Some females are without shame and have no sense of Christian propriety, common decency, and biblical principles.

Sharon Hodde Miller, a doctoral student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, said, “A woman’s breasts and buttocks and thighs all proclaim the glory of the Lord.” Yes, we are fearfully and wonderfully made but God did not expect this “glory of the Lord” to be observed by everyone everywhere, especially in church.

She said, “Modesty is an orientation of the heart, first and foremost. It begins with putting God first.”  In that, she is correct; however, if God is first in one’s life, he or she will seek to do all to the glory of God.  A woman is very unchristian if she uses her bouncing breasts, swaying buttocks, or exposed flesh to influence any man other than her husband. It is also a blasphemous use of the female body.

Nutty, shameless feminists in Fort Collins, Colorado, have contended that male and female breasts are identical!  Women brandished their bare bouncing breasts along with signs proclaiming, “My breasts are no more sexual than my mouth or my hands,” “Honk for gender equality,” and “Free the NIP.”

This is not your father’s world!

My deceased philosopher father, with a sixth-grade education, would say, “This world is nuttier than a fruitcake.”  And he would have found it incredible that professing Christians would defend immodest dress.

Some Evangelical and Fundamentalist youth wear shirts declaring “Modest is Hottest” or the reverse, although I can’t imagine Christians wearing something like that.  Whatever one’s definition of “hottest,” it obviously has a sexual connotation.  Why send the wrong message to others?  I wonder what parents are doing in the parenting department.

Are Christians to be “hot”?  That kind of sexual suggestion is not conducive to the body being the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  However, non-thinkers tell us never to correct our children since it might stunt their development, and they might even throw a hissy.  Can’t have that.  They also may think they are unloved.

Christians are not to draw attention to self but to Christ.  In Matthew 23:5, Christ rebuked the scribes and Pharisees saying, “But all their works they do for to be seen of men…and enlarge their borders.”  Enlarge borders refers to Jews who wore fringes on their robes as commanded in Numbers 15:38-39 to remind them to keep the Commandments.  However, some Jews went beyond God’s command and enlarged the borders to draw attention to themselves.  Likewise, people dress outrageously and do strange things to their bodies to attract attention to themselves.

I have often wondered why a beautiful young woman would put metal in her face. For sure, while it will attract people’s attention, it is not attractive. Principled people should know why they believe and practice certain things and not make decisions without reasonable thought.

Paul’s command in Philippians 2:5 to have the mind of Christ will eliminate seductive clothing, inappropriate clothing, piercings, tattoos, expensive jewelry, green hair, Mohawk haircuts, and pants drooping below the 38th parallel.  Christians are not to draw attention to self but to Christ. Believers were called Christians in Antioch because they reminded people of Christ.  Many modern Christians remind me of circus performers.  Shocking, shameful, and salacious dress (or activity) should be unacceptable to decent people.

A Texas public school district announced that any tattoos must be covered, and only ear piercings would be accepted!  Are any churches teaching such honorable standards to their members?  Of course, visitors should be welcomed whatever they wear as long as it meets a minimum standard of decency.

Church of God in Christ is a formal Pentecostal denomination where ushers wear white gloves, and their denominational handbook says, “dressing in a sensually provocative manner produces inclinations to evil desires.”

I agree with this Church of God in Christ statement, although I am not a Pentecostal.

Even Catholic churches are battling this problem of undress. I saw this scores of times on my tours to the Middle East, especially in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. Tourists are asked to be modest when visiting famous historical and biblical church sites.

Often, Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are very careless, even indecent, in what they wear to church.  However, I contend that the concern should not only be on Sunday, but everyday indecent dress in public is always unacceptable, ungodly, and unnecessary.

Modesty should be a byproduct of genuine Christianity, although critics confuse modesty with prudery.  Prudery is as abnormal as exhibitionism is at the other extreme.  Modesty is Christian, common, and commendable.  Modest people have respect for their bodies (made in the image of God), respect for social norms, and respect for other people.

Both genders should consider proper dress as a sign of elegance, education, and erudition.  A silent statement is made by immodestly dressed people, male and female: “I don’t think much of myself, and I don’t expect you to value or respect me either.”

In many churches on Sunday morning, it is almost a Sunday Morning Slutwalk with bouncing boobs, cavernous cleavage, gyrating hips, skintight pants (male and female), and skirts slit front, back, and both sides.  It seems tempting, tantalizing, and taunting are parts of some modern women’s arsenal.

Feminists and others seek to remove all responsibility from women for the reactions they get from men because of seductive clothing, while most lusting men put the responsibility for their temptation totally upon the women!  However, smearing honey all over yourself and then strolling through bear country does invite attack by bears!

If the way women dress is not an invitation to men, then why do prostitutes dress the way they do? A good woman will dress to be modest and attractive, instead of modern and alluring. Street walking prostitutes feel a need to dress in salacious clothing to compete with other women.

Exposing the female body and doing the “come on” bit will also attract predator men. Immodest girls are like pigs rolling around in the mud and shouldn’t be surprised when men treat them like pigs.

Many women refuse to admit that their clothing sends a message to others. If they dress like a harlot, they will be perceived as a harlot even when it is not true. Proverbs 7:10 makes clear that dress is associated with prostitution: “And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.”

All women who dress provocatively are not trying to attract men; some are simply careless, thoughtless, or trying to be relevant. However, it is wrong, and their husbands should remind them of the danger of advertising without trying to do so. Proverbs 11:22 says, “As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.” Principled women will seek to be appropriate, wise, and thoughtful of how they are perceived.

It is normal for men to react to exposed breasts and other parts of the female body.  That is the way God made them.  It would be abnormal if they did not react to the exposed female body.  However, men are responsible for their own impure, illegal, and iniquitous thoughts and actions.  Moreover, mere attraction is not lust, but it often leads to lust.

Normal men like to see female skin, but how much skin is permitted?  Some Muslim women are forced to cover their entire bodies except the eyes and hands; others even hide their eyes!  That would be considered going far past modesty to prudery.

The absence of modesty among females is an egregious problem, but I must emphatically state that however wickedly women dress, it does not justify lecherous men’s abusive actions.  While lust is natural, it is naturally sinful.  It dehumanizes the female when a man takes her for himself (even mentally), often to prove superiority over her as well as to satisfy unpermitted personal cravings.

Decent people should ask themselves not only what is acceptable but also what is appropriate for each occasion.  It is a joy to meet a person with a happy smile, pure heart, and noble intentions who is modest, kind, humble, and genuine.  Not many out there!

I’ll be considered naïve and self-righteous for even suggesting they should be out there!

Young boys used to look at National Geographic for naked bodies, strange piercings, and tattoos. In this day, it is easy to see about anything everywhere, even observing leading members of some Evangelical and Fundamentalist churches.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”  John Bunyan, Baptist Preacher

I realize this issue is debatable, delicate, and as dangerous as an attempt to shave a bobcat in a phone booth. Millennials should do their research about phone booths.

Same-sex “marriage” was wrong yesterday, today, and tomorrow regardless of what any court, church, legislative body, or professor declares. If a million experts claim an error, no one is expected to believe it but must call out their mistake, even with a lonely voice.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2015 that same-sex marriage was legal. However, they could not determine if it was right or moral. After the Court recently decided abortion was not in the Constitution, there has been speculation that the Court may realize that same-sex “marriage” is also absent. Hence, the stir, especially in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, and various cities in the hinterland.

In a seizure of common sense, the Court might decide that pretending to be a different gender is insane, attempting to change genders is illegal, and drag queen shows for kids are illicit, illegitimate, insane, and illegal.

The natives on the LGBTQ reservation are restless, raging, and rebellious.

Most people will assert that I am beating a dead horse because almost everyone believes in same-sex “marriage,” but that does not deal with the issue.  Cities have been destroyed by flaunting their wicked behavior in the face of God. You may faintly remember Sodom and Gomorrah.

