SHAME ON THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

Appearing embittered and embarrassed by the overwhelming passage of Amendment One on May 8th, the Charlotte Observer posted a sharply worded editorial within minutes of the announcement that the amendment had passed. Abandoning any pretense of impartiality and with very little restraint, the editors of the Observer blasted the good people of North Carolina who voted 61-39% in favor of the marriage amendment.

The editorial was entitled, “Same-sex marriage amendment vote is just wrong,” and it began with this indictment: “On Tuesday, North Carolina foolishly and shamefully joined 30 states with constitutional bans on same-sex marriages.” The end of the editorial was no less biting: “The [voting] result doesn’t show love. It’s wrong and disgraceful.”

In reality, it is the Observer which has acted “foolishly and shamefully” and it is the Observer’s editorial that “doesn’t show love” and is “wrong and disgraceful.” But the Observer not only indicted its own home state; it indicted every other state that has had the opportunity to vote on a constitutional same-sex “marriage” amendment – meaning 30 additional states – for their alleged foolish, shameful, wrong, and disgraceful actions.

Are the editors of the Observer so prescient and morally superior that they can make such harsh judgments against most of the nation?

The Observer claims that the language of the amendment “casts a cloud of uncertainty over the rights and benefits of unmarried couples – both gay and straight – and over domestic violence laws, child custody and visitation rights and end-of-life arrangements.”  

Not only is this disputed by a number of prominent law professors and law enforcement officials in North Carolina, but the constitutional amendments passed in at least 12 other states contain similar wording, and yet this ominous “cloud of uncertainty” has hardly been cast over the “the rights and benefits of unmarried couples” in these states. Otherwise, there would have been hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits flooding the courts in multiple states, not to mention a steady stream of horror stories making their way to the media.

Even the Observer admits that “Legal experts are divided on the possible effects,” yet it cannot seem to fathom that people of good conscience, wanting to ensure that activist judges would not redefine marriage in North Carolina (as happened in Iowa) would vote for the Amendment, convinced that the ominous worst-case scenario would not unfold.

The editors of the Observer express their hope that “there is a challenge to this misguided amendment,” claiming that it “unwisely writes discrimination into the state constitution.” Yes, according to the Observer, “The state is on the wrong side of history on this matter,” claiming that “Most Americans are increasingly rejecting this type of prejudice against gays and lesbians.”

The Observer’s editors thus makes the utterly specious claim that everyone who understands marriage to be what it has been throughout recorded human history (until the last 11 years in a handful of locations) is somehow guilty of discrimination. The Observer claims that it is prejudiced to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman (rather than being genderless), that it is discriminatory to say that kids deserve a mom and a dad, that it is bigoted to make a distinction between heterosexual unions and homosexual unions.

As for allegedly being “on the wrong side of history,” the accusation implicitly compares gay rights with civil rights, as if gay was the new black. In reality, it is a complete canard to compare skin color to romantic attractions and sexual behavior. (I discussed this at length in A Queer Thing Happened to America.)

Skin color is innate and immutable, while there is no reputable science that demonstrates that anyone is born gay (no matter how deeply rooted a person’s sexual feelings might be), and there are countless testimonies of those who have experienced a modification, if not a radical change, in their sexual and romantic desires. And no one is advocating for “gay only” drinking fountains or for gays to sit at the back of the bus, nor have gays been carried over to America as slaves, notwithstanding the very real rejection and bullying many gay Americans have endured.

As for American opinion, other polls have indicated that a majority of Americans still oppose redefining marriage. But even if those numbers are wrong, it is only fair to ask how much Americans have been influenced by the pro-gay media bombardment, as Vice President Joe Biden recently stated, “I think ‘Will and Grace’ probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far.” And we are supposed to celebrate this as a great moral advance?

The truth be told, multiplied millions of Americans are concerned about the relentless encroachment of gay activism on their freedoms of speech, conscience, and religious expression, and they are grieved over the gay activist indoctrination of their children in the school system, from kindergarten to college. (There is actually a pre-school in Charlotte where teachers cannot address the four-year-olds as “boys and girls,” since that would be making a gender distinction.)

