Connecticut Episcopal Bishop defrocks priest

Bishop Seabury would have a hard time figuring this one out.

What was this man of the cloth's crime? Did he steal from the collection plate? Or, perhaps, was he found drunk and disorderly on a public street, unshaven and snarling? Did he, one wonders, leave his wife and family for a man and begin a homosexual and very public relationship with him, expressing a desire for legal marriage between two men?

Actually no: in this priest's denomination, that last one qualifies you to be made a bishop.

The pastor in question is the Rev. Donald Helmandollar of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bristol. The Courant explains:

The pastor of a Bristol parish that voted itself out of the Episcopal Church in May has been removed from ministry by the Connecticut Diocese, and church members have been given until July 8 to vacate their building.

Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith said the Rev. Donald Lee Helmandollar "renounced his orders" and was deposed - the equivalent of being defrocked - on June 13 by the clerical members of the diocesan standing committee. Smith said he has since written to leaders at Trinity Episcopal Church informing them that the diocese intends to take over the property July 8.

The diocese's decision to claim the property was not unexpected: The same scenario is playing itself out in other parts of the nation as the Episcopal Church grapples with the fallout from the 2003 election of the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

That decision has united conservative congregations in the U.S., such as Trinity, with like-minded African churches that believe the Episcopal Church's liberal position on homosexuality goes against the Anglican beliefs inherited from the Church of England.

Trinity was the first parish in Connecticut to split with the wider Episcopal Church. The congregation voted in January to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a self-described mission of the conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria, but a formal announcement of the split didn't come until May 27.

Trinity has since hired a lawyer and intends to fight the diocese's order to vacate the property, Helmandollar said Friday. He also said he has continued to lead worship services in the church, despite being notified by Smith that he is no longer a priest in the Episcopal Church.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church says that the numbers of those leaving the Church is small. She is probably right. Many of those who are concerned over biblical orthodoxy left a long time ago for more welcoming shores. Those that are leaving now are those who felt led by God to hang in and fight to turn the ship around before it heads over the falls.

Tags: Connecticut, Christian, Christianity, Episcopal, Anglican, Bristol

Get ready for your summer missions trip

The excellent site called Heal Your Church Web Site is out with a great article entitled Maximize Your Summer Missions Impact With Disruptive Technologies. The big idea: instant updates and even live reporting from that missions trip are now available. What more can churches be doing to connect congregations with the field other than showing PowerPoint slides (or regular slides) the week after everybody get home tired and tanned? The writer says:

In my line of work, individuals measure ‘tech time’ in terms of ‘dog years,’ meaning one multiplies by a factor of 7.

This means that if you’re are returning to a missions field with the same technological mindset you perhaps traveled with in 2003, then basically you’re hitting the road with know-how that’s 28 years in the past … which for those of us old enough to remember what it was like back then … your digital thinking is ‘disco-era’ … and nobody wants that!

That's a good warning, and it's followed by practical suggestions. Read more here.

Warrior Poetes in Meriden this Friday

Musical group The Warrior Poetes will be at the Fusion Youth Center this Friday, June 29, 92 Main Street, Meriden, CT. For details contact Pastor Rob Dennis at (203) 630-3012 or write him at pastorrob@fusionlive.org

Gospel tent meetings begin tonight in Somers

The Church of God in Christ, Mennonite invites you to a series of Gospel Tent meetings at the Four Town Fairgrounds, 56 Egypt Road in Somers. There will be a cappella hymn singing and gospel preaching as multiple Mennonite Fellowships from Canada and North Eastern US will be gathering. The meeting begin tonight and run though Sunday, July 1, starting at 7:15 each evening.

More on armed citizen patrols in New Haven

The Christian Science Monitor has more here on the ongoing controversy regarding citizen patrols in New Haven.

"We used to get a lot of grants to help [with community policing] – a couple million dollars a year. But we lost those grants over the last six years," says Chief Ortiz. He explains the war on terror came at a price to community policing efforts that allowed officers enough time to work small beats and get to know the residents and their concerns. "The country shifted its focus. Like Cyclops with one eye, it took its eye off" community policing, he says.

