The Bible cannot be any clearer: They who know the Lord are called to love the stranger who sojourns in our midst. Yes, they may be here illegally. Yes, they may be selfishly drawing down the public treasury by taking advantage of medical and educational facilities. And yes, they may be guilty of crimes and repeated incursions across our borders. None of these disqualifies them as objects of the love of the Christian community.

Whatever approach we might recommend to resolving the immigration crisis in America, therefore, must be seen to be motivated by and infused with love for those who sojourn in our midst, as well as for all parties in the debate. Rancor, blanket condemnations, stereotyping, or self-righteousness are completely out of the question. So also is taking the law into our own hands. The Christian community must not conclude, for example, that the “law of love” entitles us to disregard the laws of the land and make our churches or homes sanctuaries for those who are in this country in a manner contrary to those laws. Sometimes the loving thing to do is to work for change in the laws regulating immigration. While such change is possible through peaceable and legal means, this must be the Christian’s course.

The Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics placed billboards in six North Carolina cities, including one along the Billy Graham Parkway in Charlotte.  That sign, according to The Charlotte Observer, pictures an American flag and the words “One Nation Indivisible” — omitting the words “Under God,” which were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.

William Warren of Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics says placing the billboard along the parkway is not a criticism of the evangelist. He says the Billy Graham Parkway was simply the most visible location the North Carolina Secular Association could afford in Charlotte.  The billboards are a July Fourth project to show that atheists and agnostics can be patriotic.

As you can see, however, vandals corrected the sign in an overnight sting!

According to a poll from the Pew Research Center For The People and The Press/Smithsonian Magazine, the next 40 years are looking bright to most Americans.  By 2050, 71% believe that cancer will be cured, 66% say artificial limbs will work better than real ones, and 81% believe computers will be able to have conversations like humans.

2,320 adults were surveyed online between March 1 and 8, 2010 by Harris Interactive.  24% of Republicans polled believe that Obama may be the Anti-Christ and 22% believe he wants the terrorists to win.  Again, I’m not a big fan of politicians, and I’m certainly skeptical of anyone who is elected president, but this is over-the-top.

Call President Obama what you will, but I highly doubt that he wants the terrorists to win, and I just don’t think he’s sinister enough to be the Anti-Christ.  If Adolf Hitler wasn’t the Anti-Christ, then I just don’t think Barack Obama is either…although 38% of Republicans polled think he’s doing many things Hitler did.  Really?!

Sad.

At last count there were 9,943 faith-based organizations with ministries in Haiti. For years, with good intentions and with great dedication, they have tried to give economic assistance and spiritual help to the Haitian people. This does not take into account the thousands of church groups that have taken “mission teams” to Haiti to build schools and churches in Haitian villages across that little country. Yet Haiti has continued in a downward spiral into greater and greater poverty and social disorganization, not in spite of all these “good works,” but in great part because of them. So much of what has been done in Haiti has disempowered Haitians and diminished their dignity by doing for them what they could have done for themselves.

Does it ever occur to those leaders who take bright, enthusiastic American young people to Haiti to build hundreds and hundreds of church buildings and schools that Haitians are capable of building them? Do they even consider how many jobs they take away from Haitians because of their well-intentioned construction enterprises? Does it occur to them that when Haitians see an American youth group put up a cinder block school building in just ten days that this could contribute to a sense of inferiority as these Americans do in ten days what seems to Haitians like a miracle?

Altruistic Americans have done to the Haitians what an out-of-control welfare system has done to so many poor people here in the United States. It has made them into people who are socially and psychologically dependent on others to solve their problems and who have lost confidence in their own capabilities.

Out of the necessities created by the recent earthquake, we Americans have no choice but to respond with a gigantic handout. Children are starving. Medical care is desperately needed and new housing must be constructed. In the short run, we Americans must respond to meet these needs. We have to fear, however, that when the dust from the earthquake clears the Haitians will have fallen into a deeper condition of dependency and will be even less inclined to see themselves as the best hope for their future.

I am not suggesting that all those missionary organizations working in Haiti should pack up and go home, but I am urging them to understand that Haiti does not need clever Americans with newly contrived schemes for saving their country. Haitians do not need development programs imposed on them by expatriates. Instead, they need help in developing as self-assured persons.

May we heed these words, and may we equip and empower the Haitian people to rebuild their country, giving them the confidence that they can do it.  May we assist them and help them in Jesus’ name, but may we allow them to do it.

