Evidence Ministries

2011 Evidence Ministries Football Pool!

2011-09-03T21:31:00.003-05:00

Are you ready for some football? I created a football pool five years ago and invited family and friends to join. This year we are upping the stakes or should I say "steaks." Instead of a $10 gift certificate to Dairy Queen, the winner gets a $20 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse. I can taste that juicy steak 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

Be sure to sign up before Sunday, September 11th. Don't worry about the game on Thursday, September 8th. I will credit the correct choice to everyone's account. We look forward to having you in our pool!

The Miracle and the Mormon Miracle Pageant

2011-06-25T00:46:00.005-05:00

This short dialogue is an example of just how cool our God is. Here is the scene. Our team member B. A. sits in a chair in the the street in front of the temple and is drawing the temple. A Mormon guy (MG) looks at the drawing and says;

"I'd like to buy your drawing as a mother's day gift for my Mom."

BA- "I'm sorry, but I've already promised it to someone else."

MG- "Well then, I would like to buy your next one."

BA- "I suppose I could mail it to you."

MG- "I live in Texas."

BA- "Really? Me too! Where?"

MG- "I live in San Antonio."

BA- "Me too!"

MG- "Are you LDS?"

BA - "No, I'm not."

MG- "I'm a jack-Mormon (inactive) and my wife is not a Mormon so I go to church with her."

BA- "Really? Where do you go?"

MG- "We go to CBC."

CBC is short for Community Bible Church. Becky and I have been members there for more than 17 years. Is God cool or what? BA has this man's contact info. Please join me in prayer that this Mormon guy gets saved and is on next year's team.

Manti- Tuesday June, 21 2011

2011-06-22T16:32:00.005-05:00

Tonight was pretty slow until right about 8:00. I handed out some tracts and had one left over when Russ Bales, a Christian from Salt Lake City, came over and told me that he wanted a picture of me next to one of the Mormon signs that declares that there is no proselytizing on their property. (Does that apply to their missionaries too?)

As we were walking over towards the sign, Russ asked a teenaged boy if he would mind taking a picture of the both of us. He took pictures on both of our cameras. Right after Easton, the Mormon boy, took the photo, Russ asked if he and his two friends had been properly evangelized today. Russ gave them one of his tracts and started a conversation about the nature of God. The boys didn’t really seem to interested so Russ asked if I had anything to add.

I handed Easton my last tract and started talking about how one obtains forgiveness of sin according to Mormonism. The five of us talked for about an hour. Russ and I tag-teamed pretty well and got the kids thinking. They agreed with our view of what is expected of them and all felt confident that they could stop sinning in this lifetime.

Once it got close to the time the pageant starts, they said they had to go, but they wanted to continue our conversation. They suggested that we exchange emails. Please pray for these three very respectful, intelligent young Mormon men.

P.S. I'll post bigger version of the pictures once I get the originals.

Beautiful Feet

2011-06-21T16:13:00.002-05:00

Manti 2011 Week One

The first week of this year’s trip was AWESOME! We had many things happen for the first time, some good and some not so good. Since I always like to end with the good news, I’ll mention the big thing that happened on Sunday morning. It rained just about all night Saturday night so we woke up to rain-drenched tents. The insides of the tent were fine, but the outsides were all wet. We’ve never had to roll up and pack wet tents before. We dragged the tents under the pavilion and did the best we could.

The good news is that every one of our team members got into a conversation every night of the pageant. That has never happened before. This team has been very fun, extremely engaging and had no problem initiating conversations with Mormons. Even the meekest among us lovingly displayed boldness that can only be given by the Holy Spirit. I am most encouraged to see our team members catch the same vision we have for the Mormon people. They are already talking about next year and who they want to bring. Here is a hint. If you are in our Sunday School class, you are already a target.

Romans 10:14-15

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Training for Manti 2011 begins!

2011-04-28T21:57:00.004-05:00

I should have posted this earlier, but 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 Thursday, April 28 and will go through Monday, June 9. We will be meeting at Community Bible Church in room P-7B (portable) from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. The portables are behind the building. Childcare is available with advance notice.

Our class schedule is as follows.
April 28- Introductions and The Mormon Puzzle Video.
May 5- The Mormon World View of Exaltation.
May 12- Mormonism's Impossible Gospel Part 1.
May 19- Mormonism's Impossible Gospel Part 2.
May 26- Explaining the Gospel to Mormons.
June 2- God Is Not A Man.
June 9- 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. Feel free to bring a friend!

Thugs or Hugs?

2011-04-25T13:25:00.010-05:00

Every six months (April and October) the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a special weekend conference where Mormons and other invited guests come and listen to the words of Mormon “prophets.” The words of these men are considered by many Mormons to be modern day scripture. Christians have used General Conference as an opportunity to preach the gospel to Mormons for many years. Some can be quite loud as they publicly preach to the crowds while others quietly have one-on-one conversations. Some carry signs and some do not.

Becky (my wife) had an idea for a General Conference outreach and since we have never attended, we decided to go so that we could get a sense of what actually happens during the conference. We observed how the crowds move, what times are the busiest, which intersections are more congested with people and where we can legally stand so as not to disrupt the flow of foot-traffic. It was a very successful trip and we now have a better idea of what we can do in the future.

Along with the street preachers and those having conversations with Mormons, there was one other group of Christians who were offering “free hugs” to anyone walking nearby. We encourage Christians to be friendly to the Mormon people and have no problem with hugs. The issue I have with these Christians was that they were offering hugs, but no real hope. They absolutely refused to witness to the Mormons and are very critical of those who do. Charles Hill, the pastor of One Community Church, was the man behind this “hugging campaign.” He wrote an interesting blog post regarding this “outreach.” I am going to focus on certain things he stated as well as quotes from an online article which is supportive of this type of ministry. Here is the link to Hill’s blog post. http://chazzdaddy.com/2011/03/31/dragging-the-book-of-mormon-on-the-ground-you-mormon-whores/

The first thing that stands out about Hill’s post is the title, “Dragging the Book of Mormon on the Ground, You Mormon Whores.” This is an obvious attempt to grasp the reader’s attention. (I wonder how that is any different from those he criticizes.) Hill provides a link to a YouTube video which shows some street preachers preaching, dragging a Book of Mormon on the ground with a string and making various offensive remarks. Hill claims that these Christian men, “yell, scream, spit, and cause a scene, even with many of the people who attend being young children. The words, prostitute, whores, etc. are thrown around.” This explanation is curious because nowhere in the video does anyone spit or use the words “prostitute” or “whore.”

Referring to the actions of the street preachers, Hill states, “Read all the way to the end to see what our response will be this weekend.” He then explains that Christians are to love the lost. He alludes to a few Bible verses about loving our neighbors and then states, “Jesus didn’t scream and hold signs at the Samaritan well. Read the Bible, thugs. [In love I say that].”

I can understand Hill’s dislike for the actions of the street preachers. Years ago I personally witnessed some street preachers at the Hill Cumorah Pageant say some pretty mean things to Mormons. I do not advocate that, but I am equally uncomfortable with Hill’s apparent careless, condemnation. I would be interested to hear what Hill thinks of the various actions of some of the Old Testament prophets or even some of the choice words of Jesus Himself. Let’s start with the Old Testament prophets.

The first one who comes to mind is Jeremiah. In his first sermon (chapter three, verse 1), Jeremiah likens faithless Israel to a harlot. In verse two Jeremiah proclaims that the land is polluted by Israel’s whoredoms. Jeremiah’s sermons are written down for us. They were loudly proclaimed in his day. Is it possible that children heard those sermons?

Elijah is another example. Of the many exploits of this prophet, the most famous is his confrontation with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah on Mount Carmel in 1^st Kings 18:19-40. Before Elijah calls the consuming fire from heaven, he continuously insults the false prophets in verse 27. Does that fit into our politically correct paradigm for a prophet of God to insult those he is about to execute? If Hill was in the crowd of people who witnessed the events on Mount Carmel, would he call Elijah a “thug?”

If the street preachers use words like “whore” and “prostitute” (although the video does not show that), and they cast insults at people, then it looks like they have a Biblical precedence for it. Let me be clear. I am not approving of the alleged use of these terms or insults by the preachers. The point I want to make is that in doing so, they could make a case for following Biblical examples.

Speaking of which, let us be thankful that these street preachers do not follow the examples of Ezekiel or Isaiah. Ezekiel publicly baked bread over cow dung (Ezekiel 4:10-15) as a sign to Israel and Isaiah preached naked for three years (Isaiah 20:1-3). While there are plenty of people who already think that temple square on a conference weekend is a zoo, it could be a lot worse. Think “stinky” with a much less pleasant view.