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote that, “The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children,” and the vote for the marriage amendment was an act to decelerate the moral deterioration of our society. It was, therefore, an act of love.

History will ultimately vindicate the courageous people of North Carolina who voted for the marriage amendment, while the Observer’s editorial will contribute to a legacy of shame.

DOES BILLY GRAHAM ADVOCATE “CHRISTIAN SHARIA”?

Of all the attacks that have come against Rev. Billy Graham in his decades of ministry, a recent attack from gay activist Wayne Besen may be the most ridiculous yet. It was all because Graham took out a full-page ad in 14 North Carolina newspapers supporting the now-passed Marriage Amendment. How dare he!

The ad featured a large picture of Graham with these words: “At 93, I never thought we would have to debate the definition of marriage. The Bible is clear — God’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. I want to urge my fellow North Carolinians to vote FOR the marriage amendment on Tuesday, May 8. God bless you as you vote.”

That’s it. A simple statement by the most respected Christian leader in America in the 20^th century reaffirming what was never disputed until recent years, despite the presence of homosexual relationships in various societies for countless centuries: Marriage is between a man and a woman, and, for those who care to know, there’s not a syllable in the Scriptures that gives the slightest hint that marriage is intended to be anything other than the union of a man and a woman.

How did Besen respond to the ad? He called Graham a “onetime anti-Semite,” referred to him as “this fraud,” grouped him with other “totalitarian preachers,” and claimed that “Graham is now trying to jam his own church’s rules and doctrine down my throat” and that “he thinks I should be forced against my will to live by its rules.”

Besen asked, “Do we now make our civil laws based upon Christian Sharia? Do we all have to follow his version of the Bible or be punished by government? And if this is the case, are we really a free country? Are we really much different than Iran, or is it only by a matter of degrees or a matter of time until these so-called ‘Christian Supremacists’ get their paws on all of our laws?” (Yes, this is meant to be taken seriously.)

Besen continued: “I’m not sure who Billy Graham thinks he is. But it seems like he believes he is superior and his followers have a mandate to hijack civil law and decide for the rest of us how we live.” As for what the Bible says about marriage, Besen stated that Graham is “dead wrong about the Bible being clear.”

John Becker, a colleague of Besen, wrote, “It says a lot about the man’s true character that he selected for what may be his final public gesture an act of malice, divisiveness, and discrimination.” (Yes, you read that correctly: reaffirming natural, organic marriage is “an act of malice, divisiveness, and discrimination.”)

According to actor Michael Varrati, implicit in the “First Amendment is the separation of church and state, a basic principle that was championed by Thomas Jefferson to ensure that you could celebrate your faith peaceably without cr--ping all over someone else’s rights or beliefs.”

How do we respond to this? It’s certainly tempting simply to ignore these charges, but since there are many who actually believe them to be true, here’s a brief response:

1) Reaffirming marriage as the union of a man and a woman (the only thing the human race has known throughout recorded history until the last 11 years) is as far from Sharia law as Billy Graham is from Wayne Besen. And this has nothing to do with actions of “Christian Supremacists,” a derogatory term used by Besen but one that is totally foreign to the people themselves. (Using Besen’s own criteria, would he qualify as a “Gay Supremacist”?) This simply has to do with American citizens saying, “We really don’t want an activist judge to redefine marriage in our state, so we’re going to secure that in our constitution.” For many of these citizens, this has nothing to do with the Bible.

2) To encourage Christians to vote based on their religious and moral convictions is not hijacking civil law or trying to jam church rules or doctrines down anyone’s throat. It’s called democracy in action. Ironically, when gay activists want to push their agenda or goals or religious convictions on everyone else, it’s called America at her best, a great example of equality and freedom.

3) This has nothing to do with someone’s “version of the Bible.” Every Bible in every language says the same thing regarding God’s intent about marriage. Read the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 19:4-6 if you have any doubt. Read them in any translation or in the Greek. They all say the same thing.

