Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction so says Prov. 1:7.
Yes, Christianity is still under attack. Jesus warned us this would happen but do not lament because God is still in control and although it rarely hits the news about how He handles His critics, one recently dropped into my lap so I thought I would bring you up to date. On May 26, 2007 I wrote a long gone and forgotten article entitled Every Knee Shall Bow. I occasionally listened to a Catholic by the name of Bernie Ward on late-night talk KGO radio out of San Francisco and who also had a Sunday morning “God Talk” where he often invoked the Beatitudes: The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5: 1-12.) He was awarded the Best Talk Show Host in the Bay area. When Jerry Falwell died, within hours Bernie Ward went on the KGO radio and said “It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it” as he vehemently used verse 11 to revile Falwell.
Although I never claimed Jerry Falwell had a halo over his head, I received a great deal of flak – many from people who claimed to be Christians so I ask myself why would I want to open up this kettle of fish again? The article also was reprinted on Newsday and www.rense.com where prolific authors, Texe & Wanda Marrs read it. They said articles on Rense often cast doubt on Christianity and the scriptures yet God moved Rense to publish the article on his website. Many seem to forget God used even a donkey in the Bible (Numbers 22:20-35). God chooses the whoever. I responded to the many negative e-mails with love. It was time consuming but using scripture (Galatians 4:16) I would ask them, “Have I now become your enemy by telling the truth?” (I don’t plan to respond again so save your anger.)
While one pastor criticized me, another writer and pastor with NewsWithViews had praise for Jerry. My writing abilities were attacked as well as my looks and I was called vicious names and my remarks about South Africa also turned out to be true. The “Imperialists” whites are moving out and South Africa is now controlled by communists which includes, of course, Kenya, the birthplace of Barack Obama, which a Kenya newspaper reported when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Then there were those who hated Falwell for his stance on Israel while others praised him for that same stand.
BERNIE NEEDED A DAMASCUS ROAD EXPERIENCE
I submitted the original draft with fear and trembling and decided maybe I didn’t want it posted but the webmaster felt because I’d put so much work in it, it needed to be read. I told him I’d sleep on it. The next morning during devotions I was reading in Acts 9 about Saul, a hater of disciples of the Lord, and how he was converted and became Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus and the lights came on: Bernie Ward needed a Damascus Road experience so I tweaked the article a bit and God has blessed the efforts by getting it published in areas I never dreamed.
Some referred me to www.madcowprod.com. A 5/18/2007 article on that website was entitled: “The Secret History of Jerry Falwell, Televangelist links to terror flight school in Florida. When Ted Haggart, the Bakkers and Jimmy Swaggart fell from grace, it was front page news in the mainline media, why did some wait until Jerry died to allege these things?
ARE WE CLOSER TO GOD?
One answered my inquiry, “Where would we be today without Falwell and his Moral Majority?” The critics answer: “A lot closer to God”. Well, Jerry and the Moral Majority are long gone. Are we closer to God?
Demonic activity has increased significantly since the Jerry Falwell era. I’m convinced God has turned America over to Satan for the purpose of driving us to repentance. (Isaiah 24 and Matthew 24.) When a nation is left alone with Satan, what happens to its people, government, economy, educational systems and every other endeavor? A nation forsaken by the Almighty would be one whose government is full of scandals, corruption, and sexual sins. The economy of such a nation would be one of massive debts, foreclosures and bankruptcies . And then there are all those fires still burning in the liberal, Democrat- controlled Pacific Northwest states at great financial costs and let us not forget the bedlam in the Middle East and Genocide.
One positive response said Bernie Ward was trained as a Catholic priest. He also had been a Catholic school teacher. He rebelled against the Catholic church and left the seminary. His “God Talk” had always been anti-church. He had his own ‘enlightened’ views of god. Those who listened to him had to put up with a very bitter person ranting against anything that resembled authority. The writer further said, “I called him ‘Bitter Ward.’” He continued by saying it is amazing how much following Bernie had in San Francisco Bay Area. Is it possible that many of my negative critics came from San Francisco and they seemed to be especially steamed up about Jerry’s stand against homosexuality? (Romans 1:24-28)
The responder said KGO gave Bernie free rein. He was sort of the west coast Rosie O’Donnell. KGO radio was one time a mix of libertarians, quasi-conservatives, middle of the road liberals, with only Bernie Ward and another angry liberal, Ray Taliaferro carrying the far left flag. Rush Limbaugh was originally on KGO when he broadcast from Sacramento but he later went national, he said. I might add quickly, since Bernie was carted off to prison on child porn charges, I don’t think KGO any longer carries radical talk show hosts. Has the foofaraw stopped? My suspicion is they were losing advertisers. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can enlighten me.
Another positive responder said if we would have had a Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority in the 60s, Madam O’Hare would not have been victorious in removing Bible reading and prayer from our schools but God did not have anyone standing in the gap? But then there were Christians who criticized Falwell for his hobnobbing with Rev. Moon It was reported by one Conservative group that Falwell’s Liberty University was in danger of bankruptcy and Sun Myung Moon and his Unification church came to the financial rescue. But there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of pastors, legislators and other elected officials as well as ordinary citizens, including me, who were called on the phone by CAUSA reps with personal invitations for an all expense paid trip to Moon’s many conferences held around the U.S. as he was attempting to hijack evangelism and promote his Washington Times newspaper. I did not attend any.