Yes, the Old Testament prophets did some pretty crazy things. Jesus Himself did also. On two occasions He cleared money changers out of the temple and overturned their tables. The account in John notes that Jesus did it with a whip (Matthew 21:12-12, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, John 2:14-17). He also had some rather unflattering things to say about the religious leaders of the day. In Matthew 23:15-17 He called them, “hypocrites, sons of hell, blind guides and fools.” It gets worse as the chapter progresses. Verses 27-33 contain such words like, “white-washed tombs, lawlessness, sons of murderers, serpents, brood of vipers and sentenced to hell.” Did Jesus lovingly articulate these words or was He… offensive? How does one hug with a whip?

I bring out these points not to agree with the methods of the street preachers or to give license to their actions. I realize that Jesus did these things and yet was without sin. That means that He had the right heart, passion, pure motives and correct attitude. The prophets probably did too. I mention these Biblical accounts because I want people to consider that we have some pretty radical examples in scripture of speech and conduct that is ordained of God, yet is not within the accepted norm nor culturally sensitive. If God can call men to do such “unacceptable” things like this in the past, how do we know that God has not called these men to do what they are doing at general conference?

One difference I would like to see in the street preachers is more of a sense of compassion and less meanness, but at the same time, we need to be careful before we become too quick to condemn their behavior. For in doing so, we may actually be bearing witness against ourselves. Did the Biblical prophets hear condemnation from the people in their time that was any different than what Mr. Hill heaps upon the street preachers at General Conference?

The next troubling part of Hill’s blog that I want to address is when he states, “Read all the way to the end to see what our response will be this weekend.” The end part of the blog reads, “Our brand new church is going to go down this Saturday [want to come join us? hit me up on my e-mail] and give out some love, Jesus style. “HUGS not THUGS” will be our marching orders. We will be handing out free hugs to those who need a boost after walking past our brothers and sisters in Jesus who just gave them an ear full. We will give them an arm full.” The context of his statements are that he wants to do something different than the street preachers, in response to their actions. Did I read that correctly? Mr. Hill wants to do an “outreach” in response to the street preachers? Let me get this straight. Is he really saying that the Gospel isn’t enough to motivate him? He needs to throw other Christians under the bus in order to gain favor in the sight of the Mormons? If that is the case, then His purpose isn’t to reach the Mormons at all. It is to make himself and his congregation look better than other Christians. I seriously doubt that Hill would agree with this assessment, but that is what he is communicating. I have had numerous Christians express similar concerns about this campaign.

A passage of Scripture comes to mind. Paul notes in Philippians chapter one that certain ministers are preaching the gospel out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives (Philippians 1:15-18). Paul correctly identifies the impure motives, but what is his response? He rejoices because the gospel is still being preached! Is this the same with Hill’s type of “outreach?” Would Paul still rejoice? I think he would… if Hill preached the gospel. The problem is, Hill purposefully does not do that.

On April 5^th 2011, The Christian Post wrote an internet article about Hill’s “outreach” titled, “Christians Counter Hate, Offer Love to Mormons.” This article mentions that Hill has, “built relationships with many Mormons. He often opens his house up to his neighbors, almost all of whom are part of the LDS Church. But again, he has clarified that he's not out to convert them to his Christian faith, but rather to simply love them.” The article goes on to say that Hill disagrees with treating Mormons like a “conversion project.” When I first saw the folks holding the “Free hugs” signs, I wondered what they were doing. When I asked, one gentleman stretched out his arms and asked, “How about a hug?” I initially declined because I wanted to talk. I asked again. The explanation I received was that they just wanted to “love on” people. “We don’t want to yell at you. We just want to offer you a hug.” In this short video clip you’ll see a young lady come up to one of the Christians to get her free hug. Note that there was absolutely NO attempt on the part of the Christian to witness to the young lady.

When a free hug was offered to me, there was no effort to engage me in a spiritual dialogue and absolutely no mention of Jesus. I was told that the people in the hugging campaign were not there to start conversations. It was said that we can't argue people into the kingdom. They are right. You cannot argue someone into the kingdom of God. I’m just curious as to why they evidently think they can hug them into the kingdom.

Another problematic part of Hill’s blog is when he states, “Jesus didn’t scream and hold signs at the Samaritan well. Read the Bible, thugs. [In love I say that].” I couldn’t believe it when I read that for the first time. If Mr. Hill can insult these men and call them thugs, then why does he question the motives of people who use words he does not like? The street preachers are more honest in that they will call someone a thug to their face, not just on a blog post. Does Mr. Hill, have the courage to call these men thugs to their faces? If so, did he? Would it be right to do so? If not, then why do it from behind a keyboard and computer screen?

What Hill seems to misunderstand is that most evangelists are not at general conference to make friends anymore than the Old Testament prophets were in their day or Jesus was when He wielded the whip. There is a time for friendship evangelism and there is a time for public warning. Jesus understood this and that is why He didn’t preach judgment at the Samaritan well or start a relational dialogue with the money changers in the temple.

Interestingly enough, the Book of Mormon has a character within its pages which is very similar to the street preachers at General Conference. The children’s area in the Church History Museum across the street from Temple square has an exhibit dedicated to him. The sign next to the exhibit says, “Samuel the Lamanite told the people that Jesus Christ would soon come into the world. He warned the people to repent. Some people believed what he said, but many people did not listen. They even tried to kill him. Like Samuel, we can stand for truth, even if it seems that no one is listening.”

Samuel the Lamanite was a Book of Mormon prophet who was charged by God to preach repentance to the Nephite people. Because of his past exploits among the Nephites, he was not allowed to enter into the city. That is when he decided to preach from the top of the city wall. Helaman 13:4 states, “And it came to pass that they would not suffer that he should enter into the city; therefore he went and got upon the wall thereof, and stretched forth his hand and cried with a loud voice, and prophesied unto the people whatsoever things the Lord put into his heart.” I find it interesting that, even though Mormonism has within its scripture characters who resemble the Christians at general conference, the Mormons have almost no tolerance for their activities. The difference between Samuel the Lamanite and the street preachers at General Conference is that the street preachers do not climb walls.

Toward the end of Sunday afternoon’s conference, me and Chip Thompson of Tri-Grace Ministries were listening to Lonnie Pursifull, one of the most notorious street preachers, preach to Mormons as they were leaving the conference center. We listened to him for a good amount of time and I can honestly say that he never said anything hateful or inappropriate while we were there.

Sometimes the Mormons would cast insults in his direction or say something derogatory about his preaching. When that would happen, Chip and I would declare, “He sounds like Samuel the Lamanite to me.” Sometimes the Mormons would sneer at us, but every once in awhile, a surprised Mormon would look at us with a thoughtful gaze. One time our comment prompted two Mormon missionaries to stop and talk to us for about half an hour. Chip had the senior of the two and I was able to talk to a guy who was raised Methodist, but was baptized into the LDS Church a year and a half ago. We both had good one-on-one conversations.

We talked about the nature of God, how to obtain forgiveness of sins, James 1:5 and testing the spirits. I did not pull any punches with this young man and told him that he was deceived, unforgiven and needed Jesus. Once our conversation was over, he thanked me for being kind and caring. That may sound contradictory in the light of the things that I said to him, but this young man understood my heart. He knew that I was not trying to offend him or be rude for the sake of being rude.

Sometimes Mormons need to hear hard things and because of that, I want to make sure that if they are offended, that they are offended because of the gospel and not because of my behavior or attitude. Thankfully, these guys were not offended by anything we said and were actually appreciative of the fact that we were honest enough with them to tell them what we believe about their position before God. At the end of our conversation, the missionary to whom I was speaking did something that completely shocked me. He hugged me. HE initiated the hug. Wow. I didn’t even have a “free hugs” sign.

My purpose in sharing this last story is to make the point that we are not dealing with an either/or situation here. From reading Hill’s blog it is easy to get the impression that there are only two options; you either hug/love the Mormons, and refrain from using the hugs as a witnessing tool, or you accept the label of a Christian thug. I reject both extremes.

Ephesians 4:15 tells us to “speak the truth in love.” This verse does not give us one commandment, but two. It tells us what to do and how to do it. First, we are to speak the truth. The street preachers are good at that. Does the LDS Church follow false prophets? Yes. Do Mormons need Jesus? Everyone does. Will Mormons go to hell if they remain in their unforgiven position before God? There is no doubt about it.

