#26 Why Worship? Quick Questions For Mormons

The idea for this question came from Aaron Shafovaloff of Mormonism Research Ministry. It exposes a fundamental flaw within the world view of Mormonism.

#24 Honor The Son! Quick Questions For Jehovah's Witnesses

I'll never forget the response I had from two Jehovah's Witnesses after asking about John 5:23. This QQFJW relates that experience.

2009 Football Pool!

Are you ready for some football? I created a football pool three years ago and invited family and friends to join. The winner gets a $10 gift certificate to Dairy Queen. I can taste that large Chocolate Extreme Blizzard now!

I invite you to sign up for the EM football pool and join in the fun. In order to join, you must register as a user at http://www.poolhost.com/ When registering, you will choose a personal username and password. Once you've entered PoolHost.com as a registered user, go to the 'User Tools' menu and choose 'Join a Private Pool'. Click on the "Pro Football Pick'em" icon in the upper left corner and then you will be asked to enter the Pool's Login Name and the Pool's Password.

For the Pool's Login Name type: EMfootballpool

For the Pool's Password type: football

That's it and then you're in! The next time you login in to http://www.poolhost.com/, you can go to 'My Pools' and you'll see all pools that you belong to. Clicking on a pool name will take you to that pool. You can switch to a different pool by going to 'My Pools' again at any time. To Register, click here: http://www.poolhost.com/index.asp?page=register.asp

If you read this after tomorrow night's game, don't worry about it. Just be honest and tell me who you would have picked. I can enter it in for you after the deadline.

Mormon Miracle Pageant 2009

I am sitting in Bill McKeever's kitchen and this is the FIRST chance I have had to update you on our 2009 mission trip at the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah. This has been a weird year as I will explain in a later report.

For now, I am going to take this opportunity to post a YouTube video I made while standing in front of the Oqiuirrh Mountain, Utah Mormon Temple. We had just finished taking our temple tour last Tuesday (the day we flew into Utah) when I had the idea for this Quick Question For Mormons.

Before the temple tour, we saw a video in which Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the twelve "Apostles" of the Mormon church, states something that I find to be incredibly offensive. I've seen this video before, but it was just as offensive this time around as when I first saw it. Here is my video.

Rain Dance By Little Miss Walker

Our daughter loves ballet and has been practicing this dance for awhile. She was finally able to perform it last week... in the rain! The wind was pushing her around a bit so she was not as graceful as usual. Still, we are VERY proud of our little girl!


As always, we do not mention the names of our children on the internet. Any comment which does so will be deleted.

Manti Training For 2009

It is that time of year again! We begin training and preparing our Manti Mission Team for the mission trip in June. That is the good news. The better news is that the training is open to Christians who wants to learn more about Mormonism and how to witness to them. We will conduct seven weekly training sessions starting on Monday, April 27 and will go through Monday, June 8. We will be meeting at Community Bible Church in portable 2 (the portables are behind the church building) from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. Childcare is available with advance notice. Please email Becky ASAP to arrange for your childcare. We will need your child's date of birth and your cell phone number.

Our class schedule is as follows.
April 27- Introductions and The Mormon Puzzle Video.
May 4- The Mormon World View of Exaltation.
May 11- Mormonism's Impossible Gospel Part 1.
May 18- Mormonism's Impossible Gospel Part 2.
May 25- Explaining the Gospel to Mormons.
June 1- God Is Not A Man.
June 8- Role-playing to apply what you have learned.

Our training sessions are always fun and informative. You will learn more about Mormonism than you ever thought you could know. You will gain a heart for the Mormon people and will be equipped to reach out in love to those who are lost. Training materials will be available for purchase. We look forward to seeing you there!

From The Jewel box # 26

3/09
I was eating supper with the two older kids when our oldest son said, "I don't like that song." A veggie tales CD was playing in the background and the song which just came on was The Hokey Pokey. I asked, "Why don't you like this song?"

It just doesn't make any sense.

What about it doesn't make sense?

Well, it never really tells you what it's all about.



You know, he's got a point...

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Important note: We will not reveal the names of our children on this blog. Any comment that mentions our children's names will be deleted. It is nothing personal, we just feel that it is an important safety measure for our family. If you would like to read the other FTJB entries, click on the "From the Jewel Box" link in the side bar on the right or on the Jewel Box icon at the end of this paragraph. Come on parents! Feel free to share special jewels from your precious children. Just know that on this blog, our kids are the cutest!

# 21 Revelations In A Hat? Quick Questions For Mormons

While in Kansas City last week, I decided to take advantage of being with my friends who are experts in Mormonism and make TWO videos for our Quick Questions For Mormons series. Our second "guest questioner" is Joel Groat from the Institute for Religious Research. Joel and I first met at an EMNR conference a few years ago. We got to talking about temple outreaches and our annual trip to Manti, Utah. We hit it off pretty well and have been good friends ever since.

