Earlier this month, a successful entrepreneur with an incredible personal story and a likeable persona announced his intentions to devote his company’s resources to aiding in the current crisis facing our nation…

And, he was hated for it.

The talking heads and the liberal media vilified this patriotic American, Mike Lindell (aka “the My Pillow guy”), because he dared to use his platform to talk about his faith, to thank the Lord for President Trump, and to call for spiritual renewal. Quickly, he became the target of the never-ending supply of venom from the Left.

We see it all the time, though, right?

President Trump himself was quite popular with the media while he was a playboy, entertainer, and mogul. Then, he became a pro-life, pro-freedom candidate and leader. And, now they hate him – despite his stellar leadership of our nation to new heights and then through this horrible crisis.

We see it time and again. Those – even those doing great things from a secular perspective – become hated for standing for Christ.

So, how should we view this?

First, we shouldn’t be surprised. Matthew 10:22 promises that we will be hated for Christ’s sake, knowing that persecution comes from being different than the world. Second, we should live with love, knowing that our persecution isn’t being directed because of something inherent about us – instead it comes because of He who is being shown through us. And third, we should be comforted to know that going out-of-our-way to avoid the hatred will only result in denying what makes us worth hating: Christ.

If even a man providing aid during a time of crisis is hated because he wears his love for Jesus on his sleeve, we should feel emboldened to let our light shine. If you live out your faith, there is nothing you can do to make the world not hate you. So, embrace that fact. Live in love, kindness, and compassion, but let your light shine in the knowledge that the promised persecution is a sign of your faithfulness.

As we enter this election season, we are looking for candidates willing to be hated for the right reasons – willing to be hated for His name’s sake.

Please keep our state and national leaders in your prayers. Our President and Vice President, Representative Cheney and Senators Enzi and Barrasso as well as many of our state leaders are leading us incredibly well despite the venom being thrown their way. Please keep our organization in your prayers as our stand for Life, Religious Freedom and Families will bring forth hostility from those opposed to these core American values. And, please keep great Americans like Mike Lindell in your prayers as these leaders form the backbone of our society while also bringing glory to Him.

Sincerely,

Nathan Winters
Executive Director

What if the First Amendment locked your faith inside a box? Some public officials apparently would like to keep you and your Christian ideas squirreled away where they won’t have to hear you.

In his Stoplight® commentary, Stuart Shepard explores this issue using his favorite artistic medium: cardboard and duct tape.

Are you feeling exhausted by the political scene? If you’re searching for some hope amid the mudslinging, you’re invited to attend a special live event October 18 in theaters nationwide.

Revive Us 2016 will feature Dr. Ben Carson, Francis Chan, Eric Metaxas and others for an empowering and interactive evening of inspiring messages, prayer and music. Tickets are on sale today.

In the toxic world of today’s politics, the teachings of Jesus and Paul can seem oddly quaint and thoroughly misplaced. How can political opponents love one another, be gracious and even forgiving?

The fact is, all of these principles – the Golden Rule, the Second Greatest Commandment, the Fruit of the Spirit – are required in politics and they are practiced more frequently than you know, particularly when the television cameras are not rolling. The reason is that these are rules for human behavior, designed by the Creator of human behavior. They draw people together, allow them to talk through differences and to listen, really listen, to the objections of opponents.

Sometimes these principles lead to political agreement, though many times not, given the ideological chasms that divide the political parties these days. But the New Testament teachings do lead to other important outcomes – to respect, to trust and even to one of the most unlikely things in politics: to humility.

Politicians who figure all of this out often emerge as leaders. Many of them, unsurprisingly, are Christian people who have found success in politics and brought credit to the Cause of Christ.

This summer, your support will bring a half dozen of these leaders together to teach a group of the best and brightest young legislators (and those aspiring to run for office) – Christians all. This week of intense training will be our inaugural Statesmen Academy. You will be building an enduring fellowship of Christian Statesmen and women who can learn from – and lean on – one another as they stay the course and transform our system of government from the inside.

Our politics sorely need such people.

Gateways to Better Education helps public schools teach about the important contribution the Bible and Christianity make to the world. Eric Buehrer is the president and founder.

School officials in Middleton, Wisconsin, are upset at a group of moms who are eating lunch with their high school children and their friends. Middleton High School allows students to go off campus for lunch. Since the school is next to a public park, a group of five moms started meeting their children at the park for a picnic lunch once a week. The problem? They are Christians and they dare to talk about their faith, and the group has grown to 300 or 400 students.

The school district would like the public to think that they are only concerned about the safety of the students. But, from the school principal’s remarks to local news outlets, clearly the issue is about religious expression.

Middleton High School principal Steve Plank told a local news outlet, “Some students feel excluded or left out. We have students of different faiths, Muslim students or Hindu students or Jewish students who feel like this is happening and it’s not for them.”

First of all, it’s just lunch with 3-5 minute Christian message. Second, it’s a public park (and the moms have a permit from the city to use the park). Third, students are free to eat and leave without listening to the brief thought-for-the-day. Fourth, the high school students freely choose to attend; and fifth, the 300-400 students who attend are only 15-20% of the 2,065 students at Middleton High Schools. The other 1,600-1,700+ students are eating somewhere else.

Last week, the school district posted a statement on its website that it was consulting with its legal counsel to see if it was responsible for the students attending the picnics since the district leases the park for its use (even though the park remains a public park for all to use).

What responsibility? If they are concerned about food safety, are they willing to monitor the other 1,900 students’ sack lunches in the lunch room? Are they saying no student can even go to the park when they leave campus for lunch, even if it is to eat their own lunch?

Clearly, the issue isn’t the health and safety of students; it’s about district’s concern that students may somehow be traumatized by voluntarily choosing to hear a Christian message during their free time off school property.

Predictably, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, whose offices are just down the road in Madison, Wisconsin, have now protested the students’ choice of lunch time activity. According to their press release, they offered dessert and handed out uplifting and tolerant pamphlets such as “What’s Wrong with the Ten Commandments” and “Why Women Need Freedom from Religion.”

To help the moms and students, Gateways to Better Education has offered them Free to Speak pamphlets (a joint project of Alliance Defending Freedom and Gateways to Better Education) explaining public school students’ freedom of religious expression.

What was a simple activity involving food and fellowship has now become yet another opportunity for the politically correct to claim that they are traumatized, and for activists to rail against people of faith.