By many accounts, President Reagan is listed among the greatest presidents of the 20th century.  During his two terms, the Cold War ended and the economy began an upswing that set the table for the incredible prosperity of the 1990s.  Reagan was truly a leader among leaders.

In his book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton,  David Gergen says, “Reagan wasn’t just comfortable in his own skin.  He was serene.  And he had a clear sense of what he was trying to accomplish.  Those were among his greatest strengths as a leader.”  Here are some of the other leadership lessons Gergen learned while serving on President Reagan’s staff:

Communication is key.

Even Reagan’s harshest critics agree that – at the very least – Reagan was a great communicator.  He knew how to put his listeners at ease enabling them to stop worrying about the man they were hearing and pay attention to what he was saying.  He was also a master at using humor at just the right moment to break the tension and lighten the mood.  During the 1984 campaign against Walter Mondale, Reagan appeared in the first debate looking horribly old.  Afterward, the press had a field day with the photos and began asking if Reagan was too old to serve as president for a second term.  At the next debate, Reagan was asked point blank if he was too old to be president, and he was ready to answer.  “I will not make age an issue in this campaign.  I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience!”

Gergen also reports that when it came to giving speeches, Reagan knew – and practiced – every trick of the trade.  They are: prepare carefully, keep it short and brisk, use the language of the living room, look for a catchy fact, use the occasional prop, be positive, anticipate the critics, and have a good closer.  If you watch the footage of of any of the many speeches Reagan gave while in office, you’ll see many of these “tricks” in play.

Leadership requires great courage.

Even though Reagan was the oldest man elected president (69 years old), his broad shoulders, thick chest, and square jaw gave him the look of a rugged and courageous leader – one that you felt comfortable following. He personified the rugged, American tough guy – the real “Marlboro Man.”  Reagan not only looked like a courageous man, but he led with courage, and he even responded to great adversity with courage.

On March 30, 1981, Reagan experienced the defining moment of his presidency and of his life.  On that day, he was shot in the chest by a would-be assassin.  From the video footage, it was not clear that Reagan had been shot.  In the chaos, he had been forcefully shoved into his limo by secret service agents.  Cameras were waiting when Reagan’s limo pulled up to the hospital doors.  Climbing out of the car, he waved off help.  Instinctively, he buttoned his suit jacket (which was a small but telling gesture about his sense of the presidency), smiled and waved at the cameras, and walked through the emergency room doors.  Just inside the doors and out of the view of the cameras, he collapsed.  A bullet was lodged within an inch of his heart.

During the hours that followed, the president hovered close to death, and it was only later – after he had recovered – that the country found out how close to death he really was.  This was his defining moment as a courageous leader in the eyes of many Americans.  To a great many, especially working people, Reagan was now the courageous president who had taken a bullet – and smiled!

A great leader is one who is steady in his or her core beliefs.

One of the marks of a great leader is whether he or she has a sense of conviction and can hold to it.  The leader can be flexible in the means of getting there but must be firm about direction and outcomes.  Reagan held to a set of core beliefs that were not popular in the 60’s and 70’s, but by the end of those turbulent decades, Americans were ready to embrace them.

Agree or disagree, these were Reagan’s core beliefs…and he stuck to them over the eight years in office: America is a chosen nation with a special mission, America should be number one not number two, strength matters, freedom matters, and values matter.

In an age where our public leaders seem to waffle on their convictions and beliefs in order to appease the masses, Reagan’s steadiness related to his beliefs is refreshing, even if one doesn’t agree with all of them.  Gergen also reports that he witnessed occasions where some of Reagan’s staff members lied, but never did he see or hear of Reagan intentionally misleading anyone during his tenure on Reagan’s staff.  Reagan proved that a great leader is one who leads with integrity and conviction.

I was very young when Ford served as president, and I have little memory of him as well.  Growing up, my brother and I had a metal trash can in our room that had on it a caricature of him swinging a golf club and yelling “Fore!”  In 1976, I do remember voting for him in the election held in my first grade class.  Ironically, I remember the results of that election were the same as the results of the national election:  Ford lost to Jimmy Carter.    That’s about all I remember about him.

I’m reading a fascinating book  by David Gergen called, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton.  Gergen served as an adviser to four presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, and in the book, he shares leadership lessons he has learned from each one.  Here are some of the lessons on leadership he learned while serving President Ford.