Here is Joel's question.


Feel free to rate, comment and pass along our videos to others. If you have a web site, you may wish to post our playlists in your links section.

EMNR 2009, Quick Questions For Mormons and Marcia Montenegro

Last week I attended the Evangelical Ministries to New Religions conference for 2009. For the third year in a row it has been hosted by Midwest Baptist Theological Seminary. This year our conference was held at the same time as the Dead Sea Scrolls conference. Some of the guest speakers were scholars from the Jesus Seminar.

I was nice to see some friends from other ministries. EMNR is always a good time of camaraderie and fellowship. There are not very many people in the world who have the privilege to serve God full time in this type of ministry so it is nice to be able to hang out with some who do. The following is a slide show of some of our friends.

While I was there, I decided to take advantage of being able to hang out with Bill McKeever of Mormonism Research Ministry. I was due to make another Quick Questions For Mormons video so I asked Bill if he would like to be our first "guest questioner." Bill obliged. Here is his question.




Now, for the last section of this blog, I wanted to mention that there were a number of regulars missing from our annual EMNR gathering. One of whom is Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age. Marcia is EMNR's favorite vegetarian. Some vegetarians are a little nuts about their position, but Marcia is not one of them. She is such a good sport about the rest of our meat eating preferences that she actually goes with us when we go to eat BBQ. She usually has a salad.

While we were at one of the local restaurants eating, someone mentioned missing Marcia. We all love to tease her about eating rabbit food so when our favorite target is not present, it puts a damper on the occasion. It wasn't until I returned home and looked through last year's pictures that I realized why Marcia did not attend this year's conference. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I took a picture that reveals why she wasn't there this year.

I am ashamed to say that our incessant teasing and tempting has cause Marcia to fall off the veggie wagon... and I have proof. The picture I mentioned above shows Marcia getting caught with some sort of pig flesh between her teeth. I must warn you that it isn't pretty. I have placed the picture in this blog, but have purposely positioned it so that the faint of heart can leave this blog now. If you do not want to see a committed vegetarian find the inner meat eater, I advise that you do not scroll down. For those of you who have can't help but scroll down, you have been warned.




































Wait for it...



























I don't know about you, but right now I've got that noise in my head where Norman Bates from Psycho comes through the shower curtain with a knife.

#20 Jehovah is NOT Lord! Quick Question For Jehovah's Witnesses

Our ministry YouTube Channel is getting more attention almost every day. We now have 120 subscribers and add more almost every day. There are many more who watch our videos, but do not subscribe. There use to be a time when I could keep up with all of the comments, having multiple conversations going back and forth with both Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. This has changed.

Two days ago, I started to answer the 50 responses which were in my YT inbox. By the end of the day, I only had 100 to go. Yes, you read that correctly. I started out with 50, answered posts all day long and ended up with more comments in my inbox than what I started out with at the beginning of the day. That is when I decided that I am not going to try to keep up with the comments. I'm not sure how my audience is going to respond to this. They've been spoiled because I used to answer each and every relevant post. They'd get mad if I didn't answer them in two days! I still want to engage because there is tremendous fruit from these videos and the discussion which follows.

I may have to just try to keep up with the newer videos. As I add another video almost every week, you can imagine the amount of comments generated. I was checking our stats yesterday and it wasn't until then that I realized that our videos are getting between 600-700 views a day. I had no idea. While those numbers still are not huge numbers when you consider the more popular YT videos, it is still way too much for one man to handle.

Here is more fuel for the fire, our latest Quick Question For Jehovah's Witnesses.

From The Jewel Box # 25

1/23/09


Our oldest daughter recently lost her two front teeth. When I told her that she had a lisp, she asked the following question.



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Important note: We will not reveal the names of our children on this blog. Any comment that mentions our children's names will be deleted. It is nothing personal, we just feel that it is an important safety measure for our family. If you would like to read the other FTJB entries, click on the "From the Jewel Box" link in the side bar on the right or on the Jewel Box icon at the end of this paragraph. Come on parents! Feel free to share special jewels from your precious children. Just know that on this blog, our kids are the cutest!

A Contrast In Attitudes

I recently received an e-mail from one of my colleagues, Aaron Shafovaloff of Mormonism Research Ministry, about a former Mormon who apologized to him via email. Aaron forwarded this email to others in the ministry as an encouragement for us. I asked the original writer if I could share it here and other places. He gave me permission as along as I keep his name confidential. We'll call him "Chuck." Here is Chuck's letter to Aaron as is and in its entirety.