Second, we are to preach in love. That is the trick, to preach the message that Mormons are in eternal danger without coming across like we are happy about it. If you were to ask the average Mormon who makes them feel more loved, the street preachers or Mr. Hill’s group, I would be willing to bet that they would chose Hill’s group. But if a Mormon stands before the Lord in condemnation and the street preachers and Hill’s group is present, what will be harder for the Christians to hear, “You didn’t hug me” or “You didn’t tell me the truth?” The point is, truth and love need each other. Truth without love can be too abrasive, too hard. Love without truth is too soft. If love is devoid of truth, is it really love at all? While it is possible to speak the truth without love, is it possible to love, to really love and not tell the truth?

Romans chapter 10 tells us of the unmistakable need for preachers. How would it read if we changed a few words to make it fit into this “hugging ideology?” Starting at verse 13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they believe without a hugger? And how can anyone hug unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the arms of those who bring good hugs!” That is a bit silly, but then again, that is the point.

Lastly, I would like to address Pastor Hill directly. I recognize that some of what I have written is not easy for you to hear. Please accept this blog in the spirit in which it is intended. I mean you no harm and have no malice towards you. I simply want you to reconsider some of what you have said about your Christian brothers and done to them publicly. Posting a picture of a friend of mine on your twitter account which calls him a “thug” even after he apologized to you for some of the things he said to you? Not cool. Having your people yell “Free hugs” in an attempt to drown out his preaching of the gospel? Really not cool and certainly unchristian.

I don’t know if you realize this or not, but every media outlet that has reported on the “hugging campaign” has made reference to your “Hugs not thugs” quip. Is that how you really want to be known, by giving the “thugs” their name? Regardless of your intent, that is now how people know you. If you want to give out free hugs to all the Mormons at General Conference, I have no problem with that. Just please don’t denigrate your Christian brothers and sisters in the process. It comes across like you are standing together with the Mormons and pointing your finger at all the other Christians. Again, not cool.

I want to encourage you to do something contrary to what your blog states. You signed off on your “hugs blog” by saying, “Anyway…back to safe living for Jesus now. Thanks for stopping by.” You don’t strike me as the type of guy who really wants to “live safe for Jesus.” Hugging people is safe, but sticking your reputation on the line for the sake of the gospel? That is not safe living. Risking friendships for their eternal good is real love, but it is not safe living. I dare you to abandon safe living. Keep hugging people, but do so while embracing the preaching of the truth to the people God has called you to reach. At this point it looks as if you want to be know by your hugs, I’d rather be known by radically speaking the truth in love.

From The Jewel Box #27

2011-03-03T16:10:00.000-06:00

Our oldest son was commiserating over the fact that he lost a dice game and ended up with zero points. He sighed, "I'm such a dumb loser." Our daughter, in an attempt to make him feel better said, "You're just a loser, you're not dumb."

*******
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!

2010 Evidence Ministries Football Pool!

2010-09-09T23:01:00.005-05:00

Are you ready for some football? I created a football pool four 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! Congratulations to Becky's brother, Terry, for winning last year's pool.

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

Don't worry about the fact that we've already had one game. Just be honest and tell me who you would have picked and I will enter it in for you before Sunday's games.

***Edit***
Last Thursday's game messed up week one so I am going to give everyone correct picks for the first week. It isn't too late to join. Look at it this way, you've already started the pool with a perfect score!

Red and Yellow Kill a Fellow...

2010-05-03T08:52:00.004-05:00

...red and black, friend of Jack. The title above is a well known mnemonic to help people remember the difference between a harmless king snake and the venomous coral snake. If red and black touch each other, the snake is a king snake. If the red and yellow stripes touch, the snake is a coral snake. As you can see from the stripes on the snake in this picture, this is the dangerous kind.

My neighbor found this snake in his yard in-between our two houses. He managed to kill it with a shovel. What makes me almost sick to my stomach is he thought that one of our kids could have happened upon this snake first. The good thing is coral snakes are not aggressive and will retreat if given the chance. The bad news is that they are highly venomous and are related to the mamba and cobra.

After my neighbor showed me the dead snake, I bagged it and put it in the refrigerator so that I could show our kids later on in the day. When Becky came home, I did not make it downstairs in time to warn her about our new little refrigerator resident. To her credit, she did not scream or freak out. She was glad I kept it and wanted to make sure that our kids could recognize one on sight and knew to stay away from it.
That is also the reason for this blog. I want you to know that, yes, coral snakes are alive and well in San Antonio. Please warn your kids about them, especially if they are outside in the mornings or evenings.

#30 When Mormons Attack! Quick Questions For Mormons

2010-02-19T18:54:00.001-06:00

Does the Mormon Church really refrain from attacking other churches? Listen to this quote from a new official Mormon Church manual!

#29 Dead Men Don't... Quick Questions For Mormons

2010-02-05T22:02:00.001-06:00

I have never heard a good answer to this question.

Has He Really Been In Office For A Year?

2010-01-21T15:17:00.002-06:00

Barack Obama meets with the Queen of England. He asks her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?"

"Well," says the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people."

Obama frowns "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?"

The Queen takes a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy. You just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle." The Queen pushes a button on her intercom. "Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?"

Tony Blair walks into the room. "Yes, my Queen?"

The Queen smiles. "Answer me this, please, Tony. Your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"

Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answers, "That would be me."

"Yes! Very good," says the Queen.

Obama goes back home to ask Joe Biden, his vice president, the same question. "Joe. Answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"

"I'm not sure," says Biden. "Let me get back to you on that one." He goes to his advisors and asks every one, but none can give him an answer. Finally, he ends up in the men's room and recognizes Colin Powell's shoes in the next stall.

Biden asks Powell, "Colin! Can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"

Colin Powell yells back, "That's easy. It's me!"

Biden smiles, and says, "Thanks!" Then, he goes back to speak with Obama.

"Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It's Colin Powell."

Obama gets up, stomps over to Biden, and angrily yells into his face, "No, you idiot! It's Tony Blair!"

Hat Tip to Xavie r

#29 Could God? Quick Questions For Jehovah's Witnesses

2010-01-20T15:21:00.001-06:00

My latest QQFJW. If a Jehovah's Witness answers this question honestly, they just may be on their way to begin thinking for themselves.

Keith

#26 Why Worship? Quick Questions For Mormons

2009-09-23T19:58:00.002-05:00

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

2009-09-10T16:24:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-09-09T17:25:00.005-05:00

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

2009-06-22T17:08:00.005-05:00

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

2009-05-18T13:44:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-21T11:34:00.001-05:00

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

2009-04-15T15:49:00.000-05:00

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

2009-03-23T16:22:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-20T11:20:00.005-05:00

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

2009-03-05T10:38:00.005-06:00

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

2009-01-23T11:53:00.000-06:00

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

2009-01-22T13:46:00.005-06:00

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

2009-01-15T10:33:00.003-06:00

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

2008-12-29T12:32:00.004-06:00

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!

2008-12-24T10:42:00.002-06:00

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

2008-12-08T20:41:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-11-28T11:24:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-07T09:26:00.010-06:00

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!

2008-11-04T14:34:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-10-31T12:14:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-27T16:55:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-16T15:46:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-10T17:55:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-09T15:24:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-10-05T20:24:00.001-05:00

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

Stream Send Responds

2008-09-30T15:25:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-17T14:47:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-09T12:18:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-04T12:33:00.005-05:00

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

2008-08-25T21:21:00.002-05:00

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

From The Jewel Box # 23

2008-08-20T14:36:00.001-05:00

We were sitting at the table for lunch today and our oldest son says, "Look Daddy. I am a parallelogram!"

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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!

Obama For Infanticide?

2008-08-18T23:36:00.001-05:00

This is a pretty disturbing video. I don't know how the guy sleeps at night.

Keith Walker For President- I'm Going For It!

2008-08-15T11:53:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it's for real all right.

Romney Advocates Following Mormon Prophet, Even If It Is Wrong

2008-08-05T12:32:00.004-05:00

No, not that Romney. The other one. Marion G. Romney, 1st cousin once removed from former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Yeah, that one.

Marion G. Romney, who attained to the First Presidency of the Mormon Church, once told a story about then President of the LDS Church, David O. McKay. In this story, the LDS President encourages Romney to "keep his eye on the President." Romney states;

I remember years ago when I was a bishop I had President Grant talk to our ward.
After the meeting, I drove him home. At that time there was a great deal of
criticism against the President of the Church because of a front-page editorial
some of you may remember. We talked about it. When we got to his home I got out
of the car and went up on the porch with him. Standing by me, he put his arm
over my shoulder and said: "My boy, you always keep your eye on the President of
the Church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do
it, the Lord will bless you for it." Then with a twinkle in his eye, he said,
"But you don't need to worry. The Lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the
people astray."
(Elder Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, October 1960,
General Priesthood Meeting 78.)

