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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 05:27 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

My cousin Bud Moon is a retired pharmaceutical salesman turned part-time comedian. Bud tells some mostly true stories from his youth after his family moved from the bright lights of the Lyman suburbs to a peaceful neighborhood in the Dark Corner. The stories Bud tells to sophisticated banquet goers are much better than paid comedy writers can dream up for big bucks. Several of the stories involve a group of bored neighborhood kids playing church. One of his best involved a couple of youngsters attempting to baptize a cat during a pretend church service.  If you know cats, use your imagination to determine the rest of the Bud Moon story.

In 2014 there are indications that a lot of adults are playing church. They are not yet baptizing cats, at least I don’t think so, but they are reportedly doing some things just as nonproductive and foolish. I’ll spare us the pain of dealing with a list of the games people play and call it church.

It should be obvious to all that the world and our nation are in a mess that our political parties and elected officials are incapable of correcting. Part of the problem is that about half of the people want to keep the problems the other half want to eliminate them.

Under our constitutional form of government we are supposed to correct problems in government at the polls. The dilemma is that half of the people are voting for better government and the other half are voting to get stuff. In the last two presidential elections, the people wanting stuff were more motivated than people wanting better government.

If government and political parties do not have the solution, then we must as a last resort turn to God. This brings up a very serious problem.

Traditionally, we would expect to find God in an Evangelical Church. Therein lies a major problem. Church leaders are afraid to get involved in politically incorrect public affairs or recommend God as having solutions to personal problems. After all, they could be accused of practicing medicine or psychology without a government issued license.

Let’s assume that I have a teenage son that is addicted to drugs. He is irresponsible, he is stealing and is eventually going to get arrested, prosecuted and sent to jail. I want help for him before that happens. I am desperate. I know the county has a drug treatment center and there are several commercial treatment centers advertised in the phone book. As a Bible believing Christian, I believe Christ is the answer to my son’s problem. I believe addiction is sin, not a disease. My son won’t listen to me, although we have helped him financially and otherwise.

I go to my pastor for help. I am shocked. He apparently has more confidence in humanistic psychology than he does in Jesus Christ. He refers me to a 12-step secular drug treatment program. I don’t want my son to be an addict in and out of treatment for the remainder of his life.

A friend told me about a Bible based ministry that rejects the humanistic psychology approach. They have scores of living cases of severe addicts who had been through numerous drug treatment programs but found the “cure” to addiction at Wisdom in Living Life Ministries. Their solution to addiction is based on II Corinthians 5-17: Therefore, if any man he in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Winn Freeman, founder and leader of this ministry, helps addicts work through the process of rejecting worldly distractions, accepting Christ and becoming a new creature.

What purpose does a youth program serve if it does not point them to Jesus?

Finally, I am convinced that man will be incapable of reversing the tragic trends set in motion by the Obama regime without divine intervention. I am also convinced that a Jesus-based spiritual awakening is on the horizon and that it is starting outside most of the organized denomination churches.

Meetings of several conservative groups in recent months in the Upstate have resembled revival meetings. More than one citizen has observed: “If church leaders will not lead in the fight against evil, then Christians must fight the spiritual battle outside the organized church building walls.”

We must stop playing church!

 

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