Good news from Iraq?

We don't sail into these waters too often, but military historian and author Victor Davis Hanson tells us in National Review why there is reason for optimism in the Middle East.

Please remember to pray for our military and for the families of those who have made such great sacrifices. The Hartford Courant has a special section here featuring the Connecticut servicemen and servicewomen who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama attacks the Religious Right

(Is there a Religious Left? Just wondering.)

FIC's Peter Wolfgang nails this one, which I'm sure wasn't difficult for him:

...Obama is peddling one of the cultural Left’s most deeply held lies here. Christian conservatives are not the aggressors in America’s culture wars, we’re the ones playing defense...

The cultural Left thinks the grassroots rebellion that has risen up against their assaults on faith and family is simply the result of “so-called leaders” cynically manipulating a malleable public. That says more about the Left’s own low regard for their fellow Americans than they realize.

Catholic Bishops assail "Plan B" as an attack on religious liberty

...which it surely is.

The bishops in this heavily Catholic but pro-choice state say the legislation, already signed into law by the Republican governor, could force Connecticut's four Catholic hospitals to perform what they consider chemical abortions.

An attorney for the hospitals said they are considering state or federal legal action claiming the new law that takes effect Oct. 1 infringes on their constitutional rights.

“If the religious liberty of a Catholic hospital can be violated on this issue, what's next?” asked Bridgeport Bishop William E. Lori. “Will the law insist that Catholic hospitals further violate their ethical standards by performing abortions on demand? Or will the law someday force Catholic hospitals to euthanize those deemed not fit to live?”

The poor record of American Christians when it comes to understanding and resisting the abortion culture leads me to think that those will indeed be the next steps. Evangelicals and Catholics historically "do not play well together" but even the efforts of their combined leadership has not sufficed to place many obstacles in the way of our society's embrace of death.

Connecticut-based Christian band suffers bus fire

The New Haven Register couldn't resist resorting to puns in reporting on the bus fire suffered by the band Holy Fire. But it was no laughing matter. Read the story and then consider helping out:

Fortunately for Holy Fire, not all was lost.Most of their equipment, such as amplifiers and instruments, was in a trailer towed behind the incinerated bus. It was largely undamaged and the contents are mostly salvageable.

However, clothes and other personal belongings were lost in the fire. That’s why any donations to the band would be "greatly appreciated," members said.

For more information about helping the band, call 203-887-3141 or write to the band’s central office at 2340 State Street Hamden, 06517.

More on Facebook

Thanks to Peter Wolfgang at the FIC Blog for publicizing the new group for Connecticut Christians on Facebook.

Check it out!

Can you be both a Muslim and a Christian?

No, of course not.

But a Seattle Episcopal priest, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, is now claiming to be both.

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost demolishes this sort of nonsense by reminding us:

While she rejects such orthodox Christian beliefs as the Trinity and the divinity of Christ, she believes that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected. This belief is, as she readily admits, in conflict with the teachings of the Quran. When it is pointed out that she has violated the law of non-contradiction, Redding responds, "That's something I'll find a challenge the rest of my life."

Of course there is no "challenge" in reconciling the two views since they are completely incompatible. The matter is not one of challenge but of impossibility. The law of non-contradiction is non-negotiable. Just because one wants to feel that the two religions are ultimately compatible does not make them so.

It would be easy to dismiss Redding's unsophisticated beliefs as the confusions of a rather dim dhimmi. But this Episcopalian Muslim is representative of the muddled understanding of pluralism that pervades American culture....

Truth is incompatible with non-truth, which is why we must reject all self-contradictory claims made by others and root them out of our own belief systems. In rejecting contradictory thinking we accept an uncomfortable truth: true tolerance sometimes requires being intolerant of willful stupidity.

This is exactly so. When will people drop the pretense of calling themselves Christians when they refuse to acknowledge the core doctrines of the faith - and most especially who Jesus is?