Even if it is wrong? This statement raises a number of questions.
First, if something is wrong by nature, who decided that is was wrong? That would be God, right? He has the authority to declare what is right and wrong.

Second, doesn't the LDS prophet claim to receive authority and direction from God? That being the case, the LDS prophet is himself subject to the authority of God.

Third, why would God bless someone who disobeyed Him because they were obeying someone else of lesser authority?

Fourth, why would that person of lesser authority, i.e. the prophet, encourage people to obey Him even if it is wrong?

Fifth, and this is a side question. Does Mitt Romney agree with this reasoning? If so, and he is chosen as the Vice President and some day is put in the position where he must chose to obey one or the other, how can Americans be assured that he will do the right thing instead of obeying his prophet?

The Heroes Amongst Us

2008-07-25T09:25:00.002-05:00

First there was Iron man. Then there was The Hulk, Hancock, Hell boy and now Batman. All of these Summer blockbusters have one thing in common- they are all about super-heroes. Although I want to see all of these movies, I’ve only seen one of them to date. I’m going to see Iron man with a friend soon so I’ll let you guess which superhero movie I’ve already seen.

There are the heroes in the movies and then the every day heroes amongst us that we often look past. I’ve got a superhero on my mind right now, but she isn’t any of those listed above. My hero is my wife, Becky. Let me tell you about her.

First off, I have to say that she is tough. I cannot tell you how many times I heard men talking about her while we were on our mission trip to the Mormons in Manti, Utah. She was severely pregnant, yet still out there on the streets witnessing and serving God. She was in pain, yet shrugged it off by telling me, “They’re worth it” referring to the Mormons to whom we were witnessing. Not only did she impress me, she impressed everyone who saw her.

Now, after given birth to our third child, she continues to impress me. She had to endure her third c-section, yet wanted to make sure that her pain medication was not going to negatively affect our baby boy. Guys, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but having a c-section is major surgery. They cut her open with a laser, dig around until they find the kidlett, pull him out by his little head, nicely set some of her organs on a table and clean a few things up. It is pretty weird seeing her uterus lying on an operating table while she is completely conscious. Of course she could not feel anything then, but even the thought of it could make a lesser woman freak out.

Once we got her and the little one home, she impresses me even more. For the first couple of nights, I have helped her with feeding our son during the night. Once she got the hang of it, she encouraged me to stay in bed because she really didn’t need my help any more. Wow, what a woman! I still get up with her from time to time, but for the most part, I have taken her up on her offer.

There have been a couple of nights where things did not go as smoothly as hoped. Our son wasn’t cooperating with our sleep/feed/sleep schedule and he decided to experiment with a no-sleep/feed/scream/sleep while feeding schedule. That’ll wear on you real quick. I’m a bit ashamed to reveal at what time I crawled out of bed, but Becky was already up. The baby was fed and sound asleep, the two older kids were in their room and I can hear Becky going over some of their phonics rules with them as they are reading through one of their books. That is when it hit me. The patience to do phonics in the morning after a hard, sleepless night? Holy contribution to the education of minors, Batman! I married my hero!

Today marks the 16th anniversary of our marriage. I knew I married the right one 16 years ago, but it is so cool to see God confirm that. Hard times allow us to see what is deep inside and after seeing how she responded to the difficulties of having our third child; I know that I married a true hero.

I love you, Becky.

Quick Questions For Jehovah's Witnesses #1- Whose Witnesses?

2008-07-21T23:58:00.003-05:00

We have started a new series on our ministry Youtube channel called, "Quick Questions For Jehovah's Witnesses" (QQFJW). Like our QQFM, these will be quick questions, hence the name, that JWs and other interested parties can think about and come to their own conclusion. The anwsers to the questions just might be a little more revealing than most JWs would want to admit.

I have already created two QQs for both JWs and Mormons. You can view these by going to our Youtube channel and clicking on the playlists. If you would like to submit a QQ, I can be reached through our web site.

Here is our first QQFJW.

Homecoming For Baby Walker

2008-07-18T16:04:00.001-05:00

We're finally home! Now we just need to find a routine.

Day Three- The Cuteness Continues!

2008-07-16T23:12:00.001-05:00

More pictures of baby Walker. He gets cuter every day. If you want to see captions, put your mouse over the pictures as they scroll by.

Baby Boy: Day Two

2008-07-15T23:11:00.002-05:00

Kidlett and Mommy are doing fine. Our son looks cuter today than he did yesterday. He is nursing fine and Mommmy is happy about that. Thanks to all who have commented, e-mailed, called and stopped by. We know we are loved!

Here are a few more pictures.

D-Day

2008-07-14T22:37:00.003-05:00

Happy birthday son! We had our third child this morning and he is a great looking kid. As is our custom, we will not mention our children's names on the internet, but we do have a few pictures to share. Mom and baby are doing fine. I've got a lot of thoughts running through my mind right now, but most of it is fuzzy. I've been up since 4:00 this morning and need to get to sleep.

Enjoy the pictures. I will report more when I get a chance.

McDonald's Drops The H-bomb!

2008-07-11T14:01:00.002-05:00

The F-bomb is usually used once the speaker has come to an end of their vocabulary. Like the F-bomb, the H-bomb is another bomb used today in the attempt to silence critics with intimidation, fear and shame.

"Hatred has no place in our culture," McDonald's USA spokesman Bill Whitman said.

Those who respond to their critics by accusing them of hatred are either too lazy or unable to come up with an intelligent, reasonable response.

Read the ridiculousness here.

From The Jewel Box # 22

2008-07-10T14:21:00.001-05:00

This past Monday night our family had an appointment at the hospital in preparation for the impending birth of our third child. We decided to make it a family date night and took the kids to Carino's Italian Grill. They've got this amazing deal on Monday nights where you buy a "family meal" for the price of the single entree.' The family meal feeds at least three adults and is quite enough for me, Becky and our two kids.

The dish we had on Monday night was called Chicken Milano which included four chicken breasts covered with ham, cheese and a generous portion of noodles with Alfredo sauce. Mmmmm, Alfredo sauce! Me and Alf get along real nice!

As we were eating, our daughter said the following about our meal; "This is so good, I can't keep my taste buds off of it!"

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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!

Boycott McDonald's

2008-07-08T18:57:00.002-05:00

The American Family Foundation has called for a boycott of McDonald's because of its support of the rabid, anti-family, gay agenda. Micky D's was asked to be neutral in the culture wars, but instead released a statement reiterating their stance against traditional family values.

If you would like more information about the boycott, visit the web site set up specifically for this boycott. I have left a comment and have notified McDonal's that our family will no longer be patrons of their restaurant. I encourage you to do the same.

Although this is a serious issue, I thought it would be appropriate to lighten it up a bit with this funny video about homosexuality. It just ain't natural folks.

Happy Birthday America!

2008-07-04T22:51:00.005-05:00

Happy fourth of July to every one! We decided to celebrate by going to the circus. My folks and I took the kids while Becky stayed home to stay off of her feet. Baby Walker is due any day now so Becky needed to take it easy. While at the circus, I took a few pictures and a good amount of video. The circus was good, but all of us agreed that last year's circus was better.

The circus may not seem like a "patriotic" activity, but I like the idea of it. I enjoy the freedom of the acrobats on the trapeze and high wires. They seemingly fly through the air with little to no restraints. Personally, the circus represents a sense of controlled freedom. There is an incredible amount of skill involved in the many different acts that entertain the amazed crowds. That practiced skill is the control needed to accomplish the acts which portray the illusion of total freedom. We've all seen people who are able to do difficult feats and are so good at it, that they make it look easy.

That is sort of how I see our country. We have freedom, yet that freedom should not be used as license. If freedom is used carelessly, the results can be tragic. Freedom has it's roots in the sacrifices and efforts of those who have come before us. As we have all learned from that awesome line in the first Spider-Man movie; "With great power, comes great responsibility." As American Christians, we have the responsibility to live our lives in such a way that allows God to use us for His glory.

Extra Hole In The Head Boy!

2008-07-01T10:48:00.002-05:00

Our son finally lost his first tooth! He is pretty excited about the extra hole in his head.

Quick Questions For Mormons #1- Whose church?

2008-06-29T15:23:00.003-05:00

We will be starting a new series on our ministry Youtube channel called, "Quick Questions For Mormons" (QQFM). These will be quick questions, hence the name, that Mormons and other interested parties can think about and come to their own conclusion. The anwsers to the questions just might be a little more revealing than most Mormons would want to admit.

