Worship Schedule for 10/22/00

Announce  Jerry Powell

Sing AM   Jerry Gilley

Read   Joey Ferrell

Pray  James Prater

Table  Jeff Powell

            Earl Cooper

            Oscar Parton

            Kevin Gilley

Dismiss  Brian Witty

Sing PM   Stephen Powell

Pray PM   Jerry Gilley

Prepare the Lord’s Supper

Keith Bowman

Visit the Shut-in Today

Maurice Powell

Wed. Night Schedule for 10/18/00

  Sing  Larry Powell

Read  Brian Witty

Attendance and Contribution Last Lord’s Day

  Attendance  115

Contribution  $1420.56

 Sick

 Dean Hollandsworth, Linda Haley,

Christine Ash, Keith Bowman

Shut-ins

Woodrow and Lina Lorance,   

Ona Prater, Juanita Lowe,

William Condra

Deaths

Helen Chumbley, Charles Lowe

John 21:17

Birthdays & Anniversaries This Week

Sun., October 15  Billy & Sue Chumbley

Mon., October 16  Larry Powell

Mon., October 16  Mary Salser

Tues., October 17  Danny Powell

Thurs., October 19  Jeff Powell

Current Events

 Gospel Meeting

Elkins Church of Christ

October 20 - 22

Speaker:  Gary Colley

Sunday Bible Study:  9:15 A.M.

Sunday Morning Worship:  10:00 A.M.

Services Nightly:  7:30 P.M.

THE DEATH CULT

Jim E. Waldron

Between the date of the Roe V. Wade decision (Jan.22, 1973), which legalized abortion on demand, and today more than 35,000,000 American (black, brown, pink, red, white and yel­low) babies have been slaughtered like so much vermin. Annu­ally more than 1.2 million continue to be killed. See Almanac 2000, New York Times, 122 East 42nd Street, NY, NY 10168.

God warned ancient Israel, "do not kill the innocent and righteous" (Exodus 23:7) and again, "the Lord hates...hands that shed innocent blood" (Proverbs 6:16-17). It is right to be con­cerned about pollution of the earth with its lakes and streams, but radical feminists, the liberal media and like-minded politi­cians do not care that the shedding of innocent blood is the worst kind of pollution for the land. Even as it is written, "so you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land" (Numbers 35:33).

Not only is the death cult in America pushing for what they call their "right" to continue to rip babies from the womb, but they are supporting the execution of full-grown individuals through euthanasia. Right now Oregon is the only state that has legalized assisted suicide, but groups like the Hemlock Society are pushing for the whole country to go the same way.  The House of Representatives passed a bill last fall to prevent the use of federally controlled drugs from being used in Oregon and other states to kill people, but the threat of a filibuster by liber­als has blocked its passage in the Senate.

In spite of this legalized killing of the innocent, the elderly and those with infirmities it is rare to hear pulpit preachers or radio and television evangelists speak out against the death cul­ture that is being pushed in America. One reason is their fear of losing their tax exempt status. The Internal Revenue Service has said that a tax exempt organization may not endorse or contrib­ute to the support of a political candidate, but the church should not get involved in this manner anyway. Yet, there is much lati­tude in what the IRS tolerates by tax exempt organizations. Churches may discuss a candidate's views on public issues and distribute surveys on a candidate's position or his voting record.

In fact, the IRS allows some things in which the church ought not to be involved, such as allowing a political candidate to speak at church meetings or allowing political ads in church bulletins for pay (or for free). * The bottom line for the child of God is "we ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

One of the first things Hitler did when he started his cult of death in Nazi Germany was to silence the preachers and other religious leaders. We must not let it happen here.

Of course for many preachers fear of the IRS is not the problem, but they are simply afraid of the pew. That is, they are fearful of offending some person in the congregation whose fa­vorite candidate has said, "I will protect a woman's right to choose." By this the candidate means I will protect a woman's choice to kill her baby. Others want the pulpit to be silent about the evil of executing pre-born children, because a daughter, daughter-in-law or granddaughter his been caught up in such. Instead of teaching on the evil of killing one's baby and in kindness calling those so ensnared to repentance they want to fire the preacher who opposes such. For example, brother Bobby Crow­elI of Amory, MS was fired last year from another congregation in the state because he took the pro-life position and publicly opposed abortion. It has happened to others. Beloved, do not fear men, but do as God commanded Isaiah, "Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet and tell my people of their transgression..." (Isaiah 58:1).  Someone may say, "It is no body's business how I vote because we have a secret ballot in this country," but as brother Jim Boyd of McMinnville, TN says, he or she should remember that God knows how they vote.

Again some preachers just do not believe we should con­demn evils like abortion, euthanasia or the so-called gay life style, because they are "political issues." John the Baptist was not afraid to rebuke Herod for marrying his brother's wife even though the marriage was a "political issue" (Matthew 14:1-12; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book I 8, 5:1,4).

*For a full discussion of these IRS rules phone the Right To Lift Newspaper office at 202-626-8800 or fax them at 202-737-9189 and ask for their August issue.

Remember…