerous to say because you immediately get labeled an Islamophobe. We’re journalists, danger is our middle name. Yeah, right. But I read sermons from Middle Eastern mosques that are posted on MEMRI and
to teach their view of the world in our country. Now we are inviting people who want to destroy us to come here and build their mosques all over the country, like Starbucks. They’re getting money from the Wahhabi sect of Saudi Arabia, and their textbooks, schooling, and instruction primarily from Saudi Arabia (our supposed ally that wouldn’t be if we didn’t need their oil). It’s
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we can’t believe a promise you have freely made to your wife, on what basis do we judge your credibility when you make a promise to the country?” You’ve written about same-sex marriage. I oppose same-sex marriage, but I’m much more concerned about the breakup of the heterosexual family. If we can’t keep our own marriages together, what kind of moral power do
totally crazy. If we think we’re going to Westernize them, we are ignorant of the Quran. Is the Islamist threat now like the Communist threat was a generation or two ago? It’s greater, because the Communists were atheists. They believed that this life is all there is and wanted to live, for the most part. But radical Islamists believe if they kill you they’ll go right to heaven. It’s difficult to negotiate with somebody who believes their god wants you dead. One of the great problems with Western thinking: We think everybody can be made like us if we just give them what they want. In a culture like ours, how should Christians proclaim beliefs and principles without being obnoxious? The greatest evangelistic tools Jesus of Nazareth gave us were the ones I see least practiced in our culture. Love your enemies: When you start loving your enemies the way God does, they cease being your enemies—and the greater work is done in you. Pray for those who persecute you. Jesus said in the world you will have tribulation and “if they persecuted Me they’ll persecute you.” So don’t take it personally: They’re really persecuting Him in you. What kinds of idols do we tend to worship? We’re always on big stuff, full stadiums, books, being on TV, all this other business. Jesus is into the small things: mustard seed, widow’s mite, last place at the table, when I am weak then I am strong, humble yourself and He will exalt you, those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. A
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
5/24/13 10:33 AM
a continuation of Chamberlain-Hunt Academy
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Reviews > Music
Off track
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WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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From a money-making point of view, Luhrmann’s strategy is as foolproof as it is obvious. Cram a bunch of Grammy types aboard a hubristic musical luxury liner, and, even if it turns out to be the RMS Titanic (two can play the anachronism game), the eventuating omelet will have been worth the broken eggs. The soundtrack does, however, have one redeeming quality: Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful.” A measured meditation on the very mutability that functions like an undertow in Fitzgerald’s fiction, it gathers meta-momentum from the fact that, like Daisy Buchanan herself, Del Rey is, down to the smallest detail of her carefully crafted image, a product of the male imagination. If Beyoncé, Fergie, and Florence Welch had managed to convey the solidity of either Fitzgerald’s Jordan Baker or Myrtle Wilson, Luhrmann might’ve had something. There are similar chinks in the armor of Iron Man : Heroes Fall—Music Inspired by the Motion Picture (Hollywood). Who cares, some media mogul must have surmised, MOVIE MUSIC MUSIC: Del Rey (left); Yod, center, with members of Ya Ho Wa 13.
that the dozen tracks don’t even appear in the film? Surely all that will matter to the final remnants of the last generation willing to pay for music is that Imagine Dragons and Neon Trees contribute one track apiece and that the whole shebang sounds like something that Tony Stark’s child sidekick Harley Keener might not mind storing on his iPod—that is, until he hits puberty. This cinematic franchise deserves better. The Source Family, on the other hand—an underground documentary about a post-Woodstock, radically utopian Los Angeles hippie cult— probably deserves worse than its eponymous, Drag City Records soundtrack, which at its farthest out sounds like a collection of outtakes by such perennially fascinating countercultural weirdos as the Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders. Under the leadership of the WWII veteran Jim Baker—aka “Father Yod” (pronounced “Yoad”)—the Source Family, whose membership peaked at around , practiced vegetarianism, hirsutism, syncretic Eastern mysticism, and polyamory. But its musical members, under the name Ya Ho Wa , also made records, nine of them in fact. The prevailing spirit was one of making it up as they went along. “It’s all improvisation, you know,” announces a Family member at the beginning of one track. “We have not rehearsed a thing!” At least the Source Family never claimed that Yod, who died hang gliding in , rose from the dead. A
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“‘W like criticizing any one … just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’” Thus begins F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The narrator, Nick Carraway, is recalling WASP wisdom imparted to him by his father. After listening to Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film The Great Gatsby (Water Tower/ Interscope), however, one suspects that even Carraway the elder might’ve been willing to make some exceptions. Among the advantages that the contributors to Luhrmann’s soundtrack apparently haven’t had is immersing themselves in either Fitzgerald’s novel or the music of the Roaring Twenties, aka the Jazz Age (Gatsby’s setting). Whereas the novel coolly assesses “some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life,” Jay-Z (earning the album an explicit-lyrics warning) and Jack White (covering U) declaim and wail from beneath decades of anachronistically irony-coarsened desperation. And whereas the Jazz Age gave rise to the glories of the Harlem Renaissance, will.i.am and Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry do little more than freebase the ’s’ most obvious musical trademarks and inject the results into pop conceits from the ’s (“Bang Bang”) and the ’s (“Love Is the Drug”), respectively. Retro has seldom sounded so kitsch.
Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
5/28/13 4:12 PM
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Major soundtracks fail to live up to—or in one case down to— their films BY ARSENIO ORTEZA
NOTABLE CDs
Recent classical releases > reviewed by
Scarlatti, A.: Flute Sonatas Nos. 1-7 / Zipoli, D.: Sonate D’Intavolatura (excerpts) Severino Gazzelloni/Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini Take two great Italian Baroque composers (Alessandro Scarlatti and Domenico Zipoli), place the music of the former at the lips of a great th-century Italian flautist (Gazzelloni) and the music of the latter at the fingertips of a great th-century Italian organist (Tagliavini), and abandon despair, all ye who enter. About Scarlatti at this late date, little need be said. About Zipoli, let it be noted that he was a Jesuit missionary—and that his compositions honor the Jesuit motto, “For the Greater Glory of God.”
In the Garden of Eden Ariel Gilley The male voice that narrates these compositions for solo piano is as unnecessary as it is obtrusive, tainting Gilley’s otherwise fascinating transubstantiation of biblically Edenic themes into musical impressionism with the patina of over-explicit sermon points. The titles alone (“In the Beginning God,” “Cherubims and the Flaming Sword”) would’ve sufficed to make sure listeners got the point. Fortunately, the spoken bits are brief enough to ignore, leaving a sense of being at play in the fields of the Lord that only turns dark after “The Fall.”
SPOTLIGHT The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt was born on Sept. , . In , he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture by the recently retired Pope Benedict XVI. Pärt is no ordinary musical conduit,
The Music of Vladimir Martynov
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Hymns Spheres Keith Jarrett Pigeonhole Jarrett as a “jazz” improvisor, and this newly reissued recording will drive you nuts. Grant that his improvisations inherently defy categorization, however, and you’ll hear something majestic. Ensconced at the “larger of the two Karl Joseph Riepp (-) Organs at the Benedictine Abbey Ottobeuren,” the then -year-old Miles Davis alumnus got in touch with his inner (non-Thelonius) monk and bore down something not so much fierce as fiercely reverent. At his most coherent, he sounds enraptured. At his least, he’s fumbling heavenward. Kronos Quartet The repetitiveness of Martynov’s “Beatitudes” not only echoes Christ’s repeated “Blessed are,” but it also allows the sub-themes to unfold so gradually that one barely notices the climax until its subsumption in the resolution calls attention to its having passed. And if the anguished patience with which “Der Abschied” (“The Farewell”) proceeds makes it seem longer than its minutes, knowing that it’s the Russian composer’s memorial to his father’s refusal to go gentle into that good night almost makes it seem not long enough.
To see more music news and reviews, go to worldmag.com/music
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and the latest recording of his works—Adam’s Lament (ECM)—is works— no ordinary Arvo Pärt album. Almost frighteningly intense, it could restore the awesomeness of God to its rightfully unique place among the experiences that sentient beings can endure. The -minute title piece is, of course, the centerpiece. But one needn’t be conversant with its Eastern Orthodox specifics to appreciate its common grace any more than one need simply know that the “Alleluia” of the twominute, -second “Alleluia Tropus” means “Praise the Lord.” The stateliness, the majesty—even Pärt’s -minute “Salve Regina” will touch non-Catholics who remember that from the cross Jesus bequeathed Mary to John and thus to every beloved disciple.
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Mindy Belz
A battle of wills and ideas In terrorist-plagued Nigeria, the Obama administration can’t decide whose side it’s on
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I M at the National Defense University, President Barack Obama spoke of “a common ideology” fueling Islamic terrorism and the need for “all elements of national power to win a battle of wills and ideas.” We will have to forgive Deborah Wakai if she’s not buying that message. Just before the president’s speech, officials at the U.S. embassy in Abuja turned down Deborah’s application for a visa. She is one of four Nigerian victims of terrorism who applied to travel to the United States to attend a trauma counseling session this July. Her sponsoring organization is Tuesday’s Children, a New York–based nonprofit that’s worked with over , children who lost loved ones on /. The group’s efforts have been successful enough that in Tuesday’s Children launched an international program to bring together teens ages - who have lost a loved one to terrorism from all over the world. Through summer
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camps it’s brought together over children from countries. TURNED DOWN: Imagine: Israeli victims of terrorism engaging Deborah and her with Palestinians who also lost a parent in a mom; the caskets of terrorist attack. By all accounts, the gatherings her brother Caleb are what winning “a battle of wills and ideas” and her father Peter. is about. Tuesday’s Children invited Deborah to this summer’s camp in the United States—with reason. In the militant Islamic group Boko Haram attacked her father’s church and others in northern Nigeria during Christmas services, killing more than . At blood-spattered St. Theresa Catholic Church outside
Abuja, the Muslim fighters scrawled, “No more peace in the country.” Deborah’s father Peter and her only brother Caleb were killed so gruesomely she cannot describe it. Then, the terrorists laid Deborah between their bodies and tied her to them, where she was forced to remain all night. She was years old. Of four Nigerian teenagers with similar stories who applied to the U.S. embassy for visas at the behest of Tuesday’s Children, the embassy denied visa requests for the three who are Christian but accepted the one who is Muslim. The reason they gave Deborah? Insufficient family ties. Thanks to Boko Haram, Deborah doesn’t have enough immediate family members— only her mother—to compel her to return to Nigeria following the camp. It’s becoming more difficult to believe the Obama administration’s sincerity about confronting Islamic terrorism at the level of “wills and ideas.” In Dublin last year the U.S. embassy sponsored a seminar for Muslim business leaders, which included promoting Shariacompliant financial instruments. In northern Nigeria the U.S. Agency for International Development has spent over million on “education initiatives” that primarily benefit Sharia—or Islamic law-based—schools. Most recently, the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom in May financed a “Holocaust awareness” trip to Auschwitz for imams from seven Muslim countries— including Nigeria—and the United States. Yet the battle continues. More Christians are killed in targeted attacks across northern Nigeria than are killed in all the rest of the world combined. The Nigerian government on May declared a state of emergency to battle terrorism in three states, including Borno state, where Deborah lives. Her father’s church was in the Borno city of Maiduguri, birthplace of Boko Haram. There on May , Boko Haram gunmen trailed and shot at close range Faye Pama Musa, a pastor and state head of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Musa had officiated at the Wakais’ funeral. There are many forms of U.S. “intervention” in the battle against Islamic terrorism. One would be to welcome young victims of the violence for a time of aid and comfort in the United States, rather than leaving them to summer on as Deborah will do in a swelter of ongoing siege. A
Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
5/28/13 3:15 PM
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The IRS targeted more than Tea Party groups for special investigations. The agency also went after religious, pro-life, and pro-marriage groups, holding up tax-exempt status for months and even seeking details about group prayers
Agent exegesis
S
M founded Coalition for Life of Iowa because she wanted the pro-life movement to do bigger things in Cedar Rapids. Churches in the town of about , already held their own events, but Martinek thought coordinating resources would lead to greater outreach. The small-business owner sought tax-exempt status with the
Internal Revenue Service in October . Like the head of most fledging nonprofits, she knew more donors would be
inclined to give if they could claim tax deductions. Martinek mailed the application and waited. In April
, the IRS asked for more information, including “advertisements, schedules, syllabuses, handouts, a summary of each person’s speech.” After complying with
by EDWARD LEE PITTS in Washington
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Martinek didn’t know what to do, and the group didn’t have enough money for an attorney. “You don’t hear about people fighting the IRS and winning,” she said. “I didn’t want the IRS to be upset with me, and they are just so powerful you don’t expect them to back off.” The fallout from the recent government report outlining the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups has focused on Tea Party organizations. According to the report, the IRS used improper and potentially unconstitutional criteria to scrutinize groups seeking tax-exempt status. Innocuous application phrases such as groups seeking “to make America a better place to live” triggered IRS red flags that led to delays, denials, and audits. In the best apology he could muster, Steven Miller, the outgoing acting IRS commissioner, called those actions “horrible customer service.” But such “service” also ensnared religious groups like the Coalition for Life of Iowa. “When
Martinek: Charlie Neibergall/ap • Christian Voices for Life: handout
this exhaustive record request, Martinek called the IRS on June 6, 2009. An agent told her to submit just one more item for approval: a letter with signatures from every member of the coalition’s board pledging, under the threat of perjury, that they would not organize groups to picket or protest outside of the local Planned Parenthood chapter. Martinek’s board debated the demand. Some agreed to sign. Others refused, saying it was a violation of their First Amendment rights. On June 22, the group received an IRS letter with more requirements: “Please explain how all of your activities, including the prayer meetings held outside of Planned Parenthood are considered educational,” the letter read. “Please explain in detail the activities at these prayer meetings.” The IRS asked for the “percentage of time” the group spent in prayer and to explain how signs were educational.