1. He loved his wife dearly and this endeared him to his followers.

One morning, the press watched him making breakfast for his wife, Betty, and not only were they impressed, but so was the rest of the country.  Columnists promoted the idea that any man good enough to make English muffins for his wife in the morning must be good enough to run the country.

Shortly after the inauguration, doctors found that Betty had breast cancer and immediately performed a radical mastectomy.  Hearing the news, Ford sat at his desk in the Oval Office and cried, later describing it as “the lowest and loneliest moment” of his White House days.

With Kennedy before him and Clinton after him, Ford’s love and devotion to his wife (which was not always easy as she struggled with devastating addictions) was a breath of fresh air.  His love and dedication to her spoke volumes about his character and endeared him to many who knew him.

2. He was a man known for telling the truth.

In our relativistic and cynical society, we have come to expect politicians to lie, but this was not the case with President Ford.  He believed that truth is the glue that not only holds government together but civilization as well.  His old nemesis, former President Johnson, after many disparaging remarks behind closed doors told Ford, “You and I have had a lot of head-to-head confrontations, but I never doubted your integrity.”

Gergen states that in his experience of over 30 years in the White House, every administration – save one – has on occasion willfully misled or lied to the press.  He claims that the exception to the rule was the Ford White House, claiming that many modern presidents have been congenital liars, but Ford was a congenital truth-teller.

3. He didn’t need to be president to be happy with his life.

Gergen claims that former presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton needed to win so much so that their unhealthy hunger drove them to extremes that sucked the dignity out of their presidencies.  Ford, on the other hand, entered the presidency content with his life and was not enamored by the position.  Because he was comfortable with himself, he was comfortable having men and women around him who were brighter and more talented in their area of expertise than him, but that didn’t matter to him as long as they could perform well.  He was not intimidated by their success.

President Ford was a man of integrity, and no matter how hard people tried, they could not poke holes in his character.  Maybe this is why he was so unmemorable.  According to many people, his biggest guffaw was pardoning President Nixon for his crimes while in office.  However, Ford had – in his opinion – a very noble reason for doing it.  His conviction was that post-Vietnam America could not handle a long-drawn out trial of a former president.  It would be too damaging and too taxing to a country already reeling from the negative outcomes of the Vietnam War, and so he did what he thought was best for the country.

Tip O’Neill, the former Democratic Speaker of the House, put it well about his friend in his memoirs: “God has been good to America, especially during difficult times.  At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln.  And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford – the right man at the right time who was able to put our country back together again.”

David Gergen is a Harvard professor, editor of U.S. News and World Report, a regular on CNN, and the author of the book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton.  Gergen served as an adviser to four presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, and in the book, he shares leadership lessons he learned from each one.  Here are some of the lessons on leadership he learned while serving President Nixon.

1. He seized the opportunity for personal growth while in the wilderness.

In 1960, Nixon lost the presidential election by less than one percent to John F. Kennedy.  Two years later, he decided to build on that momentum by running for governor of California.  He was defeated by Pat Brown, and it appeared that his political career was over.  As it turned out, his banishment from politics was one of the best things that ever happened to him.  It prepared him to lead.  For the next six years, he wandered in the political wilderness and took that opportunity to deepen and broaden himself intellectually.  He visited four continents, investigating conditions, examining the interests and motivations of other nations, and expanding his storehouse of contacts.  He also read many influential books and spent a lot of time writing out his thoughts.  Gradually, he developed a more sophisticated, tempered, longer-range view of world affairs that became the foundation of his presidency.

2. Faced with bad news, he didn’t flinch but plunged ahead with even more grit.

Toughness in adversity became a hallmark of Nixon’s life.  From childhood, when two of his brothers died and his family faced incredible hardship, all the way through to the dark night of his presidency, toughness proved to be an indispensable element of his success in politics and in life.  In the summer of 1974, as his presidency was crumbling, Nixon was on a trip to the Middle East when the White House physician traveling with him discovered that Nixon had phlebitis – an inflammation that can be fatal.  The doctor advised Nixon to cut his Middle East schedule in half, but Nixon, knowing the political importance of the trip, ordered his agenda be doubled instead!  This scenario was indicative of the resolve and toughness of Nixon who lived through and excelled in times of hardship and crisis.