Many decent people are experts at straddling the perversion fence, while the LGBTQ crowd profess motives of love, inclusion, equality, and justice. Informed people know that that crowd only thinly disguises their hatred of all things normal. Hatred for Christians is blatant. They enthusiastically wave the colorful LGBTQ flag reminiscent of a Jim Jones Peoples’ Temple cult rally. Although the grape Kool-Aid would be absent.

I suggest the muted response to perversion by usually decent, even Christian people is motivated by fear of being laughed at, ostracized, and an inadequate ability to defend the biblical position.  So, it’s easier and more popular to go with the flow–even if it’s over Niagara.

It is dreadful that any court, especially the U.S. Supreme Court, would discuss, debate, and presume to decide same-sex “marriage”!  God decided it a long time ago!  Even 20 years ago, the subject would not have been discussed in polite company, and anyone who predicted that sane people would seriously discuss homosexual “marriage” would have been hooted out of the marketplace of ideas.

When the U. S. Supreme Court said that same-sex “marriage” is legal, it was a sad day in the U.S. and signaled a dark, dismal, decadent future. Frankly, I don’t believe we have a future.  The fact that same-sex “marriage” is debatable indicates our depravity, disobedience, and destiny.  Disobedience to God is costly.  I think payday is coming, and the chickens are about ready to roost.

I believe the above because, as a nation, we rejected the Bible as our standard and guide.  We expelled God and the Bible from our schools, making them incompetent nut factories.  Until recently, we have been killing innocent, helpless, unborn babies for decades, even after they survived abortion!  For decades, the media have ridiculed genuine Christians dismissing principled living, Christian schools, biblical authority, personal conversion, etc.  Now we have national leaders of both parties, who have endorsed, encouraged, and engaged in perversion.  Maybe it would be helpful if I reminded everyone that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of those evil activities.

We are at this juncture because the American people have rejected God’s standard and now base their decisions on how they “feel” or “think” about something.  Nothing can be affirmed, advocated, and approved when there is no absolute standard.  But where does it end? Some things are wrong if done by anyone, at any time, under any conditions. Murder, rape, perversion, cursing, thievery, and personal hate are always wrong.  Same with drunkenness, abortion, and illegal drugs.

It matters not how one feels, thinks, or believes.  Nor does it matter if some misfit, cowardly preacher gives such offensive (and sinful) behavior a pass and seeks to make such behavior acceptable and respectable.  No person on earth has the right to do those things even if they don’t believe in a Supreme Being.  To say otherwise is to drive society to the place where “everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”  With the present debate about same-sex “marriage,” we are at that place.

Can anyone defend multiple wives or husbands or sex with children?  How about sex with a favorite goat? Aren’t some things naturally, unquestionably wrong? How about heterosexuals living with barnyard morals? Preachers of permissiveness ridicule those questions, but they don’t reply to them!  It matters not what I think, or anyone else thinks, but it sure matters what a holy, all-powerful God thinks.  And we will all stand before Him and give a personal account of what we believed and how we lived.  The Bible is the only safe, sure standard by which anyone can decide any issue.  To live any other way is anarchy and treason against God and the Bible.

Since homosexual “marriage” is still lawful (but never right), I wonder if the broadminded proponents will be broadminded and tolerant of preachers who refuse to marry Fred to Frank and Frick?  Will the LGBTQ paragons of equality support those churches that refuse to hire homosexuals as staff persons?  Of course, they will not support resisting churches since most of the proponents of perversion are hypocrites. They are defending a castle in ruins. Inconsistent homosexuals tell Christians not to moralize about perversion while they moralize about those who moralize about perversion.

Therefore, those who want to live without any restraints and support homosexuality proving their broadmindedness, are defending the indefensible.

Apostles of permissiveness denounce marriage inequality, not knowing that inequality came from God’s original creation as humanity was divided into separate but equal genders, man and woman.  The earliest civilizations followed this pattern because it was best for society.  Differences between men and women will not disappear because some court changes laws or definitions.

No court or politician can change basic math. Under all conditions, four plus four will always equal 8. It doesn’t matter how anyone feels about it and what laws are passed. No court can successfully require a man to produce a baby. No court can successfully change a male into a female or a female into a male. Names can be changed; documents altered; everyone can pretend; celebrations can be held, but human nature will not change.

Furthermore, dedicated Christians will never adjust their convictions whatever the price, privation, pressure, persecution, or prosecution. Weak, sniveling, compromising Christians may embrace and even defend sodomy, adultery, pornography, etc.

No Christian can choose to be exempt from this warfare and live peacefully with their conscience.  Consenting to unquestioned evil is a disgrace, disobedience, and disaster for the cause of Christ and the compromising person.  Many EvanJellycals, not wanting to swim against the tide of public opinion, have taken a cowardly stand; others, including some Fundamentalists, are standing in safe shadows, having taken a vow of silence–at least on this hot issue.

Silence may be golden, but in this case, it is yellow.

In this case, a definite stand should not require any defense to thinking people because it is so evident that old-fashioned Christians are on the right side. The honest Christian realizes that personal integrity is dearer than life itself and is more important than receiving awards, especially from a corrupt, compromising, and craven populous.

Many silent preachers are not morally bad or scripturally deficient but are simply cowards.  Most people fear someone or something; thus, leaders live in fear and stand silent in safe shadows or join the herd on controversial issues.

Evangelical writer Philip Yancey said, “I’ve met wonderful, committed Christians who attend MCC churches [Metropolitan Community Churches], and I wish that the larger church had the benefit of their faith.” Grovel, crawl, cower.

Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions, saying: “Homosexuals are children of God and have the right to be in a family.”

Evil is evil if everyone says it is good, and the Pope cannot change it. Evil is still evil even though some Fundamentalists and Conservatives are bigots, haters, and unchristian. That doesn’t change the fact that evil is always evil and will be punished by God. And it can be forgiven by God!

Deviant behavior, if left unchallenged, always becomes the accepted norm. We have observed this in free nations over the last few years.

There is a natural tendency for some critics of perversion to take a stand against it without taking a stand against it. They tell us it is all right to be a homosexual as long as homosexuality is not practiced! Others will say it is acceptable to believe perversion is wrong but will not go a step further and say perversion is always sinful.

Advocating everyone’s rights is not enough. Fight also for what is right. Grab the Sword and join the fray. Don’t whine in safe shadows. Don’t simply defend the right of LGBTQ critics to be critical but make it clear that the defense and practice of perversion are always wrong under all circumstances.

I just lost most of my readers, even Christians.

Martin Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him.  Where the battle rages there, the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefront besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

I stand with Luther and God. Pretty good company.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former Indiana House of Representatives member who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for eight years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Please send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”  John Bunyan, Baptist Preacher

While Christian Fundamentalists should never be weird or odd, the Bible requires them to be peculiar. A biblically peculiar person reminds people of Christ. However, most secular people could never comprehend the daily lifestyle of a biblical Fundamentalist.

One must also understand that fundamental simply means going back to the origins or the basics. A college basketball team loses 20 games in a row, so the coach gets the team around him and says, “Guys, we must get back to the fundamentals. This is a basketball. That is a basket, and the purpose is to get this ball in that basket without getting fouled.”

I believe all Christians need to get back to the basics of Christianity, discarding the nonsense, the lies, the false traditions, and the heresy—back to barebones Christianity, i.e., Fundamentalism.

U.S. Fundamentalists (a term from the 1940s), including many who identify as Evangelicals, comprise about 30 percent to 40 percent of the U.S. population. They are simply Christians who take the Bible seriously and are willing to stand alone if necessary for their beliefs. Their stand is usually conspicuous for its responsible militancy, and that militancy has occasioned slanderous accusations that they are mendacious, mad, or malicious in their stand. It seems opponents find it easier to accuse Fundamentalists of being mad and mean rather than discuss and debate their militant positions. Biblical militancy will always result in help and will never harm anyone.

And no true Fundamentalist will seek to force his view on anyone. That accusation has been made by people who interpret a loving yet militant statement as “trying to force his ideas down my throat.”

