Driven by Prayer: One Detour That’s Changing Lives
You can stay in your car and get burgers, groceries, even prescriptions. But in Temple, Texas, north of Austin, you can drive through for something even more important — prayer! Cars humming along West Adams Road have been passing a handful of members from Trinity Church every day, all encouraging drivers to pull right up and be ministered to. It’s a good thing there’s no shortage of prayer, they say, because hundreds of people are taking them up on it!
You can stay in your car and get burgers, groceries, even prescriptions. But in Temple, Texas, north of Austin, you can drive through for something even more important — prayer! Cars humming along West Adams Road have been passing a handful of members from Trinity Church every day, all encouraging drivers to pull right up and be ministered to. It’s a good thing there’s no shortage of prayer, they say, because hundreds of people are taking them up on it!
It’s just a simple 10-by-10 pop-up tent. But for the people of this West Texas town, it’s been a place of real comfort. With hand-painted signs and a couple of lawn chairs, Pastor Ed Dowell says his church didn’t need to spend a lot of money to have a huge impact on the area. Like a lot of church families during the virus crisis, his wanted to make sure they could still reach out to the community. “But with the church doors being shut, [the question was], how are we gonna do that?” Then, Cheryl Fausnacht had an idea. “How about a drive-through prayer ministry?”
They got to thinking about what they’d need to make it work, and Pastor Ed remembered: “I had a little 10-by-10 canopy at the house, and we brought it up here to the church and secured it to the parking lot. We got some little hand signs made up, set them out on the road and in the front, and ministry started within an hour.” And it hasn’t stopped since. Seven days a week, for at least six hours a day, a small team of volunteers and staff are out by the tent directing traffic. And so far, there’s a lot of it.
“There are a good number of cars that come by our building here daily — probably 30,000 to 35,000 cars a day. And the needs [go] from one extreme to the other. People are coming in requesting prayer just for peace in this time, because so many people are troubled, wanting protection over themselves, their families. We’ve prayed for marriages, children, finances. We prayed for President Trump that he’d have wisdom on how to handle these situations.”
“We’ve had local police officers stop in for prayer, state troopers have stopped for prayer, and nurses. We’ve just had opportunity after opportunity to minister to the needs of people — people that probably would not have come into the church normally, but because they are in need, and there’s a readily available place they can pull into. We’ve had a few people [say], ‘I’ve driven by multiple times, and I finally got the nerve to come in. And, you know, the Lord has met them, and He’s ministered to them. We’ve seen people just blessed, just touched. We’ve seen healings. We’ve seen all kinds of good things happen simply because people were hungry, and there was somebody there to meet the need and offer him Jesus.”
What the world is experiencing, especially here in America, is a lot like the early church. Everyone was comfortable in Jerusalem until they were driven out by opposition, persecution, famine, and difficulty. And what happened? They took the gospel to places and people it wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise. As I’ve said before, this is an opportunity to move outside the four walls of the church — not that there’s anything wrong with being inside the church. But as congregations embrace the challenge and think creatively, more of our country will meet the hope, help, and peace they’ve been looking for.
In Temple, Texas, Pastor Ed is astounded at the number of people they’ve connected with who’ve never stepped foot in his sanctuary. All because a church family decided to go out and meet the community where they’re at. For 21 days, Pastor Ed told me, his members have been out there waving at people on the street. “They’ll be lifting up signs. One of my favorites is, 'Prayer is essential!’ And thankfully, we’re in Texas. We have a governor that’s actually mandated that churches are essential. But we still have to work within the [guidelines]. No more than 10 and social distancing thing.”
Fortunately, God doesn’t keep His distance. And hungry people, thanks to this drive-through, are getting fed.
Originally published here.
Local Officials Try to Curb Easter Cars
Some pastors call it the Super Bowl of their year: Easter Sunday. It’s not just the holiest day on the calendar, it’s also one of the biggest opportunities churches have to bring new people to Christ. And, for the first time ever, almost the entire world will be celebrating outside of their normal pews. They’ll be in cars, on sofas, huddled around their kitchen tables. It’s the new normal in the age of the coronavirus, and leaders everywhere are trying to make the best of it. So you can imagine their frustration, in a handful of places, when local officials step in to ruin even that.
The email hit inboxes on Tuesday evening. To the pastors in San Bernardino County, it was a shock. Five days out from Easter, when most churches’ services were already set, Supervisor Curt Hagman’s staff had decided that any plans for drive-in worship or Easter pickups would have to be canceled. “We understand that this is an important time for Christians around the world… Right now, however, is a critical time for our country and our community…" the statement said. "People may not leave their homes for driving parades or drive-up services or to pick up non-essential items such as pre-packaged Easter eggs or bags filled with candy and toys at a drive-thru location.”
It was like a church business meeting gone bad for county churches, who’d spent hours coming up with alternative plans that respected the CDC’s guidelines. Some of them were counting on those drive-through services as a way of bringing congregations together on an important day, while not putting anyone at risk. And now, just days out, local bureaucrats wanted to change all that?
“It’s alarming,” Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute told me on “Washington Watch.” “They just suddenly pronounced that churches couldn’t hand out Easter baskets to people, who were just driving up from the church… [and yet], people can drive up to get a Big Mac at McDonalds’s drive through and pick up food.” The hypocrisy is astounding. Not to mention the discrimination. How is it that you can leave restaurant carryout open, but not churches? “This is really serious,” Brad said, “because it could also play into the ability for people to drive up to get communion, for example, or drive up to confession. We’ve seen churches that do that as well.”