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‘I didn’t want the IRS to be upset with me, and they are just so powerful you don’t expect them to back off.’ —Susan Martinek the government starts talking about people of faith as people that need to be scrutinized more because of the negative implications they can have against the government, that ought to be frightening to most Americans,” said U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., the chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. In Sugar Land, Texas, Marie McCoy started Christian Voices for Life in 2010. Trying to save money, she filled out the IRS tax-exempt application herself. As with the Iowa group, the IRS asked for more material. McCoy wondered why the agency didn’t ask for all the necessary information in the application. She suspected the IRS was slow walking her request, overwhelming her with cumbersome demands designed to discourage her from pressing her case. An IRS letter dated March 31, 2011, asked: “do you education on both sides of the issues in your program?” It didn’t even use correct English. But grammar was the least of McCoy’s concerns. “If you are trying to advocate against smoking, does that mean you have to
Martinek: Charlie Neibergall/ap • Christian Voices for Life: handout
explain what the benefits of smoking are?” McCoy asked. She reached out to a national pro-life organization, and they put her in touch with the Thomas More Society—a Chicago-based public-interest law firm. Attorney Sally Wagenmaker took the case. In order to gain tax-exempt status, organizations have to be charitable, educational, religious, or some combination of the three. In 1980, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that groups didn’t have to present both sides of an issue to qualify for tax-exempt status. Educational communication can be brief and emotionally compelling, the court ruled. But in these pro-life applications the IRS pursued a narrower test that included delving into the content of the groups’ message. “It is very strange that the very entity that’s supposed to be enforcing the laws doesn’t know what the law is,” Wagenmaker said. “I don’t think the IRS is supposed to be deciding what’s constitutional and what’s not.” Soon after Wagenmaker took the cases for both the Christian Voices for Life and the Coalition for Life of Iowa, the IRS withdrew its demands and approved the groups for tax-exempt status. The board for the Iowa coalition never signed a statement promising to avoid picketing in front of the local Planned Parenthood. “It’s fortunate,” said Martinek with the coalition, “because we have people go over there regularly to pray. We are not so much about protesting, but we didn’t want to sign away our rights.” Wagenmaker called it strange that the IRS singled out Planned Parenthood for protection from these small
undue pressure: Martinek (top) in her home; Christian Voices for Life holds a recent life chain event.
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Group
Status with the IRS
Details of conflict with the agency
Samaritan’s Purse and Billy Graham Evangelical Association
Audited
Ran ads in the spring of 2012 supporting a North Carolina amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage and ads before last November’s elections asking citizens to “vote for Biblical values”; audit began last fall.
Iowa Right to Life
Applied in October 2008, approved after legal intervention
Asked to provide advertisements, schedules, syllabuses, handouts, a s ummary of each person’s speech, a letter from the coalition’s board pledging, under the threat of perjury, that they would not organize pickets or protests against the local Planned Parenthood chapter.
James Dobson’s Family Talk Action Corporation
Applied in fall 2011, approved after 19 months and an initial denial
An IRS agent told a Dobson attorney that the exemption status would not be granted because Dobson had criticized President Obama
Cherish Life Ministries
Recently denied
Told it didn't qualify as a nonprofit organization because it was a political organization
National Organization for Marriage
Lawsuit being filed by NOM against IRS
Claims the IRS leaked the group’s confidential tax documents to the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign
The Biblical Recorder
Audited for the first time in 180-year history
Audit came after the paper published ads supporting the state’s marriage amendment
Z Street
Lawsuit pending after 2.5 years
Told it may be assigned to "a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization's activities contradict the Administration's public policies"
Christian Voices for Life
Applied in 2010, approved after legal intervention
Asked by the IRS “do you education on both sides of the issues in your program?”
grassroots groups. “That is like the elephant being concerned about a mosquito,” she said. “I’d love to see an application from a Planned Parenthood to see if the IRS asked them, ‘Do you counsel on pro-life issues?’”
T
he IRS did not just pursue local groups advocating for life. Established national faith-based organizations promoting traditional marriage found themselves in the agency’s crosshairs. Franklin Graham wrote a letter to President Obama on May 14 claiming the IRS last year targeted the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse. The groups bought ads in the spring of 2012 supporting a North Carolina amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage and
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ads before last November’s elections asking citizens to “vote for Biblical values.” Last fall, the IRS notified the ministries that the agency would review their tax records. “This is morally wrong and unethical—indeed some would call it ‘un-American,’” Graham wrote. “Unfortunately, while these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing IRS agents in our offices.” The Biblical Recorder, a Baptist newspaper in North Carolina, received its first IRS audit in its 180-year history in March after publishing ads supporting the state’s marriage amendment. James Dobson’s Family Talk Action Corporation filed a form seeking 501(c)(4) approval in the fall of 2011. The group’s attorneys spent 19 months
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JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS/Newscom
Singled out
Some of the religious, pro-life, and pro-marriage groups targeted by the IRS
following the request. On March 19, 2013, an IRS agent told a Dobson attorney that the exemption status would not be granted because Dobson had criticized President Obama. According to Alex McFarland, a senior Dobson advisor, the IRS agent said Dobson was not producing content that was educational or presented all viewpoints. When Dobson’s attorney threatened litigation, it took the IRS nine days to grant the tax-exempt status. The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) suspects that someone at the IRS leaked confidential donor information to a rival advocacy group in the heat of last year’s elections. The group receiving the information, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), calls itself the nation’s largest LGBT organization. HRC’s head, Joe Solmonese, soon became a co-chair of Obama’s reelection campaign. Touting the information as never-beforeseen, HRC published NOM’s donor data on its website in March 2012. The list of names included then presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “Not only has Romney signed NOM’s radical marriage pledge, now we know he’s one of the donors that NOM has been so desperate to keep secret all these years,” Solmonese said at the time. Publication of the list led gay-marriage groups to push for boycotts of the donors’ businesses. A forensic specialist hired by NOM determined that the leaked document originated from the IRS after uncovering a redacted IRS watermark that only
appears in documents in the agency’s internal computer system. NOM is filing a lawsuit to discover who is behind this illegal breach of information that is punishable by up to five years in prison. “I remind people that the abuse of the IRS for political purposes was one of the charges of impeachment that had been drawn up against Richard Nixon before he resigned back in 1974,” said John Eastman, NOM’s chairman. He added that some of NOM’s major donors are reluctant to continue giving if their personal information can’t be kept private. Eastman recognized that the pro-life groups, the traditional marriage groups, and the Tea Party groups all are guilty of being on the wrong side of the Obama administration. Wagenmaker, who specializes in representing nonprofits before the IRS, said the agency historically zeros in on money issues and the misuse of donations. Are the nonprofit leaders paying themselves, getting insider deals, or making loans with contributions? “These things are natural for the IRS to be a watchdog for,” she said. “But now the IRS is asking about people’s message. As long as the IRS is charged with regulating political speech there are going to be problems.” Wagenmaker has worked on four cases where the IRS has conducted viewpoint profiling. The
JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS/Newscom
special favors?: Solmonese (left) and Obama at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner.
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big question many social conservatives are asking in the aftermath of the IRS’ overreach: How many sprouting local groups did not have the resources to break through IRS roadblocks? How many no longer exist or can’t expand or were silenced because they were put on a watch list and couldn’t fight IRS muscle? As Martinek with the Iowa pro-life group says, “Trying to fight the IRS can squash your hopes.”
C
fighting back: Franklin, left, and Billy Graham (top); a National Organization for Marriage rally in Washington, D.C.
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employees at ground zero of the federal bureaucracy going rogue? I’m willing to bet there’s still a lot more we’ll discover.” Lawmakers continue to express ire that government officials did not inform Congress sooner. IRS leaders knew as early as 2011. Federal investigators had possession of internal IRS emails
Franklin & Billy Graham: Bill Haber/ap • National Organization for Marriage rally: Russ Voss/Polaris/newcom
apitol Hill lawmakers are getting daily phone calls from constituents who oversee conservative groups wondering whether viewpoint discrimination is at the heart of recent IRS audits and delays. While Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charge of the tax-exempt division, refuses to testify before Congress and goes on paid administrative leave, lawmakers are trying to discover who made the decisions that led to the abuses at one of the most maze-like bureaucracies in bureaucratic Washington. “What we first heard always stretched credibility,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who described the IRS as a place where people seek signatures and counter-signatures for paperwork. “I mean,
detailing the practices last July. Republicans are dismayed that Lerner, the person at the center of the scandal, had been tapped to lead the IRS’ new administrative duties under the trillion-dollar Obamacare program. In implementing what has been called the largest set of tax law changes in more than two decades, the IRS will gain expanded powers to gather information, monitor compliance, and impose fines for a new healthcare system that already has amassed about 20,000 pages of regulations. The IRS is asking for nearly 2,000 full-time employees for its Obamacare office. Back in Texas, McCoy’s Christian Voices for Life coordinates activities with about 20 area churches representing several denominations. Roughly 1,000 people at two locations participated in the group’s most recent life chain event. They stood alongside high-volume highways on a Saturday afternoon holding signs with messages like “Jesus Forgives and Heals” and “Abortion Kills Children.” Occasionally a person stopped, confessed to having had an abortion, and asked for prayer. This fall McCoy will begin a program for training area teenagers on how they can help friends who are experiencing crisis pregnancies or suffering from past abortions. Meanwhile in Cedar Rapids, participants with the Coalition for Life of Iowa go to a Planned Parenthood site every week to pray. Martinek’s own preferred prayer time is Wednesday nights when there is a teen clinic. It is something she wouldn’t have been able to do if she had given in to the IRS. With the money raised as a nonprofit, the Iowa coalition from more than 15 area churches has expanded its offerings. It holds educational forums on such topics as stem-cell research and end-of-life decisions. And, several times a year, hundreds of coalition members gather at a local church. Carrying signs, they march a mile along busy First Avenue toward Planned Parenthood. Once there, they spread out along the front of the building and pray. Sometimes they hear testimonies. Sometimes they wave to the people passing. Sometimes they write messages in chalk on the sidewalk: Jesus Loves You. Life. Often they draw a cross beside the words. That’s about as confrontational as the coalition gets. They don’t obstruct Planned Parenthood’s parking lot or entrance. Martinek likes to think they have been effective. She said local abortions have gone down 37 percent in the last three years. The local Planned Parenthood office has reduced its hours. After the rallies and prayers the coalition members do what many groups in middle America do: head over to the local pizza joint. They did not have to report that activity to the IRS. A
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5/27/13 9:15 AM
Sequester break Slowed spending and a better economy cut the deficit, but the problem is far from solved
A
by J.C. DERRICK in Washington
- measure known as the sequester took effect March , and since then President Barack Obama and his liberal allies have been trying desperately to make the cuts hurt— using everything from flight delays to preschoolers. “Reports are beginning to roll in about how children will bear the brunt of congressional inaction,” complained a blogger at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based liberal think tank. Yet a CBS News/New York Times poll conducted two months into the sequester found
OBAMA: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES • HEAD START: ANDREW D. BROSIG/THE DAILY SENTINEL/AP
that—despite the president’s best efforts— percent of Americans felt no personal impact, while only percent were affected a “great deal.” Furthermore, a peek at government spending numbers shows most budgets have drastically increased since Obama took office in . The preschool program Head Start is a good example: The program received . billion in fiscal year (FY) , and the continuing resolution (Congress hasn’t passed a real budget in four years) allocated more than billion—a percent nominal increase. That constitutes a raise, says Jeff Bergner, adjunct professor at Christopher Newport University: “Nobody in America says, ‘Well, dear, I got a , pay increase, but I’m depressed because it’s really a percent cut compared to what I should have got.’ Only in Washington do people talk like that.” Government programs grew roughly percent on average from fiscal year to fiscal year , which is why the Obama adminis-
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OBAMA: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES • HEAD START: ANDREW D. BROSIG/THE DAILY SENTINEL/AP
tration has found it difficult to convince Americans that a . percent cut is draconian. Bergner said the sequester meant legitimate reductions for the Department of Defense, but most social programs experienced no worse than a spending freeze as budgets held closer to FY levels. Head Start experienced an approximate freeze, but it still had enough money in the bank to spend over , on a threeday Washington, D.C., conference for , Head Start leaders in early May—including hotel reservations at a night. Maybe a conference was what the failing program needed: Last year a Department of Health and Human Services study found no difference between third-graders who had enrolled in Head Start and those who had not. “Head Start is a classic example of intentions mattering more than results,” said David Muhlhausen, a Heritage Foundation research fellow who studied the program. Bergner told me every time Obama refuses to cut from Obamacare, education, and green energy, “It’s like a roadmap for where we’re wasting money.” Energy spending has skyrocketed under Obama: In the first six weeks of alone, the departments of Energy and Treasury doled out . billion in cash payments for hundreds of energy projects around the country. The Congressional Budget Office projects the budget deficit will drop to billion—half of what it was four years ago—due to the sequester and a recovering economy.