Ted Baehr talks about "Jesus Almighty"

Dr. Ted Baehr of Movieguide writes this about films... and faith:

People of faith and values are concerned about the collapse of culture. Recent polls from Cornell University and Barna Research found that only one out of 10 children keep the faith and values of their parents. Further studies have shown that this is because parents are not engaged in teaching their children cultural wisdom.

The mass media, however, is advertently or inadvertently teaching children their values, and even when these values are not inflaming lust, greed, violence, ambivalence, and envy, they are all too often undermining the sure salvation that is available only through Jesus Christ. And, all too often, caught up in the publicity machine of the Entertainment Industry, the church and its associates such as Christian magazines, radio and television are promoting the movies and entertainment that undermine its future and true faith and values.

Much has been said about post-Christian culture. Europe is a sad example. There are more Muslims in Europe than there are Protestant Christians. Why does this matter? Because eternal life in the Kingdom of God is only available through Jesus Christ, and if we truly love our neighbor, then we do not want him or her lost forever. According to surveys, fewer and fewer children understand this.

Although we don’t want to be hard on the compelling movie characters Bruce and Evan, who should be commended for helping the audience understand a lot about humility, faith and obedience to God, it is clear that the view of salvation and the view of God presented in the movies featuring “Bruce Almighty” and “Evan Almighty” do not adhere to the Truth. For example, although “Evan Almighty” contains a reference to “alpha and omega,” the Book of Revelation’s designation of Jesus Christ’s divine nature, the movie scrupulously avoids any other identification of its God character with Jesus Christ.

The Truth is, however, that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ. When God became flesh as one of us, it is only as Jesus Christ. When God appears to Moses or anyone else, it is as Jesus Christ. He is the Truth, the Way and the Life. In that sense, it is important to note that the Hebrew word for Truth means, “to reveal.” Jesus Christ alone reveals completely and totally who the almighty triune God is.

These winsome movies and many others scrupulously avoid the Truth that Jesus Christ is God and that God has a name – Jesus Christ. They present God as a clown of a thousand faces or as just one of us in a manner that is reminiscent of Henotheism at best and Buddhism and Hinduism at worst. In fact, the watered-down view they present of God contains more pre-Christian, unattainable, works-oriented religious views than the clear representation of the very good news that salvation is available to all mankind though the free gift of Grace paid for by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That said, people who know the Truth will not be hurt by this, but children of all ages may buy the lie that God is just a sweet old man. Witnessing to them may not get at the root confusion, and therefore too many of them will fall into the 90 percent of children who drift away from the only Truth that can save their eternal souls.

It is interesting that movies don’t mind using the word "God," "Buddha," "Mohammed," or the names of the saints, but they carefully and politically correctly avoid the positive mention of Jesus, unless, of course, they are taking his name in vain, even though they would never take the name of Buddha, Mohammed, or others in vain. What significance does this have? It shows the almighty power of the name of Jesus because it is only in the name of Jesus, through his death and resurrection, that anyone and everyone can be saved.

Therefore, while we appreciate and applaud allegory, incarnational theology, Jesus types and Christ types, as found in family movies such as “Evan Almighty,” the true story that the church should shout from the housetops and proclaim in every media is “Jesus Almighty.”

After all, there is no other God and no other name through which we can be saved.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . .

“No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

-- John 1:14,18

Well said.

From: Assist News.

The Contradictions of Connecticut - The Pocket State

For cities its size, Stamford is a very safe place. How safe? Safe enough to be the 9th safest city in the country. And, what's more:

Stamford was the second safest among 26 cities in the Northeast with populations of at least 100,000, trailing only the town of Amherst, N.Y. Bridgeport ranked 25th and Hartford ranked 26th among Northeast cities in that category.

But all is not rosy even in Stamford:

Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy said he was pleased with the ranking but said the police department faces a new challenge in keeping Stamford among the elite during a budget crisis.

"How do you continue to do that in light of the resources?" Malloy said. "We're all scratching our heads over that question."