At this point I am not sure how often we will have new questions, but we will add them to our Youtube channel periodically. If you would like to submit a QQFM, I can be reached through our web site.

Here is our first QQFM.

The Second Amendment Is Simple, Really.

2008-06-27T14:24:00.001-05:00

It really isn't that hard.

2008 Manti Mission Trip Report Part 2

2008-06-18T17:11:00.005-05:00

I'm having a hard time keeping up with my journaling. Since I am in the park and Becky is not, she is able to get more done journaling-wise. She is all caught up so I will post her thoughts and then will do mine once I can get to them. I will also post pictures after I get them taken off of my camera.

From Becky's 2008 Manti Journal.
Friday, June 13
We had another regular morning with being at the church from 9:30-noon. Our speakers were Junelle Jacobson (the lady I’m staying with) and Mitz Nelson. They are both ex-LDS from the community and they shared some gut-wrenching stuff about their journey out of Mormonism and what it’s like now still living in this community year-round. There was not a dry-eye in the place. They could have talked to us all day and we were just spell-bound. Afterwards, we decided to do something out of the ordinary and go to a great restaurant called “Tin Plate Pasta” for lunch. God brought us a neat witnessing opportunity there that I’m sure Keith will tell you about in his journaling. I was praising God because after we had ordered and were standing there talking to these Mormons, God gave me the idea to sneak up behind them and pay for their lunch. Keith didn’t even realize I had done that until the next day when I told him, so that was really fun!

We spent some down-time at the park just resting up for the evening and journaling and studying.

On the streets………………
Tonight there was sooooo much going on that I spent too much time on my feet. I hardly sat down, but I couldn’t help it. Not too long after the singing/prayer time, I got up from my chair and started to wander towards two security guys (Steve and John) whom I had started to get to know the night before just on a casual basis. I thought I wanted to go talk to them, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Polynesian looking lady, so I decided to go see if she was from Hawaii and get into a conversation with her. She was from Tonga, but her white husband came up right away too and he had on a T-shirt that said, “North Shore Hawaii.” She was not real outgoing, but her husband was, so we started talking. His name was Bill and we got into stuff right away. He started by asking a lot of the typical questions about what group I was with, how many churches were out here, where we were all from, etc. I had our team T-shirt on, so I used that to start heading in the direction of the impossible gospel. He made it obvious that he was real uncomfortable with the thought of me getting out my quad, so I just talked him through some of the things dealing with forgiveness of sins from memory and just quoted the verses. He was doing a lot of the typical LDS-isms of hearing the verse and then telling me it didn’t mean what it said and then proceeding to give me his own opinion. I respected his wishes about not pulling anything out of my backpack until he started telling me that as long as we were trying, God would be OK with that. I could stand it no longer, and then I told I just had to show him something in the Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball. The part I showed him explains very clearly that trying is not sufficient. After reading it over, he told me that he had not read the entire book, but that a friend of his had and that he said it made him feel very depressed. I told him he needs to read the book to understand why that was true, because it was very depressing. He tried by telling me that the book was written for those who were complacent and didn’t really care about improving their life. I found that interesting since he had already admitted he had not read it all. He understood. Then he tried to tell me that near the end of the book it got better and said that it would all work out in the end, so I turned to the end of the book and showed him where it said that “the desire or urge to sin had to be completely cleared out of one’s life.” This stuck him too, but he just kept making up stuff. Several times in the conversation he mentioned that he understood why I could be getting the impressions that I was based on what I was reading, but that he was sure that there were quotes from recent general conferences that would say what he was telling me. I told him I’d like to see some of those. His kids were starting to come up to him wanting him to play with them, so I did not want to be obnoxious, especially since we had already been talking for a little over an hour, so I asked him if I could give him my email and maybe he could find me some quotes and email them to me. He seemed uncomfortable with that and started looking around. (I think it was because of his wife) I really did not want to let everything just go, so as we were wrapping things up, I was very relieved when he finally said, “Well, if you could just remember my email, it’s very easy, then you could email me and I’ll tell you where to find them.” He told me his email and said I could write it down later and we parted on friendly terms. I know seeds were planted, so we’ll see if he responds to me.

I went over to my chair to immediately write it down and then pray for him. A Christian man named Jerry came up to me right away and asked if he could talk to me about something, but I asked him to wait to write down this email before I forgot it. Then I told him I needed to pray for someone and invited him to join me and said we could talk afterwards. He agreed. After we prayed, he told me there was a lady sitting not far from where we were who he wondered if I could try to get into a conversation with. Her name was Debbie Smith and he had just finished talking to her. He had gone up to her right after the music time was over, because he had noticed how much she seemed to be enjoying it. She had expressed to him a lot of doubts about the LDS church already, but while they were talking it was becoming harder and harder because her 4-year old daughter was being very wiggly and disruptive. He said he had told her that a few months ago her daughter had been molested by her grandfather, and since then had been having a lot of trouble. Debbie also said that her LDS bishop had recently told her that she was white trash and not wanted at church. She seemed very open to Christianity, so he wondered if I could go and try and connect with her. I got out one of my music CDs from my church and told him I would just go and give her one and start that way. We prayed for her and her family’s salvation and just a few minutes after our heads came up, she walked up to Jerry and pointed at my CD laying on the grass and asked Jerry what kind of music that was. He introduced us and I told her I was just about to go over to her blanket and give it to her. I told her it had music on it that was very similar to what they been playing and singing earlier in the evening. She seemed very surprised and excited and then her grandmother asked Debbie if she could burn a copy. I told her there was no need, and pulled another one out of my bag and gave it to her. From there we started talking a little bit until the daughter became unruly again, but she said she was going to get some food but that she’d come back. Jerry left and then sure enough, about 15 minutes later, she came back and sat with me. We got to know each other a little bit and she also told me about some of her recent troubles. I told her that I was sorry that all of that had happened to her, but that the rejection that she was experiencing from the LDS church was NOT what the God of the Bible would do to her. She looked me in the eye and said very sincerely that she knew that. She went back to her blanket after a little while and I told her that I wanted to look for someone else in the crowd that I wanted to introduce her to, Pastor Rodney. She said OK, so I went to look for Rodney. (Debbie lives in Mt. Pleasant, which is only 17 miles from ECB, so I thought it would be good to let her meet him and see if she would ever be interested in coming to check out the church.) As I was looking I got a little distracted by something. Here’s the story…..

A few days before coming out here, we got a call from Chip, the man who founded the church out here and who now heads up the pageant outreach. He told us that his daughter Kristen had had an idea that he wanted to get our opinion on. She had thought that with all the recent stuff in the news about the FLDS polygamous group out in El Dorado, TX that it would make quite an impact on the community if 34 Christian women were to dress up as Joseph Smith’s polygamous wives and stand in a line with signs around their necks stating that they were wife #x, their name, their age, and “Ask me to tell you my story.” Then on the back of their name cards, it would tell their story and the lady could just read it to whomever asked. Also, to have them be as close as possible to the age they were when Joseph married them, because it was shocking - there were two 14 year olds he married, 2 sixteen year olds, and a few other minors as well.

Well, Kristen organized it beautifully, so as I went looking for Rodney, I saw them all coming down the street. It literally took my breath away to see such a powerful visual picture of how many wives this pervert had. Our team members, Rosanne and Shayla Harris, were two of the wives, and Shayla, being only 15, got to be one of the sad 14 year old wives of Joseph Smith. I got caught up taking pictures and video of them and responding in shock along with the LDS folks who gathered and were taking pictures and asking questions. The response from the community was amazing. So many of the wives were instantly involved in fruitful discussions with LDS folks who had no idea about this dark portion of their church’s history. Also, some of the Christians had prepared a handout that listed all of the wives names, ages at time of marriage, an asterisk by their name if when Joseph married them they already had a living husband (11 of them), and LDS websites that verified all of the information. Another very cool thing is that a lady named Doris, who is a very outspoken ex-polygamist, was there with her books and videos to give out and answer any questions. I cannot communicate in the limited scope of this journal how powerful this was. We had no idea how it would go, but it went so well that it was determined that they would do the same thing on Saturday evening. Eventually I found Rodney and took him over to meet Debbie and her mother, grandmother, and daughter. We sat there for a while and just visited until it was time for the pageant to start. Then we exchanged contact information.

Afterwards when we all went to Miller’s bakery, I was very encouraged to see how excited Rosanne and Shayla and hear the stories about how many people they had gotten to talk to because of being one of the wives. Particularly, I was happy about Shayla, because her first night on the streets was very discouraging and she was expressing doubt that God really had wanted her to come at all. To see this change in her was a HUGE answer to the prayers of myself and Rosanne.

