Fr. Jose Poch

Monday, August 13, 2012

Speak Up! I Can't Hear You!


This past weekend I read two articles that truly rattled my heart to its very core. Both said things that I myself have been feeling for a while. One is based on the silence of fellow Christians as is evidenced even in our own area of ministry in North Hollywood in the light of the persecution launched against us by our denomination. It is not expected of them to speak for us or even offer us financial assistance but just simply to speak to us, to encourage us, to pray for us and if possible to offer us a place of refuge if we had to leave our buildings. We did offer help to several of them when the earthquake damaged some church buildings in our area in 1994, even providing financial assistance to one of the churches that lost their worship space, offering our building for their use until they recovered. I am not placing blame on anyone but just expressing my feelings. The second article is on the state of our country today, and the words of the departed Ruth Graham, wife of Pastor Billy Graham.

Both of these articles, in their entirety, appeared on the weekly internet magazine of the American Anglican Council, (AAC). It is available on our website. The first article had to do with the silence of the Christian community, fellow believers, to the attacks leveled against Dan Cathy and Chick-fil-A by three mayors of principal cities in the U.S., by a very vociferous homosexual lobby, activists around the country and the tremendous media coverage that this issue has received. Part of the article says:

When a Christian brother is beaten up by the world and left wounded on the side of the road why would church leaders just pass by on the other side and not get involved?

When are we going to recover our voices and speak up instead of just silently laying down our arms and letting another Christian brother or sister bear the brunt of these attacks? These liberal minded leaders and activists fight hard and shout loudly for “equality” but they do not offer the same to Chick-fil-A and want to shut down those who do not think like them. It actually seems illegal to me, to block a company from expanding because of the religious views of its owner. If one does not want to frequent an establishment that is one’s right, but to go against the expansion of Chick-fil-A seems to me unconstitutional and un-American.

This leads me to the second article, related to Billy Graham’s “Final Call” for America to Repent, also termed the “Living Room Crusade” (This amazing crusade will be held the week of November 7, 2013 and will coincide with Billy Graham’s 95th birthday. I pray that those reading this blog will plan on listening and being part of it). In the article Billy Graham is quoted as saying: “My heart aches for America and its deceived people,” and it also quotes Ruth Graham’s amazing words for all of us to hear and take to heart, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

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