The department has cut overtime spending, taken officers out of the detective bureau and reduced the number of on-duty patrol officers to cope with budget cuts slated for 2007-08.

The city's violent crime rate has climbed five years in a row, including double-digit percentage increases in 2005 and 2006, city records show.

Police responded to 393 violent crimes last year, up from 353 in 2005 and 305 in 2004 - a 29 percent increase over two years.

The increase outpaced the nationwide jump in violent crime over the last two years. Violent crime in the United States increased by 2.3 percent in 2005 and 1.3 percent last year after declining consistently for nearly a decade.

Experts have blamed the trend on declining federal aid to police departments and rising youth violence.

Well, there are problems - and then there are problems. Would Mayor Malloy swap his problems for Hartford's? Or Bridgeport's?

Stamford was the second safest among 26 cities in the Northeast with populations of at least 100,000, trailing only the town of Amherst, N.Y. Bridgeport ranked 25th and Hartford ranked 26th among Northeast cities in that category.

In case you're wondering, New Haven typically doesn't report numbers to the FBI. They are perhaps too busy at the moment subverting Federal law by legitimizing illegal immigration. Whatever your views on that, what does this teach the next generation about lawlessness? I frankly find it disturbing. And, to even ask the question about how many crimes are being committed by illegal immigrants is to invite accusations of racism and xenophobia.

More to the point, what does it say about us as a people that Connecticut is the Pocket State - a pocket of money here, a pocket of poverty there, a pocket of safety here, and pocket of real danger there? How long can this be a viable model?

I could have linked to stories about the crime in Hartford (four killings in one weekend) but I don't know which one to pick.

Join Connecticut Christians on Facebook

Facebook has been taking off as a way for people to connect and communicate. If you don't know, Facebook started out as something for students but has recently exploded to become the #6 website in terms of traffic - it is already viewed more than eBay!

With this in mind, we started a "Connecticut Christians" group on Facebook a few days ago. This will be a great way to meet and connect with Christians in our state and share news, events, prayer requests and all kinds of things. (And no, it's not a dating service!)

Just click on the Facebook badge in the right-hand column (the one with a picture of yours truly) and help us build a better online community of Christians in Connecticut - people are already joining!

Tags: Connecticut, Christian, Christianity, Evangelical, Charismatic, facebook

New church added to the Connecticut Church Map

We're happy to announce that we've added the Franklin Congregational Church to the Connecticut Church Map.

If you're only going to have one church in your town (population = 2,000), it may as well be a good one. ;)

Christian Events in Connecticut this week

Bob Weiner

The following events are taking place in Connecticut this week. For more information or to add an event to our Connecticut Christian Events Calendar, please visit our website here.

Monday, June 18:
Teen Challenge New Haven Golf Classic (New Haven)
Litchfield County Regional Prayer Meeting (Torrington)

Wednesday, June 20:
Intercessory Prayer (Colchester)

Thursday, June 21:
Prayer In The Park (Hartford)

Sunday, June 24:
Bob Weiner (West Haven)

Franklin church breaks away from UCC, goes independent

The Norwich Bulletin has run an interesting piece on the Franklin Congregational Church, which recently elected to leave the United Church of Christ. Its pastor is Al Stewart:

He was working in Waterbury when he agreed to become pastor of the Franklin Congregational Church only if it left the United Church of Christ [UCC], a denomination he felt had become too politically involved and very liberal, particularly in its support of same-sex marriage and homosexual ministers....

In the time leading up to the split, Stewart said the Connecticut Conference of the UCC sent a letter to Franklin members to try to discredit his qualifications as a minister.

Eastern Regional Minister, the Rev. Lois Happe, declined to comment on the letter.

"It's always sad when a church feels they are no longer able to sustain their connection to the United Church of Christ," she said.

Happe said though the UCC nationally supported same-sex marriage, it encourages individual congregations to act autonomously in their position on the issue.

"There is a diversity of opinion on how to regard interpretations of Scripture," she said, noting the issue of homosexuality has caused rifts in many mainline denominations.