Saturday, June 14
This morning’s training session was taught by a pastor from West Jordan, UT who had founded a church there, and spoke on how to overcome the LDS testimony. The talk was extremely helpful and insightful and inspired all of us.

Back at camp, Keith and I spent some time off to ourselves because we had not been able to catch up with each other at all for several days. After that, we had hoped to spend the rest of our afternoon doing journaling and blogging, but we had a big surprise happen. A guy named Dale showed up in camp. Dale is a guy who Keith met in 2001 who is a LDS from Provo. He came and was looking for us to spend some time hanging out talking. His girlfriend, Jody, joined him too, so we hung out and caught up and they had dinner with all the Christians in the park. I think they were very surprised and felt welcome. Dale and Keith have had some very in-depth conversations over the years and we all feel very comfortable with each other. Dale is not your typical LDS, so some of his beliefs don’t exactly line up with LDS teaching, so it always makes for interesting conversations. He is doing a thing this year where he sets up a table with a survey for “non-LDS Christians” and then all the Christians come take his survey and talk to him. (pretty cool, huh?) Anyway, so that was our whole afternoon so we got NO journaling or blogging done. Oh well.

On the streets………….
My evening started out very unsettling. During the time when the Christians are singing/praying I was in my usual spot watching the Mormons gawk and mock. I started to notice that there were an unusual amount of police of various ranks swarming around. Also, there were two officers whom I had never seen before walking right among all the Christians as they were worshipping and just staring people down. Of course, the saints of God were not phased by it at all, and they just kept praising Jesus. At first I felt happy, like maybe they were genuinely curious, but then I started to feel something uneasy in my spirit. I started taking pictures of how they were prowling about and just praying through how I was feeling and asking for God’s protection to be on us. I wondered if I was just being ridiculous or if maybe there really was something to this. After they were done and I felt like I could get up and walk around for awhile, I ran into Chip and we started talking a little bit. He asked me quietly if I had noticed anything different tonight and I told him I had. He then told me that Steve Nelson (an ex-LDS Christian SWAT team member in Ephraim) had noticed some highs with law enforcement and detectives that he knew of on the streets and that something was up and we needed to all be very watchful and careful tonight. I told him about what I had sensed earlier, so I felt this was confirmation that I wasn’t crazy.

He also mentioned not that he did not like seeing Steve and John prowling the way they were. (Steve and John are some very high up LDS security guys. Keith and I had pegged them the first night as someone to keep an eye on and had individually started building a relationship with them. They wouldn’t talk theology with either one of us, but we had started getting to know one another and were on friendly terms as much as possible with someone is following you around and taking pictures of what you’re doing! We like to joke with them and mess with them about what they’re doing. It’s kinda fun.

Anyway, Chip suggested that we grab a few more folks and just start following THEM around so we could get within 8-10 feet of them and do nothing but huddle up and pray for them and over them. We knew it would rattle them and we figured we needed the prayer coverage big-time. So that’s what we did. We grabbed Jim Bryan from our team and a guy named Garreth from another team and just kept on their heels and prayed, prayed, prayed. Chip and I were both thinking that it had something to do with when the ladies came out again dressed up as Joseph Smith’s polygamous wives. After about an hour of following them around and praying, I mentioned that if he wanted me to, I had something I was talking to them about the night before that I had to finish up with them, so maybe I could go in and distract them for a while. (They had been walking around taking pictures of all the Christians and then going over, huddling up with all the cops and messing with some computer stuff. We found out later that they were inputting our faces into the LDS Church’s face recognition software program. Funny, if they don’t want to be known as a cult, maybe they should stop acting like one. They are so totally paranoid!) Chip urged me to go for it and they would stay close by and pray. I went over to them and we talked and cut up for close to 30 minutes. By the time they excused themselves from our conversation, the polygamous wives had come out and things were really hoppin’ around us.

Chip was involved in a conversation with someone, so I figured the danger had passed. By the time all that was over, I had been on my feet for quite a while, so I decided I should go back to my chair and rest for a bit. I sat down and there on the grass right next to me was a man with his two teenage kids sitting there with a ton of tracts and the Jesus Christ/Joseph Smith DVD that someone had given them, so I got to work. I started to get to know them and the man named Jared seemed real open to talking. His kids listened for a while, but after a short time, they left. Jared started asking which church I was with and some of the typical questions about why I was there. He started to give me some signs with some of his responses to things like maybe he wasn’t a typical LDS. He told me he and his wife had been married in the Manti temple and served LDS missions, but then told me that his children were never baptized LDS. He said they were allowed to research things and that actually, they liked to come to the pageant to walk around and “be witnessed to” by the Christians. He said they always went online and looked for pictures and videos of what we all did on the streets of Manti! I started telling him about our training sessions at the ECB in the mornings and he seemed very interested. I even told him some of the stuff from the talk we had just that morning about not discounting the LDS testimony. His eyes were getting bigger and bigger. Finally, Jared told me that they had not been going to church for some time now and that he had lots of “saved” friends in Orem, UT where her lived and that he loved to have them witness to him and that he was just taking it all in! I about dropped my teeth. I asked him if he was not attending LDS church anymore, was he attending church any where? He said he was just not there yet, and that there was still just a lot of hurt and unsurety as to what to do next. I got so excited when I realized I was talking to a man who God had already had been leading out, but that just needed some help and love to bring him to Christ!

I started telling him about the support of ex-LDS in the area and that even though I knew he lived a long way away, I knew he would be helped by hearing some of their stories. I told him a little bit about some of them and he started to look more and more excited. I also told him about how we run our ex-LDS support group back in San Antonio and that I knew they did things in a similar way here and he said that sounded really wonderful. I also mentioned that there were some CDs of the training sessions that we did in the mornings that if he would like, I would love to mail to him to help him hear some of these testimonies and teaching sessions. He said he would really like that. The more we talked, the better we connected and he seemed very anxious to receive anything I offered. He was such a nice man. I told him that Rosanne, our hostess for our ex-LDS group in San Antonio was here with me and that I wondered if I could introduce him to her, because I thought they would both be so encouraged. He said he would, so we went over to the polygamy wives and found her.

It was so great to see! When he had to go, I asked him if I could pray for him and he said we could. After Rosanne and I prayed for him and his family, he seemed very touched. It was so awesome to see God had already done so much work on this man. (BTW, I decided that since he was being so honest and telling me about how all his “saved” friends were already witnessing to him in Orem, and how he loved it but was just not ready yet, that I would try to offer help from a different angle of getting him connected with ex-LDS Christians. A lot of times, this is the next step toward salvation, talking to someone who has been there and is now saved, because there is a different way they can witness that I can’t.) It was definitely an exciting evening of ministry!

Sunday, June 15
Today was our transition day. The folks at camp had showered and had Rosanne and Shayla packed up by 9:45 so we could attend church at ECB before heading to the airport. We left after church and got to the airport by about 2:40. We said goodbye (sad) to Rosanne and Shayla and picked up Tom (happy). We stopped at Sizzler on the way back down to Manti and had a wonderful Father’s day lunch/supper. We got to camp around 6pm and got Tom set up with his tent and then headed to Wal-Mart to get some needed supplies. Keith brought me back to Junelle’s house around 9:30 and they went back to the park and played cards for a while before going to bed. Not a real eventful day, just lots of driving.

Monday, June 16
Today is our only real day off. Most of it has been spent at Junelle’s house just journaling, doing laundry and escaping from the hummingbird-sized mosquitoes at the park. Our final team members, Jerry and Beth Ankrom got in around 4pm (they drove from SA) so now our seven member team is complete for this week: Keith, myself, Jim Bryan, James Lorenzen, Tom Leas, Jerry and Beth Ankrom. This is the most testosterone-heavy team we have ever had!

Tuesday, June 17
Today at our training session we had Bill McKeever from Mormonism Research Ministry (www.mrm.org) do his teaching. He talked about Joseph Smith and the gold plates and how the story is so obviously fabricated because of all the details surrounding his story. It was very well done and very convincing. During the afternoon it got pretty hot so Beth and I decided we’d go to Junelle’s house. She needed a nap and her tent was too hot to sleep in, plus, my Bible and Bible study stuff was still there and I still needed to have my quiet time. (I had slept later than usual that morning. I normally do my quiet time in the morning, but this worked out quite nice because after I had my time in the Word, I sat down at the piano in Junelle’s piano room at her baby grand piano and played and sang through some worship songs. It was very refreshing.) We did our normal late afternoon schedule with dinner at 4:30 and then a time of hymn-singing and prayer with Timothy Oliver’s group under the pavilion.