Dear Aaron, I remember (under a former YouTube name) mocking or criticizing several of your videos on Mormonism. I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and felt that your videos created false accusations against the Church and my faith. I thought of you as a hateful and spiteful person. As the times have turned, I realized that I was wrong. I was the one who was hateful and spiteful and I would like to as for your forgiveness. The reason why I have changed my opinions came when I was reading scripture and came across Matthew 7:22-23 : On that day many will say to me 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?' Then I will announce to them, 'I never knew you! Depart from Me, you law-breakers!' I was frozen on these two verses and all I could feel was fear. I couldn't explain it at first, but all I felt was a paralyzing fear from the words of Jesus. Then the thought came across my mind, "What if I am one who Jesus Christ will turn away from the kingdom of God?"

I since then started to conduct serious research into Mormonism, its histories and claims, if they were compatible with the Bible (also did the same for Evangelical Christian beliefs), and if the Church projected an accurate and fair picture of its history. First, I found that many parts of our history are not talked about too often. I found some of our contreversal beliefs are never explained, nor taught by missionaries until well after baptism. I also discovered that many of these things never make it into our LDS videos because they, "Are not necessary and ideal in promoting the spiritual aspects and faith promoting material of Joseph Smith." I quickly realized that we, as a Church, were deliberately deceptive of our faith and hid or destorted facts on plural marriage, views on race, exaltation of humans into godhood, and many other things.

After looking how our doctrine compared to the Bible, it made clear sense as to why we needed additional scripture. Either the doctrine unique to Mormonism needed the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, or the Pearl of Great Price to back it up or scripture from the Bible needed to be distorted beyond its meaning. When I e-mailed FAIR LDS about how certain passages were met to be read versus how they translated them, the response I got was, "That is one way you could translate it. Unfortunately, there was just so much confusion that we needed as restoration to understand these things." However, when examining these "Abomamable Creeds of Christendom" I realized that all their statements come straight out of the Bible! They were just formulated to give names to Biblically accepted beliefs such as Holy Trinity. I was more in shock to realize that all Protestants, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Churches were in mutual agreement with these creeds which were (as a learned later on) were very historical to the early Christian views.

So, I have left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after having to be force to conclude that it was not of God nor Christ. So, I choose to accept Jesus Christ as my savior and worship him always and not the Jesus of Joseph Smith. I want to thank you for your ministries (especially Mormonism Research Ministry which I obtain valuable information concerning Mormonism) and hope that you continue to serve Christ in your every day life. Once again, I am deeply sorry for comments I left on your videos because those statements were the real lies and deceptions.

God bless,
Chuck

What an encouraging letter! I frequently get posts from Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses who claim that I am wasting my time on YouTube or with our ministry in general. My response is 1) I do not think pursuing the souls of men is a waste of time and 2) they do not receive the private correspondence we receive. It is these kinds of letters that encourage us to keep doing what we do. As you can imagine, the majority of the responses we receive are not this encouraging. Meet Larry. If you have been following our blog for awhile, you may remember Larry.

Last year, I posted a blog about a Mormon man who challenged me on Topix. You can read that post here if you are interested. To make a long story short, things did not go well with Larry. He eventually became even more unreasonable and likened me to a murderer and a rapist for engaging in our ministry. At that point, I thought it was best to ignore Larry's comments until I received an apology. I have done so until recently.

Once I remembered that Larry lives near the city in which I will be attending an apologetics conference, I decided to post to Larry in hopes that we could meet in person and settle our differences. The Topix post is titled An attempt at peace with Larry. For the sake of time, I will reproduce just my original post to him and his answer.

My post
Larry,
You and I have a misunderstanding that I would like to clear up. You also owe me an apology for likening me to a murderer and rapist for simply being a critic of your religion. I would like to resolve our differences and clear up your misunderstanding and we have an opportunity to do so face to face. I will be in Kansas City for a conference in March (http://www.emnr.org/conference.html ) and would like to meet you.

I look forward to meeting you and resolving our issues so we can get on to the positive discussions we use to have. If you aren't careful, we might even become friends. ;-)

Larry's Response
Let me first say Keith I am not avoiding you. I have spent the last three days in the hospital. As for you offer you can put it and your demand for an appology were the sun dont shine. You claim I compaired you to a murderer and rapest, what I did was to point out that you are no different than the ministers who through their words led people into mob action that led to those crimes. I pointed out that you called LDS foreigners in Chrsitian America including those LDS who have spilt their own blood for this country. Just like those ministers of old you have a ministry that has no other purpose than to attack religions you do not like. Just like those ministers you feel people with lies and half truths to stire up problems for the LDS CHurch. You do not go out and commit acts of violence against the LDS neither did the ministers of old. YOu do however through your lies lead people to actions that you can the deny any aprt of. Why then would I want to wast my time on you?