The critic simply cannot refute what he has heard.

Because of Fundamentalists’ high view of Scripture (it is inspired, infallible, and inerrant as well as invaluable for proper living), they adhere to the fundamentals of the faith. Their core beliefs—Christ’s virgin birth, virtuous life, vicarious death, victorious resurrection, and visible return, as well as the validity of miracles and the veracity of Scripture. Of course, at one time, all orthodox Christians believed those doctrines!

So, who changed?

Furthermore, most Fundamentalists insist on the independence of each local church, refusing any religious hierarchy or authority over a local congregation. Therefore, they refuse to belong to any denomination. Each local Fundamentalist congregation must be judged on its own merits. Most are tender and compassionate, while some are tyrannical and cold.

There were exceptions to the anti-denomination position in the early 1900s when many highly competent Fundamentalists were in the Presbyterian U.S.A. and the Northern (later American) Baptist Convention. During that era when the Fundamentalist/Modernist battle was raging, many great preachers refused to recognize the theological corruption in their groups or, if admitted, they refused to leave their beloved denominations. Such a move would have had a significant impact on their family, friends, finances, and future. Many others did leave and became what they should have always been—unaffiliated or independent Christians, as were the first-century Christians.

Fundamentalists are not the new boy on the block. Resource books are wrong when they call Fundamentalism a phenomenon of the 20^th century. While the name is new, the movement goes back to an empty tomb in a beautiful garden outside Jerusalem.

Harvard Divinity School Professor (and Church Historian) Kirsopp Lake wrote, “Fundamentalism is virtually synonymous with orthodox Christianity.” He added, “It is a mistake, often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that Fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind: it is the…survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians.”

Dr. Lake continued, “The Fundamentalist may be wrong: I think that he is. [No, if we are original Christians, then Fundamentalism is not wrong.] But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a Fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum of the Church is [sic] on the Fundamentalist side.” (Kirsopp Lake, The Religion of Yesterday and To-morrow, (Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1925), pp 61-62.)

It is a fact, recognized by all, that the best support for your position is the positive comments by your critics as per Lake’s above.

To repeat, even unbelieving scholars teach that the original Christians were Fundamentalists called by different names—Christians, Disciples, Believers, Followers, Arnoldists, Donatists, Waldensians, Hussites, etc. As years passed, some got loose in their beliefs and took on spurious views, which exploded into the world’s religious mess today.

Fundamentalists eschew formalism, anthems, vestments, and repetition and usually prefer, even demand, simplicity in worship, doctrinally sound hymns, and serious Bible teaching and preaching. They meet in massive megachurches, smaller “churchy” buildings, storefronts, or even homes. They are also known for their independence; consequently, some Fundamentalists will fuss with me for “speaking for them.” Of course, I speak for myself, prompted by my knowledge of church history and current events.

The very suggestion that modern Fundamentalists (those who adhere to the basics) are the same as original Christians causes heartburn, palpitations, and hot flashes across the fruited plain. After all, aren’t Fundamentalist Christians uncouth, unsophisticated, and uneducated louts responsible for dandruff, sunspots, drought, and partly responsible for global warming? Aren’t they blamable for the declining population of copperheads and rattlesnakes in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee? Didn’t they organize the Flat Earth Society? Don’t their children live in constant fear, and their wives are usually pious, plump, put-down—and pregnant?

Well, maybe the above charges are outrageous, but surely, Fundamentalists are legalistic and pharisaical! No, all these accusations indicate that the critic is desperate and devious, if not dishonest.

Or, maybe just simply dumb.

The world generally has a silly, untrue caricature of Fundamentalists. A Fundamentalist has recognized himself as a sinner, repented of sin, and received Christ as Savior based upon His sacrificial death and physical resurrection. Following his salvation, he seeks to honor Christ in every respect. He takes the scriptural commands seriously to live godly, separate from compromise, and he lovingly rebukes those who stray from the truth. Moreover, he will try to pass to his children those same characteristics.

That means Fundamentalists are obligated to obey the Ten Commandments, treat others the way they want to be treated, respect the dignity of all people, show genuine love in response to hate, generously give to help others, stand for biblical truth against all odds, whatever the cost, even to correct but not coerce those who do not stand for truth.

To an informed Christian, the truth cannot be sacrificed on the altar of a bogus tolerance. Tolerance is often used as a smokescreen to secretly and safely retreat from orthodoxy. We are told repeatedly, all views have equal merit, and none should be considered better than another.

Practically everyone believes that lie. All persons are considered equal, but not all positions are. Anyone can have odd ideas, and he has a right to them, so I respect him and recognize his right to express his views. However, while he is equal to me, his ideas are not necessarily sane, scholarly, or scriptural. His ideas can be foolish and unsound, but he must realize that he should support his silly views with facts. To say we must be tolerant of all people and give as much equivalency to all ideas is nonsense.

However silly, a person may believe what he wants, and he may espouse those beliefs, but that does not mean his behavior must be accepted. There is no right to do wrong. Modern philosophy says that you can’t disagree with anyone since it will hurt his feelings. So? Such is life in the real world. If one takes that senseless position, then one can never disagree with anyone about anything. What a crock!

The Christian must always seek to do right in all circumstances, realizing it is never right to do wrong.

A Fundamentalist is incensed when lies are presented as truth, when evil is presented as good, and when the young and innocent are harmed. He is there when the depressed need a friend. He keeps his word at all costs and is known for his kindness, gentleness, and faithfulness. He eschews anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication.

He is known for his humility of mind (esteeming others better than himself), meekness, longsuffering, blamelessness, and harmlessness. He lives in a crooked and perverse nation, among whom he is supposed to shine as a light in a dark world.

However, that light is flickering almost to extinction.

The Apostle Paul records a command for all Christians in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

I have gladly accepted the term Fundamentalist knowing my critics and the ignorant have perverted its original meaning. They have done so because they cannot reply and are highly unkind, unfair, and uncivil when dealing with Fundamentalists. After all, tolerance only goes so far!

If I am a devoted Christian (a Fundamentalist), I will be careful about my morals, manners, and militancy. Bible Fundamentalists are known for their love of people, principles, and precepts—all with passion.

I have tried to live as a genuine Christian Fundamentalist (not always successfully) for more than 70 years. Moreover, I just published my memoirs, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets to, among other things, further enlighten those who don’t know that all genuine Christians are biblical Fundamentalists.    

Christian Fundamentalists are not deranged, deplorable, demented, or dangerous but gentle, gracious, and generous people.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 19 books, the most recent,  Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook will be available at Amazon.com  next week. Other titles  at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog.  Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com to receive his free articles, and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

What do Bill Clinton, George Bush, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden have in common? They all fornicated, and Clinton lied to America then insulted us with a confession. All these men should be kicked out of their churches, but that won’t happen because many religious leaders are unfaithful to the religious principles they profess so loudly. They are without courage, convictions, and commitment and are as dishonorable as the politicians.

Some courageous and conscientious Roman Catholic clergy are making noises about refusing Biden communion because he supports the butchering of innocent babies on the taxpayers’ credit cards. However, the chances of Biden being refused communion are about the same as Pope Francis resigning and hiring on as a Hulu dancer in Hawaii.

The clergy were not always so supine.

Ambrose Bishop of Milan wrote to a church member in 390 A.D., warning him that he had been excommunicated because of his public and heinous sin. He also warned him that he would not be permitted to receive communion; however, that member was not just Larry Layman. He was Theodosius, the top honcho of the Roman Empire!

It seems that a Roman official had been murdered during a political disturbance in Thessalonica, and Theodosius ordered his army to the Greek city to exact a pound of flesh. They took a little more than that since about 7,000 people of all ages were killed. Like most dictators, presidents-for-life, emperors, and others, Theodosius planned to teach the untutored, unwashed, and unarmed citizens a lesson about “who’s the boss.”

