The following is the letter I emailed today to Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) after reading of his attempt to defend the alleged pro-life "Nelson language" he negotiated with the Senate leadership before throwing his support behind the Senate abortion funding health care bill.
Dear Senator Nelson,
I read of your defense of the "Nelson language" used in the recently passed Senate health care bill, in your meeting on Wednesday with pro-life leaders. You repudiated their criticism of that language and  were reported to have said, "… I'm not going to stand here and hear that I didn't stand my ground, because I believe I did." You have continued to insist that the "Nelson language" prohibits federal funding of abortion, knowing that it compromises the Hyde amendment restrictions on government funding of abortion. That is why there has been such an outcry from pro-lifers. They would not be criticizing the "Nelson language" if it were not otherwise. I am sure there are many other valid issues to consider in a health reform bill as comprehensive as this one is, but, all issues are not equal. I don’t know of any other issue that would take priority over the right to life of the unborn. Pope John Paul II said that the right to life is “…the first right, on which all the others are based, and which cannot be recuperated once it is lost.” The civility of a society is measured by how it treats the weakest and most vulnerable in its midst. If a child loses the right to live, it hardly matters what other rights could have been violated, including whether he or she had adequate health care. The irony in this debate is that the President and House and Senate leadership would prefer a national health care plan that would pay for the killing of unborn children, who if allowed to live, would benefit from that same proposed health care plan. This is called moral schizophrenia.  From a Christian perspective we must concern ourselves with social justice issues like health care, poverty, hunger, discrimination etc., but concern for those issues cannot trump what clearly is the most fundamental of all justice issues – the right to live. When we deny this truth in any context, we deny the historic transcendent Judeo-Christian values upon which our nation was founded.  I would encourage you to stand your ground based on the primacy of protecting human life at all costs. In his commission to the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord called him to be a "watchman." May I suggest you have a similar role.  The Lord's said to Ezekiel, "Whenever you receive a message from me, pass it on to the people immediately. If I warn the wicked…but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins and I will hold you responsible demanding your blood for theirs." (Ezekiel 3:17,18) There are no words more fitting than these, for those who are in a position to protect and preserve human life. The Lord also spoke this word to Ezekiel concerning the apostate leaders of Israel , "I looked for someone who might build the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn't have to destroy the land, but I found no one." (Ezekiel 22:30) As a U.S. Senator, you are in a position to "stand in the gap" and "build a wall of righteousness that guards the land." God have mercy on us if our leaders fail us in this regard.

On the thirty seventh anniversary of Roe v. Wade we remember the tyranny of seven men, including five Republicans, who ushered in an era of unprecedented bloodshed in America by their ill advised decision – a decision that was not only bad law (where do you find "right to privacy" in the Constitution) but immoral law. There is hope for America, but don't look for the change to come from more of the same. Ultimately, the injustice of Roe v. Wade will end after our nation experiences a spiritual transformation that reshapes its moral conscience. America's hope is in the hands of the Church. I believe spiritual transformation will be the impetus that brings the holocaust to an end. History gives us every reason for optimism. Historian Keith J. Hardman in his book, The Spiritual Awakeners, writes of the three Great Awakenings noting how these awakenings "energized the churches and poured countless new converts into them…In each of these three periods the church has poured its zeal for righteousness into the bloodstream of the nation…Renewed and empowered Christianity has been the single most important moral factor in making America great." Hardman goes on to cite various areas that were affected by these energized Christians. "Regarding the impulse toward democracy, the history of American revivals shows that they have promoted equality and democratic ideals…Regarding the humanitarian impulse, antislavery, prison reform, women's rights, temperance, concern for the poor and downtrodden, and philanthropy of a hundred different kinds has flowed in abundance from the awakenings." Charles Finney, one of the great revivalists of the nineteenth century believed that evangelism and Christian activism went hand in hand. Hardman writes, "Since the late 1820's, Finney had been moving in the direction of including reform in his program for awakening, and his evangelism meant that converts would immediately be put to urgent work in the battle against sin. 'Every member must work or quit. No honorary members,' was a motto of his." Hardman discusses the results."During the first three decades of the nineteenth century, evangelical Christians organized thousands of societies toward what they were convinced would become an empire of benevolence that would begin alleviating every vice and problem...Finney entered zealously into the leadership of the movement, sharing it with reformers like Weld, Tappan, and many others. Almost no phase of life in America was untouched. Temperance, vice, world peace, slavery, education, Sabbath observance, profanity, women's rights, the conditions in penal institutions – all those and more had specific societies devoted to their betterment." I for one am praying that history will repeat itself - that the church will once again pour "...its zeal for righteousness into the bloodstream of the nation" awakening the conscience of America to reverse Roe v. Wade. I am looking for a "renewed and empowered Christianity" that once again will be "…the single most important moral factor in making America great." I believe it can happen again.