REPUBLICANS BLINK ON OBAMACARE AND CAUSE AIR TURBULENCE
Bernie claimed Christmas was a pagan day as do many others and that maybe Thanksgiving and Easter were the most religious of holidays. He had children and was complaining about the high cost of college. He said in May 2007 he was no longer a Democrat but was registered “Decline to State.” He was disgusted with his Congress person and Senators because they weren’t standing up to Bush regarding the Defense spending bill. I found it hilarious when he said the Democrats blinked so much on the Defense Spending bill they created air turbulence. This remark is reminiscent of the Republicans today on Obamacare. He also thought Hillary Clinton was going to come back to bite us in the butt, if she would be elected President.
THE BUSH DERANGEMENT SYNDROME
Bernie used to work in Washington, D.C. for Democrat Barbara Boxer and hated George Bush and friends. Bernard Goldberg in his 2007 book Crazies to the Left of me: Wimps to my Right called it the Bush derangement syndrome (BDS) coined by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer who trained at Harvard to be a psychiatrist. BDS is described by Goldberg as an acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people. Bernie had nothing good to say about another Catholic, Fox personality Bill O’Reilly.
BERNIE ON ABSTINENCE EDUCATION
Bernie says the irony about the insistence of abstinence being taught in the public schools is that these same people were the ones having sex before marriage and that these same people who preach abstinence also have the highest divorce rate even though they swore before God that they were going to be together ‘til death do them part. It turns out swearing before God didn’t really mean much to most of these people – even fundamentalists. He felt Americans were religiously the most illiterate people on the face of the earth and compared Americans to other industrialized nations. www.newswithviews.com/91/htm
BERNIE ON THE FIRST AMENTMENT
Bernie said most Americans didn’t deserve America. They don’t understand the relevance of the First Amendment as well as he did which is meant to protect the minority from the majority and he compared the fundamentalists to the Sunnis and Shias in Iraq. Falwell began warning us about the threats to America and the ensuing cultural war which has arrived in the form of political correctness, illegal immigration, radical Muslim infiltration, “hate legislation” primarily aimed at white people and Christians in order to stifle their First Amendment rights of free speech.
CAMPAIGN REFORM FAVORS DEMOCRATS
In 1974 an amendment to the Federal Elections Campaign Act (FECA) made it illegal in some circumstances for America to publish their opinion about candidates for election. Citizens and organizations who “coordinate” with a candidate for public office were prohibited from spending more than a set amount of money to publish arguments for or against a candidate. In 2002 we were given the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act which tightened up the free speech even more but liberal newspaper owners were given free expression. The 1974 law was passed by a Democrat Congress on the day before Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace from the presidency.
Senator Barbara Boxer explained the reason for “campaign reform.” “These so-called issue ads are not regulated at all and mention candidates by name. They directly attack candidates without any accountability. It is brutal… We have an opportunity in the McCain-Feingold campaign bill to stop that…” These campaign reform bills are primarily about limiting the speech of conservatives and especially the National Rifle Association. And Bernie Ward said a law should be passed making Christianity a felony; however, he once taught in a Catholic School.
On December 6, 2007 six months after my article “Every Knee Shall Bow” regarding Bernie’s attack on the Christians and especially Jerry Falwell, the hypocrite Bernie was indicted on child porn possession charges and surrendered to authorities.
But to bring you up to date, here are the results of Bernie’s Damascus Road experience. While one caller to the Michael Savage radio show said he had been a computer expert for 30 years and said these things can be planted; however, Dan Noyes, chief Investigator reporter of ABC7 I-Team reported it was a close friend of Bernie’s that turned him into the FBI after he had e-mailed an image of child porn to her.
Christine Craft another KGO talk radio host at that time said on November 26, 2008 when Bernie was sentenced on his child porn charge, his entire family was there excluding his parents who were both dead. On December 23, 2008, Christine told about of a letter she received from Bernie from his Beaumont, Texas prison writing how he was humbled and humiliated. “We’re not alone any more – Emanual – God is with us.” He was sorry for what he did. He was frightened in prison and the fact that his family had been financially devastated. He talked about redemption.
Bernie’s lesson should be for those who are attacking Christians. Hebrews 10:31 says “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Christians need to rely on prayer and turn those mean-spirited Bernies over to God. This does not mean we should be doormats but stand firm like Antoinette Tuff, a bookkeeper who was a guest on 8/22/2013 with Anderson Cooper on CNN. She told how she stopped a young, distraught and confused gunman at her Georgia school that came to commit “suicide by cops.” Her pastor the Sunday before had begun a series on how to handle such events so inside she was praying for wisdom while she fearlessly talked him out of any shootings by sharing her own story with him – all recorded on the 911 call. www.newswithviews.com/Betty/Freauf225.htm So be not dismayed, God is still at work in His people. May God grant all born-again believers that fearlessness, and fill us, as he did the Apostle Paul, instead with joy in the midst of these turbulent times (Rom. 8:15)
© 2013 Betty Freauf - All Rights Reserved
Betty is a former Oregon Republican party activist having served as state party secretary, county chairman, 5th congressional vice chairman and then elected chairman, and a precinct worker for many years but Betty gave up on the two-party system in 2004. Betty is a researcher specializing in education, a freelance journalist and a regular contributor to www.NewsWithViews.com
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