Of course there is a diversity of opinion: Romans 1 is now considered hate speech.

Connecticut's economy taking more hits

The Workforce Alliance claims that we're losing our status as the richest and best-educated State:

Between 1999 and 2005, the median household income statewide fell from $69,750 to $67,165 a year.

Between 1989 and 2004, the number of jobs nationwide increased 24 percent, but Connecticut lost 2 percent of its jobs over the same period. Connecticut ranked dead last among the 50 states in both population and job growth between 2000 and 2005.

Also this week came the news that Proctor & Gamble will close its Stamford office by 2010, with a loss of hundreds of jobs to the local economy.

Please pray for our economy and our business and governmental leaders.

If you like old-fashioned preaching . . .

If you like old-time preaching, visit this new blog, The Daily Spurgeon. Spurgeon was called "The Prince of Preachers," and was the greatest preacher of his day. This new blog gives you a snippet of Spurgeon every day but Sunday. (Spurgeon would have liked that!)

Massachusetts will uphold gay marriage for now

Massachusetts legislators narrowly defeated today a measure which would have allowed voters to vote directly on the question of same-sex marriage. Fifty votes were needed but only 45 voted in favor of the measure. Read an AP story here.

This is obviously a deeply disappointing day for pro-family advocates in Massachusetts. Please continue to pray for this situation.

Pray urgently for Massachusetts

Massachusetts State House in Boston

Please pray for our neighbor to the north as Massachusetts faces a Constitutional Convention. New England Concerts of Prayer states:

Once again, thank you for your powerful prayer support for the Massachusetts Marriage Amendment. The amendment must now pass a second vote by the Legislature in the Constitutional Convention which is scheduled for 1:00 pm, Thursday, June 14. In order for the Amendment to appear on the Massachusetts ballot in November of 2008, it must receive 50 votes and we currently have 57 legislators who are on record to vote for the amendment.

The new Senate President, Therese Murray, who presides over the Convention, has publicly stated that she will ask for a vote on June 14 though she herself will vote against it. Powerful forces, including the governor, attorney general, and house speaker are now pressuring the state legislators to vote against it. Newspaper reports cite that Governor Patrick will offer high paying patronage jobs to legislators to change their votes. Even U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and DNC Chairman Howard Dean have been calling our legislators twisting arms for the gay lobby. On top of all this, our opponents, MassEquality, have launched a $750,000 media campaign leading up to June 14 designed to change the votes of our legislators.

Click here to watch an important Prayer Alert video from PrayTV (Windows Media file).

New church added to Connecticut Church Map

We're happy to announce that the following church has been added to the Connecticut Church Map:

Easton: Covenant Church of Easton

Connecticut Churches Support Katrina Rebuilding Efforts

Numerous Connecticut churches have been active in helping communities and churches in the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The New London Day recently ran a nice piece about Calvary Chapel of Uncasville's efforts in Hancock County, Mississippi.

Covenant Church of Easton just wrapped up a fundraiser for a church in Phoenix, Louisiana.

Harvest Time Church in Greenwich is preparing to send a large team to Chalmette, Louisiana.

We salute these churches and urge Connecticut believers to support the ongoing efforts to rebuild this area which is still shattered.

Waterbury's kids in trouble

And in Waterbury, they're thinking of holding back some 2,000 schoolkids for truancy. That's not a typo... 2,000 schoolkids. I can't imagine the chaos this will create:

School officials are making no apologies saying that there were warnings and notifications of the new policy. Now schools will have to make room for those that are repeating grades.

"A lot of them are at the high school level and they will be repeating because they are getting incompletes so it will be difficult for us, but we have to do what we have to do," said Chairman of the Board of Education Patrick Hayes.

Channel 30 shows us an even tougher side of Mr. Hayes:

"These kids shouldn't be advancing -- end of discussion, unless I hear otherwise," Board of Education President Patrick J. Hayes Jr. said Monday. "It would make a mockery of the whole system."

