...and the persecution continues....

Well, finally, our Christian leaders are waking up! They've just discovered that we Christians are beginning to be persecuted. Even some of the Third Wave Charismatic "prophets" are saying this too. I think the Chick-fil-a situation really woke them up. I think the problem of being asleep about this is because most American Christians seem to live in red states--the Bible Belt. This is comprised of the South and Midwest between the coasts and can also include rural areas in some blue states too. I don't think they get the persecution, the snide remarks, the hostility, as much as we here in the blue states do. In a class for senior adults I used to take, in which we discussed news issues, the hostility toward evangelicals was at times frightening. One man, a retired English professor at our local community college, stated with an almost red face that "tea party people and evangelicals are terrorists." I'm not sure why he included evangelicals, but out here in the Los Angeles area, in NPR (the ultra-liberal National Public Radio which is government-supported) land, we hear this type of thing constantly. If you talk to a Bible Belt person, many, if not most, deny that any type of harassment is going on. But then, if you never read the local liberal newspaper, only watch Fox News, and only listen to the conservative radio lineup of Rush, Hannity, etc., You may not know what's really going on. I would invite them to visit NYC, or Chicago, or the west side of L. A. Then I'll ask them if there isn't persecution. By the way, trends usually start out here in California and then cross-cross the county. We all need to be aware of what's going on.

Great Quote About WHY Colorado-Type Shootings Are Occurring

The world did not become a different place because of the Second Amendment. It became a different place because of the perverted and evil philosophies that have been sown into our culture consistently for the last 40 or 50 years through pornography and mass media.

–-Christian J. Pinto

The August 2012 Christian Carnival

Christian Carnival is now coming out once a month instead of once a week. I am honored to start the ball rolling with the August edition. Here is the line up:

*James of the Nakadude blog presents The Legacy of Kings and Coaches.
In his post he compares Manasseh in the Old Testament to what is going on with Penn State and especially the late Joe Paterno. A very interesting read indeed.

*The Other Food: daily devos blog presents the post entitled, Hospital Machir. In this post Violet shows us an example of hospitality from the life of Machir in 2 Samuel.

*Jack of the What Christians Want to Know blog does a great job with a short article presenting an apologetic for people who aren't sure the Bible is really the Word of God. He shows us how the Bible was put together and why we can have confidence in our present-day canon in the post, How do we know the Bible is true? Is it really the Word of God?.


*The Dreamcatcher blog gives us a post entitled, Do you know how to receive?. In it we learn one way to receive from God.


The Life Group blog presents a delightful post based on the Fruit Ninja app and game. In Fruit Ninja Christians we see Christians in various fruit categories and how they can irk us. Be sure to read the last paragraph for how the blogger resolves this issue.

Ridge of the In Faith blog tells how he had both knees replaced (ouch!) and how he is learning dependency on others including his wife. He then skillfully weaves that into showing us how dependence on God feels. The post is entitled, Dependency.

My contribution this month looks at the signs of the times, and especially the media, as to how near persecution of Christians of America might be in my post entitled, Persecution Looks Very Near-Part 1.