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A Resolution of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ concluding today in Grand Rapids Michigan calls for “diversity/multi-cultural education” in public elementary schools that includes, “the experience of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender), individuals and families.” The resolution also calls for aggressive opposition to efforts by parents whose moral convictions are violated by such teaching to protect their children from LGBT indoctrination. The resolution mixes the LGBT agenda with a call for public school diversity teaching on racism and the acceptance of immigrant minorities.

In protest, the confessing movement within the United Church of Christ known as Biblical Witness Fellowship has issued a statement of protest. “Teaching that behavior and relationships which are morally wrong to most Christian families as well as families of the Islamic, Hindu and other religious traditions is normative makes the public school an unsafe environment for our children. Mixing such a message with the legitimate concerns of racism and the acceptance of immigrating families and children is offensive, intellectually dishonest, and inappropriate. Diversity demands that public education respect the morality of all and protects the innocence of children.”

http://www.ReformationUCC.org

http://www.biblicalwitness.org

Biblical Witness Fellowship
Telephone: 603-484-0506

The Barna Group has released the results of their survey work on the Spiritual Profile of Homosexual Adults.

Among other findings…

Heterosexuals were twice as likely as homosexuals to strongly agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; two-thirds of heterosexuals believe the single, most important purpose in life is to love God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul, significantly higher than the half of all homosexuals who embrace the idea; and about half of straight adults and one-third of gay adults contend that their life has been greatly transformed by their faith.

One of the most basic beliefs has to do with one’s understanding of God. This proved to be one of the biggest differences noted in the study. While seven out of every ten heterosexuals (71%) have an orthodox, biblical perception of God, just 43% of homosexuals do. In fact, an equal percentage possesses a pantheistic view about deity – i.e., that “God” refers to any of a variety of perspectives, such as personally achieving a state of higher consciousness or maximized personal potential, or that there are multiple gods that exist, or even that everyone is god.

Religious behavior differs significantly. In any given week the research discovered that heterosexuals are the more likely of the two groups to attend a church service, attend a Sunday school class, pray to God, or read the Bible. Gay adults are 50% more likely than straight adults to be unchurched (42% versus 28%). Overall, heterosexuals are twice as likely as homosexuals to attend a church service, read the Bible and pray to God during a typical week (31% vs. 15%).

In terms of life priorities, heterosexuals consider faith and family to be among their highest life priorities. Homosexuals assign a lower priority to family (30% said family is their top priority in life, compared to 48% among other adults) and placed a higher emphasis upon the importance of their lifestyle (32% placed this on top, versus 16% of other adults).

It is interesting  to compare these findings with Barna’s earlier research comparing mainline church goers to other Christians when it comes to life goals:

Adults who usually attend a Protestant church that is part of the mainline group of denominations were notably less driven to incorporate their faith into their future than were adults who attend other Protestant churches. For example, those who attend a mainline church were:

1.less likely to desire being personally active in a church (50%, compared to 66% among those attending other Protestant churches);
2.less likely to want a close personal relationship with God (listed by 77%, compared to 88% among other Protestants);
3.less likely to want to be deeply committed to the Christian faith (67%, dwarfed by the 82% among other Protestants).

At the same time, adults affiliated with a mainline Protestant church were more likely than those attending other Protestant churches to have an intense desire to work in a high-pay job (42% vs. 25%, respectively) and to have a comfortable lifestyle (77% vs. 65%).

As S.909 the so-called “Hate Crimes” bill is scheduled for hearings and a vote in the near future, Presbyterian scholar Dr. Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary has released the following articles arguing that the “Hate Crimes” bill, if passed, will only serve to unleash a tsunami of hate against Christians, it will also severely curtail the civil liberties of any person opposed to homosexuality and 30 other forms of sexual deviancy on moral grounds.

Why a Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity “Hate Crimes” Law Is Bad for You

May 28, 2009; June 17, 2009

Part 1: Promoting hatred of people opposed to homosexual practice and transgenderism.

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Part 2: The irrelevant and inaccurate claim that this bill will not abridge your freedom of speech.

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Part 3: Inroads against personal freedom already made in the United States by homosexual and transsexual political activism.

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A Request for Your Attendance and Help at, and Support for:

A New Way Out Leadership Conference with Dick B.!

July 18, 2009

Hope by the Sea, San Juan Capistrano, California

(pre- and post-Conference meetings, July 13-19, at the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel)

Please Join Us and “Be a Part of Something Great—to the Glory of GOD!”