Some 2,025 students have missed 18 or more school days -- 10 percent of the total school year. Most of those absences in the 18,200-student district were among high school students.

School officials adopted the tougher policy last year after noting the number of excuses at the end of the year. An average of 1,500 students missed school each day last year and officials were concerned too many absences were being waived by principals.

Those are indeed disturbing numbers and we want to continue to pray for Waterbury's kids and educators.

In New Haven, armed patrols... and more murders

When people perceive, rightly or wrongly, that their government cannot or will not defend them from criminals, the people will take such measures as they think expedient to defend themselves. So we were not surprised to see that armed citizen patrols are arising in the Elm City. According to Channel 30:

The group calls themselves the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol and they claim police aren't doing enough to keep them safe.The armed group said they patrol the streets from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. They said the mission was prompted by a vicious attack on a rabbi Sunday night. The group said they all legally bear arms and just want their neighbors to feel safe.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano issued a statement saying,” I believe that individuals that carry weapons with the intent of enforcing their view of appropriate behavior in the neighborhood is a recipe for disaster.”

Now Channel 8 reports this morning that the Guardian Angels are coming in:

The founder of the Guardian Angels is coming to New Haven Thursday to help patrol the city's Edgewood Park area.

Speaking by phone on Good Morning Connecticut, Sliwa said he's been counseling Rabbi Dov Greer, who started an armed patrol around the park following a weekend mugging.

Sliwa says he will bring in an unarmed, inter-racial patrol.

This news is overshadowed (or should be at any rate) by the murders of two more men yesterday. Read the New Haven Register here for information and background on the tensions in the community.

Please take time today to pray for New Haven, its leaders, and its churches.

More on prayer for Connecticut's youth...

Watertown police have arrested seven men in the Waterbury for allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old boy. Among those arrested were a former police lieutenant, a prominent businessman, and a judicial marshal.

In Stratford there is an uproar over an alleged sexual assault by one boy on another in a public school. Sadly, there's almost no shock value to these stories any more - except that in this case both boys were only 6 years old! Christine from The Thinking Mother blog has more on this.

Kids need to be protected - and the only way to do that is to root out of society the things that are influencing people, particularly men, to act out these behaviors.

Is anyone going to step up to the plate and begin to explain in loud detail the facts about what repeated exposure to pornography does to people's minds and brain chemistry? It is imperative that we begin to address obscenity at the roots at the problem.

New Church Added to the Connecticut Church Map

We're happy to announce that the following church has been added to the Connecticut Church Map:

Manchester: Church of the Living God

JesusFest 2007 coming on July 7

It's that time again: JesusFest, Connecticut's popular Christian festival, is returning to the Tolland County Agricultural Center in Vernon on July 7. It's a free, all-day "Christian Country Fair, Music & Arts Festival" and you won't want to miss it!

Some great speakers and musical acts will be featured on the main stage, as well as other anointed musicians in the Coffeehouse Cafe, plus a Kids' Barn and Theater , free workshops and more.

For a full schedule of the day's events, visit JesusFest's website here.

Christian Events in Connecticut This Week (June 11-17, 2007)

The following events are coming up this week... for more details please visit the Connecticut Christian Events Calendar!

Wednesday, June 13
Intercessory Prayer (Colchester)

Thursday, June 14
Prayer in the Park (Hartford)
Regional Prayer Meeting (New Haven)

Friday, June 15
Watchmen on the Wall Seminar (West Haven)

Saturday, June 16
Christian Coffeehouse (Danbury)
Watchmen on the Wall Seminar (West Haven)

Schools delayed in wake of bomb threat

Across Litchfield County schools are delaying their opening this morning by 90 minutes in response to a bomb threat received by phone yesterday at a State police barracks. According to Channel 8:

The caller did not indicate what high school or what town. Hours after the call was made, the following school districts in Northwest Connecticut decided to put off the opening bell by 90-minutes:

• Torrington Public Schools including Oliver Wolcott Technical High School
• Litchfield Public Schools
• Plymouth School District
• Regional School District #6
• Regional School District #10
• Regional School District #12
• Regional School District #15
• The Arch Bridge School in Bethlehem
• Hartland School District
• Watertown Public Schools
• Thomaston School District
• Explorations Charter School in Winsted
• New Milford School District, no AM kindergarten

"We want to insure schools were safe and do a walk through at every school and be sure that any possible threat is eliminated before we bring students or staff in," said Litchfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Dominick Vita.