Is it me or are some Mormons not anywhere near as nice as the Mormons on those TV commercials? I must admit that I was disappointed with Larry's response. I offer peace, but he would rather hang on to hatred. This guy is really one tough nut to crack and regardless of how nice I try to be to him, he simply does not see the need to respond in kind.

After I read his response, I was quickly reminded of "Chuck's" encouraging words to Aaron and his kind email to me. In it he stated, "While I was in Mormonism and was blinded from truth... anybody who showed me the truth out of love felt hateful in my eyes. A ministry like yours, to me, was nothing more than a hate group who persecuted me for my beliefs. I now realize that yours (and several others) ministries is to help the LDS people obtain true salvation for we are all blinded by a false gospel administered by a false prophet. I think when my eyes was opened to Christ's love and grace, that my heart was more recieving of the love of others and the need to right my wrongs with the followers of Christ. I look at what you guys do and it is tough love... the fact that you do have to speak against Mormonism, but the love of someone who cares about a complete stranger's ability to one day be in heaven. Thanks for what you do!"

Chuck is right. This kind of love is tough, but it is worth it. I share this contrast, not in an attempt to make Larry look bad, but for the purpose of encouraging the Christian reader that God does indeed save the lost. If you are discouraged because of someone in your life who is giving you a hard time about Christianity, just remember "Chuck." God is still in the business of doing miracles. I hope that one day Larry will come to his senses having escaped the snare of the Devil (2nd Timothy 2:24-26) and will one day be able to write a letter like Chuck's. Please join me in prayer for Larry.

Quick question For Mormons # 16

This series continues to generate good discussion. We now have 76 subscribers to our YouTube channel. Two of our "Quick Question" series videos have been viewed more than 1,000 times. It isn't where I want to be subscriber-wise, but we are getting there. Feel free to rate, comments and pass along our videos to others.

A CHRISTmas Thought

CHRISTmas 2008 is now past and we are currently in that awkward "in-between" time of CHRISTmas and New Year's eve. The Holy-day season is not over, yet it doesn't feel quite right to continue to listen to CHRISTmas music. Our family is still trying to hang on to the spirit of the season as we began a new family tradition.

Starting this year, our family will watch A CHRISTmas Carol at least once during the CHRISTmas season. I'm partial to the 1984 version with George C. Scott.


Our two oldest kids are six and seven so we had to answer a bunch of questions about the story.

"Are the ghosts good or bad?"
"Why is the 'first spirit' really the second one to appear?"
"How were those two kids underneath the robe of the second spirit really the kids of Mr. Scrooge?"
"Was tiny Tim a Christian?"
"Do we have any more popcorn left?"
"How heavy were those chains?"
"How can Mr. Scrooge see his body under the covers if he is already in his body?"

As the kids get older, I'm sure the questions will become more profound.

I was reminded this morning through a YouTube video that we are to keep the spirit of CHRISTmas in our hearts all through the year. The following video is a very neat little way to get people to think about what is inside of them. Enjoy the video and remember to let the spirit of the Holy-days continue to influence your life all through the year.

Happy 6th Birthday!

Happy birthday son! Our little boy is already six years old! We had a great day on the 21st as Mommy "built" a special birthday cake for our son. Becky lets the kids pick a cake out of a cake book that they would like her to make. Our son wanted a castle cake so Becky "built" it for him. Since the castle is green, we pretended that Shrek lived there and we ate his house.

From The Jewel Box # 24

12/08/08
A few weeks ago one of my friend's from our Sunday school class hosted a guys night out. We ate BBQ, played Texas Hold 'em poker and played Rock Band until 1:00 in the morning. Out of the blue, our oldest son asked at breakfast this morning, "Daddy, you know that Man party you went to?"

I answered, "Yes."

He asked, "Did you play hot potato there?"

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Important note: We will not reveal the names of our children on this blog. Any comment that mentions our children's names will be deleted. It is nothing personal, we just feel that it is an important safety measure for our family. If you would like to read the other FTJB entries, click on the "From the Jewel Box" link in the side bar on the right or on the Jewel Box icon at the end of this paragraph. Come on parents! Feel free to share special jewels from your precious children. Just know that on this blog, our kids are the cutest!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a good time and I hope you did too. After food and football we had a little activity initiated by Becky's Dad. He wrote every letter of the phrase H-A-P-P-Y T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G on a separate piece of paper. We each had one letter and were instructed to think of something we were thankful for that started with the letter we had on our piece of paper.

I had the letter "A." I explained that in the light of our recent elections, I am thankful in knowing that Jesus has "all authority" in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). Things are still in God's hands and He never exclaims "Oh My Me!" out of surprise.

Different families have many traditions, but sadly, the families of Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) are not among those who have Thanksgiving traditions. Like all other holidays, JWs are forbidden from celebrating it. In light of this fact, I decided to post a Quick Question For Jehovah's Witnesses on this topic.