4) The “separation of Church and state” which Jefferson championed was meant to keep the state out of the church’s business, not to keep the church out of the state’s business. Once again, though, it is ironic that those who want to keep conservative Christians from being a political force – in the name of the separation of Church and state – strongly encourage liberal Christians to influence politics and government based on their interpretation of the Bible. Besen himself called for a “spirit of rebellion” that “should begin with mainstream Christians who should be absolutely livid and incensed.”

The bottom line is this: It would be one thing if conservative Christians in America wanted to pass laws that called for the hanging of gays or the beheading of adulterers (as still takes place in countries like Iran or Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia). It’s another thing entirely when they say, “We don’t believe God intended a man to marry a man, and we will vote accordingly.” To call that Christian Sharia is to admit that you have nothing of substance to say. 

SO, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE "JESUS REVOLUTION"?

On September 2, 2000, I stood before several hundred thousand believers who had gathered at the Mall in Washington, DC for the first-ever Call event and said, “Let the White House know, let the media know, let Hollywood know, let the world know that we are here to start a Jesus revolution!”

That same day, we gave away more than 70,000 copies of my just-published book Revolution! The Call to Holy War, and in the crowd that day, as well as standing on the platform behind me, were more than 700 students from our school, the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry. They had traveled by bus more than 20 hours to attend the Call event, and they were the largest group from anywhere in America that day.

It really was quite an event. Twelve hours of prayer, worship, repentance, and preaching; the largest gathering of Christian young people in American history; the supernatural writing, publishing, and free distribution of my book (more than $1 million in retail value); the massive support from our student body in Pensacola (another amazing story). All this was euphoric and deeply moving, and the event itself exceeded even the expectations of Che Ahn and Lou Engle, the organizers and visionaries behind it.

But did a Jesus Revolution begin at that time? Or has it begun since then and has it continued until now?

When the Lord saved me at the end of 1971, I had no idea that my salvation was part of a worldwide move of the Spirit that became known as the Jesus People Movement or the Jesus Revolution. It began around 1967 and lasted into the mid-1970s, and it probably reached its apex in the early 70s, to the point that the cover story of Time Magazine June 21, 1971 was devoted to “The Jesus Revolution.”

But from my perspective, not to mention the perspective of thousands of pastors around the country, there was no understanding that this larger, supernatural move that was taking place.

Is that the case with today’s Jesus Revolution (which I/we always understood to be something very different from what happened in the late 60s and early 70s)? Or are we just putting our own interpretation on a phrase in order to make something out of nothing?

Here are my candid reflections: 1) There has been a new Jesus Revolution moving and growing in America and the nations for the last decade or more. 2) It is nowhere near what I expect it to be and something supernatural must happen for my expectations (and the expectations of many others) to be realized. In that sense, it is still in its early stages. 3) The door is wide open for anyone with a willing heart to dive in and live out the calling to be a Jesus revolutionary (another name for a New Testament disciple!) – and I mean right here and now.

Let me break this down into five categories, and when you’re done reading, I welcome your honest, prayerful response. Please share this others too as you feel it’s appropriate, especially those who had a history with BRSM or its successor FIRE School of Ministry (or, more broadly, with the Brownsville Revival or FIRE Church or any other group that carried or carries this same vision).

1) AN UNGODLY REVOLUTION. In my book Revolution! (which, again, came out in 2000), I wrote, “Only the life-changing power of the gospel will ultimately change a society for good. Only new hearts will bring forth the new life that the oppressed so long for and desire. Only the Spirit of God will truly liberate captives! But if we do not rise up and act, Satan will. The dissatisfaction is rising. The discontent is growing thick. Revolution is near – either heaven-sent or hell-bent – and only we have the truth that will set slaves free.”

I emphasize these last sentences here to say that, without a doubt, there has been a hell-bent, destructive revolution that has been sweeping America this millennium. To give just two examples, there has been an all-out assault on religion and faith by the so-called new atheists (with quite a few of their books being influential, national bestsellers) and there has been an unprecedented cultural shift due to homosexual activism, resulting in the redefining of marriage, the indoctrination of our children, and a growing threat to freedoms of religion, conscience, and speech.