As we've commented recently, we need to step up our level of prayer for our youth.

Should politicians be moral?

State Senator Louis DeLuca


New London Day columnist Charles E. Potter, Jr. gives a sad recitation of the alarming breakdown of morality among our public servants of late. Then, commenting on the guilty plea of State Sen. Lou DeLuca, he says:

One more thing: DuLuca [sic] has said he will not resign his office. Good.

We, the people, should have the privilege of kicking him out, so as to deliver a message that we, the people, demand a change in the moral fiber of the leadership of this great state. And if we, the people, don't demand his ouster, then shame on us, for failing to do so would constitute acceptance of his arrogant, bullying behavior, and that of those who went bad before him.

It seems that only a few years ago we were told that competence in office was what mattered, not morality. In 2 Samuel 23:3, King David said that "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." We don't elect political leaders to be preachers or theologians. King David knew that, but he also knew they should fear God - a heart attitude that would serve as an inward brake on poor behavior.

That's an old-fashioned idea whose time is, I hope, coming again.

Barbara Wentroble to speak in Uncasville Sunday, June 10

Noted speaker and author Barbara Wentroble will be ministering Sunday, June 10 at Fruitful Harvest Ministries, 505 Old Colchester Road in Uncasville. Service is at 10:00 AM. No registration is required. For more information call (860) 848-3277.

Barbara has written well-known books such as Prophetic Intercessionand You Are Anointed.

Backyard Festival Comes to Greenwich

Mid Point Cafe announces the 2007 Backyard Music Festival at Harvest Time Church in Greenwich, Saturday June 9th. This event will feature six great Christian music groups ranging from rock to rap to soul to gospel. In addition to musical acts on the main stage, there will also be children’s activities, fresh food from the grill, and iced coffee drinks.

Musical guests include: SilOam Band, Tyrone Birkett, Brothers Inc., NuSoul Generation, Craig Crawford and Sam Cintron.

General admission is free; parking is $10 per vehicle. Gate opens at 12 noon. For information, contact Harvest Time Church at (203) 531-7778, or visit: www.midpointcafe.com.

Are Connecticut Homeschoolers Under Attack?

Judy Aron of Consent Of The Governed has been blogging about homeschooling and the challenges homeschoolers are facing in our State. Remember the pray for homeschoolers and their parents.

Judy's right when she says it's ironic to see this group come under fire while winning all the spelling bees every year.

Prayer for Connecticut's Youth

Churches and individual Christians should urgently consider establishing regular prayer for the youth of our State. Every day seems to bring more and more disturbing cases of violence and abuse committed against our young people.

• A 15-year-old girl, missing for a year, is found locked away in an Edgar Allan Poe type secret room hidden under a staircase and blocked from view in a West Hartford house.
  

• Three East Hartford men were in Hartford Superior Court to face charges of various assaults. Two of the three were charged with offenses against children and two with offenses against mentally retarded persons.
  

• A Vernon man already facing charges for allegedly having sexual contact with five minors was charged with new internet sex charges.
  

• Another man pled not guilty to charges that he was soliciting sex from an undercover officer whom he thought was a teenage girl and whom he planned to meet in Stamford.
  

• A 66-year-old man is arrested in Watertown for allegedly assaulting a child.

I am incredulous over the fact that all these stories were reported in a single day, in a small State. When are we going to wake up and admit that pornography is creating a generation of dangerous predators who are totally inflamed with lust - and who are not content to merely view, but to act out what they see and think about?

When will we enforce the obscenity laws of the State and of the United States?

Enough is enough.