The next time you speak with a Witness, you might want to ask them this same question.

Homosexual Agenda Attacks the Mormon Church

As many of you are probably aware, California had a very important piece of legislation passed with the recent elections. Proposition eight reverses the decision that activist Judges passed into law on May 15th of this year. These judges imposed homosexual marriage not only on Californians, but also on the rest of the Country because there is no residency requirement. This means that people could travel to California, get married and then expect to have their "marriage" accepted by their State of residency. (Source document here) To see the importance of proposition eight, watch this short YouTube video.

One of the major players in passing proposition eight was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yes folks, that's the Mormons. The online LDS journal Meridian Magazine details some of the activities of Mormons in helping pass this legislation. On June 29th, the leaders of the LDS Church asked their members to do all they can to support proposition eight. This angered the homosexual community. So much so that they created this piece of propaganda to attack the LDS Church.


Holey buckets! I've never seen anything quite like this. Mormon misisonaries are depicted like home invading gustapo whose sole reason for visiting is to tear up the homeowner's marriage certificate. While I've had interesting experiences with some immature, cocky Mormon missionaries, I've never met one who would act anything like the guys depicted in this commercial. I pray for the safety of Mormon missionaries in California and particularly in San Francisco.

While I support the rights of Mormons to disagree with, organize, publically voice their opinions and vote against homosexuality, I find it interesting that the LDS Church is getting a taste of their own medicine. The homosexual community will not allow anyone, and now especially the Mormons, to disagree with their position without labeling them as hateful, bigoted and intolerant.

How have Mormons been hateful? By disagreeing with someone? Give me a break. Let me remind the reader that one can only be tolerant of something with which they disagree. If the homosexual community really wanted us to be tolerant, then they would allow us the freedom to disagree. I do not tolerate something I agree with because, well, I agree with it! The truth of the matter is, they don't want our tolerance, they want our acceptance and that is a completely different matter.

The same argument holds true with Mormonism's quest for acceptance within the Christian world. Because Christians disagree with Mormonism, organize our efforts to educate others about it's real nature and publicly voice our opinions, we have been labeled, ironically enough by the LDS Church, as hateful, bigoted and intolerant. Does this sound familiar? Mormons do not want our tolerance, they want our acceptance.

I have years of experience in public evangelism at Mormon events. I have been called all kinds of nasty names and was once even told that the reason I was there was because I must drink my own bath water. Where is the tolerance on the part of the LDS Church? Do I not have the right to disagree with Mormonism without being labeled an anti-Mormon? Are Mormons now anti-gay?

One of my other favorite terms of endearment is "protester." If I show up at a Mormon temple opening, I must be protesting it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mormons, if you are reading this, and I know you are, THIS is a protest.



As you can see, there are plenty of angry folks at a Mormon temple protesting the Mormon Church's involvement with the passing of proposition eight. They are marching in the streets, chanting slogans, and stopping traffic. Again, THIS is a protest.

This is not.


The above depicts Christians, peacefully talking with Mormons. Instead of chants, there is worship. No marching, just preaching.

I truly am sorry that the LDS Church has been the target of unfair criticism to the point of unruly protest. On the other hand, maybe now they can see a difference in what critics of the LDS Church do vs. what is happening in California now that they have experienced a REAL protest. I am curious to see how the LDS Church responds to the unfounded accusations of hate, bigotry and intolerance. If the LDS Church wants to know which answers work best, all they have to do is recall what Christians have been telling Mormons for years. It is the same argument.

Happy Birthday Big Girl!

Our oldest child turned seven yesterday. We had family over for presents, cake and ice cream last night and had a party with her friends at Chuck E. Cheese's Sunday night. Check out the slide-show and see if you can figure out her favorite color.

VOTE!

I voted yesterday and Becky voted the day before. I am a firm believer in personal responsibility and think that every able American citizen has the moral obligation to vote. That includes Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs). If you enjoy the freedoms of the democratic process, then you should also participate in making sure that it works.

Unfortunately, the Watchtower (WT) forbids JWs from participating in the election process. Voting in political elections has been equated to supporting the wild beast of Revelation 13. Witnesses who vote are described as being unsteady, seduced, misled, and slaves of corruption (WT 12/1/89 p. 13-14). Then, in 1999, the WT published an article that seems to change their view. The November 1, 1999 WT states that what a Christian "does in the polling booth is between him and his Creator." Really?

If this is so, then why do Jehovah's Witnesses continue to abstain from voting? The truth is that they know they will still be subjected discipline if they vote for a political party. However, there is another way. Witnesses can still vote. Watch the video and see for Whom Witnesses should vote.