Ambrose knew that he might be killed or exiled for his reprimand of the Emperor since emperors don’t like to be corrected or threatened by religious leaders. However, Ambrose’s principled action resulted in Theodosius repenting! That is the desired result of all church discipline. Ambrose said, “The emperor is in the Church, not above it.” The religious pressure on the Emperor may have prompted his repentance, so its genuineness is in question.   Coerced repentance, if not heartfelt, is not repentance.

No one knows if Theodosius sincerely repented or not but at least, he satisfied the Bishop and was not excommunicated.

Bill Clinton is a Baptist, and his many trysts, affairs, romps, assaults, rapes, etc., with Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick, Sally Perdue, Paula Jones, ad infinitum screamed for biblical discipline. In the mix was his televised denial of an affair, so he became a public liar. You may remember that women were not always believed about their affairs as they are now. In the old days, they had to support an accusation; now, they only have to speak it.

Clinton’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) pastor refused to bring disciplinary charges against him, thereby disgracing all SBC pastors, making a mockery of church membership.

Some foremost Evangelical leaders made periodic trips to the White House to advise Clinton in spiritual matters when they should have imitated the prophet Nathan and shouted, “Thou art the man.” Clinton lived eight years in the White House when he should have been in the big house.

George W. Bush was haunted by two sex scandals that received little notice. One involved a criminal complaint and lawsuit of rape as charged by Margie Denise Schoedinger, a 38-year-old black woman from a Houston suburb who alleged she dated Bush as a minor. She charged Bush with rape in October 2000 alleging, “race based harassment and individual sex crimes committed against her and her husband.” She shot herself in the head nine months after filing suit against Bush.

Usually, that would be worldwide news, but it was subdued.

The second scandal was an accusation by former Austin stripper Tammy Phillips of having an affair with Bush that ended in 1999. She was a 35-year-old partner in a Carrollton, Texas gym. She asserted that she had been introduced to then-governor Bush by her prominent Republican uncle in December 1997 during a political function at a hotel in Midland, Texas.

The Phillips’ scandal was reported in The National Enquirer, New York Post, and other media outlets but disappeared as the 2000 presidential campaign got underway. After that, Phillips dropped off the face of the earth.

Bush moved into the White House with the help of prominent Evangelical leaders.

Donald Trump had numerous affairs, even boasted about them, denied them, paid off prostitutes, and showed no remorse, repentance, or restitution. Yet, his Presbyterian Church never disciplined him as a layman or president, and effervescent Evangelical leaders continued to fawn over him. It was one thing to prefer him as president above another Clinton and another thing to pretend he was a conscientious Christian.

When Biden “joined” a Roman Catholic Church or when he came of age, he knew the church taught that abortion was not only a sin but also a crime. Thus, approving, applauding, and advocating abortion is not like disagreeing with the Pope’s ludicrous comments about capitalism or social justice. If Biden (and others) had character, they would do the principled thing and remove their membership, and if their pastors had character, they would confront the offenders.

Joe Biden should be refused communion for his numerous lies, plagiarism, cursing, and his flaunting of Catholic doctrine. But worse than that, Biden took Jill, I mean Dr. Jill, away from her husband, although both Joe and Jill try to make their illicit fling a starry-eyed fairy story. However, the breakup of a family and the stealing of affection are never romantic. It is worthy of being booted from church membership, not simply being refused communion.

The current and former presidents have filthy mouths, proof that their mothers did not wash them out with soap. While cursing is not as vile as adultery, it is enough to forbid him communion or remove from him church membership.

The following quotes of Bush are so revolting, I even refused to disguise his words. I have become weary of the vile words used by so many lowlifes in recent months. Some think disguising vile words gives a pass, but would I be prompting my readers to mentally say the words, thereby coarsening their lives. So I refuse to “think” the words myself. Yeah, I know, I’m living in a bubble, but that’s my preference. Decent, normal, educated, people don’t think that way and don’t talk that way.

According to Time (March 23, 2003), George Bush told three U.S. Senators (and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice), “[*&%] Saddam. We’re taking him out!” Before his election, Bush called the Wall Street Journal’s Al Hunt a “[*&%] in a Dallas restaurant in the presence of Hunt’s wife and 4-year old son! The president also said (into a live microphone) that New York Times reporter Adam Clymer was a “major-league [*&%].” Evidently, Mr. Bush doesn’t know that Christians don’t talk that way, and even non-Christian gentlemen don’t talk that way in the presence of ladies.

Whatever we say should be unambiguous and not be embarrassing, or an insult to others who believe their yea should be yea and their nay should be nay. Vulgar (even non-vulgar) curse words are never acceptable by civil, cultured, and Christian people. I am told that such filthy speech does not affect one’s public office, but that is not the issue. The issue is membership in a professing Christian church.

Ephesians 4:29 commands, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.” That is a command of God to the president of the U.S. as it is to the lowliest member of his church. Their pastors should say, “Even if you confessed those public sins to Christ, they must be confessed to our church, so our youth and the general public will understand that Christians don’t talk that way, not even the president of the United States. You, sir, are not an exception.”

Clinton is a Baptist, Bush is a Methodist, Trump a Presbyterian, and Biden is a Catholic. Not one of their pastors has the moral courage to call for—even demand their repentance. But what is shocking, even alarming, is that Evangelical leaders are so silent! Where are all the pro-family representatives? Some of them applauded Clinton, Bush, Trump, and Biden when they should be appalled!

It seems most Evangelicals are Evan.jelly.cals.

It is my opinion that many Evangelical churches are an appendage to the Republican Party, and their pastors are aging and graceless cheerleaders for the GOP. Others, especially Black preachers, have been in bed with Democrats for decades and would support Louis Farrakhan for President as long he was a Democrat! Such people are strong on preaching and soft on principle. Churches used to be the moral compass of America, but instead of a force to be reckoned with, they have become a farce to be ridiculed.

None of the above men should receive special attention because they are powerful celebrities. In the local church, everyone, and I mean everyone, is equal. However, it seems some are treated more equally than are others. Not only are the offending men guilty and reprehensible, so are their do-nothing pastors!

All above men should be called into their pastor’s office for possible repentance with a public apology the following Sunday or be removed from church membership! If they refuse to publicly repent, each pastor should say, “Since you will not repent and confess, you will be publicly removed from our membership since you refuse to abide by biblical standards.”

After all, when a person joins a church, he knows what the church believes and that the church has the right, yes even duty, to see that all members follow their teaching. However, the above men, through arrogance, lust, lack of character, etc., chose to disobey God and their church rules. Yet, no one has called for their dismissal, and many argue that they should not be disciplined in any way!

Some social clubs and lodges have higher standards than many churches.

Everyone knows the above offenders will not stand at the church altar sobbing uncontrollably, confessing, as did another head of state thousands of years ago: “Have mercy upon me, O God…blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin….Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Moreover, because I demand that U.S. presidents are not exceptions and must experience remorse, repentance, and restoration, radical leftists will accuse me of being a sanctimonious Bible-thumper.

Frankly, I seldom thump my Bible and never really hard!

Moreover, I’ve been called worse things by better people.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent being Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning!  The eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog.  Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his  articles, and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

The Homosexual Lobby has belittled, bullied, badgered, and blackmailed non-thinking Americans and Canadians into accepting, approving, and even applauding their deadly homosexual lifestyle. We are expected to believe it is only an alternative lifestyle. You know, you love one way. I love another. It’s still love and who can deny, debate, and denigrate love? However, it is “love that dare not speak its name.” It is so vile that decent people did not even discuss it in polite society until recent years.

Today, because of the successful con job by homosexuals, America has developed an infatuation with the rude, the crude, and the lewd; however, average citizens are waking up and speaking out in defense of centuries of common sense and Bible teaching. Astute people don’t (with the wave of the hand) turn their backs on thousands of years of civilization.

We are striking back and hitting pro-homosexual firms in their cash register. As Christians, we will turn the other cheek but not write another check to support evil. It is not very smart to fund your own demise. We don’t tip the executioner to use a sharp ax to expedite a clean cut of our neck as some did in centuries past.