PROVEN NOT TO WORK: Jamarion Anderson, , pauses in his play April at the Greater East Texas Community Action Program Head Start in Nacogdoches, Texas.
14%
increase
The long-term outlook, however, still isn’t good: Declining interest rates helped net interest payments on the debt hold steady around billion during the last five years, but the Office of Management and Budget estimates net interest payments will more than double in the next four years as interest rates rise. Net interest is expected to more than triple to billion annually in years, adding hundreds of billions to yearly deficits. Politicians on both sides of the aisle say they oppose across-the-board reductions in favor of targeted cuts. But every program has political advocates, so Bergner argues that across-the-board cuts are the only real means of cutting anything: “It’s never going to be popular, but I think it’s a reasonably fair way to proceed.” If lawmakers can’t agree to cut a program proven not to work—like Head Start—he may be right. A
38%
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Federal spending has grown about percent since Obama took office 3 outlays
67%
3 estimated outlays
increase
Source: Mercatus Center, George Mason University, using nominal dollars as provided by the Office of Management and Budget.
111%
2066% increase
39%
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29%
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Energy
Agriculture
Science, Space, and Technology
International Affairs
Justice
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Email: jderrick@worldmag.com
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Cuomo’s crusade New York’s governor wants to expand legal abortion in an already abortion-heavy state by EMILY BELZ in New York / /
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of reusing bloody tools, of
keeping a -month-old aborted baby in a freezer, and botching dozens of abortions. A woman died after one of his abortions, according to the state health department. He was found guilty of performing a late-term abortion and nearly killing a woman in a botched abortion. This was in in New York City, not at recently convicted late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia clinic. Dr. Abu Hayat, who ran an abortion clinic on the Lower East Side, faced criminal charges after he severed a baby’s arm in the course of a botched late-term abortion. Rosa Rodriguez testified that she had second thoughts about the abortion at the clinic, but Hayat told her it was too late and put her under anesthesia. She testified that she awoke and saw blood everywhere. The next day Ana Rosa Rodriguez was born alive, without an arm, weighing in at pounds, ounce. After Rodriguez came forward, other women accused Hayat of botching their abortions. The story sounds familiar. Gosnell was convicted of three counts of murder, all babies born alive whose spines he severed. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in overdosing a patient, who died. Less covered was Gosnell’s conviction for aborting babies after Pennsylvania’s -week limit. In New York too, doctors can face criminal charges for abortions of babies older than weeks and for manslaughter of a patient in the midst of an abortion. Hayat was convicted and sentenced to up to years in prison for assault charges (on both Rodriguez and her unborn baby) and for performing a late-term abortion. The statutes that resulted in Hayat’s conviction could change by the end of June because New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is seeking to pass a bill that would expand the legality of late-term abortions and remove certain criminal penalties associated with abortion. A proposed bill INTENDED would legalize abortions after weeks for CONSEQUENCES: the physical or emotional health of the Cuomo fights to mother. legalize late-term abortion. “It would eliminate the ability to have that trial,” said Anna Franzonello, a lawyer with Americans United for Life and an expert on New York abortion law, referring to Gosnell’s trial. The crafters of the proposed law disagree. In the preamble to the bill, the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), they write, “Sufficient protections still exist to address abortions which are performed by healthcare practitioners under circumstances that constitute unprofessional, tortuous, or criminal conduct.” But the
RHA goes further, offering legal protection only to infants born alive. Even Gosnell’s attorney Jack McMahon, in a recent interview with Fox News, said he thought abortion should be illegal after weeks. “I’ve come out of this case realizing that weeks is a bad determiner,” he said. “It should be like , weeks. That would be a far better thing, because the babies would not even be arguably viable at that time, and I think the law should be changed to that … [women would] still have the right to choose, but they’ve got to choose quicker.” As many states are passing more restrictions on lateterm abortions and abortion clinics, Cuomo is one of the only governors looking to loosen restrictions. New York already has some of the most relaxed rules—NARAL Pro-Choice America gives New York’s abortion laws an A-minus (see sidebar). Concurrently New York has one of the highest abortion rates in the country at percent, and in New York City itself, percent of pregnancies end in abortion. In , the city reported , abortions. “There was a time when abortion supporters claimed they wanted to make abortion ‘safe, legal, and rare.’ Yet this measure is specifically designed to expand access to abortion, and therefore to increase the abortion rate,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, wrote Cuomo in a letter in January. “I am hard pressed to think of a piece of legislation that is less needed or more harmful than this one.” Cuomo responded to Dolan recently, “We agree to disagree, respectfully, and that is where we are.” Cuomo has said the proposal would simply bring New York’s laws into alignment with Supreme Court precedent. The court in Doe v. Bolton allowed abortions at any point for the sake of the life or health of the mother. But no court has overturned New York’s abortion laws, so they remain enforceable, according to lawyer Mary Spaulding Balch, who heads up the National Right to Life Committee’s department on state legislation. New York has rarely enforced its own laws against abortions after weeks, but Planned Parenthood acknowledges that abortion clinics operate under the assumption that they could be prosecuted for violating the laws. In a recent statement in support of the proposed
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plan to change any of the points, legislation, Planned Parenthood said, including the abortion portion. “Fear of criminal prosecution deters Democrats are hopeful that rolling healthcare providers from offering the abortion measure in with other the best reproductive health care more popular measures will ease the under certain circumstances.” act’s passage. Cuomo wants to pass In , another New York aborthe WEA before the legislative session tionist was convicted of murder and ends in June. sentenced to years in prison under For now the measure has one New York’s criminal statutes. Dr. roadblock: Senate Republican David Benjamin was found guilty Leader Dean Skelos, who effectively after he aborted a - or -week-old controls the Senate with a coalition child and left the mother to bleed to of Republicans and some breakaway death. The murder charge was shockDemocrats. Skelos said he wouldn’t ing because doctors in that situation let the abortion measure come to would typically face malpractice the floor, and mentioned after suits. New York law allows for stiffer Gosnell’s conviction that the law penalties—a doctor can be convicted would “open the door to similar of homicide for committing “upon a horrors.” Still, on gun control and female an abortional act which gay marriage, Cuomo has shown causes her death.” The proposed law skill at flipping Senate Republican would strike that clause, but it votes. asserts that Benjamin could still be At a recent press conference a convicted under other statutes. reporter asked the governor, “With In , a man pleaded guilty to the points—is it all or nothing?” attempted second-degree abortion, “There is no reason not to pass which is also a criminal act under all ,” Cuomo said. “I want all current New York law, after he put a passed.” drug in a friend’s drink that he “Considering the block over thought would abort her child (it FIGHT FOR LIFE: Benjamin convicted in abortion case (top); Cuomo and Skelos (above, left to right). abortion,” the reporter returned, “is didn’t work). The proposed law that realistic?” would remove criminal penalties for “You’re stating their position today,” Cuomo said. “There’s second-degree abortion. tomorrow and the day after and the day after. We have several Cuomo first unveiled the proposal in his January State of weeks.” the State speech as part of the Women’s Equality Act (WEA), a “Considering how strongly they’ve opposed this, do you -point initiative that has the abortion measure rolled in expect to change their minds in six weeks?” the reporter said. with measures addressing women’s equal pay and trafficking. “Revelations happen all the time,” Cuomo said. The governor hasn’t yet introduced the actual legislation for Skelos’ office did not respond to a request for comment on the WEA, so he could amend the RHA before introducing it in the governor’s assertion. A the larger bill. But Cuomo’s office told me that he does not
NEW YORK RULES
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BENJAMIN: KATHY WILLENS/AP • SKELOS: MIKE GROLL/AP
New York’s current abortion laws get an A-minus from NARAL Pro-Choice America, while Americans United For Life ranks it out of the states. The state has no laws requiring parental consent for minors seeking abortions, no waiting period for abortions, and it publicly funds abortions for women who receive public assistance. The proposed Reproductive Health Act removes late-term abortions from the criminal code, so illegal late-term abortions would be treated as malpractice. The RHA removes manslaughter penalties for doctors who might unintentionally kill a patient in the course of an abortion (though manslaughter charges remain for someone who “recklessly causes the death of another person”). Under current law, if someone murdered a woman who was more than weeks pregnant, he or she could be prosecuted for two homicides. The RHA would remove the homicide statute for unborn babies. Also, in the section of the criminal code that gives the coroner or medical examiner authority to investigate suspicious deaths, the RHA deletes this provision: “A death caused by suspected criminal abortion.” The law’s preamble says that removing abortion from the criminal code will ensure that abortion is “treated like any other medical procedure.” The Supreme Court might disagree. In its ruling Harris v. McRae, the court wrote, “Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.” —E.B.
Email: ebelz@worldmag.com
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Servingthesparro Forget armed rescues. Christian volunteers fight sex trafficking by building relationships Story and photos by
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Tiffany Owens in Austin, Texas
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T
rrows
he foyer of this brothel in Austin, Texas, smells of cigarette smoke and sweet incense. On the carpet sits a Buddha and an altar decorated with money, two cups of old coffee, and a dozen mangoes. Calli Doris, an outreach volunteer with Redeemed Ministries, rings the doorbell and waits silently, holding little blue and yellow gift bags in her hands. Just when it seems time to leave, a sliding window cranks open and out peers a middle-aged Asian lady with harshly penciled red lips and jet black GAINING hair. She begins to shake ACCESS: her head and mumble in Calli Doris broken English about the and a chaperone owner, glancing nerpull up to vously toward the back. a brothel Doris smiles and in Austin. shakes her head, offering the bags. “We just want to bless you,” she says. The woman’s initial confusion shows through wide eyes, but when she finally takes the bags and peers inside, her face splits into a smile. The bags are full of coconutscented body lotion, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. Doris hands her three more for the other woman working here, refusing offers of money as she leaves. Back in the car, Doris, 27, prays quickly as she speeds down the highway toward more brothels. She’s a spirited blonde with a silver nose ring and colorful friendship bracelets stacked on her wrist. She first learned about sex trafficking from an episode of Law and Order SVU six years ago: “I was shocked that this was happening.”
Human trafficking is a shock to many. Many see it as an international problem, but the Christian nonprofit Redeemed Ministries estimates that traffickers currently entrap several hundred thousand Americans. Many are runaways, fleeing abusive homes. Pimps earn their trust through money and lavish gifts. But the sweet talk soon stops and these women find themselves trapped in a dangerous and sexually exploitative situation in their home country.