3. He understood that history was a handmaiden to leadership.

Nixon was a history buff.  He voraciously read books about famous past leaders in order to learn from their successes and failures.  While he spent much of his time reading about foreign leaders, he also took notes repeatedly on his predecessors, analyzing their greatest qualities and evaluating how he measured up.  He drew upon the past in three ways: to gain a broader perspective on his own times, to impress upon his listeners his place in the sun, and to find role models for action.  He believed that a leader must be able to “get on the balcony” in order to observe the patterns of action from afar so that he may participate in them more effectively.

4. He surrounded himself with a steady stream of talented and effective leaders.

Although some of these men – like Chuck Colson – ended up helping Nixon seal his demise, most of the leaders he surrounded himself with became his greatest strength and his greatest legacy.  The dedication in 1990 of his library drew together a wide array of former presidents, cabinet members, and other major figures – almost all of whom had roots in the Nixon era.  Among those who gathered were the Republican Big Four: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and the sitting President, George Bush.  They all knew that had it not been for Nixon, they might not have made it to the White House.  And by the way, the story didn’t end with Watergate for Colson.  He has gone on to become the leader of Prison Fellowship and one of the most influential voices of our time for justice, humanity, and redemption.  Nixon surrounded himself with a steady stream of leaders who continue to lead well even to this day.

I’ve been quite turned off recently by those who call themselves “conservatives” who are acting like President Obama is the second coming of Satan.  On a recent road trip, I passed a guy with this extreme Obama message on the back of his truck.  I found it humorous because he was brave enough to put it on his business truck, and I wonder how many would-be customers he has turned away because of it.

And then there was the extreme over-the-top reaction by many on the right to the announcement that President Obama would be addressing the nation’s students today.  I even saw a mom break down into tears while being interviewed on CNN.  She just could not fathom what might happen if her kids were to hear the president’s words.  Might they turn to salt?  Might they go blind?  Might they grow a third arm?  Or even worse yet: might they actually be inspired by the president’s words?  For that mom – and many others across the country – the risk was just too high.  Their kids would not be allowed to partake.

Personally, I’m skeptical of all politicians.  I’m not a huge fan of Obama (although I’d love to sit down with him on the White House lawn and have a drink like that police officer did a few months ago).  But I’m not a huge fan of ANY politician for that matter.  I only voted last November because – as a pastor – I think not voting might be considered by some as a sin only trumped by blasphemy.  I’m not a big fan of politicians, but I’m even less of a fan of the way people use scare tactics and extremism in response to them.

I – for one – am glad the president decided to speak to American students.  Many kids today need all the encouragement they can get to stay in school and work hard while there.  I hope my kids were able to hear his message at school, and if not, I’ll make sure they do on the Internet.  I read the transcript and could find absolutely nothing wrong or (even political for that matter) with what he said.  Here are some of his words that I found especially inspiring in his speech today.

He inspired students to work through the difficulties they are facing and spoke of his own difficulties.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

He encouraged students to ask questions and was vulnerable about his need to do the same.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

He boldly raised the bar of expectations on American students.

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

All in all, this was a good speech.  The president has a right – and even a duty – to speak to the youth of our nation and call them to a higher standard than what many of them are called to by their peers, the media, and even some of their teachers and parents.  It’s unfortunate that even something as good, inspiring, and politically neutral as this speech was faced with so much ridiculous extremism and criticism.

It’s time for conservatives to cut President Obama some slack on things like this.  It’s ok to speak out and provide checks and balances in the realm of politics, but if he wants to encourage our country’s students on the first day of school, then leave him alone and let him do it.

It’s been really hot lately out here in the Southwest, and evidently, the heat is starting to make some say and do crazy things.  Take for instance Pastor Steve Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ.  On August 16th, Anderson delivered a sermon titled “Why I Hate Barack Obama.”  In it, Anderson admitted he prays for the president’s death saying, “If you want to know how I’d like to see Obama die, I’d like him to die of natural causes. I don’t want him to be a martyr, we don’t need another holiday. I’d like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer.”

Many locals are offended by Anderson’s comments, and the Secret Service is investigating him, yet many of the church’s members are defending their pastor’s opinion of the president.  “If (Obama) thinks the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are obsolete, it would be better if (Obama) wasn’t here,” said parishioner Renee Houlihan.