Walker Family Pictures 2008

As is our custom, we had our annual family pictures taken recently. This is a bit late in the year for us, but we wanted to wait a few months and make sure that our youngest child could be a little more responsive. We use to take the pictures at Sears, but we switched to Portrait Innovations last year. I absolutely LOVE the idea of getting a CD of every single picture that was taken during our session. The following is a small sampling of the 82 pictures that we taken.

Article 11

I just got home about an hour ago from meeting with a 76 year old man who has been a Mormon since 1974. We spent close to three and a half hours talking about Mormonism. He has been doing some serious contemplation about the LDS Church and is really bothered by the polygamy issue. He found our contact information and called to, "find out what he doesn't know."

He spoke mostly while I patiently listened. When I did speak, I answered his question's about the image of God and the gospel. He now has a number of new ideas to think about. One of the things that Mr. E was most proud of about the Mormon Church was the Articles of Faith. These articles are 13 basic points to which the LDS Church believes. Mr. E went through them one by one and when he got to article number 11, he read, "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

When I told him that most Mormons I've met do not really believe this particular article, he was shocked. He passionately explained how all Mormons worship God according to their own conscience and believe that everyone should have the same privilege. I then explained how I have attended public Mormon events to pass out gospel tracts and witness to Mormons. Mr. E exclaimed, "How Dare you!" as he reached across the table to slap my hand. I laughed as I withdrew my hand and said, "See what I mean?"

That stunned him. I explained that I am worshipping God according to the dictates of my conscience when I am in the act of evangelism at public events. Mr. E sheepishly smiled as he understood my point.

That gave me an idea. The next time a Mormon asks me what I am doing at a Mormon temple opening, the Mormon Miracle Pageant or any other public event hosted by the Mormons, I am just going to answer that I am exercising article 11. At that point, the Mormon has only two choices. They can choose to obey article 11 and allow me to continue in worship or they can deny their Scripture and argue with me about how I do not have the right to be there. It is always interesting to see how much of Mormonism some Mormons really believe.

First Shots With My New Springfield XD

This past Sunday I went to the gun show to look for another Springfield XD 9mm. I managed to find what I was looking for and was pleased to see that it came with night sites. Since most attacks happen at night, having night sites is an important thing to consider for home defense purposes. The good thing for me was that I spent less money than I did three years ago on this second XD with night sites than I did on my first gun without them.

I didn't get a chance to go out to the range to shoot it until yesterday. I decided to take both guns so that I could do some comparison. The slide show below will help tell my story. As you see the pictures slide by, put your mouse over the picture and they will pause as a caption appears. All shots were taken at 21 feet.

#1 This picture is a bit blurry, but that is because I was in a completely dark closet. The sights don't look much different from any other sights in the artificially created light of the flash on my camera.

#2 With the flash off, all you can see are the three dots of the sights. Make sure to pause this picture as the front sight will brighten up a bit.

#3 My fist shot with my new XD. I hit the bulls-eye, but not exactly where I was aiming.

#4 The first five shots still found their mark, but they are a bit too high and right from where I was aiming.

#5 After 50 shots, I am beginning to wonder if my sights are off just a tad. The gun is consistent all right with an nice two inch group, but I adjusted my last 20 or so shots by aiming a little low and to the left.

#6 Here is where it starts to get interesting. Since I was unsure of my sights on my new XD, I decided to take five shots at the top number seven with my old XD. As you can see, my old XD is dead on at seven yards.

#7 Here is a close up of those last five shots. The number seven is small enough to be completely covered by a dime.

That is some pretty good shooting, even if I say so myself! The bad news is, I am not as accurate with my new XD. I decided to do some further tests just to make sure that I wasn't extremely lucky with my old XD.

#8 I placed a "Shoot-n-see" on the left of the target and took five shots with my New XD. I hit it twice, but missed three times.

#9 I decided to take five more shots, but this time I used my old XD. I wasn't as accurate with these five shots as I was while shooting at the number seven, but you can still see that the shots with my old XD are a bit closer.

#10 Five more shots at another "Shoot-n-see" with my new XD. All misses.

#11 Five More shots with my old XD. Three hits and two misses.

OK, it is now obvious that I am more accurate with my old XD than I am with my new one. When I got home, I took a closer look at my new XD and noticed the following.

#12-13 Here is a comparison of the front sight on my old and then my new XD. As you can see, the front sight does not sit flush on the top of the slide.

#14-17 The same is true with the rear sights. They do not sit completely flush on the top of the slide.

That would explain my shots being a bit high, but it would not explain why my shots tend to drift to the right. I am a left handed shooter so my shots tend to go right anyway, but how do I explain my dead on accuracy with my old XD and the wider grouping on my news XD? Are the sights really off on the new gun or am I just more comfortable shooting my old XD? I'm open to hearing if anyone has any ideas.

If your browser does not show the slide show, then just click View All Images.