Doris works for Redeemed,
which has been fighting trafficking in Texas since 2005 by focusing on outreach, aftercare, and advocacy. She works alongside local business owner Nicole Marett, 25, and focuses on outreach: Their goal is to find brothels and gain access to the women—“sparrows,” they call them—working inside. So far they’ve found 16 Austin brothels. Many of them are shockingly obvious, located in parking lots close to the highway, convenient for men going to or leaving work. Some buildings are small and sterile, with blacked-out and barred windows, and signs offering suggestively vague names like “Rose,” with the word OPEN lit up in neon lights. Other brothels front as massage parlors, lingerie stores, or gentlemen’s clubs. Some women work out of homes or hotels, and many pimps advertise online. Redeemed’s outreach model relies heavily on volunteers from local churches. But Marett said finding volunteers is difficult. Youth groups want to get involved, but parents are hesitant. The volunteers who do come are assigned to a brothel, which they visit in teams of three—two women and one man. The man drives and prays while the women go inside, bringing the sparrows gift bags and prayer. “Our goal is not to rescue,” Marett explained over coffee at a local café, “but to show the love of Christ and pray.” When Doris stops at a second brothel, a young Hispanic woman answers the door. She eyes Doris warily but lets her inside, facing her timidly with arms folded over her body. Doris, unfazed by the woman’s lingerie or the pictures of pinup girls on the wall, introduces herself and offers the gifts. The woman
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accepts them, smiling shyly. When Doris ask if she would like prayer, she nods. Later, Doris explains that rescue, if defined as Hollywood’s door-punching and gun-slinging reclaiming of trafficked women in movies like Taken, is ineffective. Given the psychological nature of their captivity, the women would likely return to their pimps and the volunteers’ credibility would wither. Real rescue is only possible once a sparrow realizes she’s a victim and decides to leave voluntarily. Until then, she and Marett focus on forging trustful relationships with the prostitutes, essentially becoming women to whom they can turn if they decide they want to get out. They also build relationships with law enforcement, local churches, and legal experts so they can fully help a woman if she chooses to flee.
The life of Vee—not her real name,
for her own protection—began to unravel when she got a boyfriend in high school and bought birth control, “just in case.” One day while she was out, her parents found it hidden in her dresser. Angered, they threw her belongings out to the street. Vee fled to live with her boyfriend and took up exotic dancing, earning up to $3,000 on weekends. During one night of work, she met a man who offered her more money if she would help him start a new business in Las Vegas. She agreed, ignoring friends’ warnings that he sounded like a pimp. She went with him and gave him all her money from dancing. She trusted him even when he suggested she start sleeping with men to raise more money for the “startup,” and she didn’t ask questions when he moved her around often.
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When she eventually realized that she’d never “raise” enough money for her pimp, she started secretly saving a few dollars of her own. One day, she stole her pimp’s car and fled. He threatened her into returning by reminding her of his network of contacts sprawled over the entire state, few of whom would look kindly on a runaway prostitute. She returned. The moment the car pulled up, her pimp charged out the door. He grabbed her by her hair, pulled her in the house, then beat and raped her. Undeterred, Vee started saving again and ran away a second time. This time she made it to California, working under the radar as a strip dancer, but not as a prostitute. An undercover cop eventually found her when she returned to Texas and successfully convinced her to leave the industry entirely. She’s now 22 and enrolled in culinary school. Escape stories like Vee’s are possible largely because of undercover detectives who consider trafficked women victims, not criminals. Deek Moore, 40, is one of seven detectives who fight trafficking and vice in Central Texas. He focuses on surveillance and stings and
“WE JUST WANT TO BLESS YOU”: Doris and Marett bring gift bags like these to the women working in brothels.
also works to build low-profile relationships with victims, hoping to convince them eventually to flee. One day this spring, Moore, dressed in a black hoodie and cargo shorts and sipping coffee, told about the rescue of a trafficked woman who cried out for help: He waited until her husband was at work then sped to her house, helped her pack, and whisked her away to hiding. He spent the next three months gathering evidence against the man who forced her into prostitution and pornography for four years. Very few cases lead to a trial, Moore said, because it’s extremely difficult to prove a woman has been trafficked against her will. Besides, many prosecutors and judges don’t know much about trafficking and many jurists don’t see these women as victims, so they rarely indict the pimps. Building cases is also difficult given that many of the women are psychologically frail and often run away after 60 days of rescue. They become afraid to testify or simply begin to miss the
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familiarity of their old life. Sometimes Moore can find them and get them help. Other times, either because they’re unwilling or unable to admit their captivity, they refuse help. But here’s the good news: Moore’s most recent witness did not run away. She patiently endured more than 20 hours of detailed interviews recounting how a male friend exploited her as a young college student in need of money. He offered marriage as a way out, which she accepted, desperate to finish school. But after the wedding vows, violence. Moore’s eyes watered as he recounted the story, but he could report that the grand jury indicted the pimp and put him away under a $250,000 bond. That’s rare: Many judges set low bails or none at all.
Moore says he hopes victims
emerge from the legal process “with a chance at success [and] full restoration.”
Redeemed’s aftercare division pushes for restoration—but it comes slowly and, in the words of executive director Dennis Martin: “It’s a process without a finish line.” Martin and his wife, Bobbie, have labored at Redeemed since 2006 alongside 35 staff members and 250 volunteers. No one receives a paycheck for the work, so Martin works as an IT auditor on the side. All of the money Redeemed raises (this year: $240,000) goes to fund its safe house, aftercare programs, and administrative needs. Since 2009, 20 women have successfully completed Redeemed’s program; 10 more are currently enrolled. When a woman enters the door at Redeemed, she’s introduced to a veteran trauma therapist who determines if Redeemed is adequately equipped to help her. If not, the therapist refers her to a better-fitting organization. But if Redeemed can help her, the therapist proceeds to prepare a customized “healing” plan that involves four stages of psychological, spiritual, and practical help. Stage one is detox. With the help of counselors, the sparrow becomes able to grasp both the depth of her traumatic experiences and the reality of her freedom. During stage two, she begins to work through questions of identity and
Reports and responses While child sex trafficking is an issue in our country, nobody knows for certain how many victims under age 18 there are in the United States. Hard data from the FBI show officers make between 1,100 to 1,200 arrests for child prostitution each year. But anti-trafficking organizations talk about 100,000 to 300,000 victims based on a 2001 study by Richard Estes and Neil Weiner that said 326,000 were “at risk for commercial sexual exploitation.” Estes and Weiner included 14 broad categories of youth who could become involved in sexual exploitation, including runaways, female gang members, and youths living 50 miles from the Canadian or Mexican borders. The report fails to cite evidence showing how many of these “at risk” youth are actually involved in commercial sex. The researchers admit the numbers “are not representative, in the statistic- sampling sense of the term”—yet news organizations, anti-trafficking groups, and the Department of Justice routinely cite their estimates. (Estes and Weiner focused on child sex trafficking, which sidesteps the question of how many adult women involved in prostitution and pornography chose that path freely.) In addition to questions about scope, some activists question whether the millions of dollars spent on raising awareness of sex trafficking is effective. Lisa Thompson of the Salvation Army says young people choose ways to oppose the practice that “are technologically driven—linking to a movie or starting a website, and I’m not sure how much more of that we need.” She adds, “The responses aren’t necessarily as thought through as they should be. … I wish it would be more creative than just ‘let’s make a movie.’” Thompson believes young people could instead mentor at-risk children, volunteer at a juvenile detention center, or help with homeless ministries to prevent sex trafficking from becoming an issue in the first place. —Angela Lu
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the concept of God-given value. “We want to reset their value system and help them see that they get their identity from God,” Martin explained. At stage three, she learns about God as “healer and cleaner.” One measure of success at Redeemed is that the sparrows eventually meet and profess faith in Christ, but that isn’t a condition for receiving help. Stage four: Redeemed staff help her prepare for a transition into independent living. They coach her on how to establish work and housing, find a church and join a small group, and build a healthy group of friends. The entire process can take from six months to one year, depending on the woman and her personal story. It is neither neat nor easy. Sometimes the women relapse and return to their former life. Sometimes, they stay physically, yet have a harder time moving past substance addictions. But Martin and the volunteers at Redeemed are neither rushed nor intimidated: “We’ll work with these women for life … until they tell us they’re ready to go on independently, without fear of relapse.” Many Christians, Martin said, emphasize ending trafficking by rescuing its victims, incarcerating its pimps, and trying to convince men to stop buying sex. But in reality, Martin explained that trafficked women rarely see themselves as victims, the legal system is illequipped to prosecute the pimps and johns, and it’s too late to change the minds of men who treat women as commodities. He hopes to galvanize local churches into starting outreach and awareness ministries of their own. He urges churches to combat the vulnerabilities that make some women more likely to be trafficked, such as illiteracy, homelessness, and poverty. Actively pursue one-to-one contact with prostitutes, he said. Guide them into healing programs that help turn back the negative perception they have of the church, and consequently, of Christ. “We’re not the solution,” Martin said. “The church is the solution. We’re just the avenue.” A —with reporting by Cheryl Keen, Rob Holmes, Karen Johnson, Michael Reneau, and Karen Johnson
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Crowdsourcing a One of the latest social media tools is a website that helps couples adopt their children by A NGEL A LU in Los Angeles
W FORTENER: GARY FONG/GENESIS
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g adoptions
FORTENER: GARY FONG/GENESIS
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W forced Andrea and Mark Wittig to pack up and move from Los Angeles to Chicago in , they had already drained their savings on an adoption process they now had to start over. They didn’t know how they’d get the , to adopt a boy from Uganda while resettling their family, including their -year-old biological son, Evan, in a new city. That’s where AdoptTogether stepped in. Created by the Wittigs’ friend Hank Fortener, AdoptTogether crowdsources funds for adopting families the way Kickerstarter brings money together for creative projects. Adopting families may use the website to set up profiles with their financial goal in mind, then invite friends and families to support them through the expensive and trying adoption process. The Wittigs set up the site’s first profile in December and in nine months raised , in donations. Fortener, who pastors Mosaic church in Los Angeles, is familiar with the adoption process: His parents, Chuck and Anne Fortener, adopted eight children and took in more than foster children. Once they could no longer adopt, they helped other families with the adoption process, but were convinced there had to be a better way to connect more children to more families. The answer appeared unexpectedly one night in as Fortener watched Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. The segment featured a site where women create profiles so others can donate money for them for breast implants. Fortener thought the idea was crass, but he was surprised at how much money the site raised, and realized there was something to the crowdsourcing concept.
pour in from friends and family, even Facebook friends they hadn’t talked to in years. To ensure their friends wouldn’t feel donor fatigue, they would go months without mentioning it, then relink to their page. By September , they had reached their goal of ,. “It’s been such a stress reliever for us,” Andrea said. “I mean I couldn’t imagine going through this process, which is so emotional, and having to stress about delaying the process because we couldn’t pay ,.” News about AdoptTogether spread through Facebook and word of mouth,
With the help of volunteers, Fortener and his father Chuck put together the (c)() organization. Because peer-to-peer funding is difficult to set up, they created the Hoping Hearts Foundation Board to mediate the process. Donors make a tax-deductible donation to Hoping Hearts, which then awards money to adopting families based on their need. To ensure the money raised is going toward adoption costs, AdoptTogether first confirms the family is working with an authorized adoption agency and contacts the family to walk them through the process. The organization requires families to send receipts, invoices, and documentation before they can receive any grant money. Based on their need, families can at times get more money than the amount they raised. The Wittigs had experience in fundraising as Andrea previously worked on fundraising at World Vision. They used every type of communication: talking to family members in person, calling friends, sending out letters and pictures, and linking to their AdoptTogether KIDSTARTER: Fortener, the and by the end of the profile in emails and founder of AdoptTogether site’s third month, Facebook status updates. (above); Mark, Evan, and families had set “We told people we get Andrea Wittig (left). up profiles. Mark said that this is going to be a long that nothing else like journey and we don’t really it is available—the only other way they understand what we are stepping into, could have raised money would be by so we need community around us,” asking friends to donate to them Mark said. The site allowed them to directly. AdoptTogether adds a sense of update supporters when they passed legitimacy, allowing acquaintances to fundraising goals or completed steps of donate to a qualified nonprofit. One the adoption process. Money started to
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Disappointment and celebration One couple’s down-and-up AdoptTogether experience
JALISCO WAYNE
B N R decided to adopt a baby from the Los Angeles area after discovering they were infertile in . They created an AdoptTogether profile in early . Bill, a filmmaker, shot short video updates for their friends and families to follow them through their adoption process. Last July, the Radtkes got a call from an -year-old expectant mother who wanted to meet the couple, and soon they were officially matched. The Radtkes uploaded a video on their AdoptTogether page to share the news, and many friends donated money and called to congratulate them. But a few days later, the woman disappeared, completely cutting off contact with the agency and the Radtkes. For a month the couple remained in limbo, unsure if the expectant mother would come back or not. Nicole said having their supporters share in the experience “made it easier for us because we knew we weren’t the only ones grieving. I think it was unexpected how attached people were to our adoption journey even before Manny was born.” In September the Radtkes were matched with another mother TOGETHER: who was expecting her baby in a couple of weeks. The Radtkes Bill, Manny, and Nicole. admitted they were more reserved this time, holding back their expectations until the baby was actually in their arms. They continued updating their friends and family by video, and even brought a camera into the hospital the morning Manny was born. By the time they brought him home in October, they had raised the , they needed. The couple said it was beautiful to see friends, some of whom they didn’t know very well, sacrifice to help them start a family. Their investment in Manny also led to a special relationship with the baby. “We saw that the people who gave the most, sacrificed the most, became like family,” Bill said. “It created this bond, it was more than just they like being around Manny and seeing him, they literally felt like his aunts and uncles. It’s a very beautiful way to see so many people come together for this baby.” The Sunday the Radtkes walked into Mosaic church with baby Manny in their stroller, their supporters showered them with a hero’s welcome: “It was awesome,” Fortener said, “like Caesar coming back from war.”—A.L.