On the streets…………..
Tonight was a different kind of night for me. I tried to get some things going with several of the LDS locals, but no one wanted to really talk about anything very in depth. At one point, I was starting to talk to one guy named Rob whom I spoke with a few years ago, but when we were starting something really awful happened right near us. An older man just keeled over about 12 feet away from me. I heard the sound of him hitting the ground and turned and saw his face and it was already starting to turn white. Rob took off for the EMS folks and I immediately grabbed a believer nearby and we started to pray for him. It was really awful to see. It really knocked the wind out of me to see that, so I went and sat down. I found out later that he came out of it and was OK, but I had been sure he had just had a heart attack and died right there on the streets. What a lesson for us.

A little bit later, Eli showed up. He was with his girlfriend Shelby and it was very good to see him. I really was hoping to then spend my whole evening talking with him, but he made it clear to me that he was not staying that night. I told him that was not fair and that I wanted some time to really talk with him. He promised he would be back again another night where we could really sit and talk. That was a bummer to see him walk off when I’d been praying for my next opportunity with him.

The rest of the evening ended up being for the prayer and encouragement of other believers. Our Lutheran friends from Denton, TX showed up again this year and so it was great to see them all again. I spent some time praying with some of their teenagers as they got into various conversations. Also, there was a certain ex-LDS lady from the ECB who had recently had her tubes untied and had been trying to get pregnant with her husband. I had wanting to really spend some concentrated time praying with her about her being pregnant by next year, so God provided that opportunity too.

A few other answers to prayer occurred that I wanted to mention here. I had been praying about God taking the mosquitoes away, and He has answered. They are probably 1/8 of what they were before. Also, Tom was really worried that he would have a hard time getting into a conversation with anyone, but he spent all evening under the EMS tent with an elderly LDS gentleman and having a wonderful opportunity with all the medical folks. One more…..I saw Beth early in the evening looking kind of down, and when I went up to her, she was crying. From lack of sleep and some other medical issues she was having she was just not doing well and had resigned herself to just sitting on the sidelines for the evening and not really trying to talk to anyone because she was feeling so bad. I prayed with her and Jerry and then they gathered their stuff and found a spot on the grass. The two of them sat there and prayed again, and as soon as their heads came up, two elderly LDS ladies were sitting down next to them. Jerry and Beth are both schoolteachers and these ladies were retired schoolteachers. They spent most of their evening talking with these ladies and reaching out to them. It was a great story and it got Beth “in the game.” She saw God use her and mentioned the verse from II Cor. About “when we are weak, He is strong.” All of our team members had good evenings. It’s always a great joy to me to see our new team members have a good first night of witnessing.

After our time on the streets was over, Bill McKeever dropped me off back at Junelle’s house and Darrin (Junelle’s husband) was home. I had planned on going to bed early, but we ended up in the music room. He plays guitar and sings, so we spent some time singing and playing through some more worship songs. That was really fun. Bed about 11:30. There was an LDS lady in the house whose son was playing video games with Junelle’s son, so maybe God will use the music we were playing to help soften her to the gospel!

2008 Manti Mission Trip Report Part 1

2008-06-16T15:53:00.011-05:00

As is our custom, Becky and I keep journals while we are on our mission trips. While we are here in Utah, I will try to post our journals and keep you updated as well as I can. The little city of Manti has Wi-fi access so I can actually journal in my tent. How cool is that? Becky is much better at actually finding time to write, so most of this will be from her. I am doing the best I can in keeping up with the demands of leading our team so I am going to journal a little differently than I have in the past. Rather than write out the whole day's events, I will just list events and then give a little commentary on some of the more interesting things. I will post what I have of my journal and then give you more details with Becky's journal. You can click on the pictures to see an enlarged version of them. Here is what I have written so far.

Monday, June 9th
Up late packing. Hoping that we do not forget anything. Got to bed close to midnight.

Tuesday, June 10th
Got up at 4:30 to get ready. Our flight leaves at 6:30 am. Lines at the airport are longer than we have ever seen. Got on board with no time to spare. We didn’t even get pictures of the team before the flight.

Arrived in SLC a little after 10:15 am. The Rent-a-wreck people picked us up and James Lorenzen met us at the airport. Had lunch at Jason’s Deli. Good food. The weather here is cooler than normal for this time of the year. There is plenty of snow still on the peaks. Went to temple square to do our tour. Our team split up and talked to different LDS missionaries. Rosanne and Shayla had one, Becky another, Jim talked with a number of missionaries and James talked with a senior missionary. Some Mormons who are retired will go on a mission for 18 months. I took pictures and joined James for a bit.

After our conversations, we went to the LDS history museum, but Becky stayed on temple square and worked on her presentation for Thursday morning. She will be presenting at Ephraim Church of the Bible. We wanted to show Jim, what we affectionately call, “the pentaplays.” As you can see from the picture, it is a pentagram in a children’s area. Isn’t it nice that the LDS Church provides some pentagrams for the children to color? With all of the symbols that children could color, why the pentagram? They could color Jesus, a cross or even Moroni, but why pentagrams?

After our tour, we ate at the Reverend Dave Roberts’ house. While there, we met up with another team of Christians from San Diego, CA. Dave is a charismatic, evangelical, Anglican priest. The great thing is, he is a Christian. We ate stuffed peppers and then had a communion service.

After dinner we went over to Bill McKeever’s house to sleep. Bill McKeever is the founder of Mormonism Research Ministry. He has a great web site http://www.mrm.org/ and is one of our missionary heroes to the LDS people. Every one else went to bed, but Bill and I stayed up until about 12:30 talking and working on our computers in his office.

Becky's Journal

Tuesday, June 8, 2008
Our flight left at 6:30 and after barely making it through the loooooooong security line, Keith, Rosanne, Shayla and I were glad to get on the plane. (Jim was flying Southwest and James was meeting us in SLC, since he was already there. Our team this year for the first week consisted of Keith, myself, Rosanne and Shayla Harris who live in San Antonio and go to Hope Church, Jim Bryan who is a member at Thousand Oaks Baptist in San Antonio, and James Lorenzen, who is a member of a Nazarene Church in Nampa, Idaho. The second week we will also have Jerry and Beth Ankrom from Wayside Chapel in San Antonio, TX and Tom Leas from Community Bible Church in San Antonio. (We also have Baby Walker with us who is due to arrive in the next month!)

Everything with our flights went smoothly and we all successfully met up in the SLC airport with all our baggage arriving on time and no problems whatsoever. After James picked us up and we got our rental vehicle, we went to Jason’s Deli for lunch and then made our way to Temple Square. I asked Keith to drop me off right in front while they parked the vehicles so I wouldn’t have to walk, and this gave me time to go in by myself for a little while and see if I could get anything started on my own. I had a few experiences to share: I saw a sister missionary who looked Polynesian so I went up to her to talk to her and attempt to witness. She was from Kahuku, on the same island that I grew up on. She was nice enough but seemed very distant and as soon as a group came along who were ready for their tour, she left. I sat down for a little while and just prayed for the next one, and it was then that I saw a family who had several children, one of whom was in a stroller and had just made a poopy diaper. The parents had him laying in the stroller with his bare bottom hanging out, removing the diaper and trying their best to clean him up while kicked and rolled. After successfully removing the awful diaper, I figured their hands were probably nasty, so I grabbed my antibacterial hand wash out of my purse and went up to them. They were very shocked, but grateful and accepted it and of course, noticed my cross and were looking somewhat scared of it. I tried engaging them a little, but after a few attempts, I could tell they were just too freaked out, so I let them go. I pray that God will use that small encounter and that antibacterial stuff to bring them into His kingdom!

Once the rest of the team got there, we found some missionaries to give us our tour. We got sister Wu from Taiwan and sister Flores from El Paso, Texas. During the tour, I noticed that sister Wu seemed much more enthusiastic than sister Flores. At one point of the tour when we are in front of their large Christus statue, there was a lady who was somewhat extravagantly dressed who looked Polynesian who was in the back just sobbing. Our whole team kept watch on her throughout the rest of the tour. When it was over, I noticed she was off on a couch by herself, so I took the moment to go up to her and ask her if she was from Hawaii. Her name was Bai and she was Philipino and said she had no permanent home, she just traveled around. It turned out that she was a Unitarian Universalist and when I asked her why she was crying, she told me that she just thinks all religions are so beautiful and that she thinks that the god of Mormonism is the same god of Christianity and Islam and every other faith and she was just touched by how she saw god in all religions. As I started to try to talk to her, my teammates told me later that they saw her LDS friends who she was there with start to circle and were getting very nervous. They called some LDS security, but then waited a few minutes. Just as I was starting to try to explain a few things to her, her friends came in and interrupted and tried to start answering my questions for her. The older man was giving me some super lame answers and when I challenged him to show me his beliefs from the Bible, he gave me a wrong reference, but assured me it said that in the Bible. He called the sister missionaries over to show it to me in the Bible, but they said they didn’t have one. (they used the lame excuse that it was just too heavy to carry around.) I told him that since he had served a mission too, he should know where to find it. He told me it had been over 20 years, but I joked with him and asked him if he should stop reading his Bible just because he’s not on his mission. He quickly took Bai and left.