One of the parishioners at the Faithful Word Baptist Church is Christopher Broughton who actually moved to the area because the church “is preaching the message I believe in.  I concur (with Pastor Anderson). I think we’d be better off if God would send (Obama) where he’s going now instead of later,” said Broughton. “(Obama) is destroying our country.”  When asked if he was advocating violence against the President, Broughton said he wouldn’t answer the question directly.  “I don’t care how God does it, I’m not going into further detail than that,” he said.

I’m not sure what kind of gospel Pastor Anderson thinks he’s preaching, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus lived and ministered under the oppressive Roman Empire with its corrupt and God-less leaders at the helm, yet He never once advocated violence toward them.  As a matter of fact, it seems as though He didn’t pay much attention to them nor give much credence to those who were in political leadership over Him.

Furthermore, the type of “conquering” Jesus did was not done with swords.  The night he was arrested, the Scriptures say that Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers.  Jesus responded by putting the guy’s ear back on and saying to Peter, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

Jesus conquered death and hell and ushered in His Kingdom not with a sword…but with a cross.  He allowed the government officials of His day to arrest Him, beat Him, and kill Him by hanging Him on a cross.  After He told Peter to put away his sword, Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”  On His command, scores of angels with swords could have been released to deal with the bad politicians of Jesus’ day, but Jesus would have none of it.

Pastor Anderson is among a growing number of Christian leaders today who are mistakenly equating the gospel of Jesus with the warped gospel of violence.  He joins the ranks of Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell who both have publicly made the same mistake.  Four years ago, Pat Robertson told his 700 Club audience, “We have the ability to take Hugo Chavez out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability.”  And before he died, Jerry Falwell said, “I’m for the President to chase (terrorists) all over the world.  If it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.”

This kind of talk sounds painfully similar to the ideology that led to the Crusades, where soldiers with the cross of Christ displayed on their shields killed hundreds of thousands of people “in the name of the Lord.”  It’s true: there is power in the name of the Lord, but that power is not the power of the sword…it’s the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes.

The United State Secret Service is speaking out about an East Valley pastor who is praying for President Barack Obama’s death

Spokesperson Darrin Blackford said Monday, “We are aware of Pastor Anderson’s comments and an appropriate follow up will be conducted.”

Parishioners leaving the Faithful Word Baptist Church Sunday carried not just their Bibles, but guns as well.

Pastor Steven Anderson said he and his congregation have received death threats after a controversial sermon earlier this month.

“Guns are a great deterrent,” said Anderson.  “We haven’t had any violence because people know if they come down here swinging a baseball bat, we’re ready to protect ourselves.”

On August 16th, Anderson delivered a sermon titled “Why I Hate Barack Obama.”

In it, Anderson admitted he prays for the president’s death.

It is a position he reiterated Sunday.

“If you want to know how I’d like to see Obama die, I’d like him to die of natural causes,” said Anderson.  ”I don’t want him to be a martyr, we don’t need another holiday. I’d like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer.”

The sermon so incensed Bill Demski he traveled from his home in Glendale to picket Anderson’s 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning service in Tempe.

“A man of the cloth wants to kill the president, how sick can you get,” asked Demski.

Yet members of the Faithful Word Baptist Church defended their pastor’s opinion of the president.

“If (Obama) thinks the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are obsolete, it would be better if (Obama) wasn’t here,” said parishioner Renee Houlihan.

But Anderson said despite the threats, he has no plans to change his message.

“I’m not going to back down, I wouldn’t be worth my salt as a preacher if I let popularity determine what I preach,” said Anderson.

To listen to Anderson’s sermon “Why I Hate Barack Obama,” click here.

Slideshow

One protester who didn’t want to give his name was walking around with a rifle – in full view.

One of the parishioners who attended Sunday night services at the Faithful Word Baptist Church was Christopher Broughton.

“I actually moved to the area because this church was preaching the message I believe in,” said Broughton.

Broughton had an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle outside President Barack Obama’s speech to the VFW at the Phoenix Convention Center earlier this month.

MORE: Man who brought gun to Obama rally worked with Libertarians

The night before the speech, on August 16th, Broughton listened to Anderson’s “Why I hate Barack Obama” sermon.

“I concur, I think we’d be better off if God would send (Obama) where he’s going now instead of later,” said Broughton.  “(Obama) is destroying our country.”

When asked if he was advocating violence against the President, Broughton said he wouldn’t answer the question directly.

“I don’t care how God does it, I’m not going into further detail than that,” said Broughton.  “It would be better now than later.”