person the Wittigs met once at a wedding saw their post on Facebook and ended up donating ,. As of April, AdoptTogether has helped families and raised ,. Adoptions owe their high cost to adoption agency fees, which cover the social services, lawyer, home study, and audit. Travel expenses to the child’s home country, miscellaneous doctor’s appointments, and fees paid to the country’s government quickly pile up, resulting usually in tens of thousands of dollars total. Fortener insists the system is broken: Millions of orphans need families, and thousand of families want to adopt, but the cost of adoption is often the biggest thing separating the two. Without families, many of these children end up homeless, in prison, and draining resources through welfare. “These families are caring for a kid who will no longer be a burden on society,” Fortener said. “Why can’t I take a kid who has no one? Why does it make sense for couples to pay , to help a child? As a culture, it’s whack.” His vision is to give friends, family, and the church a chance take part in a family’s adoption process, which creates a community around the baby even before he or she comes home. Many of the donors stay in these children’s lives and are even considered extended family for the adopted child (see sidebar). For now, AdoptTogether relies completely on volunteers for everything from web development to video production, and volunteers include the Forteners and members of Mosaic church. In April the Wittigs finally were matched with a little boy in Uganda. It could take up to a year before he comes to their home, as they await a court date, make trips to Uganda, and apply for a visa and U.S. passport for their son. The process has included “a flood of emotion,” Andrea said. “Just to proceed to the next step—to have a name and a story and a face—it’s overwhelming and it’s amazing.” A
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New Yorker Bethany Jenkins jumped the corporate ship to write an email devotional that is catching on with the professional class by Emily Belz in New York |
The Word on The street photos by Yoon Kim
ethany Jenkins, an effervescent 32-year-old with a face for television, in 2009 was finishing at Columbia Law School, one of the top law schools in the country, and preparing to take the bar. She had three job offers. A prestigious New York law firm wanted her. A federal judge offered her a clerkship. And MSNBC’s Morning Joe, a top-rated cable news show, offered her a job as chief of staff. The recession was acute at the time, so one job offer was a luxury, let alone three. After a sleepless night, she turned all three down. Jenkins had decided instead to write a daily devotional. She passed the bar, but she prepared herself to work at a coffee shop. “Am I crazy?” she asked a group of friends over lunch in Union Square the day after she turned down the jobs. Jenkins, a Floridian who grew up a Southern Baptist but now attends Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, has never been to seminary. She didn’t have experience writing devotionals. She knew she had some skill at writing or she wouldn’t have been offered the judge’s clerkship. But her past in the political and corporate world has been key to what has become a successful ministry to urban professionals: She understands the way they think, and she has the brains to keep up with the best of them. Prior to law school, Jenkins worked on Capitol Hill, at the State Department, and then most recently at the New York Stock Exchange, a background she describes as “street cred” for her work now. After turning down the three jobs, she created the Park Forum, an organization whose motto
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‘IT CAN’T BE ABOUT ME.’
—Bethany Jenkins, in Central Park
is, “As the park is to the city, so the Word is to life.” Today she has a role few women can claim: She writes a daily devotional that Wall Streeters read. Called 843 Acres (the area of Central Park), it has about 1,800 subscribers, mainly in New York, and its reach is growing. Though Jenkins’ journey wasn’t simple, from the top of the New York world to an unemployed aspiring writer to an author with a daily readership, she never had to take that coffee shop job to support herself. At the lunch where she asked her friends if she was crazy for turning down three prestigious jobs, one of those friends on the spot said if Jenkins could get 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, the friend and her husband would give Jenkins enough seed money to get her started for a few months. Jenkins started crying, and the friend told her, “We’re doing this.” Jenkins got 501(c)3 status two months later (startlingly fast), and the friend now serves as the chairman of the Park Forum’s board. Redeemer Presbyterian Church, though it has no official relationship to the Park Forum, has provided Jenkins with logistical support, and the pastors serve as Jenkins’ theological mentors. When I met with Jenkins at a coffee shop in midtown Manhattan, she was in the middle of working on her Lent series and reading Puritan theologian John Owen and Catholic writer Henri Nouwen to glean material. Every day when she wakes up, she’ll often lie in bed and listen to a recording of a reading of the Bible passage for that day’s devotional. She works from home and writes in the morning, then fills the rest of the day with everything else: She’s the Park Forum’s only
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full-time staff. “You’re the mailman, you’re the fundraiser, you’re the writer. I’m the trash taker outer. I go to Staples. I’m in-house counsel,” she said. She wants it to stay a small operation because she likes the simplicity of Park Forum’s mission. The organization’s 2013 budget is a modest $80,000, which covers her salary, a part-time staffer’s salary, and invitationonly Bible-reading events the organization hosts in New York. Working in the corporate world, Jenkins learned that executives wanted to read snappy summaries of information, so the devotionals never exceed 400 words. In the past when she traveled to Davos, Switzerland, with a chief executive, she had to read sheaves of information and write up “one-sheeters” for him. The desire for a quick read is even more pronounced and widespread now as attention spans shrink. Jenkins said she has had to study what gets men reading devotionals. “I think they’re a harder market,” she said. rom 1984 until his retirement in 2007, Mark Campisano was the top tax lawyer for McKinsey & Company, one of the biggest consulting firms in the world, based in New York. Jenkins’ devotional goes out daily to interested Christians at McKinsey, and Campisano writes a short introduction to the email that relates the devotional to business life at the company. “You start the day thinking about some part of the Bible,” Campisano said. “Which is
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valuable because you’ve got so many other thoughts and stresses and claims on your attention.” He often reads the devotional on the subway. Campisano said the other Christians he knew at McKinsey had a hard time finding time to meet in person, so the virtual community through the Park Forum has been helpful. From Campisano’s perspective, executives at the top of the business world are hungry for the deep theology he finds in 843 Acres—seeing “firsthand how unsatisfying a successful career can be.” Work pushes out all other aspects of life, he said, and divorce is common. “Bethany—one of the big things she’s been discussing in recent months is idolatry … career, money, beauty.” For the Advent season this past year, Jenkins brought in a slew of guest writers to take the wheel of 843 Acres: Sally Lloyd-Jones, the author of the Jesus Storybook Bible, author Eric Metaxas, Pacific Crossroads’ Rankin Wilbourne, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s Timothy Keller and his wife Kathy (Kathy Keller has been a close mentor to Jenkins). And the organization Jenkins created, the Park Forum, has expanded beyond an email devotional: Her invitation-only evening readings of Scripture in New York are packed out. In her spare time Jenkins is working on a book on women’s roles in the church that she hopes will be published in the next year or two. Jenkins isn’t egalitarian on that topic, but she does have challenges to the way theologically conservative Christians talk about women. “Jesus says that in heaven there will be no marriage or giving in marriage, and He Himself will be our pastor. And yet all of the women who are writing right now about biblical femininity are writing in the context of family and church,” she said. “I’m single, I’m not married, so the question is, does the Bible only have something to say to me for the four hours I go to church? ... I’m basically arguing, no that’s not true, there’s a view of gospel-centered femininity that’s beyond church and family.” In her writing for 843 Acres, Jenkins works off of the Bible reading plan of 18th-century Scottish minister Robert Murray M’Cheyne and often incorporates in the devotional allusions to current events or snippets from Puritan theologians, which she sometimes rewrites to be simpler and clearer. “I recognize most of our readers are on the subway or moving, so I don’t want language to be an obstacle. … I know SAT words … but you don’t use that,” Jenkins said. “You have to think about who’s the reader, instead of what do I want out of it. People who want to be writers, most of the time it’s what they like to do. ‘Oh, I want to write a book.’ They’re not really thinking about the recipient end of it, about would it be helpful, would it be encouraging, would it be identifiable. Because I do this every day, I’ve gotten into a practice—I’m not very good at it—but it can’t be about me. The moment it’s about me, is the moment that [readers] unsubscribe, unsubscribe.” Jenkins continued: “I never wanted the Park Forum to be bigger than the Word. There’s no Isaiah 55:11 guarantee on the Park Forum. There is on the Word itself.” A —You can subscribe to 843 Acres for free; visit theparkforum.org
APRIL 29, 2013
Terrify No More M’Cheyne: Num 6 (text | audio, 4:09 min) and Ps 40 (text | audio, 2:31 min) and Ps 41 (text | audio, 1:30 min) Highlighted: Ps 40:1-3 Pit: Sometimes things seem like they cannot get any worse. A few weeks ago, as many of us were weeping over the murders committed by Kermit Gosnell, two bombs were set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Then we learned about the massive fertilizer plant explosion in Texas. The Onion read, “‘Maybe next time we have a week, they can try not to pack it completely to the brim with explosions, mutilations, death, manhunts, lies, weeping, and the utter uselessness of our political system,’ said basically every person in America who isn’t comatose or a complete sociopath” [1]. Rescue: We do not know what situation inspired David to write Psalm 40, but we do know that he was in “a pit of destruction” [2]. He was desperate and helpless, sinking deeper and deeper every time he tried to climb out. God seemed distant, but he was—in fact—near. David sang, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord” [3]. Imagine: The victims of Gosnell and the Tsarnaev brothers, along with those who died in the Texas explosion, will not return to us. As a result, our hearts are weak with grief, despair and anger. This, however, need not be the end of the story. Imagine a world in which death has lost its sting. Where pits are not ends, but opportunities for God’s rescue. Where justice reigns: “O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more” [4]. Prayer: Lord, This age is full of mystery because violence and perversion are all around us. “Strengthen our hearts according to your promises. Give us patience to wait upon your final act of justice, when everything will be made right. In that day, we will watch as you make terror the victim, a story never to appear on another front page” [5]. Amen. [1] “Jesus, This Week.” The Onion. April 18, 2013. | [2] Psalm 40:2 ESV | [3] Psalm 40:1-3 ESV | [4] Psalm 10:17-18 ESV | [5] Taken from Marshall Segal. “Why Gosnell, God? Why Boston?” Desiring God. April 18, 2013.
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Notebook
Lifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports > Money > Religion
Curtain calling SHANE HARPER and his family are fighting to keep him grounded—and a Christian—in Hollywood BY ANGELA LU
C.M. WIGGINS/WENN/NEWSCOM
>>
T is as trite as a made-for-TV movie: A teenager goes to Hollywood, openly professes Christ, and acts in over-the-top family-friendly sitcoms. Soon money and fame roll in with record and movie deals. His face decorates the backpacks of -year-olds. Then like clockwork he outgrows his fans and wants to prove himself as an artist. He takes on risqué roles, gets involved in the party scene, and gets arrested. Parents are crushed and ban their kids from following him. Which leads to the question: Can Christians make it in the entertainment industry? Ten years ago, Tanya Harper would have said no. The homeschool mom of three banned cable TV and secular music from her house. She kept her children involved with their church in Orange County, Calif. Her kids only interacted with unbelievers at extracurricular activities–dance, community theater, karate practice. But when I recently asked her the question, Harper said, “They can. I’m seeing it with my son,” referring to her -year-old son, Shane, who acts on the Disney Channel and released his first album last year. “But it’s not like it’s not a battle, because it is. Every step of the way [God] is ministering things to us.” She says the battle is against the everyday temptations of life—success, pride, and hedonism— magnified by the bright lights of Hollywood. And so the solutions are also familiar: studying the Bible, listening to good teaching, staying together as a family, finding a church community, and praying for wisdom. Talent scouts first discovered STAGE AND SCREEN: Harper performing in Chicago. Shane Harper at a regional dance competition when he was . Tanya reacted with fear for her son that was “nearly debilitating.” Part of that fear, she said, came from isolating her children so much that “we had forgotten how to relate to people who were not exactly like us.” But friends had recently introduced her and her husband to Reformed pastors who stressed Christians influencing culture.