The News

My son Ken and I will be staying at the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel in Newport Beach, California, and we will be available for personal meetings with Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena by appointment during the week of July 13-19, 2009. Please contact me in advance by email (DickB@DickB.com) or by telephone [(808) 874-4876] if you would like to make an appointment for a “working chat.”

Through the courtesy of Bobby Nicholl and Celebrate a New Life at Hope by the Sea in San Juan Capistrano, California, we will be holding “A New Way Out Leadership Conference with Dick B.!” from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. on Saturday, July 18, 2009, in a 200-seat auditorium in the Medical Professional Building at Hope by the Sea, 27412 Calle Arroyo, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. As was the case with “A Nationwide Recovery Conference with Dick B.” held at the Mariners Church in Irvine, California, in May, we will have food and beverages available for purchase on-site during the lunch break.

Within the next few days, we will be publishing the Conference agenda, along with further details of the pre- and post-Conference opportunities and meeting appointments, via Dick B.’s “FYI Messages” and on the new web site for the “International Christian Recovery Coalition” (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com). Meanwhile, we can report that the Interim Chairperson, Interim Vice Co-Chairpersons, Executive Director, and the Advisory Council of the “International Christian Recovery Coalition” are in place. (We expect to have the details posted on the Coalition web site within the next day or two.) In addition, we have nearly completed a substantial Conference Program document, which also includes Plans and Proposals for the “International Christian Recovery Coalition.”

We are happy to report: (1) Charles P. Mau of Manhattan Beach has donated $600.00 to defray some of the Conference expenses. (2) Bob Noonan has made available a two-hour, in-studio, video taping session on Thursday, July 16, in which Dick B. will be presenting for production as DVD’s:

Specific details concerning the roles that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in the astonishing, documented, 75% and 93% early A.A. success rates (in Akron and Cleveland, respectively) among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “real” alcoholics who found or rediscovered God and thoroughly followed the original Akron A.A. program developed by Bill W. and Dr. Bob during the summer of 1935; and

An extended discussion of how the amazingly-successful program and techniques employed in early A.A.–especially in Akron and Cleveland during the mid-to-late 1930’s–may be utilized today to enhance substantially the effectiveness of Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena–whether they be recovery pastors, pastoral counselors, alcohol and drug counselors, treatment center staff, and/or other kinds of Christian educators, trainers, leaders, and workers.

(3) On behalf of Celebrate a New Life at Hope by the Sea, Bobby Nicholl has arranged for one free night of our stay at the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel; has arranged to have our Conference Program, Plans and Proposals document booklet printed free; and has made available the free use of the Hope by the Sea Medical-Professional Building auditorium for the Saturday, July 18, Conference. (4) Vivian Eisenecher of San Diego has again volunteered to arrange for food and beverages. (You potential volunteers please take note: she needs more help. If you would be blessed to help, please contact Dick B. by email or telephone for details.)

Our Needs Relating to the Conference and How You Can Help

“A New Way Out Leadership Conference with Dick B.!” Please join us at “A New Way Out Leadership Conference with Dick B.!” from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. on Saturday, July 18, 2009, at Hope by the Sea in San Juan Capistrano, California. There is no charge for registration at this Conference.

To register for this free Conference, please send to Dick B. by email, telephone or regular mail by July 2, 2009: your name, group or organization (if any), mailing address, telephone number, email address, and web site URL address (if any).

Pre- and post-Conference appointments with Dick B. Please contact me (Dick B.) by email (DickB@DickB.com) or by telephone [(808) 874-4876], or my son Ken on his cell phone [(808) 276-4945] if you cannot reach me, in order to arrange a pre- or post-Conference meeting with me at the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel for yourself (and your small group of associates, if any).

“International Christian Recovery Coalition.” Please send me via email (DickB@DickB.com) your name and/or the name of your group or organization–along with your city, state or province, and country–if you would like to be considered for participation in the free-of-charge “International Christian Recovery Coalition.” (More details about the Coalition will be available shortly on the Coalition’s new web site: www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com.)

Please consider becoming a Major Sponsor of “A New Way Out Leadership Conference with Dick B.!” If you or your group or organization would be blessed to support this Conference and its objectives by donating $500.00 or more to help defray our Conference-related, out-of-pocket, organizational, travel, food, lodging, and incidental expenses, we would be glad to:

Give you or your group or organization a featured listing in the Conference Program booklet (which will really be more like a book); and Post your banner and/or brief description of your godly efforts in the recovery arena on our web sites which will provide Conference details.

