Defending the gospel on LA's airwaves

Tuesday afternoon, God gave me an amazing opportunity to be a light for him in Los Angeles by going on one of the city’s main evening commute talk shows on KKLA 95.5 FM at 6 p.m. PST for a few minutes to discuss the FCC’s recent legal battles trying to enforce its policy against broadcasters using expletives and violent programming during the daytime when children are watching, which is what I spent most of my time working on when I first arrived in Washington in June.

The program’s host was here in Phoenix on Tuesday describing to us how to defend our faith in the media and broadcast his show live from our hotel. It’s crazy to look back at all those days I spent in Farley Hall and the new Student Media Center at Ole Miss doing sports talk shows and later doing student government talk shows, and seeing how God has used that seemingly recreational experience to prepare me to share his Word via the radio medium in China a couple years ago and now in LA. The radio station streams its programming live at http://www2.kkla.com/listen/.

Late night road trip to the Grand Canyon

Saturday night, a group of about 10 of us rented a couple of vehicles and road tripped up to the Grand Canyon to camp out and watch the sunrise from the South Rim, do a Sunday morning worship service in one of God’s most picturesque sanctuaries and then did a six-mile hike inside the canyon. The place is an incredible testimony to the fact that we have an artistic creator who is remarkably bigger than we are.

"Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! Say to God, 'How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name.' Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man's behalf!" Psalm 66:1-5

Wrapping up D.C.

I finished my last week of work in Washington, D.C., on Friday by turning in a research project and writing a defense of Judge Leslie Southwick (Mississippi boy) for his nomination to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. I’m now in Phoenix this week for more Christian worldview training, debriefing, and some fun. Last week ended a productive nearly two months in the nation’s capital of engaging in public policy work – writing legal analyses, lobbying directly to the offices of senators and congressmen, and researching the issues that most Christians care deeply about. While at times it seems like a thankless, fruitless effort since there are probably 15 secular organizations for every Christian public policy organization lobbying the same senators and congressmen, I learned it is very important to stand up for our faith in the public square and give Christians a voice in the debates that determine how our country is governed.

It frustrates me to hear people say that true Christians shouldn’t have anything to do with politics and public policy. That assertion is unbiblical. Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 that we are to be salt and light in this world. Salt, in its practical sense, is used in meat to prevent decay, and public policy is a means for helping to prevent decay in our society. Light pierces darkness and Christians can be an example and be a witness to thousands of people through public policy. Also, after visiting several foreign countries and seeing the struggles going on in places like China, England and Brazil over issues like religious freedom and morality in the public square, the U.S. is extremely blessed in how free we are and how imperative it is to protect these freedoms. Seeing those freedoms attacked by organizations like the ACLU, Americans for the Separation of Church and State, and many others should only drive Christians to be bold in defending the gospel and living out the truth everyday.

It is also imperative for us to be faithful students of the Word and store it in our hearts and minds so that we will always be able to give an answer for the hope that we have and not be tossed about when we are bombarded by secularists and false prophets. We are spending out final week of the summer in Phoenix learning more about defending our faith at the logical reasoning level, as well as learning from judges and Christian law professors.