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JUNE 15, 2013 • WORLD
5/27/13 10:44 AM
Notebook > Lifestyle
that can only be overcome by reorienting his perspective: “It starts with a personal relationship [with Jesus] and asking for the grace of God to affect everything in your life from the inside out … I think doing it for the glory of God is the only way to rectify the issue.” His family helps keep him grounded. While on tour, Shane spends his off-time listening to the same sermon podcasts as his family listens to back home. They discuss the roles Shane plans on accepting and what it looks like for him to love those with whom he works. “As a team, as a family we’re always reminding each other, ‘Are you approaching this from superiority complex or in a humble way?’” Shane said. At times loving others means serving the people on set, which is unexpected for entertainers. Sometimes it’s being ready to engage in conversations on spiritual topics. He started talking to his Good Luck Charlie co-star Mendler about faith at the beginning of their friendship. They continued the conversation for two years, with Shane using the apologetics and theology he was studying, before she came to profess Christ. The two are now dating and attend church together. While Shane has acted in “faith-based” films, including God Isn’t Dead, where he played a college student debating his atheist professor about the existence of God, he doesn’t want to stay in a Christian subculture. He chooses roles based on the narrative of the story rather than the character itself, looking for stories with redemptive value. Recently he landed a part on MTV’s Awkward, which he doesn’t advise his Disney audience to watch. He chose the role for its dignified portrayal of a student with Asperger’s—which Shane’s younger brother has. Still he doesn’t know how the story arc will end up, but trusts God in his decision: “I can try and protect myself as much as I can in terms of what people think, but if I do that, I’m going to miss out on maybe the biggest ministry I could ever have.” Tanya recognizes her son had an easier time than the typical Disney star since he isn’t in the spotlight as much. But looking at fellow actors who have fallen off the pedestal, Shane suggests that children and parents shouldn’t have put them there: “There’s a lot of pressure when you grow up in front of a lot of people, especially if you make this great proclamation of faith, and they sometimes overdo that. … Jesus should be the role model.” A
GOOD LUCK CHARLIE: DISNEY/ABC TELEVISION GROUP • KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS: KEVIN MAZUR/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
She started to realize it wasn’t an us-versus-them mentality, but that everyone needed the gospel. Shane accepted the agent. His first few gigs centered around dancing, including a spot on Disney Channel’s High School Musical . Every week Tanya and Shane would make the one-and-a-half-hour drive to Hollywood, listening to Tim Keller sermons on the way. Over the years they listened to hundreds of sermons. “That was God equipping us for work,” Shane said. Differences between Hollywood and Shane’s sheltered childhood appeared quickly: He remembers his stylist cussing up a storm as she fitted him his first day on the job, and being offered alcohol at a party when he was . The realities of being a child actor set him apart from most kids: He worked while others his age hung out with friends. He had to deal with constant rejection from casting directors. The roller coaster of emotions forced him to think through the theology of his work, and he began taking online classes at Moody Institute. Shane picked up more acting roles, guest-starring in shows like Zoey before landing a recurring guest spot on Disney’s Good Luck Charlie in . He played the on-again, off-again boyfriend of the main character, played by Bridgit Mendler. Without a contract with Disney, Shane had time to pursue other projects like independent Christian movies and a pop music career. The whole Harper family moved to Los Angeles so Shane could be closer to work. While sex, drugs, and alcohol are the trinity of temptations for young actors in Hollywood, Shane said his biggest struggle is pride: “The industry is all about you, and it’s very difficult to subdue your own self-interest on the job or in everyday social interactions. INFLUENCING Everyone’s selling a product in Hollywood CULTURE: and it’s usually themselves.” Harper and Between the constant branding and Mendler in celebrity culture—his young female fans Good Luck Charlie (below); call themselves “Harpions” and attending follow his every move on social Nickelodeon’s media—Shane finds that resisting Kids’ Choice narcissism is a daily struggle Awards (right).
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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5/27/13 11:53 AM
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Black Pastoral Leadership and Church Planting Lance Lewis
Race and Racialization in a Post-Racist Evangelicalism: A View from Asian America Amos Yong
Serving Alongside Latinos in a Multiethnic, Transitional, Rapidly Changing World Juan Martínez
Blacks and Latinos in Theological Education as Professors and Administrators Harold Dean Trulear
Blacks and Latinos in Theological Education as Students Orlando Rivera
A Black Church Perspective on Minorities in Evangelicalism Ralph C. Watkins
Good Luck Charlie: Disney/ABC Television Group • Kids’ Choice Awards: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/getty images
Ethnic Scarcity in Evangelical Theology: Where Are the Authors? Vincent Bacote
Theology and Cultural Awareness Applied: Discipling Urban Men Carl F. Ellis Jr.
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ALIENS IN THE PROMISED LAND For evangelicalism to survive in an increasingly nonwhite global church, minority perspectives and leadership must be valued and incorporated. Black, Hispanic, and Asian leaders offer advice on uniting the church across racial barriers. “This volume is about reconstructing in faith a path toward God’s sovereign vision of human community. Anyone who cares about the future of Christianity in North America needs to read this.” —JOHN NUNES, President and CEO, Lutheran World Relief
5/21/13 3:51 PM
Notebook > Technology
Troll fees Some attorneys make it big off copyright settlements By daniel james devine
>>
“It’s based on intimidation and threats of embarrassment,” says Mitch Stoltz, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a consumerrights group. In this case, Stoltz says, copyright laws are “not being used to compensate artists, they’re being used to shake people down for a quick buck.” Illegal copiers and viewers of raunch perhaps deserve the shakedown. The problem, though, is that the people who get the intimidating letters may not be the ones who downloaded the film: Someone else could have used their computer or connection without their knowledge. But they might end up
mailing a check anyway to avoid a court appearance. Stoltz uses an analogy: “If we say we’ve put 50 innocent people in jail, but we’ve also put 50 guilty people in jail, is that a good thing?” It’s a difficult issue because there are two competing, legitimate interests at stake: the need to deter people from breaking copyright laws, and the need to protect the innocent from legal intimidation. At any rate, some federal judges are wising up to copyright trolls, whose tactics, they say, are sometimes unscrupulous. In May U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II penalized a group of such attorneys $81,000. In an amusing court order that used language borrowed from Star Trek, Wright took to “battle stations” and sanctioned the attorneys for using a “cloak of shell companies and fraud” to “plunder the citizenry.” “[Attorneys] have outmaneuvered the legal system. They’ve discovered the nexus of antiquated copyright laws, paralyzing social stigma, and unaffordable defense costs.”
Unfit to print Defense Distributed, a Texas nonprofit, made history in May when it posted blueprints online for the world’s first 3-D printed gun. Except for a small metal firing pin, the “Liberator” pistol is made entirely of plastic formed layer-by-layer by a 3-D printer. It fires a single .38-caliber bullet. The excitement was short-lived: Within two days the State Department told the organization to remove the gun blueprint for possible violation of arms export laws—though not before the file had been downloaded over 100,000 times. —D.J.D.
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illustration: krieg barrie • 3-d guns: defense distributed
U.S. copyright law allows fines of up to $150,000 for copying a video or downloading it over the internet without permission, but a lot of people do it anyway. Copyright holders—the film companies—have a hard time knowing when it happens, and even if they catch someone, is it worth filing charges against a single violator when so many others are doing the same thing? Yes it is, if there’s an efficient way to charge multiple people and wring money out of them all. Some attorneys have hit on a lucrative legal strategy known as “copyright trolling.” They hire experts to track down thousands of IP addresses of computers that have downloaded movies illegally, send their owners an ominous letter threatening legal action, then invite them to settle out of court for between $2,000 and $4,000. As it turns out, many (but not all) illegal downloads involve porn films. Since lawsuits are public, copyright violators face the embarrassing prospect of having their names listed next to a porn film in a court document. To avoid the publicity and the expense of hiring a defense lawyer, most violators agree to settle out of court. Which is exactly what the copyright trolling attorneys planned.
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5/28/13 5:15 PM
WM0613B_Adoption_VisionVideo 5/21/13 8:24 AM Page 1
New DVD Releases on Adoption and Orphans Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27, NIV)
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Letters to an Unknown Daughter
The Heart of Adoption and Caring for Orphans What would the church look like if we obeyed James 1:27? Why doesn’t the church at large talk much about adoption? This film answers those questions and inspires Christians to love and care for the most vulnerable—the orphan. Featuring interviews with R.C. Sproul, Jr., Beall Phillips, and many others, Rescued is an invaluable resource for every Christian. Today, there are over 160 million children worldwide who are without parents. In America there are as many as 144,000 boys and girls in foster care wanting to be adopted. These staggering statistics should cause Christians to ask some probing questions. 62 minutes. DVD - #501483D,
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In the summer of 1974, 17-year old Anita Keagy discovered that she was pregnant by her boyfriend. Having grown up in a loving but strict Christian home, Anita feared the disgrace it would bring on her family and considered abortion. Instead, with much prayer and courage, she gave her child up for adoption. Years later, married and raising four children, Anita felt compelled to communicate with her unknown daughter. Through the adoption agency, she began a file of letters. Many painful years would pass before these letters would bring Anita and her daughter, Twila, together again. This lead Anita to a deep insight about God's intense desire to know and be known by His children. 40 minutes. $ 99 DVD - #501482D,
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Notebook > Science
Egos and embryos Scientists harvest stem cells from cloned human embryos for the first time BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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EMBRYOS: OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY/AP • MITALIPOV: RICHARD CLEMENT/REUTERS/LANDOV • TURBINES: KONRAD FIEDLER/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
>>
O claim to have succeeded in performing two ethically objectionable lab experiments at the same time: creating human clones and embryonic stem cells. California scientists first made clones several years ago, but the Oregon team is the first to keep them alive long enough to extract stem cells—cells that can transform into multiple tissue types. Working at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore., the researchers made clones by inserting human skin cells into human eggs whose nuclei had been removed. A jolt of electricity caused these unfortunate Frankencells to begin growing into blastocysts, embryos just a week old. Genetically, each one was an identical twin with the person who donated the skin cell. EMBRYONIC The cloned embryos were destroyed during the FARMING: Developing human stem-cell extraction process. Team leader Shoukhrat embryos at day Mitalipov said their goal was to create embryonic three; Mitalipov. stem cells genetically equivalent to patients, in order to treat disease. The problem is that better lab techniques can create stem cells without destroying embryos: Doctors already use adult stem cells to treat thousands of patients, and induced pluripotent cells—created by manipulating adult skin cells—have properties similar to embryonic stem cells. Most researchers have already switched to using these cheaper, ethically acceptable approaches. Mitalipov is well-known for previous monkey cloning experiments. “This guy has been trying to do cloning for years and years,” said Family Research Council senior fellow David Prentice, who suspects scientists do such work as an “ego trip.” The ego trip in this case caused some embarrassment: A week after the cloning experiments appeared in the online journal Cell in May, a reader found sloppy labeling and image errors. The errors weren’t expected to challenge the overall cloning claims—but they were byproducts of an excited rush to publish.
If you want to kill a federally protected bird without consequence, your best bet is to erect a wind turbine. Oil and gas companies pay high fines for killing bald and golden eagles. Yet when wind farms do so, the Obama administration looks the other way. According to an Associated Press report, the administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind farm for killing eagles or migratory birds, even though turbines kill an estimated , birds annually in the United States. At their tips, turbine blades can spin as fast as a bullet train and smack birds to the ground before they have a chance to dodge. Elsewhere, birds are killed in oil spills and power line electrocutions, and the government is quick to pounce if energy companies haven’t made enough effort to protect wildlife. In , a company that operates power plants in Western states, PacifiCorp, paid over . million for electrocuting eagles near power lines and substations—, per bird. The Obama administration, a strong advocate of wind power, has protected wind farms from prosecution. The farms can receive fiveyear permits allowing them to kill a certain number of federally protected birds. New rules the administration is considering would allow wind farms to apply for bird kill permits covering years. Tim Eicher, a former agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told the Associated Press, “What it boils down to is this: If you electrocute an eagle, that is bad, but if you chop it to pieces, that is OK.” —D.J.D.