I don’t drink Coke or eat Girl Scout cookies watching professional sports. I hope you will do likewise. Anyway, that kind of stuff might send you to Heaven quicker than your scheduled departure. I will survive not reading National Geographic after they promoted transgenderism; besides, they still haven’t heard that evolution is false, a failure, and a fraud. Another reason they should shut down their presses and quietly disappear. Moreover, we can survive very well without rushing to get Target’s weekend specials. Furthermore, I would not go to Disney if the entrance fee were a dollar.

I think it is more than a dollar.

I am sure many people who don’t identify with Bible-believing Christians will also get involved with boycotting Target, Disney, Proctor and Gamble, etc. No doubt, we will pick up a few stray nuts and others who loaf on the fringe of every group, but we will have to live with that. I am willing to admit that not all the nuts are in the Homosexual Lobby. Some are in the church lobby, carry a Bible, and wear a silly grin—and maybe a silver cross around the neck. For sure, not all nuts are on trees. No doubt, some of the Repulsive Radical Religious Right will get involved. However, we will disavow them with the understanding that it is still not illegal to be a religious nut in America—until they start mixing the Kool-Aid.

If Christians are silent, where will the pressure come from to do right? Some tell us that boycotts are ineffective, and when they fail, it only makes us look foolish. However, my boycotts always succeed because I know they are not living on my dollar. Nevertheless, I’d rather be perceived as a fool and a failure than a follower of the wrong side in this cultural war.

Christians have a responsibility to live daily lives so that those around us will know we do not support evil causes. We are in a war, and except for the final outcome, no one is guaranteed to be on the winning side of every battle. One thing for sure, I don’t want to be on the sinning side! Wars of principle must be fought even if there are battle loses; moreover, there have been some very successful boycotts by pro-family groups.

Target officials met with American Family Association leaders that produced a friendly but flawed, final, and fatal conclusion: Target will continue its insane, insensitive, and indecent policy of permitting make-believe women in real women’s restrooms and changing rooms! Target sees it as noble to provide admittance to restrooms for men who pretend to be women, and real women must live with it. Target officials are unconcerned with safety, privacy, and decency. Making people feel good is preferred over women’s safety!

The loonies have taken over. Such a business deserves to go belly up, and other companies—toying with twisted tolerance—may get the message that a gold star from the LGBT crowd is not worth going bankrupt.

The Target boycott should be permanent and stopped only after its burial. I won’t stop my boycott with rumors of its funeral, and after all, I believe in resurrection.

Christians are commanded to be salt and light in this world. The function of salt is mainly negative since it prevents decay, while the function of light is positive. Light always, without exception, drives away the darkness. Christians are failing this generation by not being the preserving salt and the prevailing light. Consequently, Americans are asking, “Where am I going in this handbasket?”

I think I know America’s destination.

As a Christian, everything I have belongs to God. I am a steward of all I possess and will one day give an account to God of how I used His resources. If the culture wars are won by the permissive crowd, it will change America forever. It will mean the killing of more innocent babies. It will mean general acceptance of immoral behavior that will destroy lives, damage our healthcare system, and deny Christians the right to express their faith in the marketplace. I refuse to leave such a society to my grandchildren without taking a stand–even if I fail.

We live in a society that refuses to recognize right from wrong; consequently, we must choose the right and oppose the wrong. However, opponents tell us that right and wrong cannot be established but are arbitrary. To those people, the Bible is not a guide for human behavior. After all, it condemns most people’s lifestyles; so shallow people think by not believing the Bible, they are free from its condemnation. The message from the media and many weaklings in the clergy is that God is dead, morality is irrelevant, and perversion is in everyone’s future. So, why fight it?

I choose to fight.

We will also have to live with some in the Christian community who will oppose our activities as being unchristian, unwise, and unnecessary. Furthermore, some asinine critics will use the Bible (which they don’t believe is trustworthy!) to tell us we are wrong! It is a misuse of English to call religious leaders leaders if they don’t lead! Usually, they are weaklings masquerading as leaders. Most Christians want a leader with hair on his chest, a working brain in his head, an understanding heart in his bosom, and a stiff bone in his back. Most loosey-goosey, effervescent Evangelicals are missing all four but do have a small yellow streak up their backs where a spine should be.

Astute, awake, and alarmed Christians will no longer be kicked around without expressing outrage by withholding our credit cards and cash. You remember cash; it’s a four-letter word not used much anymore.

Each person can use his influence to encourage others to apply pressure, kindly, of course. So business owners take note that Christians have learned something from Blacks, feminists, homosexuals, Hispanics, socialists, and others. We will be heard and will stop funding businessmen who kick us around as they accept our money; however, at the same time, we will never be unkind, unruly, untruthful, or unchristian—which includes attacking, looting, and burning.

When the next business owner decides to dance with the dandies of the LGBT lobby, we will not harass the business or try to force anyone to get involved. However, I will remind them that Target’s distress, decline, if not demise, was self-inflicted.

Don’t be neutral during the biggest battle America faces. Take a stand. Win or lose, I would rather lose standing with the right crowd than win standing with the wrong crowd. By doing the right thing, I will, in the end, be on the winning side.

For sure, win or lose, I will not be on the sinning side.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent being Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! The eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles, and click here to support his work with a donation.)

CT’s history of condescending false intellectualism is pitiful, nauseating, and embarrassing. The magazine has been progressively leaning left since its founding by Billy Graham and some lifetime Fundamentalists. Most of those Baptists and Presbyterians were ashamed of their church heritage and had insatiable desires for acceptance and respectability in the religious world.

CT is known for being spineless and for decades has been known for not having strong opinions about anything—except an undisguised loathing for biblical Christianity, and now Trump. This has been a steady regression since Billy Graham gave the first $10,000 to start the magazine in 1956.

Long ago, Evangelicals at Christianity Today digressed, departed, and deserted biblical Christianity; so their unfair, untrue, and unprovoked attack on President Trump in December of 2019 was not surprising. Some of what they wrote was legitimate; however, they did not make a successful case for his removal. They did not think his defense of unborn babies, a strong judiciary, and a strong economy, tax cuts, protecting religious freedom, and other promises made and kept were impressive enough to vindicate his mistakes.

The writer did not deal with the alternative to Trump being Hillary nor with the fact that the leftist haters have made many undisguised efforts to drive him from office however unfair, unlawful, and untruthful those efforts. Trump is hated for his abortion stand, his strong America- first agenda, and his willingness to reprove, rebuke, and ridicule the false media. Leftists don’t like strength, consistency, and willingness to fight for right.

Evangelicals are wimps, not warriors, and they don’t understand that principled people love truth enough to fight for it. Most Evangelical leaders will not fight unbelief and corruption, but they gladly fight committed Christians over anything—especially their support of Trump! As a Christian virtue, love is greater than faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13:13), but it is not greater than truth! When truth is absent, love, hope, and faith will produce a cult.

Soft Evangelicalism has become as cultish as far right Fundamentalism.
The very loose CT crowd wants to present a soft, sophisticated, and scholarly persona to the world. That’s why compromising Evangelicals broke away from traditional orthodox Christians whom they perceived were not sensitive (enough) to social justice, ecumenism, climate change, etc.

There is concern on the part of Evangelicals that Bible believers are not cognizant, concerned, or committed to social problems; however, astute Christians know that their main message is Christ and His death and resurrection. They remembered the debacle in the 1920s when the social gospel was preached and it destroyed leading denominations; therefore, concerned Christians wanted to steer away from that deadly mistake.

Christianity Today has been pushing full steam ahead toward a political utopia from its inception.

Christianity Today is more dedicated to “love” than truth which is the main reason they don’t have convictions and they can run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. They seek peace and unity at all costs and with that attitude, truth is always the casualty. Consequently, CT devotees are fearful of strong personalities who know what they believe. According to the philosophy of CT, Christians must never be perceived as definitive, strong, determined, confrontational—hence the CT hatred of these qualities also in Trump who is certainly no Fundamentalist.