So, there’s no question that, on a national level, we have taken several steps back, and in my opinion, that points to the failings of the Church, since the greatest problem in America today is not so much the presence of darkness as it is the absence of light.

What’s the point in mentioning this? It is simply to say that when other leaders and I spoke in past years about America being shaken and we said that we were living in revolutionary times, those statements have proven true.

2) LOOK AT WHAT GOD HAS DONE. Over the last 10+ years, a number of significant ministries have been birthed, most of them coming together on a grass-roots level, most of them involving (or being led by) young people, and most of them carrying the message and mindset of Jesus revolution: radically changed people going after God with heart and soul, then stepping out in obedience to change the world.

I’m thinking of pro-life movements like Bound4Life, pro-adoption movements like The Zoe Foundation, and college-focused, church-planting movements like Campus Church Networks, just to name a few. And all of these are directly related to the original leaders of The Call, which has also birthed a Nazarite movement devoted to prayer, fasting, and radical commitment.) And when I consider what has been birthed out of the revival and carried on through FIRE, I’m honestly blown away. To repeat: Look at what God has done!

Do you realize the scope of what our FIRE team is doing in the Philippines? Talk about articulating what a Jesus Revolution is all about! How about our teams in sensitive parts of the world that we can’t even mention publicly? Their testimonies literally bring tears to my eyes and make me examine my own life.

How about missionaries like Melody, married to her Indian husband Syam, doing incredible things in Hyderabad? Add to that our frontline soldiers in Mexico and in Thailand and in many other nations – I’m just mentioning a few here; please forgive me for not mentioning everyone – along with some of our grads here in the States who are going into the some of the poorest, roughest communities and giving themselves to rehabilitate both individuals and neighborhoods, and I can only say that this is the kind of fruit we envisioned when we spoke of the Jesus Revolution. And most all of them are doing things in unconventional, not “church as usual” ways.

These grads have exemplified the “by life or by death” attitude that is at the very foundation of our devotion to Jesus and a dying world, and if we could look at a world map from a spiritual perspective and see the impact these various ministries and groups are having – and this is just a small portion of what has been birthed – I think all of us would be very encouraged and would recognize that, indeed, something new and revolutionary is afoot.

3) THE BATTLE FOR OUR CULTURE. The battle for the heart and soul of America – the battle for our culture – has never been a political battle to me (although I recognize the rightful role played by politics) and, in all honesty, I have a personal revulsion when it comes to putting my trust in the political system or a political party. (I was totally baffled to read a post by a BRSM grad who spoke of my shift towards a political emphasis when – and since – I wrote Revolution!. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is a kingdom issue to me – not even a patriotic issue – and a kingdom issue alone. It is all about Jesus and His righteousness to me, about us being salt and light, about us being prophetic voices of justice and compassion.)

For me, the revolution message is very simple: Jesus changes us and we go and change our world. Or, to paraphrase the Great Commission, Jesus says to His disciples, “Come, let’s change the world together.” As a speaker once said at a Call event, “Jesus transforms people, and people transform society.”

Today, we are in the thick of a hellacious battle for our culture, with the ongoing deterioration of marriage (less and less couples are getting married; more and more women are having babies out of wedlock; the very institution of marriage is being redefined), the continual attack on our children (41% of pregnancies in NYC end in abortion, including 60% of African American pregnancies in New York City; the mandatory homosexual indoctrination of kids from K-12 in states like California), and growing problems like gang violence, racial division, and more.

Those of us called to stand on the front lines of the so-called culture wars find ourselves in revolutionary activity virtually every single day, and I am personally living out many of the things I spoke about and wrote about over the last 20+ years. And we need help! A few months ago I met with a grad who, with a gracious spirit, asked me where the revolution was that we talked about. I told him we were in the thick of it right here in Charlotte and we needed his help.

4) A SPECIAL PRAYER FOCUS. When God began to burden me deeply concerning homosexual issues, speaking to me in early 2005 to “reach out and resist,” I began to sense that He was going to pour out His Spirit in the LGBT community, much as He did with the hippie community when I got saved. Over the years, I began to share this publicly, stating that I was praying and believing for this.