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KRISTA GUENIN/GENESIS
Notebook > Houses of God
19-year-old rival in a drug turf war in the building that’s now
Redemption Fellowship Church. Today kids meet in the same space for Sunday school. The church is one of dozens planted by the Southern Baptist Convention in New England in the last decade, housed in a former bar in Fall River, Mass.—an area with 15 percent unemployment where evangelicals make up less than 3 percent of the population.
Krista Guenin/Genesis
embryos: Oregon Health & Science University/AP • Mitalipov: Richard Clement/Reuters/landov • Turbines: Konrad Fiedler/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Eight years ago four alleged crack dealers lay bloodied, shot by a
J u n e 1 5 , 2 0 1 3 • W ORLD
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5/27/13 11:05 AM
Notebook > Sports
Swing and miss
A wrong-headed remark recalls the moment that changed the face of golf BY MARK BERGIN
>>
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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NO MULLIGAN: having played golf Garcia and Woods with Fuzzy, I know he at the Players is a jokester; and I Championship. have concluded that no personal animosity toward me was intended. I respect Fuzzy as a golfer and as a person and for the many good things he has done for others throughout his career. I know he feels badly about his remarks. We all make mistakes, and it is time to move on. I accept Fuzzy’s apology and hope everyone can now put this behind us.” Woods’ gracious statement kept the story from blowing too far out of proportion and helped Zoeller rebuild his public image. But years later, Garcia received a far less generous assist. A sign of the times, Woods offered his reaction via Twitter: “The comment that was made wasn’t silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate. I’m confident that there is real regret that the remark was made. The Players ended nearly two weeks ago and it’s long past time to move on and talk about golf.” With Zoeller, Woods vouched for the man’s character and accepted his apology. With Garcia, Woods highlighted the misstep and acknowledged the existence of regret. After years and his own bout with public humiliation, has Woods grown less gracious than he was as a -year-old phenomenon? Or is it simply that he dislikes Garcia? The feuding pair will be in the field for this month’s U.S. Open. A firstround pairing of them would be nice. Golf hasn’t been this compelling since .
—M.B.
GARCIA & WOODS: RICHARD HEATHCOTE/GETTY IMAGES • PETERSON: ANDY CLAYTON KING/GETTY IMAGES
T W knows the pain of public humiliation. The world’s best golfer has seen the worst of his life’s indiscretions splashed across most every media page around the globe. Nevertheless, when recently given an opportunity to forgive an indiscretion from a fellow competitor, Woods chose to pile on instead. The occasion arose with a wrongheaded, off-hand comment from Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia. Asked during a European Tour awards dinner last month if he would set aside his longstanding feud with Woods long enough for the pair to have dinner during the U.S. Open, Garcia jokingly said, “We will have him around every night. We will serve fried chicken.” The remark bore striking resemblance to the ethnic stereotyping gaffe golfer Fuzzy Zoeller made after Woods’ first Masters victory back in , an outcome that changed the face of golf and launched the game’s first global superstar. Commenting on the win and the tradition of Masters champions selecting the menu for the players’ dinner, Zoeller said, “You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not to serve fried chicken next year. Got it? Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.” Zoeller’s comments, like Garcia’s, provoked considerable media guffawing and both players quickly apologized. Woods, for his part, came to Zoeller’s defense all those years ago: “His attempt at humor was out of bounds, and I was disappointed by it. But
Professional athletes’ views on marriage are headline news these days. The Associated Press was on the story after Vikings running back Adrian Peterson voiced opposition to same-sex marriage in a radio interview. Said Peterson: “I have relatives who are gay. I’m not biased towards them. I still treat them the same. I love ’em. But again, I’m not with that. That’s not something I believe in. But to each his own.” Peterson was asked for his views on the subject after the Vikings recently released punter Chris Kluwe, an outspoken advocate for states recognizing marriages between same-sex partners. Minnesota will begin recognizing such marriages Aug. .
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5/29/13 10:07 AM
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Notebook > Money
Investing your values In the aftermath of Starbucks’ shareholder meeting, Biblically Responsible Investing gets another look BY WARREN COLE SMITH
>>
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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including Amazon, Schlumberger Limited, and GlaxoSmithKline. The largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, also screens the approximately billion in its investment portfolio, though it has a much looser standard. Its investment arm, Guidestone Financial Resources, refrains from companies that are “publicly recognized” as engaging in immoral activity. Timothy Head, a spokesman for Guidestone, would not identify members of the committee that determines whether a company is “publicly recognized” or say how the committee made the determination. “Our process is proprietary,” he told WORLD. Whatever the process, it did not screen out Starbucks. Strobhar estimates Guidestone owns about million in Starbucks stock. Of the stocks listed above that the PCA refuses to hold, Guidestone owns them all. Though, to be fair, the PCA also owns Starbucks stock in its Large Cap Growth Fund. One company that refuses to own Starbucks is the granddaddy of evangelical investment funds, The Timothy Plan, which has about million under management. (Catholics have the Ave Maria Fund, which has about billion.) The Timothy Plan founder Art Ally has long been a thorn in the side of Guidestone and other investment groups that refuse to tightly screen their investments. “They’re funding evil,” he said bluntly. Ally points out that tens of millions of Christians have hundreds of billions in investment and retirement accounts. “If we all got together and took our stewardship duties seriously,” he said, “we could make a real difference.” The PCA makes its investment decisions using data from the Biblically Responsible Investing Institute (BRII),
which tracks thousands of publicly traded companies and their activities. Rusty Leonard, BRII’s founder and president, agrees with Ally that if more Christians would “invest their values,” companies would behave differently. He said the current battles over same-sex marriage actually began decades ago when “corporations started granting same-sex domestic partner benefits.” The Boy Scouts considered a change in its ban on adult leadership because of pressure from corporations. According to Leonard, “Corporations have been the front lines for these battles. Who knows what might have happened if investors had spoken up years ago?” One possible objection to biblically responsible investing is its rate of return. The PCA’s Gary Campbell says unscreened funds may outperform screened funds in the short term, “but over the long haul we haven’t seen any difference.” That was also the conclusion of a team of economists led by Sebastian Lobe from Germany’s University of Regensburg. Their study concluded: “We find no compelling evidence in the data that ethical and unethical screens lead to a significant difference in their financial performance.” Campbell admits the choices in biblically responsible investing are not always clear, but he says it is important to start somewhere. “When you buy stock in a company, you’re more than just a consumer. You’re an owner. That brings with it a higher responsibility. Christian investors should take that responsibility seriously.” A
“IT’S A FREE COUNTRY”: Schultz at the March meeting.
TED S. WARREN/AP
T could not have been more clear—or dramatic—when Starbucks held its annual meeting in March. Tom Strobhar, a Christian shareholder activist, stood up to the microphone at McCaw Hall, a magnificent facility that’s home to the Seattle Opera. Thousands looked on as he calmly objected to Starbucks’ use of corporate funds to support homosexual activities: same-sex domestic partner benefits, sponsorship of “gay pride” events, support for homosexual activist speakers at Starbucks’ corporate events, and CEO Howard Schultz’s outspoken support for gay marriage. Strobhar provided data saying drops in sales, earnings, and stock price coincided with Starbucks’ pro-gay activism. But Starbucks’ Schultz said other factors led to the drops, and he was unrepentant: “It’s a free country. You can sell your shares of Starbucks and buy shares in another company.” Though it’s hard to see any direct impact on Starbucks, increasingly Christians are investing their values. Though still a tiny portion of the total assets invested, funds using Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) practices are growing, topping billion last year. The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), for example, has more than million in its investment portfolio, mostly in the form of retirement accounts for PCA pastors, missionaries, and other church staff. Gary Campbell, who administers the PCA’s funds, estimates that to percent of the funds are “screened” funds that refrain from investing in companies involved in abortion, pornography, homosexuality, or other activities his denomination considers a violation of biblical standards. According to Campbell, about companies are on its exclusion list,
Email: wsmith@worldmag.com
5/27/13 10:19 AM
Ted S. Warren/ap
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5/28/13 5:17 PM
Notebook > Religion
Growth spurt
More Hispanics are filling Protestant pews BY THOMAS KIDD
>>
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
12 RELIGION.indd 82
Other evangelical and Pentecostal denominations tell similar stories of Hispanic growth. Vatican watchers agree that the appointment of Pope Francis, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, signals that the Catholic Church intends to press forward with re-evangelization efforts among the Hispanic population of the Americas, once considered unquestionably Catholic. Some Hispanics attend both Catholic and Protestant services. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for instance, was baptized as a Mormon, but his family subsequently joined the Catholic Church. In recent years he has attended Catholic services as well as Christ Fellowship, a Southern Baptist multi-site church in south Florida. Protestant Hispanics tend to be more politically conservative than Catholic ones, although percent of Hispanic evangelicals supported President Obama in the election, according to the Pew Forum. One of the most prominent Hispanic evangelical leaders is Wilfredo “Choco” De Jesus, who pastors Chicago’s New Life Covenant Ministries, one of America’s largest Assemblies of God churches. Time magazine recently named De Jesus one of its “ Most
Influential People” in the world and later featured his praying hands for its cover story on “The Latino Reformation.” Unlike Miami pastors Lozano and Rodriguez, De Jesus was born in the United States. He grew up in inner-city Chicago, accepted Christ at New Life Covenant at age , and became that church’s pastor in . Since his appointment, the church has grown from a weekly attendance of to ,. New Life Covenant holds both English and Spanish services on multiple campuses. The church operates a network of community services, including a homeless shelter, an after-school program, and a gang member outreach called “Gangs to Grace.” In , New Life Covenant also opened a residential farm outside Chicago for women escaping the sex trade or drug addiction. Writing for Time, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church said, “New Life is reaching out to the outcasts and forgotten in our society—the homeless, women suffering with addiction and prostitution, and young people in gangs.” A
SPRINGING UP: A worship service at New Life Covenant in Chicago.
JOHN GRESS/REUTERS/NEWSCOM
A over America’s immigration policies, a profound spiritual transformation is unfolding among Hispanics: They are joining evangelical churches in droves. Many conservative denominations in the United States have realized that the growing Hispanic population now represents one of their greatest evangelistic opportunities, and churches are making creative accommodations to reach Hispanics across the country. Turning Point Church, a Southern Baptist–affiliated congregation in suburban Miami, describes itself as “a church of many cultures, where Christ is the point of unity.” Noel Lozano and Jorge Rodriguez, who both immigrated to the United States before the age of , co-pastor the church they planted in . Sundays feature both English and Spanish-language services. Turning Point averages about attendees, but it has baptized new converts over the past year. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, about twothirds of all Hispanics in America identify as Catholics, but that percentage is dropping. As the Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land has noted, Iglesia Bautista congregations (and other evangélico churches) are springing up across the country. Hispanic immigrants came “here to work, we’re evangelistic, we shared the gospel with them, they became Baptist,” Land explained. Hispanicmajority Southern Baptist churches number about , today, and Southern Baptist leaders hope to grow that to , congregations by .
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5/27/13 10:38 AM
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Prepared for Marriage? “Truths I Wish I Had Understood Before I Got Married” Marriage is Hard has all the understanding that a student can gain in a good biblical counseling class, plus those little but vital insights that come from being a wife: the way small irritants can fester, expectations can destroy, and thoughts can make us ready to pounce. It’s an excellent study for wives and women’s Bible study groups. Susan Olasky — World Magazine
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Mailbag ‘Heartbreak Hill’
May I love your magazine, but as a stay-at-home mom of four young girls I was a bit taken aback by the graphic cover photograph. While I was able to grasp the weight of this photo, my girls were not. It is my responsibility to shield my children as my husband and I see fit, but I also wonder about journalistic responsibility. —J B, Moore, Okla.