Evangelicals write about civility and usually practice it with unbelievers and fellow-Evangelicals, but often are most unkind, unfair, and uncivil when dealing with Fundamentalists. After all, tolerance only goes so far!

Weak Evangelicals have proved to be what astute people knew they always were: a hodgepodge of theological lightweights (with a few heavyweights), philosophical cripples, and devotees of political correctness.

This recent article was correct in that Christian leaders were complicit or very silent about slavery. I will further and say that Baptist pastors, a powerful presence at the time, failed in raising a loud voice in protest. But the article did not have balance and it appeared to be written by an uninformed writer or one wishing to present a distorted, disingenuous, even dishonest picture.

The article was a hit piece and could have been written by the most radical Black Lives Matter hustler. The pitch is that all slave owners were brutes and barbarians, and all slaves were mistreated. Of course, slavery is wrong under all conditions; however, a journalist is expected to be honest especially in an alleged Christian magazine.

If a reader didn’t know, he might think it was a guest editorial by Al Sharpton in his weekly bid to inflame the issue, to appeal for support for his racist cause, and to justify the behavior of BLM haters. However, the article was written by CT’s President and CEO Timothy Dalrymple.

In his desire to endear himself to the radical left, Dalrymple placed himself on the side of the race-baiters often known as “civil rights leaders” who are using slavery to demand that all Blacks be awarded massive payments to atone for the slavery of more than 150 years ago! This on-rushing bandwagon (full of explosives), may cause more racial strife than forced busing for school integration! Radical black leaders are demanding that U.S. taxpayers pay the descendants of slaves a suggested $1,000,000 each!

Not if pigs learn to fly. Or even, hippopotami.

Some slave owners saw the wisdom in taking care of their slaves, even encouraging marriage to the extent of giving them a house, a plot of ground, and household goods. A slave with a family, home, garden, and some farm animals would be less inclined to rebellion. Slaves were not worked from daybreak to sundown. The Natural History reported, “Slaves spent their hours away from the field doing household chores, making handicrafts, hunting, and fishing, cultivating their own food, and entertaining themselves with dancing.” Archeological research at slave cabins in Georgia and Florida reveals that some slaves even had firearms!

However, rumors that an NRA sticker was found on a window pane have not been substantiated.

Black leftists would have us believe that all slaves were worked to death and were practically starved to death. However, that only happened when the owner was a sadist or an idiot! Two liberal (very liberal) professors tell us in their book, On The Cross: The Economics Of American Negro Slavery that some planters instituted a profit-sharing for their slaves. They also tell us, “the average pecuniary income actually received by a prime field hand was roughly fifteen percent greater than the income he would have received for his labor as a free agricultural worker.” Wonder why public school books and race-baiters on television never mention that?

On some plantations, the best workers were given tobacco, whiskey, cash, holidays, and trips to town on the weekend. Rather substantial year-end bonuses were sometimes awarded.

However, the CT article indicated the editor was uninformed or purposely sought to mislead its readers. The article also spoke to the issues of black prison incarceration and the wage gap. Dalrymple did not suggest that there are more Blacks in prison because they commit more crimes. But I suppose that is a truth that everyone knows but is supposed to be suppressed. The data shows that 93% of black homicide victims are killed by other Blacks. Blacks, consisting of 13% of the population, commit violent crimes at 7 to 10 times the rate that Whites do. Maybe, just maybe that is the reason more Blacks than Whites are in prison.

Of course, he did not mention the trillions of dollars America has poured into helping Blacks but without impressive or obvious results—or without a degree of appreciation. The gap would soon disappear if the black families were intact, kids stayed in school, Blacks worked at any job responsibility, enrolled in college or trade school, etc.

CT was wrong. Many of the black problems are the fault of black leaders who make a good living riding on the backs of poor Blacks. Also, some white and black politicians have a vested interest in keeping the Blacks down on the plantation. Many Blacks are living today in far worse conditions than did some black slaves on Virginia tobacco farms.

The article declared, “Black lives matter. They matter so much that Jesus sacrificed everything for them. Are we willing to sacrifice as well?” He favorably mentions the exploitive term Black lives matter with no criticism of the concept that black lives are any more important than white, yellow, or polka dot lives. Neither does he suggest that BLM should be repudiated by all decent, thinking, caring persons.

When Christianity Today had a chance to take a principled stand against all evil and for true equality, they caved to political correctness which is personal cowardice.

CT is a very loosey-goosey magazine that wants to present a soft, sophisticated, and scholarly persona to the world. Their attempt to appear brief, bright, and brotherly came across as meek, mild, and motherly.

I wonder if Billy Graham would think his $10,000 founding gift was a worthy investment!

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles, and click here to support his work with a donation.)

It is surprising that the editor, in writing that statement, did not drown in his own gall since CT has never taken an historic stand for biblical inerrancy. That is one of the main reasons the CT crowd, known as loosey-goosey Evangelicals, split away from orthodox Christianity. In doing so, they jumped into bed and snuggled up to almost anyone with a divinity degree and a silver cross necklace. Truth, since it often stings, doesn’t matter to them.

I suggest that Galli be fired before he retires; however, CT is known for being spineless and for decades has been known for not having strong opinions about anything—except an undisguised loathing for biblical Christianity and now Trump.

That’s how they can live with the Democrats’ fabricated, flawed, even false impeachment pitch that would make former honest Democrats blanch with horror.

According to Franklin Graham, his daddy, who gave the first $10,000 to start CT, repudiated the magazine many years ago. Franklin also revealed that his dad voted for Trump.

The editor declared, “There was an unambiguous, clear, and single instance in which the President of the United States used his power to try to coerce a head of state to harass one of his political opponents.” Well, it may be unambiguous to him but to most Americans, Trump was trying to make sure that political corruption was being handled as he is required to do before foreign aid is dispersed.

The loosey-goosey approach to the Bible has enabled CT to defend and promote a vast assortment of left wingers while it excoriates Trump. Such inconsistencies, normal for the magazine, even permitted their defense of Karl Barth. Barth’s doctrine and lifestyle cannot be defended by any thinking, principled person. Barth was a Marxist, rejected capitalism, and brought his mistress into his home with his wife and children! He rejected inerrancy as does CT and was a Universalist according to other famous theologians—Brunner, Balthasar, and Berkouwer.

CT is far more comfortable with Barth the Marxist than Boys the Biblicist!

CT has the ink and paper and missionary zeal to criticize Trump (and of course, there is much to criticize) but they are not as uncomfortable as a dog in hot ashes when they praise a theological jerk like Karl Barth. Someone’s not thinking straight or someone doesn’t care about balance and truth.

But CT has plenty of ink and paper to demand the President, chosen by 63 million Americans, be removed from office.

Moreover, what does that say about the 63 million people who voted for him and the 75 million who plan to vote for him in 2020?

CT’s history of condescending false intellectualism is pitiful, nauseating, and embarrassing. The magazine has been progressively leaning left since its founding by Billy Graham and some lifetime Fundamentalists who were ashamed of their heritage and had insatiable desires for acceptance and respectability in the religious world.

CT’s founders did not agree with the Apostle Paul’s command to “come out from among them” because they wanted to stay in their corrupt denominations and maintain their perks, power, and positions. After all, they reasoned, one can carry personal and doctrinal purity just so far. They also did not want to pay the price of being shunned, slandered, and sacked by their churches. Many religious leaders had moved up in this world and enjoyed the good life. So they had to be careful about whom they antagonized. Same is true today. One must be practical, you know.

CT is careful not to alienate the intellectual left and they accuse those who do of being attack dogs while the CT writers have been lap dogs from their first issue. Real Christian leaders are supposed to be watch dogs. After all, there are still wolves out there who are seeking to destroy the flock. CT editors have been dumb dogs of Isaiah (that’s one D.D. I don’t want) who refuse to bark when the flock is in danger.