McDonald's Boycott Lifted

I received a message from the American Family Association today informing me that their boycott against Micky D's has been lifted. *Join me as I heave a sigh of relief.* Although I personally took some heat for our boycott stance, it was well worth it. I am thankful that McDonald's has realized that supporting the homosexual agenda is not a wise business decision. I am also thankful to God for this opportunity to show our kids that God does indeed answer prayer.

When we first informed our kids that we would not longer be eating at McDonald's, they were bummed, but understood. Since they are so young, we didn't want to get into all of the details about homosexuality, but we did tell them that they had made some decisions which were against families. That is all they needed to hear. From that time on, whenever we passed a McDonald's in the car, the kids would yell, "EEEWWWWWW!" Becky nor I instigated this reaction. They came up with it all by themselves. Now I am looking forward to seeing their reaction when I give them this good news.

Here is the letter from the AFA in its entirety.

Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire e-mail list of family and friends.

AFA ends boycott: McDonald's agrees to changes
October 9, 2008

Dear Keith,
Great news! Because of AFA supporters like you, McDonald’s has told AFA they will remain neutral in the culture war regarding homosexual marriage. AFA is ending the boycott of McDonald’s. As you know, AFA called for the boycott in May after McDonald’s joined the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).

McDonald’s said McDonald’s Vice President Richard Ellis has resigned his position on the board of NGLCC and that his seat on the board will not be replaced. McDonald’s also said that the company has no plans to renew their membership in NGLCC when it expires in December.

In an e-mail to McDonald’s franchised owners the company said, “It is our policy to not be involved in political and social issues. McDonald’s remains neutral on same sex marriage or any ‘homosexual agenda’ as defined by the American Family Association.”

We appreciate the decision by McDonald’s to no longer support political activity by homosexual activist organizations. You might want to thank your local McDonald’s manager.


Thank you for caring enough to get involved. If you feel our efforts are worthy of support, would you consider making a small tax-deductible contribution to help us continue?


Sincerely,
Donald E. Wildmon,
Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

Big Smilin' Boy!

Our new-born son is beginning to smile. Here is one of his first.

Stream Send Responds

As I mentioned in our September 4 2008 entry, we recently switched from Stream Send (SS) to Constant Contact (CC). When I canceled my account with SS, I was prompted to supply a reason for our cancellation. I simply wrote, "Here is why" then supplied a link to our blog.

It wasn't long (maybe two hours) before I received a call from SS. I was told that my blog was read and was then asked to reconsider. I was offered a month of free service, and our own personal SS assistant. Usually they only offer assistants to larger companies, but because of our bad experience with their product, they would allow us access to one for free. I was also told that we had an older version of SS and the newer version was much more user friendly.

I explained to SS that since we had already moved on, created templates and used CC, it was too late for us to consider their offer. But, what I would do for them is to update the rest of you about their offer. They are very serious about keeping customers so I thought it only fair to mention that they made an effort to get us to come back. There is no expiration on their offer to me so if we decide to leave CC, we could give SS another try.

If you decide to use Stream Send, feel free to let us know about your experience with them.

Twenty Years of Forgiveness- My Testimony

Yesterday was my 20th spiritual birthday! I shared that with some alumni from Emmaus Bible College and one of my friends asked me to share my testimony. I decided that it would be easier to do it on YouTube rather than write it out.

Enjoy!

Jehovah's Witnesses And Politics

I've posted a few blogs about Mormonism and politics, due to Mitt Romney's influence, but I have yet to write about Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs)and politics. The reason for that is pretty simple. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (WTB&TS) does not allow their members to vote or hold any political office.

The WTB&TS's official web site states,

"In advocating God's Kingdom, Jehovah's Witnesses do not mix in politics or
foment rebellion against secular governments, even in lands where the Witnesses
are banned or persecuted. (Titus 3:1) Instead, they try to make a positive, spiritual, nonpolitical contribution in the way that Jesus and his first-century disciples did. The Witnesses strive to help righteously disposed people in their various communities to adopt wholesome Biblical values, such as familial love, honesty, moral cleanness, and a good work ethic. Primarily, they endeavor to teach them how to follow Bible principles and to look to God's Kingdom as mankind's real hope."

Notice the false dichotomy. JWs are faced with seemingly only two choices. You can either participate in politics or you can advocate God's Kingdom by making a positive, spiritual, nonpolitical impact on the world. Obviously JWs want to promote God's kingdom so refraining from political involvement is a no-brainer. The reason JWs never think to entertain a third possible option is because of their belief that all of the World's governments are controlled by Satan, hence another false dichotomy; either stay out of politics or be controlled by Satan. To the JW, the choice is obvious.