God’s will? Many times the answer is not wrapped up nice and neat with sound reasoning and agreement from well-meaning mature brothers and sisters in the faith. I so appreciated your effort to put into words something that often defies logic. —N J, Grand Prairie, Texas
I saw a picture of the young bombing victim Martin Richard holding a Christcentered banner on news reports shortly after he was killed. Later reports depicted him holding a poster with a peace symbol, but I was glad to see you published the former image. —S S, Miller, S.D.
shine light into his heart and he will repent. It is so sad and unbelievable. —S V, Decatur, Ga.
Peterson does an amazing job of striking the balance between the trial’s gritty realities and her own barely restrained indignation. —T Z, Waukesha, Wis.
As Bostonians, we have appreciated WORLD’s unique coverage of the bombing. —M J R, Boston, Mass.
‘Courtroom horror’ May I am very grateful for WORLD’s investing in this trial with an on-thescene reporter. Andrée Seu Peterson is doing a great job (as always) of communicating what is most important. —S B, DeKalb, Ill.
The fact that prosecution witness Dr. Karen Feisullin performed clean, rare, and “safe” abortions doesn’t make her any less guilty than Gosnell himself. —Z J, Birmingham, Ala.
Peterson did a fabulous job of showing the amazing hypocrisy and illogical thinking in our culture about abortion. It shows the blindness that evil can bring about. Hopefully Gosnell will go to prison, and perhaps there God will
Send photos and letters to: mailbag@worldmag.com
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Thank you for re-sensitizing me to the horrors of abortion and reminding me that this is a battle that cannot be abandoned. I have been pro-life for more than years, but I had grown weary in the battle. I can’t imagine that someone could perform that procedure even once, let alone hundreds of times. —D M, Sugar Land, Texas
‘How to decide to move’ May The Christian life is not about being comfortable and secure, but in finding our mad mission and being the best witness for Christ we can be. My mad mission is homeschooling and serving as a pastor’s wife, in spite of Satan’s daily dose of discouraging whispers, but this encourages me to press on. —L S, Mishawaka, Ind.
Marvin Olasky summed up a huge question many Christians ask: Is this
‘Schools of thought’ May I am encouraged by the Romeike family, which fled Germany to escape persecution for homeschooling. They put the fear of God above the fear of man. A just government would gladly welcome a citizen who has his permanent dwelling in the life to come. I pray for asylum in the United States for this family, and that our own government will not continue down this path. —J W, Rolette, N.D.
‘Worth a slow read’ May I agree with your review of What Happened to Sophie Wilder. The portrayal of toggling between a secular and Christian life and the constant parallel presence of the supernatural in our world is something all Christians need to read. —P C, Lake Zurich, Ill.
‘Shoe leather service’ May Rep. Steve Pearce’s view of life and people provided the basis for his success. People in need found reason to trust and believe him, resulting in their voting for him again and again. Real demonstrations of caring have become a precious commodity in our impersonal, digitally driven society. —T S, Liberty Hill, Texas
JUNE 15, 2013 • WORLD
5/23/13 10:41 AM
This volume is must reading for anyone who thinks a "literal" reading of Scripture inevitably results in a dispensational system of theology.
Mailbag
Mark L. Strauss, PhD
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA submitted by Rebecca Johnson
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‘Spending habits’ May I commend Mindy Belz for bringing to light the federal government’s -year practice of dumping American-grown food in the world’s “hunger hot spots,” undermining local economies. Fortunately our government is proposing instead to use aid dollars to buy food locally, thereby helping the hungry and the local economy. American farmers should not be subsidized and farmers in underdeveloped countries should not have to compete with “free.” —T B, Whitehall, Mich.
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May I enjoyed very much the article on the sculptor Allison Streett. What a wise Christian and a talented artist. She is a throwback to the Renaissance artists who portrayed the themes of Christianity so as to inspire and bring hope. —G R, Cumming, Ga.
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May With all the obvious problems in this country, the biggest issue passengers in the Buffalo airport wanted the Leader of the Free World
to address was long lines? Keep turning up the heat—the slow-boiling frogs are almost cooked. —D H, Somerville, Maine
‘In all the noise, sounds of silence’ April I’m a first-year law student, and explaining my beliefs to those around me is certainly a challenge. Understanding God’s purposes for marriage—to reflect His nature in the world and the Church’s relationship to Christ—and that married couples do preserve society has helped me understand that the emotion-based arguments today clearly miss the point. I appreciate and deeply value WORLD’s position on this. —S MD, Oklahoma City, Okla.
‘A work of art’ April Edith Schaeffer’s legacy of defending the truth is so important right now as we face issues such as gay marriage. The Schaeffers are such good examples. —A G J, Sneads Ferry, N.C.
‘Countercultural warriors’ April This article helped restore my confidence in the “millennial”
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generation. What a solid, courageous, willing-to-go-against-thegrain bunch of Christian activists working to maintain traditional marriage. It is easier for me at 58 to take a public stand on homosexuality, as a psychologist, because my career is established. These warriors are to be applauded.
Amy
Writıng Awards
f or biblic a l jou r na lism in secul a r newspa per s, m aga z ines, or w ebsites
—Jeffrey C. Danco, Bridgewater, N.J.
‘Powerful obscurity’ April 6 I’ve seen the ad campaign described in this article, so I was startled to see WORLD praising one of the ad campaign’s creators, Robert Doar, a New York City official. Doar may believe in marriage, but in this extensive campaign only the ad quoted in the article comes close to favoring marriage. The others portray having a child out of wedlock as expensive and difficult. Doar can’t explain why, in a culture where abortion is common, an ad stating, ‘You can’t handle a child,’ isn’t an encouragement to abort. —Kate Van Wynen, Bronx, N.Y.
‘Journey of grace’ March 23 Rosaria Butterfield’s honesty with those church members was overwhelming: “Look I have to give up the girlfriend: What did you have to give up to be here?” All church attendees should be answering that question. Her experience is a beautiful display of grace. —Dave Dirksen, Iowa Falls, Iowa
Correction
First prize:
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14 other awards: $
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Any size publication: city or college newspapers, local or national magazines, news and views websites
Gosnell clinic worker Steven Massof testified against his former employer (“Horror in the court,” May 4, p. 7).
original reporting preferred
letters & photos
Deadline for first half articles: July 15, 2013
Email: mailbag@worldmag.com Write: world Mailbag, PO Box 20002, Asheville, nc 28802-9998 Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
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For more information, go to worldmag.com/ amyawards
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Bible • Latin • Greek • Spanish • Logic • Poetry • Reasoning & Reading • Art • Writing & Rhetoric 12 SEU PETERSON.indd 98
5/23/13 10:24 AM
Andrée Seu Peterson
The morning after Will Americans wake up from this all-night orgy?
>>
KRIEG BARRIE
S C became Unitarians. Sons of Unitarians became social workers. Children of social workers became LGBTQIA*. This is America in a nutshell from the s to the s—and what I learned from Francis Schaeffer and Dr. D. Clair Davis. Things are accelerating now, like a snowball down a mountain. Not just Christians saying that, but everyone. The godless exult in it, of course, like the bad boys brought by Honest John to Pleasure Island, given permission to drink and smoke and wreck the place and do all the things good little boys don’t. They do not see that it’s a trap, and that after they make jackasses of themselves they become real jackasses, sprouting donkey ears and losing their humanity. Now the end-time verses of the Bible kick in: “But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. … These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption” ( Peter :-). A good journalist proves her point with quotes and sources, but the proofs are all around and I would bore you with redundancy: . billion abortions worldwide since . University student healthcare plans include sex-change coverage. Hook-up generation. Adam and Steve atop the wedding cake. BDSM** dungeons in midtown Manhattan. Politicians clambering aboard the gay parade float. Serious discussions of “marriage” to include multiple spouses. “Morning after” pills available to -year-olds over the counter. Fiancéejilting, gay-turning, basketball-playing Jason Collins lionized. GLAAD*** looking like a gray old lady.
“Tolerance” of homosexuality rejected for insistence on “celebration.” Fifty Shades of Grey. At the Philadelphia Gosnell murder trial, the prosecutor’s closing statement to the jury was already obsolete before it left his mouth. Here he was saying: “Outside the mother all things change. … Once a baby is outside the mother it is a human being and the doctor is obliged to give it care. … It is necessary that physicians are held to strict rules.” He was apparently unaware that , miles south, Planned Parenthood’s Alisa Snow was telling Florida lawmakers that when an aborted baby is accidentally born alive, whether you kill it or save it is a matter “entirely up to the doctor, the woman, and the family.” In college days in the ’s, if we had a night like the one our nation is having now, we would wake up in the morning embarrassed as all get-out and hope to God no one ever found out the ass we had made of ourselves. Ah, for such moral times! We still had the capacity to blush then. But now have the prophet’s words come true: “Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush” (Jeremiah :). A word to anyone out there still listening. Here is the rest of the prophecy: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it. … But they said, “We will not walk in it.” I set watchmen over you, saying, “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!” But they said, “We will not pay attention.” Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices. … Fathers and sons together, neighbor and friend shall perish.’” A
*lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or transsexual, queer or questioning, intersex, ally or asexual **bondage, discipline or dominance, submission or sadism, masochism ***Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation until three months ago. Now just GLAAD, with no spell-out, so the name works for transgenders.
Email: aseupeterson@worldmag.com
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JUNE 15, 2013 • WORLD
5/27/13 4:12 PM
Marvin Olasky
Where are they now?
A decade later, couples report encouraging news about God’s work in their marriages
>>
WORLD • JUNE 15, 2013
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loving, and good, and He is working out plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness. Nothing you would choose for yourself could ever surpass the beauty and wonder of the gifts He has prepared for you.” Other emails have also testified to God’s grace. One of the longtime marrieds who responded in , Dan Cole Younger, writes in about his wife, “I am so bonded to this woman that the very thought of life without her horrifies me. Nearly everything we do is aimed at deepening and strengthening that bond.” A couple, Lonnie and Paula Marcum, wrote to me in , “We weren’t fully aware of His bountiful blessings or the wideness of His mercy. But now years and six wonderful children later, we stand amazed.” They responded to my recent inquiry with news of their th wedding anniversary and their family: Five of the six children are married, the sixth is preparing for college, and they have grandkids. With all the sound and fury about marriage in the past decade, it turns out that little has changed. When marriages have difficulties, church support and counseling are important. If couples believe that failure is not an option, marriages on the rocks regularly turn into marriages remade in heaven. (Some academic research backs up this: See Linda J. Waite and Maggie Gallagher, The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially.) Children are important Financially in marriage: Those who put off having children for fear of divorce make it more likely that one will occur. I’ll close with a note from Elaine Neumeyer, who years ago advocated marriage while young and wrote, “Missed opportunity traded for ‘perfect’ circumstances may lead to a lifelong attempt to find a close approximation, or two … or three.” She wrote me recently, “If I had allowed my handsome new Naval Academy grad to head off in for flight school in Pensacola while I established myself as a fashion designer in NYC, someone else would have snapped him up in a heartbeat! We grew up together, rather than apart, making adjustments to each other as we went along.” A
KRIEG BARRIE
T , as the assault on marriage was growing, I asked WORLD readers, “What in your marriage should lead people to make up their minds to wed, in due time?” Several hundred readers who had been married for at least years wrote in, and my columns in June quoted responses. One of the moving letters came from Jeanne Damoff, who wrote, “Almost seven years ago, our oldest son nearly drowned at , leaving him in a coma for two months. [Now] he remains dependent and may always be. God has preserved our marriage through these and many lesser trials. As we’ve clung to Him and to each other, we’ve seen our faith grow and our love deepen. For every sorrow borne, we’ve been given far greater measures of joy and delight.” I recently wrote to Jeanne asking for an update: She responded, “I can report to you with great joy that there’s nothing I would change about my former statement. I would only underscore it. We’ve seen God work in remarkable ways over the past years. At , our braininjured son still lives with us, and we expect he always will, but we don’t resent that. On the contrary, he is a treasure and delight.” She continued, “Our other children, who were and ten years ago, are both married to precious Christians and joyfully serving the Lord. Suffering with their brother and seeing God work in and through his life helped prepare them for the inevitable challenges to their faith. Everywhere we look, God has worked all things together for good and done immeasurably more than we asked or imagined. … Last year we bought a house across the street from my parents, who still live in the house they built when I was years old. Mom has Alzheimer’s, and we are walking with my father through this long good-bye.” Her conclusion: “It’s hard on all of us, but as I watch my husband serve my parents, pray for them, and love them unconditionally, I understand again, for the thousandth time, that God’s best gifts come in unexpected packages. … If I could give any advice to young couples, it would be this: God really is sovereign,
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
5/23/13 10:36 AM
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