Reverend Franklin Graham took a bold stand in addressing pastors at the Watchmen on the Wall National Briefing, telling them that it’s time for God’s leaders to stop being cowards.
In his speech, titled “Standing Strong on the Controversial Issues,” Graham focused on Revelation 21:8 where God lists eight groups of people who will be “in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” First on that list was the cowardly.
“The definition of a coward: a coward will not confront an issue that needs to be confronted due to fear. That is a coward,” said Graham. “God hates cowards. And the cowards that the Lord is referring to are the men and women who know the truth but refuse to speak it.”
Graham said that America needs God’s men and women to stand up and speak the truth of the Scriptures with boldness and that “you’re not going to shut me up.” He said that he’s spoken with many pastors who say they want to preach the gospel but don’t want to become the target of anti-Christian activists.
“Well don’t you think the Lord Jesus Christ was a target?” asked Graham. “Could we get our heads chopped off? We could, maybe one day. So what? Chop it off!”
Other speakers at the event included Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Bishop Harry Jackson and Pastor Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
In a first of its kind collaboration, leaders of the Christian and Muslim faiths are banding together to take a stand against slavery.
The new Global Freedom Network has the support of Pope Francis & the Vatican, the Church of England and al-Azhar, the Cairo based center of Sunni Muslim learning. It’s the first time the leaders of all three major religious groups have worked together with a single goal.
The GFN says that over 30 million people around the world are trapped in slavery and Pope Francis said it was a “crime against humanity.”
The group has vowed to make sure no organization under its control has tied to slavery-related business or groups and they will press governments to work to eradicate slavery within their borders.
“We are struggling against evil in secret places and in deeply entrenched networks of malice and cruelty,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
The Global Freedom Network will be coordinated by Australian based anti-trafficking charity Walk Free Foundation.
A federal lawsuit filed Friday says that two chaplains were forced out of a training program for Veteran’s Administration chaplains after being told they had to stop quoting the Bible and had to stop mentioning the name of Jesus.
Todd Starnes of Fox News reported that Nancy Dietsch, leader of the San Diego-based VA-DOD Clinical Pastoral Education Center program, openly ridiculed two chaplains. The one-year program trains chaplains to serve veterans at VA hospitals across the U.S.
“No American choosing to serve in the armed forces should be openly ridiculed for his Christian faith,” John Wells, attorney for the two men, told Fox News.
Among the allegations in the report, it says that Dietsch told the chaplains it was against the policy of the VA and her personal policy that chaplains pray in the name of Jesus. Dietsch told the chaplains they could not quote the Bible in any of her classes and yelled at the chaplains any time they made mention of the Bible. She told the Christians if they felt their beliefs were right and others were wrong that they had no place in the CPEC program.