In June of 2008, Tennis star Serena Williams told reporters at Wimbeldon that although she was excited about Barak Obama, she would not vote for him because she is a Jehovah's Witness. She went on to explain that JWs "don't get involved in politics." Her sister, Venus, would not even make a comment on the issue. I find it interesting that Serena would make a comment about Obama at all. If he, as a politician, is controlled by Satan, why be excited about his chances of becoming the next President of the United States?

There is a question about this WTB&TS policy that I would love to have answered. As we get closer to the Presidential election in November, I will add this to my Youtube video collection of Quick Questions For Jehovah's Witnesses. Why are JWs forbidden from participating in politics when we have Scriptural examples of faithful heroes of the faith who actually held public office in secular, pagan Nations? Joseph was second only to Pharaoh in Egypt, Daniel was an advisor to the Kings of Babylon and let's not forget Ester who became the Queen of Persia!

With godly examples of Old Testament saints heavily involved in politics, why can't Jehovah's Witnesses escape the horns of the false dilemna? Isn't it possible to be a faithful Christian, yet support your country with such a simple thing as a vote?

From StreamSend To Constant Contact

We have been using a mass emailing product to keep in contact with those who sign up for our email update list. Our email update list is for those who would like to be informed of newly posted articles on our web site, scheduled speaking engagements, or special events. Contact information will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone. Feel free to sign up if you are interested.

After reading some reviews last year about different products, I settled on StreamSend. The review ranked StreamSend third, but talked about how user friendly it was. There were a number of features that interested me and I was really pleased about it's reported ease of use. I don't know who the reviewer was, but StreamSend is NOT easy.

My Mom and I are the ones who run the list, and after the both of us tried to figure out a number of things, we came to the conclusion that StreamSend is not for us. We gave it a fair shot and kept the service for more than a year. I guess we hoped that the learning curve would get less difficult, but it didn't. Both us of found ourselves in the position of not wanting to email our various lists because if was so difficult to do.

We looked into other options and settled on Constant Contact. The only problem was, we needed to import our lists into Constant Contact from StreamSend. What I will share next is a perfect explanation of why we no longer use StreamSend.


I was trying to sort through certain names using their filters. After trying everything I could think of, reading their FAQ and searching their help section, I finally had to call their support. Here is a picture of their filter tool. I was confused because no matter what I entered into these fields, the list would not export anything into an Excel spreadsheet like it was supposed to. The "simple" filter is not so simple after all.














When I was explaining what I was trying to do and then attempted to walk my way through it, the tech lady said, "No, not that way, you are supposed to skip the simple filter and enter your info on the bottom where it says, 'Select fields.'"

Huh? I am supposed to skip the simple filter and enter my stuff on the bottom of the form?

I asked where the instructions were that explained this. She said they didn't have any.

I asked, "Well, then, how am I suppose to know what to do? If Isee an empty field why would I think that I should not put a value there" She answered that given the lack of instructions, I would not know what to do. That is why they have tech support. I was stunned. After a pregnant, five second pause, I suggested, "Do you think you could talk with whomever designed this page and wrote the instructions and have them put complete instructions here so that people would not have to call you to get an answer that should already be here?"

Can you believe she actually said, "No, I don't think they'll do it." Right then and there, my thoughts about switching from StreamSend were confirmed. I knew I was doing business with the wrong company.

On the contrary, Constant Contact has been extremely user friendly. Unlike StreamSend, their FAQ section actually answers frequently asked questions. When I wanted to figure out how to add a Paypal button on the bottom of an e-mail, there was a link to a video tutorial that helped me through the process.

Creating the emails is so much easier as well. Instead of working with confusing templates, Constant Contact's options are very simple and easy to use. I am happy to say that since we now have a product that is much more user friendly, we will be doing a better job of keeping in touch with those who are interested in Evidence Ministries.

2008 Football Season Is Upon Us

Are you ready for some football? I created a football pool two years ago and invited family and friends to join. I finished in second place last year and hope to win it this year. This year I will do something a little different. The winner gets a $10 gift certificate to Dairy Queen. I can taste that large Chocolate Extreme Blizzard now!

I invite you to sign up for the EM football pool and join in the fun. In order to join, you must register as a user at http://www.poolhost.com/ When registering, you will choose a personal username and password. Once you've entered PoolHost.com as a registered user, go to the 'User Tools' menu and choose 'Join a Private Pool'. Click on the "Pro Football Pick'em" icon in the upper left corner and then you will be asked to enter the Pool's Login Name and the Pool's Password.

For the Pool's Login Name type: EMfootballpool

For the Pool's Password type: football

That's it and then you're in! The next time you login in to http://www.poolhost.com/, you can go to 'My Pools' and you'll see all pools that you belong to. Clicking on a pool name will take you to that pool. You can switch to a different pool by going to 'My Pools' again at any time. To Register, click here: http://www.poolhost.com/index.asp?page=register.asp