The magazine’s editors and writers are not totally uninformed. They are aware that Christian leaders are required to “contend for the faith,” standing upon the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and indispensable Word of God. Historically this has required Christian leaders to “rebuke,” “mark,” and “avoid” those who reject biblical truth but doing so according to Ephesians 4:15: “Speaking the truth in love.” It requires another action since they must “come out from among them.”

However, the CT crowd does not want to make the tough decision to take a stand against the very liberal religious crowd to whom they have pandered for decades.

The very loose CT crowd wants to present a soft, sophisticated, and scholarly persona to the world and that’s why they broke away from traditional orthodox Christians whom they perceived were not sensitive (enough) to social justice, ecumenism, climate change, etc. There is concern on the part of Evangelicals that Bible believers are not cognizant, concerned, or committed to social problems; however, astute Christians know that their main message is Christ and His death and resurrection. They remembered the debacle in the 1920s when the social gospel was preached and it destroyed leading denominations; therefore, concerned Christians wanted to steer away from that deadly mistake.

Christianity Today is more dedicated to “love” than truth which is the main reason they don’t have convictions and they can run with the hare and hunt with the hound. They seek peace at all costs and with that attitude, truth is always the casualty. Consequently, CT devotees are fearful of strong personalities who know what they believe. Christians, according to the philosophy of CT, must never be perceived as definitive, strong, determined, confrontational—hence their hatred of these qualities even in Trump. Evangelicals speak and write about civility and usually practice it with unbelievers and fellow Evangelicals, but often are most unkind, unfair, and uncivil when dealing with Fundamentalists. After all, tolerance only goes so far!

Weak Evangelicals have proved to be what astute people knew they always were: a hodgepodge of theological lightweights (with a few heavyweights), philosophical cripples, and devotees of political correctness.

Compromising religious leaders said that they would remain in corrupt denominations and fight for truth; well, they stayed in but they refused to fight. New Evangelicals are lovers, not fighters, and they don’t understand that principled people love truth enough to fight for it. Most Evangelical leaders will not fight unbelief and corruption but they gladly fight committed Christians over anything—even their support of Trump! As a Christian virtue, love is greater than faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13:13), but it is not greater than truth!

Long ago, Evangelicals at Christianity Today digressed, departed, and deserted biblical Christianity and with this unfair, untrue, and unprovoked attack on President Trump they have also deserted common sense when he has done more for unborn babies, a strong judiciary, and a strong economy than any other president.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog. Send request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles, and click here to support his work with a donation.)

Osteen is obviously very successful depending on one’s definition of success. He is worth 50 to 60 million dollars, has had seven bestselling books, is loved and adored by millions of fans, and lives in a multimillion dollar mansion with another home worth more than a million. He is selling a one-half acre lot next to his “smaller” home for over a million.

Yes, almost everyone would quickly call him successful; however, I think he is a pathetic person and a disgrace to the ministry. Especially is that true when he is compared to hundreds of thousands of preachers who live what they preach, helping those in need, working in obscurity and doing so at very meager wages.

Joel said, “I don’t argue when people say that my message is simple, but I believe Jesus’ message was simple.” It is a simple message and while simplicity is a virtue, the simple message must also be true. Joel’s message is not true, making him a false prophet.

Even the media characterizes him as a prosperity preacher, no doubt the secret of his success. He said, “It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty.” But Christ said, “For ye have the poor always with you.” Joel preaches what people want to hear whereas true preachers tell people what they need to hear.

But in one respect, Joel practices what he preaches since they live in a wealthy Houston suburb. The Osteens paid $10.5 million for their mansion that has 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 5 fireplaces, 3 elevators, a guest house and outdoor pool and pool house. They also own a second $2.9 million mansion in Tanglewood, Houston.

On October 2, 2013, Osteen did a HuffPost Live interview with Josh Zepps where Joel refused to take a biblical position on sodomy. Of course, neither he nor Zepps would ever use that very correct English word.

Zepps quoted from Joel’s book saying, “It doesn’t matter who likes you or doesn’t like you, all that matters is that God likes you. He accepts you, he approves of you.” Zepps then asked if that included homosexuals.

The pastor replied, “Absolutely, I believe that God breathed life into every person and that every person is made in the image of God and you have (sic) accept them as they are, on their journey. I’m not here to preach hate or push people down.” Joel stated. “I’m not here to tell everybody what they’re doing wrong.” If a preacher is not supposed to reveal and explain Bible truths about personal salvation and how to live the Christian life in obedience to God, then why is he preaching? Could it be power, and prestige, and possessions that motivate him? If so, that would make Joel carnal, crass, and commercial.

Of course, the clear implication is those of us who take a biblical position are haters when in reality we are the lovers! If I warn people that smoking, boozing, gaining weight and using illegal drugs will destroy their health and shorten their lives then I am their friend because I told them the truth that, if obeyed, will save their lives. Similarly, since the chosen homosexual lifestyle will shorten a person’s life, fill him with guilt, produce self-loathing leading to thoughts of suicide, saying so makes me a considerate, concerned, compassionate person—not the hater suggested by the media who grovel at the feet of the LGBTQ crowd.

The most recent egregious thing the Osteens have done is their recent appearance at an event celebrating a major LGBTQ “gay” pride event. A news site headlined, “Joel Osteen Attends Lady Gaga LGBT Pride Event.” According to the New York Daily News Gaga began by asking the crowd, “Are you ready to f____ing party tonight?” In the crowd were Joel and Victoria Osteen, who were indeed ready to party.

The event was hosted to celebrate gay pride at the Apollo Theater and “the pastor of the nation’s largest ‘church’ was in attendance….The entire event was oriented around gay pride.” Christian News noted that the concert “coincides with World Pride Month, which this year is being celebrated in New York City.”

Reports say that “Gaga performed a selection of her most beloved hits dancing around, in a most homoerotic latex fantasy, dropping F-bombs…” She told her audience of movie stars, homosexuals, dragqueens, and others, “So, it’s Pride Week. I wish it could exist 365 days of the year, but I’ll take an [expletive] global week.” Prancing about scandalously dressed, she sang about homosexuality in her song Born This Way—“A different lover is not a sin, believe capital H-I-M,” the tune claims. “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track baby, I was born to survive. … I’m beautiful in my way, ’cause God makes no mistakes.”

I wonder if the famous preacher and his wife were uncomfortable as a dog in hot ashes with such depravity or if they have grown numb to such debauchery.

The Daily Mail reported, “Prosperity gospel preacher Joel Osteen wore a navy blazer with a gray-blue shirt, while his wife Victoria Osteen had on an elegant black dress with cut-outs over her short sleeves.”

While the Osteens were wearing more clothing than the movie stars, homosexuals, trans genders in attendance, why were they there whatever their clothing? No doubt, it was related to the Osteens’ radio show on Sirius; however, business is no excuse to sit silently while a celebration of perversion is happening.

What were decent people doing in such an event? What were a leading Evangelical pastor and his wife doing there? Why did he not stand on his chair and call them all to repentance as an Old Testament prophet would have done? As the Apostle Paul would have done?

Jude reminds Joel and all preachers to “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Titus 5:20 commands preachers, “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.” Titus 1:13 requires us, “Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.” In II Tim. 4:2 we are told to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

Joel and Victoria were out of place at that LGBTQ event, and they are out of place when they are in the pulpit.

Joel will not reconsider, repent, and return to his religious roots because the price is too great for him to admit error when that admission would dissolve his salary, status, and security.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog.)

After Smith’s calm, courageous, and correct assessment of “cooperative evangelism,” Dr. Faulkner criticized him, saying that Graham “was a man greatly used of God” and Smith should not say anything against him. That shows that a good man, even a great man, and even a godly man can say stupid things! The issue is not great crowds or people getting saved but obedience to the Word. The Scripture is very clear that Christians should not encourage unbelieving preachers even if they wear sheep’s clothing over their obvious wolf skins. That is true even if they wear a bejeweled cross around the neck and carry a Bible that they no longer believe and preach.