When I shared this with Che Ahn at The Call Sacramento, he told me he was prophesying this and believing for it for years now. Then I learned that a prophetic leader had prophesied quite a few years back that 100,000 gays and lesbians would be dramatically saved by the Lord, with many healed of AIDS as well. Then I spoke at a house of prayer in Virginia, given to 18 hours of prayer and worship daily, and when I shared the “reach out and resist message” with them, one of their leaders was blown away and said, “That’s the very commission we received from the Lord when we birthed this house of prayer!” (I was shocked to hear it too; the wording and emphasis was amazingly similar.) I’ve also been part of special gatherings of prayer and fasting devoted to seeing this miraculous harvest come to pass, and I often challenge FIRE church and other churches asking, “Are we ready for this harvest?”

To be clear, this harvest has not yet happened in any significant measure, but it seems clear the Lord has birthed this in our hearts to pray it into existence as part of the Jesus revolution.

5) WHAT HAS NOT YET HAPPENED. Without question, only a small part of what we are believing for has come to pass so far (although I understand many of us could say that about our own spiritual lives in light of God’s Word and promises). On the one hand, we dare not stop here and think that we have arrived (absolutely not!), but on the other hand, we dare not lose heart. God has done much already, many of the visions and dreams he has put into our hearts are coming to pass, and we ought to encourage ourselves with what the Lord has done while we recognize the many, large things that have not come to pass.

In too many of our circles, we’re still experiencing or practicing “church as usual”; there is still no evidence of any kind of supernatural, large harvest in America; the culture is getting worse not better; there are only pockets of spiritual outpouring worth noting; young people continue to fall away or become compromised at an alarming rate – but I am more confident than ever than ever that God will finish what He started, that a Jesus Revolution is underway (although, to repeat, it remains in its early stages), and that the time is more ripe than I can remember for each of us to give ourselves unconditionally to the purposes of God.

Why not you? Why not now? Is God unwilling or unable to help and assist and back and direct?

* * *

Over the course of my 40+ years in the Lord, He has spoken some things to me of great importance – I mean major, prophetic words that I cannot shake – and the pattern of fulfillment has often been the same: first, the supernatural deposit – meaning, specific things that were part of the larger vision coming to pass in a dramatic and undeniable way – followed by years of spiritual agony, crying out to God, asking Him to fulfill the rest of His promises, longing and yearning for His power and righteousness to be revealed, interspersed with seasons of questioning (“Will it ever happen? Did I really hear God? Did I disqualify myself by falling short?) and seasons of great blessing, followed by the fulfillment.

This is what happened to me with the promise of revival, as I began to share with my friends beginning in 1983 that God spoke to me that I would be part of a revival that touched the world, and this is what is happening with the promise of revolution. The Call DC event and the distribution of the Revolution! books was a divine deposit of sorts (to this day, I hear from people who received the book at The Call DC, had their world rocked, and have never been the same); there have been years of intense crying out for God to act since then, along with seasons of questioning and seasons of great blessing, and I now feel that the revolution is rising day by day. (It may be meaningful for you to know that over these years, God clearly spoke to me – as part of the vision for Jesus Revolution – that He would give me a national platform on Christian talk radio and would call me to write cutting-edge, kingdom-based articles on major political websites. The fact that both of these are now happening encourages me that the rest will also come to pass. And please hear this in the spirit in which I say it: This has nothing to do with me; it has to do with the larger purposes of God.)

What is coming next? How soon will things really shake? I honestly have no idea, but something is rising, much is happening, and rather than focusing on what hasn’t taken place we should be stirred and encouraged by the many wonderful testimonies of what is taking place (and has taken place), strengthening our faith for today and tomorrow. (This message, “Write Down the Vision,” preached recently at FIRE, should encourage you too.)

Your thoughts and comments are welcome!

Who Is the Real Bigot?