Please contact Dick B. by email (DickB@DickB.com) or telephone [(808) 874-4876], or my son Ken by telephone [(808) 276-4945], for details.

Please consider being a Conference Exhibitor at “A New Way Out Leadership Conference with Dick B.!” If you or your group or organization would be blessed to support this Conference and its objectives by donating $50.00 or more to help defray our Conference-related, out-of-pocket, organizational, travel, food, lodging, and incidental expenses, we would be glad to arrange for you a convenient way to exhibit at the Conference your godly materials focused on your Christian-oriented efforts in the recovery arena. Please contact Dick B. by email (DickB@DickB.com) or telephone [(808) 874-4876], or my son Ken by telephone [(808) 276-4945], for details.

If you cannot attend and/or would otherwise like to support this Conference. For a donation of $25.00 or more to help defray our Conference-related, out-of-pocket, organizational, travel, food, lodging, and incidental expenses, we would be glad to send you by email, in an attached file in Microsoft Word 2003 format, the 50-plus-page Conference booklet for the July 2009 Conference, and “A New Way Out Guidebook” by Dick B. and Ken B. from the May 2009 Conference (if you don’t already have it or need another copy). And we would be glad to list you and/or your organization in the Conference Program booklet as an “Endorser” of this Conference, if you would like.

Please send to us (by U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, etc.) your godly materials (brochures, DVD’s, etc.) reflecting your Christian-oriented efforts in the recovery arena so that we may discuss your materials at the pre- and post-Conference meetings, and at the Conference proper on July 18. Please make sure they arrive at the Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel by no later than Friday, July 10, and please address your envelope or package as follows:

Richard G. Burns, Guest–Hold for Arrival

Fairmont Newport Beach Hotel

4500 MacArthur Blvd.

Newport Beach, California 92660

Please volunteer to help Vivian Eisenecher and her team with the food and beverage dispensation on Saturday, July 18, at the Conference in San Juan Capistrano. Please contact Dick B. by email (DickB@DickB.com) or telephone [(808) 874-4876], or my son Ken by telephone [(808) 276-4945], for details.

Where and How to Donate and Help

To make donations relating to “A New Way Out Leadership Conference with Dick B.!”, please provide to me (Dick B.) by email (DickB@DickB.com), telephone [(808) 874-4876], or by regular mail, the details of your donation; and:

Use the “Donate” PayPal button on in the center column on the front page of my main website (www.DickB.com–a PayPal account is not required); Phone my son Ken at (808) 276-4945, give him the details of your donation, along with your credit card # and expiration date; or Send your check or money order, payable to “Dick B.” in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank, by U.S. Postal Service (or UPS or FedEx, etc.) to: Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837

God Bless, Dick B.

Email: DickB@DickB.com

In a letter to UCC President John Thomas and the leadership of the Illinois Conference Rev. David Runnion-Bareford called for Rev. Jeremiah Wright to be held personally accountable for his anti-semitic statements made in an interview today and to publicaly repudiate those statements. Rev. Wright is reported to have said President Obama had not spoken with him recently because “them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me” and went on to say, “Ethnic cleansing is going on in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing of the Zionists is a sin and a crime against humanity.” Rev. Runnion-Bareford pointed out that such language only promotes violence and hatred against a people close to the heart of God. “The impact of anti-semitism is graphically illustrated by the tragic murders which took place today in the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.”

–The United Church of Canada Moderator Rt. Rev. David Guiliani has called the members of the United Church to a day of prayer on Wednesday, June 10th.

Today we call on all our Christian brothers and sisters in North America to support the United Church of Canada by joining us in prayer Wednesday for the people and congregations of this great historic church body.

Link: United Church of Canada Call to Prayer: www.united-church.ca/communications/news/moderator/090529

The United Church of Canada, beleaguered by theological uncertainty and dramatic loss of members is one of the most endangered mainline churches in North America. Pray with us that the clergy and congregations of the United Church will be broken in spirit for their church, submitting their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of His Word on their lives in order that God may once again pour out the Holy Spirit upon them. Pray with us that they will be liberated from cultural delusion to acknowledge the sanctity of human life, sexuality and marriage. Pray with us that they will own the one hope to which we are called, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:4-6)

Our call is made as the Association for Church Renewal, a strategic alliance of over 30 renewal movements and ministries in the mainline denominations of the U.S. and Canada.