ENTERTAINING ANGELS UNAWARE

What a week it’s been! I returned on Monday from a wonderful weekend preaching at the dynamic Calvary Chapel South Orlando with Pastor Charles Nestor III. I haven’t sat still since! (In fact, Calvary Chapel was sandwiched between Olympia, Washington--the pulpit of the equally dynamic Evergreen Christian Community with Pastor Dale Oquist--my personal visits with major supporters in Northern California, and presiding at the wedding of a friend’s daughter back in DC! As you can see, it’s been breathless!)

The best part of this week was the number of visitors to our own ministry center here on the Hill. Our good friend Bill Murray of the Religious Freedom Coalition came by. We talked on video about his new book, The Pledge: One Nation Under God. Bill is the son of the late and infamous founder of American Atheists, Madelyn Murray O’Hare. He’s got quite a moving—and sometimes disturbing—story on how he went from her prop to get prayer kicked out of schools in 1963, to the Christian leader he is today. (To get a feel of his ordeal, read his statement after his mother’s 1999 murder by her group’s treasurer: http://www.rfcnet.org/news/default.asp?action=detail&article=144.) Today, Bill is one of the leading figures not only in promoting religious freedom around the world, but in reforming our own culture. He’s a great ally to Faith and Action.

Another guest this week was Ronnie Wexler, founder and president of the Ten Commandments Commission, which is working with Congress to establish National Ten Commandments Day. I’m delighted to be associated with Ronnie, who, like Bill, is a very interesting person. First, he’s an Orthodox Jew and an Israeli. He has a book due out soon that tells his story of growing up on a socialist kibbutz with a largely non-religious family of Zionist pioneers. Astoundingly, his first contact with Evangelical Christians came when, as a young soldier fresh from the now famous Six Day War, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to the U.S. He ended up assigned to Buffalo, New York, where he met Pastor Tommy Reid, the same man who years later would become a mentor to my brother and me. I talked with Ronnie on video about his view of the Ten Commandments from an Orthodox Jewish perspective. You can view it at our website under “FAA Video.” (You can also see him read the Commandments in his native Hebrew from a traditional Torah scroll we keep in our ministry center library. Check it out—it’s very inspiring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pstOqMrAO0E)

Finally, it was former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt who rounded out the week’s gathering. “Chaps,” as he was affectionately called by the sailors he pastored so well, was dismissed by the Navy for daring to publicly pray in Jesus’ name! By the time the Congress took up the matter and changed the law to allow such prayers, it was too late for Chaps. But he continues the good fight of faith and is currently on a nation-wide speaking tour. We talked about that and more on video. You can get in on the conversation by viewing it at our website. Chaplain Klingenschmitt is another dear friend and ally.

Oh, just an important aside: Yesterday (as I’m sure you saw, read or heard by now), a Hindu Priest opened the U.S. Senate in prayer at the invitation of Majority Leader Harry Reid of Utah. Two Christians were arrested for countering with their own prayers. Read my comments in our article at www.faithandaction.org.

Today I’m doing the finishing touches on my soon to be re-released and updated book on the Ten Commandments, Ten Words That Will Change a Nation. (Watch for it to be out in the early fall.) Tonight, I will co-host a fundraiser for presidential hopeful and true Christian hero on the Hill, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. As I finish writing this to you, I’ll quickly pack because I leave early tomorrow morning for Wichita, Kansas. Once there, I’ll meet up with Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition who is helping coordinate the Wichita Awakening, a biblical solemn assembly to cry out for repentance and national revival. My role is to lead a candlelight prayer vigil outside the most notorious late-term abortion business in the country. Read about it at our website, www.faithandaction.org.

Well, now you’re up to date. There’s so much going on these days, I’ll have to write more often. Blessings to you and yours!

Rob Schenck, Faith and Action (www.faithandaction.org)