I recently had some very interesting (and enlightening!) interaction with a man named Josh on my AskDrBrown Facebook page. He posted a comment responding to my article called The Day of Silencing. (The article talked about the gay activist Day of Silence in our children’s schools -- April 20th this year -- and explained how opposing views were silenced.)

Here’s the dialog between Josh and me (his wife, Jessica, also had a lot of things to say -- with plenty of exclamation points! -- but I want to focus on Josh, since his comments were so revealing):

Josh: Dr. Brown, you are a bigot. No one shall judge, but God. So, take your holier than thou attitude and go elsewhere.

MLB: Josh, please explain how I am a bigot. And also, do you submit to God's standards and judgments? Thanks for your response.

MLB: Also, Josh, this is my own FB page. Where would you like me to go?

Josh: You are a bigot for judging others and trying to say what is right and what is wrong with personal choices. In the end only God will determine who was right and who was wrong. You can't deny equal rights in a country built on freedom of speech and choice.

MLB: Josh, aren't you judging me? By your definition, doesn't that make you a bigot? And if I simply state what Scripture states, how am I being a bigot? And if our country is built on freedom of speech, why are you trying to deny me my rights to freedom of speech? These are serious questions.

Josh: You sound like a cheaper version of Jerry Springer. People like you is why this country is a-- backwards. Enjoy your ignorant life.

MLB: Josh, you have made yourself entirely clear. You engage in name-calling and ugly accusations, but you have no substance to support your view. I pray that you will read God's Word, get to know Him personally, and experience His transforming love. And I do hope you will recognize the emptiness of your responses and instead base your views on truth. (Also, if you want to post here again, please refrain from using words that many of us consider to be profanity.)

* * *

If you stand up for what’s right, you’ll run into these kinds of verbal attacks, and often asking simple questions is a good way to reveal the bankruptcy of the opposing position. Truth has nothing to fear (2 Corinthians 13:8). Let’s do what is right and speak what is right and stand up for what is right and so be faithful witnesses for the Lord. And let’s pray for folks like Josh (and his wife Jessica), for moral and spiritual clarity and a real encounter with the Truth Himself.

Some Catherine Booth Quotes to Stir Your Hearts

Catherine and William Booth co-founded the Salvation Army, which at one time was one of the most passionate, sacrificial, and aggressive gospel preaching missions anywhere in the world. (Thank God for the Salvation Army remnant that remains true to its calling.)

When I became close with Leonard and Martha Ravenhill in the late 1980's, they gave me as a gift six volumes of Catherine Booth's sermons published by the Salvation Army but out of print for many years. These quotes are primarily taken from her message "Aggressive Christianity," and most are found in my book How Saved Are We? I pray that they will light a fresh fire in you as you read them!


On the lack of opposition and persecution as a bad sign: "Opposition! It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this day that it provokes so little opposition. If there were no other evidence of it being wrong, I should know from that. When the Church and the world can jog along together comfortably, you may be sure there is something wrong. The world has not altered. Its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was, and if Christians were equally faithful and devoted to the Lord, and separated from the world, living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did. It is the Church that has altered, not the world."


On how we should approach the lost with the gospel: "Take the bandage off their eyes which Satan has bound round them; knock and hammer and burn in, with the fire of the Holy Ghost, your words into their poor hardened, darkened hearts, until they begin to realise that they are IN DANGER; that there is something amiss. Go after them."


On why we have so many weak and unstable believers: "Here is the reason why we have such a host of stillborn, sinewless, ricketty, powerless spiritual children. They are born of half-dead parents, a sort of sentimental religion which does not take hold of the soul, which has no depth of earth, no grasp, no power in it, and the result is a sickly crop of sentimental converts. Oh! the Lord give us a real, robust, living, hardy, Christianity, full of zeal and faith, which shall bring into the kingdom of God lively, well-developed children, full of life and energy, instead of these poor sentimental ghosts that are hopping around us."


Catherine Booth also said: "There is nothing like the light of eternity to show what is real and what is not.”


This was part of her triumphant attitude: "The waters are rising, but so am I. I am not going under, but over."


Let's do this! On with it!