Based on the outcome of the Senate race in Massachusetts on Tuesday, it appears that the message is getting through. Maybe the radical left leaders in the Senate and House (Reid, Pelosi and company) are getting the message, as is the President. The majority of Americans do not want to re-configure our government into a socialist state governed by a hand full of elite leftists intent on compromising our Constitutional Republic. These politicians, who appear to have embraced moral relativism, have also insisted on funding the killing of unborn children despite the fact that over 70% of Americans oppose this morally repugnant use of tax dollars. Their lack of regard for the transcendent moral absolutes that have historically been the foundation of the laws of our land should concern all Americans and encourage Christians to fulfill their obligation to pray "for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." The apostle Paul goes on to say, "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men." (1 Timothy 2:2-6a). Therein lies the hope for America. Moral reformation (godliness and holiness) follows spiritual transformation. We should also, however, be concerned about the silence of America's pulpits in the midst of America's moral free fall. There is no justification for their silence on the great moral issues of our day, abortion, marriage, and human sexuality, just because those issues have been politicized by the acts of legislators and judges. The psalmist could have been commenting on 21^st century American politics when he wrote, "Can wicked rulers (throne of iniquity NKJV) be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.” (Psalm 94:20-21) For decades now, our legislators and judges have been legalizing wickedness with little censure from the pulpits of America. Dr. Lawrence White has written, “The great reformer Martin Luther once declared that the preacher who does not rebuke the sins of the rulers through God’s Word spoken publicly, boldly and honestly, strengthens the sins of the tyrants, and becomes a partaker in them, and bears responsibility for them.” (The Sin of Silence) We who preach would do well to listen to the words of evangelist Charles G. Finney written over 130 years ago "Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. It the world loses interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations or out government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation." (The Decay of Conscience, 1873) Solomon wrote, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people." (Proverbs 14:34) We ignore this admonition at our peril.

President Obama's administration has indicated that they still have confidence in Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano despite the nearly successful terrorist attack a week ago on a Northwest Airline jet in Michigan. Secretary Napolitano is the Cabinet member who, upon taking office, felt it necessary to change the nomenclature used to describe the Jihadist terrorists that are at war with America – renaming them "man caused disasters" presumably a more politically correct term. This move was consistent with President Obama's declaration in his inauguration address that the "war on terror" was over and the decision of his Attorney General Eric Holder to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a New York criminal court, giving them all of the Constitutional rights of American citizens, instead of trying them as war criminals in a military tribunal. To add insult to injury, after last week's Nigerian terrorist was successful not only in boarding the plane but boarding it with explosives in his underwear, Secretary Napolitano declared that "the system worked." Napolitano is the Obama administration's Cabinet Secretary responsible for oversight of the Transportation Security Administration, the agency charged with maintaining the security of America's transportation system! Any wonder that there are calls for her resignation – now even from Democrats. For example, Democratic State Senate President Richard Codey has already written Napolitano asking her to resign. He told Fox News, "We should have someone who doesn't need to go in there and learn about terrorism, learn about security. How close were these 300 people on this plane from losing their lives because homeland security broke down? Boy, it was really close." Hopefully our political leaders will realize that national security is above party loyalty and the President will learn from this close call that the Muslim Jihadists are intent on repeating another 9/11, and that they probably will not end their war on terror just because he, his Homeland Security Secretary and Attorney General want to downplay the threat by declaring the war is over, renaming the threat and treating terrorists like street criminals.