Evangelicalism Continues to Move Left by Jan Markell

From http://www.worldviewweekend.com/secure/cwnetwork/article.php?ArticleID=1224

Evangelicalism Continues to Move Left
Jan Markell

http://www.olivetreeviews.org/

Nothing stays the same anymore; it is always morphing into something it shouldn't. So it is with evangelicalism. My alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, recently featured the king-pin of the "religious left," Jim Wallis. Wallis heads Sojourners' ministry and magazine, a ministry devoted to social issues though called evangelical.

In his e-newsletter Wallis refers to his Bethel experience where he spoke to a packed chapel service.

He says, "I was at Bethel University, known as a conservative evangelical school--fertile ground for recruiting by the ‘religious right.’ But the wind is changing at Bethel as it is among the new generation of evangelical students across the country for both faith and politics in America."
He continues, "I asked the students if they wanted to be 'true evangelicals'" (referring to Luke 4 and the reference of bringing the good news to the poor.) The implication here is that if it doesn't follow the social gospel it cannot be good news.

Wallis seems to minimize the moral values of the "religious right" such as abortion and gay marriage while emphasizing issues he feels are greater causes today: Poverty, global warming, human rights, ethics of war in Iraq, and more. Wallis said that the value of human life cannot just be seen in the abortion issue without also addressing issues of the poor.

After a standing ovation by the students who were overflowing in the chapel hall, Wallis says, "It didn't feel like a standing ovation but rather an altar call, with students standing to say they want their faith and lives to make a difference in our world." I ask if evangelical colleges and seminaries are cranking out pastors with this view, what will the church look like in ten years?

Wallis then had his "Voting God's Politics" on line for downloading. It is a repetition and expansion of what he said at the Bethel chapel service, but a harder-hitting emphasis on "social justice" to the point that it smacked of blatant socialism: Redistribute the wealth. If one can't work, they should be subsidized and be treated with dignity. Extreme global poverty must end, a good item for a wish-list but not going to happen in this life. In his cry for world peace he says about the war on terror, that "all nations need to rid themselves of weapons of mass destruction and end the 'cycle of violence."' I am sure Iran's Ahmadinejad is paying attention.

In “Voting God’s Politics,” Wallis kept taking Scripture out of context and throwing in many verses that are blatantly talking about the Millennium when all these problems will be gone. However, he believes if we all unite behind him, we can end them before the return of Christ to set up His perfect Kingdom on earth. Are satanically-inspired nations and leaders going to wipe out their WMDs? Not even the U.N. is making a dent in this issue.

Also, in “Voting God’s Politics” Wallis says the Israelis are oppressing the Palestinians, not the Palestinian leaders choosing to keep their people in poverty. Wallis adds we must strengthen the U.N. and end capital punishment because it is biased towards the poor. He urges all Christians to support amnesty for illegal aliens, fight AIDS, and fight for women's rights.

What's missing here? I see not a word about a regenerated heart that would assist in the above, not a word about man's sin nature that has caused all the problems, not a word about repentance, and not a word about the fact that only our Lord's return can solve these overwhelming problems. That doesn't mean some efforts shouldn't be employed to correct some of these issues.

And yet the church today considers Jim Wallis and his Sojourners to be part of "evangelicalism." How things have changed in just a few years.



________________________

From http://www.worldviewweekend.com/secure/cwnetwork/article.php?ArticleID=1098

Islam’s Silent Inroads
by Jan Markell
www.olivetreeviews.org

As Islamic expert Avi Lipkin recently told me, Islam will make inroads in quiet ways as well as revolutionary ways. The quiet or evolutionary means will be by gaining power in high places in America and elsewhere and changing the nation and the world from within without firing a shot.

The United Nations is seeking a successor to the throne of the corrupt Kofi Annan whose term expires the first of the year. There are numerous candidates, some named and some who have not yet been presented. They are saying the next Secretary General must have zero tolerance for corruption and mismanagement. Annan has appeased some of the world's most vile men, in a sense confirming the U.N.'s "unique legitimacy" on them to show how "fair" he is. Doing so with Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, and Iran's Achmadinejad has created a "throw the bum out" attitude and get someone who can properly lead, though the corruption and dictator-coddling is rampant throughout the entire U.N.

There are many in the running and some who will emerge in the coming weeks and months. However, the frontrunner is from Jordan, and a Muslim. He is a cousin to King Hussein, Prince Zeid al-Hussein. Stop and comprehend a Muslim leading the world as you watch the bizarre, and as Avi Lipkin calls it, the "psychosis of Islam" in present and past temper tantrums that kill innocent nuns and riot over every offense. Even America's U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, favors al-Hussein.

On a lower level, my raging blue state of Minnesota and our Democratic Party have just nominated for U.S. Congress a "former" member of the Nation of Islam who has defended membership in the Bloods street gang and called cop-killer Abu-Jamal and Sara Jane Olson "freedom fighters." His name is Keith Ellison-Hakim, and he would represent Minnesota's fifth district.

Ellison-Hakim has ties to Louis Farrakhan's anti-Semitic Nation of Islam. He has already accrued at least an estimated $35,000 in funding from CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, a dangerous outfit designed to make Islam in America look benign. He calls for the impeachment of President Bush and is, frankly, a Muslim radical. And it is projected that he will win this liberal district.

Ellison-Hakim's relationship to the Nation of Islam is being mostly kept out of the left-leaning Minneapolis Star-Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press. However, even the local Jewish newspaper in terrible delusion endorsed Ellison-Hakim claiming he is a "moderate Muslim." They actually buy the lie that this man "extends his hand of friendship to the Jewish community and supports the security of the State of Israel." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Ellison-Hakim's campaign color is Islamic green. His appearance seems designed to make him look like a younger Farrakhan. He has been profoundly impacted by Farrakhan's sickening ideology today.

Islam is making inroads in all levels of government including homeland security. The Left embraces them and even praises them, and is such a state of delusion that they cannot see truth. To have Islamic leaders running the U.N. or entering the U.S. House of Representatives is just a step in the process of the Islamization of America and the world through "evolutionary means" rather than "revolutionary means."

To learn more, please visit this category of "Islam & the Arabs" at my Web site here: http://www.olivetreeviews.org/topics/islam_arabs.shtml You can hear Mark Hitchcock and Annie Jacobsen further inform us of these disturbing issues. They are posted on "radio archives" here:

http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/mp3/ and are the radio interviews from September 16.

In such disturbing times it is good to remember that God does have everything under control as foolish men put America and the world further and further into "perilous times" (II Timothy 3.)