Graham and Faulkner had known each other since young manhood and had been classmates at Bob Jones College (now University). They remained close even though Graham broke with fundamental Baptists to become the major founder of New Evangelicalism while Faulkner remained in Independent Baptist circles and became one of their most respected leaders. Graham and Faulkner were good friends and talked two or three times a month on the phone and it is good that they remained friends even though they took different paths; however, Faulkner should never have tried to justify Graham’s compromise. Faulkner was my good friend, as was Roberson for whom I had enormous respect; however, there can be no justification for climbing into bed with unbelievers. Yes, talk with them, eat with them in an exercise to influence them but never give any indication that their unbelief is acceptable.

In I Kings 13 there was an old prophet in Bethel who probably had been trained at Samuel’s School of the Prophets (Hebrew Fundamentalists) but had moved to Bethel, a seat of apostasy and location of one of the two “worship centers” boasting a golden calf. The prophet had left his calling, lost his fervor, and lined up with the paganism of King Jeroboam. He was not about to criticize, complain, or confront the king. That would not be a good career move.

So God sent a young prophet from Judah to confront the king for promoting idol worship. After an incredible public experience of his rebuke of the king, a splitting altar, and the king being smitten then healed by the prophet from Judah–the unbelievable happened: the prophet rejected the king’s offer to spend the night at his “White House” and sleep in “Lincoln’s bedroom.” Wow, a man of convictions!

The old prophet of Bethel was a coward, collaborator, compromiser, and cast-away and was overwhelmed with guilt and shame at the courage of the young prophet. The old prophet remembered his youth, idealism, energy, courage, and realized he had sold out and the prophet from Judah was him in his youth. Wanting compliance, complicity, and company for himself, he deceived and led astray the young prophet who then lost his ministry and his life.

While not a perfect example, for there is no such thing, Graham is like the old prophet who wanted the king’s favor as well as all that went with that favor. So, he trimmed his sails to the prevailing winds of political and religious opinion. After all, “one must be practical.” No, one must do right and leave the results up to God.

Billy Graham proved to be so human. He must have thought his legitimate desire for conversions trumped God’s clear commands about running with radicals. His life, like the old prophet from Bethel, proves that the flesh prefers the gold, glory, glamour, glitz, and glitter of the palace to the loneliness of the desert. No one on earth wants to stand alone.

As a young evangelist, Graham was convinced, confident, courageous, and committed but he compromised and no longer confronted evil leaders–political or religious. In fact, he admitted that he had known Bill and Hillary Clinton for many years and had talked to them often but had never discussed abortion or homosexuality with them! He confessed that if he had done so, he would not be invited back to the White House! I rest my case.

While there was some good from Graham’s life and ministry, there was also disillusionment, disappointment, disarray, and defection in the ministry of younger, less talented men.

So tragic!

Boys’ new ebook The Rise and Decline of Billy Graham: He Tried to do Right the Wrong Way! is available here.

Graham has been one of the cleanest preachers of our time. When he started to hit the big time, he determined “I would never walk alone with my secretary, never have lunch or ride alone in a car with her. And I never have….” He rightly believed that a preacher should be blameless, giving no ammunition to the enemy.

Moreover, he has been punctilious about finances, receiving a very nominal salary especially when the size and influence of his ministry could justify a much higher personal income. The revelation that Graham’s personal worth is 25 million caused many people to raise some eyebrows; however, maybe he had good investment advice.

Graham made a massive mistake when he decided to use unbelieving pastors to gain access to their church members. I never questioned Graham’s desire to serve God and to do right but he must have become convinced that it was all right to do wrong if good could come of it. He was wrong and informed Christians know he was wrong, but most refuse to say so.

Anyone expressing criticism of such a highly loved and respected person risks being scalped by Christians and beheaded by religionists who refuse to hold their heroes to the same high standard to which normal people are held. However, Graham must be held accountable as anyone else. It is illicit human worship to put Graham in a protected class. Respect, yes; reverence, no. Honor is required but so is honesty.

There is no question that Graham had an incredible impact on the world. The numbers alone are impressive: the sermons preached, the crusades held, the crowds, the books, the television programs, the influence on politicians, and much more. However, I must add that numbers have very little to do with excellence, truth, quality, or character.

When one even suggests that Graham had some deficiencies, the critic is shunned as if he has an active case of leprosy. Graham defenders almost always suggest that he is immune to criticism until the critic has attained the stature and influence of Graham. But surely, no honest person believes that silly statement. Another arrow shot by Graham defenders of the Holy Grail is, “Oh, you are just jealous,” or “You are a hater and find fault with everyone.” Mature Christians know that unpleasant information is not always untrue, unkind, or unfair and is not always hate speech. Moreover, they know that people of lesser stature than the spiritual heroes can learn from their faults, failures, and foibles. We can learn good and bad from the preaching, policies, and practices of Billy Graham.

Many will use the same defense of Graham that is used of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “His personal flaws were very small compared to his impressive, important, and impacting accomplishments.” Is that to say that we look at everyone like that, or just our heroes? Do we decide good and bad by making comparisons? Is there an unspoken and unwritten and unbiblical rule that some people are exempt from examination of their lives? That is not biblical or good common sense. Still others accuse critics of “attacking the dead who can’t answer their critics,” but that is nonsense because it is not an attack, but observations; the record of offenses is clear. After all, Bible characters did not have that protection.

The Bible holds everyone to account: Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, etc., all had feet of clay and were held accountable. Paul pointed out the sins in others to warn the rest of us not to emulate their sins. He often called, corrected, and criticized many people by name in the Scripture for the world to know! He even publicly corrected his friend and peer the Apostle Peter because Peter needed to be corrected. Peter’s sin, if uncorrected, would have been an encouragement for others to follow in his steps. Paul disagreed with his friend Barnabas, and in that, Paul might have been wrong, or it could have been simply a matter of opinion.

The Apostle Paul spoke very clearly when he commanded in Gal. 1:9, “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Paul even repeated his command, “let him be accursed.” As I can easily prove, Graham deliberately stopped preaching the true Gospel early in his ministry except to selected groups. He never antagonized modernists with the truth, knowing that was not a good career move.

Graham declared his intentions at the April 3, 1957 meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals in Buffalo, NY: “I intend to go anywhere, sponsored by anybody, to preach the Gospel of Christ, if there are no strings attached to my message.” I have no doubt that Billy would have resisted any attempt by modernist preachers to restrict his message; however, he decided to put strings on his own preaching! That is a concept missed by most of us over the years. He knew if he accepted support from infidel pastors, he had to have them on his platform, have them pray, send converts to their apostate churches, and generally hobnob with them. After all, that was the ethical thing to do. He used them and they used him. A different twist on a Faustian bargain!

Christians need to understand that there are no perfect, complete Christians. We are all flawed people who must be careful every day because we are under daily attack. Paul admitted that in Rom. 7:14, “I am carnal.” That was not false humility (since that would be lying!); it was a fact and Paul was honest enough to admit it. Many preachers seem to think they have arrived at the peak of personal perfection and often look down upon the hoi polloi as they dispense their advice and counseling from the Mount. Every Christian, without exception, struggles with sin! Everyone! Graham was no exception. His most public sin was compromise. He thought it was right to do wrong that good may come of it.

Graham was wrong and so are his defenders and their defense of Graham will be interesting and revealing. I am reminded of a statement by a radical, left-wing economist, John Maynard Keynes that is germane here: “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?” What will Graham’s defenders do with this factual information about him? Most will whimper, “I don’t care about the facts, I want to continue my hero worship.”

Since everyone struggles with sin, we are commanded to help each other and be the Christians we should be; and help keep the churches as pure, powerful, and perfect as possible for the sake of the Body and the testimony of Christ.

Socrates’ concept that “a man must not be honored above the truth” is valid in respect to Graham. We honor what he accomplished but much reject his unscriptural compromise with unbelieving pastors.

Boys’ new ebook The Rise and Decline of Billy Graham: He Tried to do Right the Wrong Way! is available here.