Here’s the thing, Brad pointed out, “This is a new area that we’re in [in terms of the law]. This is a circumstance that we’ve not really been in before as a nation. So we can’t guarantee that a judge is going to rule one way or the other… but that said, looking at it objectively and comparatively, it makes no sense. And that’s why, at the very least, from a public policy perspective and public pressure perspective, I think this is something that people need to be on the phone talking to their local legislators [about] — or, in this case, county supervisors in San Bernardino.”
Turns out, people did get on the phone. Within hours, the supervisors’ office in California was inundated with complaints. And I don’t blame people. Churches have been put in a tough spot — along with everyone else in America — and they’ve complied with all of the requirements. Now, suddenly, local officials want to change them? And not for everyone, but just for churches? That’s where tyranny starts, my friends.
Fortunately for San Bernardino County, they have a supervisor who listens. After a full day of pushback, the county board relented, issuing a new guidance Wednesday reversing course on the Easter drive-ins. Pastor Jack Hibbs, one of FRC’s Watchmen Pastors, who talked to Chad Hagman himself, said he had to give credit where credit was due because the supervisor “was most encouraging and optimistic about working with our community and to do what is needed to get us up and running.” As for churches, a new press release went out, walking back the order for churches. “Organizations that have planned such services for the coming weekend should proceed with those services if they choose to do so and make every effort to prevent contact between congregants.”
Unfortunately, not every jurisdiction is so lucky. Lawrence County, Indiana — near Bedford — used the virus to crack down on churches even further. “The Lawrence County Health Dept does not recommend any kind of church services at this time. We do not recommend in-church services, parking lot, or drive-in church… If you have to ask permission, then you probably should not do it.”
Across Washington State, Governor Jay Inslee (D) is banning drive-in services altogether. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D) tried that — shutting down all religious services — only to be overridden by the state legislature. The state’s attorney general, Derek Schmidt (R), piled on with a statement afterward, warning that any attempts to stop responsible in-car worship was “unconstitutional.” “In our view,” he said, “Kansas statute and Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights forbid the governor from criminalizing participating in worship gatherings.”
Churches across the country, with very few exceptions, are trying to be compliant. And in terms of health and safety, there’s a big difference between a pastor like the one here in Baton Rouge outright defying common sense by having normal in-church services with hundreds of people — and parking lot services, where people stay in their cars at a respectable distance. Only an anti-religious zealot, Brad said, would try to snuff out the law-abiding alternatives. “That’s a classic example of local governments overstepping their boundaries… and [we] would not hesitate to defend any church or individual that was being attacked.”
Originally published here.
For Porn, There’s No Vaccine
Business is tough for a lot of industries right now. Pornography, unfortunately, isn’t one of them. Isolated, stuck at home, and restless, more people seem to be turning to adult entertainment to while away the hours. That’s terrible news for anyone concerned about young men, marriages, abuse, trafficking, addiction, sexual dysfunction, and brain development. Let’s face it, experts say, porn was a pandemic long before this virus.
There’s no bad time to drum up business, PornHub has decided. One of the world’s most popular porn sites is taking advantage of the coronavirus by advertising like never before. In early March, when the outbreak was just starting to hit hard in Spain, France, and Italy, the company decided to give the lockdown nations another way to pass their time. “In light of expanding quarantines, we’re extending Free PornHub Premium for the month to our friends in [other countries]!” Almost immediately, web traffic spiked — in some places by as much as 61 percent. The site, along with others, even started featuring COVID-19-themed videos.
Maybe, Terry Schilling writes, “During a worldwide pandemic that has already taken thousands of lives, concerns about a rise in porn usage may seem trivial. However, to brush these concerns aside would be a huge mistake. Like the coronavirus, pornography use is silent but deadly, a powerful disease that has had devastating effects across our society. Although coronavirus may attract more headlines today, pornography will be with us for the long haul. Porn cannot be vaccinated against, it has a nearly $100 billion industry devoted to its spread worldwide, and few are brave enough to stand against it.”
As CBN’s David Brody and I talked about on radio, today’s porn is a far cry from the Playboy magazines of old. These are violent, abusive — even rape-centric — videos that are teaching children to treat women like trash. If you don’t believe it, check out the jarring exposé from the New York Times, “What Teenagers Are Learning from Online Porn” (warning: extremely graphic). What kids think is normal will shock and sober you. They’re seeing raw, brutal, and nauseating videos that they don’t have to sneak into a store for. Every time they hold a cell phone or log on to a laptop, there’s a whole new world waiting.
And now, PornHub and other sites are seeing to it that they have more access to it than ever. “This is a really good time,” David urged, “for parents to reset with kids about what they’re doing online.” We cannot afford to let this crisis open the door to a craving that destroys our kids’ innocence and future happiness. The science is all there. So are the heartbreaking stories — and the predators helping to write them.
During this crisis, Terry warns, “each of us should also be doing our part to deny Big Porn the business it craves and protect our children from its influence. As bad as coronavirus is, we cannot afford to fight one disease by simply trading it for another. Now more than ever, we must join together to take on the pornography industry and defeat the terrible porn epidemic.”
If you’re an adult trying to escape this online world, it isn’t easy. But it’s also not impossible. Josh McDowell has a tremendous message of freedom for anyone struggling with this addiction that you can watch here. If you’re a parent, I can’t encourage you strongly enough to use this time to talk to your sons and daughters about the dangers of pornography. If you need help, check out FRC’s blog post, “How to Talk to Kids about Pornography: Three Easy Steps.” Other resources are here and at Fight the New Drug here.
Originally published here.
Making China Pay: One Senator’s Crusade for Accountability
“China took all our jobs, and they sent us back a virus.” —Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)
What should we do about it? Find out in her interview on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch.” Also, don’t miss FRC’s new op-ed in the Daily Signal, “China Keeps Suppressing Religion While Squelching Truth about COVID-19.”
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