Then later, as we were going downstairs, we ran into our tour guides again, so I asked sister Wu if she was the only LDS in her family because she had said in the tour that she became LDS only 7 years ago. She said she was the only LDS and so I asked her what the rest of her family believed. She said they were Taoist and so I had her explain that to me. I told her she must be pretty passionate her faith then, because she was willing to endure all of them rejecting her, and she told me some of the mean things they have said to her because of converting to LDS. I told her I could relate because I was the first Christian in my family too. Then I started to tell her about some of our recent talks with LDS missionaries in our home and I went into talking about the LDS doctrine of repentance and some of our impossible gospel verses. After a little while, sister Flores joined us and so did Rosanne and Shayla. Rosanne started jumping in and sister Wu then focused on her, and sister Flores focused on me. I could tell from watching her responses to my questions about their verses that she was thinking and the glossy look in her eyes came and went as she had a harder time dealing with me. Everything was always very friendly and cordial, but I kept telling her over and over that if Mormonism was true, there was no hope for me or anyone else to ever have a way out of our sins. She had no answers. Sister Wu came over and took her after awhile and said they had to go to their next assignment for the day, but we took pictures together and parted on good terms. The rest of the team wanted to go visit the church museum, but I opted to just sit on the couch while they did that because of all the walking involved, so I got out my notes and prayed and asked God to help me prepare my talk for Thursday morning that I had almost no work done on, and even in there, in that yucky place, He answered my prayer and I got 80% of it done by the time the team came back to get me!

Next, we went over to Pastor Dave Robert’s house for a wonderful supper and communion service. He prayed over each one of us individually and had some incredible discernment in his prayers over what each person needed personally, even though he hardly knew them. I also got to see a good friend of mine named Danielle, who is a former Mormon, who used to live in San Antonio. God helped me to disciple her and she has now moved back to SLC. Our next stop was Bill and Tammy McKeever’s house to bed down for the night. They are wonderful hosts and we were all very comfortable and were able to get a good night’s rest after our long day of travel.

Wednesday, June 11
We spent a leisurely morning at the McKeever’s house. I enjoyed a good brisk walk in the cool Utah morning air. We left there around 11am and headed to Provo, UT where we ate our traditional lunch at Sizzler and then spent some time shopping for things we needed at the bookstore and grocery store. James and Jim took off down to Manti in James’ car to get our tent permits before 5pm, but Keith, myself, Rosanne and Shayla went to a large thrift store to get some things we needed for the colder weather that we were experiencing. We all met down at the park to set up camp around 6pm, got our tents set up and then went to Wal-Mart to get the rest of our needed supplies. As evening approached, Keith drove me to the home of Junelle and Darin Jacobson, where I would be staying this time because of my being so far along in my pregnancy. It felt strange to say goodbye to Keith and not be at camp with the team, but at the same time, I am very grateful not to be sleeping on the ground in a tent in this condition!

Thursday, June 12
Today I woke up at 5:30 and could not get back to sleep. I know it was largely because I am speaking this morning, so I was thinking about that way too much. We had our first training session at the church starting at 9:30 with praise and worship, prayer, an ex-LDS testimony, and then my talk. I entitled it “Dumb it Down for Becky.” I wanted to really try to help the new folks to know just what it’s like when we get out there on the streets with some real practical do’s and don’ts. I also taught through our impossible gospel method. It’s a good thing I made it very simple, because there were so many new people I could hardly believe it. Also, the place was packed. Normally, on the first Thursday, the church would be half empty, but not this time. To God be the glory! We went back to camp and just had snacks for lunch and spent the afternoon preparing for the evening through some role-playing and discussion.

On the streets………………….
Most of what God had for me on this night was right in the beginning. The Christians usually gather around 6pm for some praise and worship by a lightpole right in front of the temple. This serves two purposes: 1) to help us get our hearts right before the Lord and 2) to expose the LDS people to what real worship and prayer are like. We always have LDS people walking by and gawking/mocking. Being that I need to stay off of my feet a lot this year, I set up my chair a ways back from the group so I can just listen to the music and pray, and also it has become my mission to watch the reactions of the LDS people to see if there’s anyone that needs talking to. I noticed an LDS volunteer lady who was situated right near the music who seemed to really be enjoying the music, so I decided to approach her. I took with me a music CD from our church’s music ministry in San Antonio. CBC donates lots of CDs every year to the mission field, so we brought a box of them with us to be able to give out to anyone. I went up to her right after the singing and told her that I noticed that she seemed to be really enjoying the music, so I wondered if I could give her a gift? She was shocked, but said sure. She gratefully took the CD and told me her name was Tammy. We chatted pleasantly for a few minutes and then I went back to my chair. After a little while, she came and brought her chair and sat next to me and we began to talk. She was very happy-go-lucky LDS lady who told me that she thought that all faiths were great and that she enjoyed what each one of them had to offer. She then started to ask about us and what group we were with. I explained to her about how we were all from many different churches and denominations, but that we all came together in Manti to share the love of Christ with the LDS people. She seemed intrigued and then asked why we had been coming so many years. I told her that Keith and I are full-time missionaries to JWs and LDS. This got her attention and she told me that a JW lady had been visiting her monthly in her small rural Utah town for some time now. From there, I knew where I wanted to go. I wanted to explain some things about JWs that would shock her and then use that to segway into talking about LDS beliefs.

We spent about 20 minutes talking about the JW Jesus, blood transfusions and organ transplants, and then just as we were starting to wind that up, she had to leave and go assist some handicapped people (what she was there volunteering to do) I had managed to say a few things about really needing to check into things and study them out, but I never got to really address some of the LDS issues I wanted to. I was a little frustrated, but I am just trusting God to use that music and maybe something I said to plant some seeds in her heart.

The next lady was named Kay Jensen. Not too long after Tammy had to leave, Kay came up from behind me. I had parked my chair right in front of the EMS tent (kinda funny, given my condition!) and she came up to me and asked me if I was with that group from Ephraim church of the Bible. (referring to where they had been singing earlier) I told her I was friends with all of them, but that I was here from San Antonio, TX and Community Bible Church. Again, I explained about all the churches and denominations represented in that crowd she saw. She seemed intrigued and then just burst in and said “I have so much respect for the people at Ephraim Church of the Bible.” (ECB) This was a major shock to me, so I asked if she was LDS. She said she was but she couldn’t say enough about Chip and Jamie Thompson. (these are the folks who founded the church and now run the college ministry) I asked her what had happened with them and her then, in a hushed voice, she told me about her son.

She said that he had been an inmate in the local prison. When he was getting near the time to get out of prison, there were many things that he needed help with in order to get acclimated back into normal society. She told me that she went to all her LDS church leaders to try and get help for him and no one would help him in any way. Then she mentioned the prison ministry that ECB does there and that Chip and Jamie personally did so many things to help her son. She just went on and on and said that she wanted to say hello to them and asked if I could show her where they were. I showed her where they were, but then she started asking me about my pregnancy. As I was telling her about my C-section scheduled for July 14, she went and got some paper at the EMS tent and wrote down her name and cell number, told me she was an RN, and then told me very adamantly and sincerely that if I had ANY problems or needs during my time in Manti that I could call her day or night and she would help me. I felt very comfortable and comforted by her gesture of love and told her that I would and that she was an answer to my momma’s prayers! J She then had to leave, but I asked her if she would be there at the EMS tent any other nights, and she said almost every pageant night, so I plan on talking to her some more. This was all just so invigorating!

The rest of my evening was spent in prayer and encouragement of other believers. Some became discouraged and came to me for prayer, so I enjoyed sitting in my chair and praying for them and seeing them come back later and tell me about the Mormon they had just had an opportunity to share with.

Our Daughter's First Ballet Recital

2008-06-03T15:58:00.003-05:00

A post from Becky-

Thursday night was the first dress rehearsal for our daughter's first real ballet recital. It was a situation where moms were not allowed backstage, the staff of the SA Parks and Recreation along with the dance teachers stayed with the kids. I told our daughter before we left that she would be backstage for a long time just waiting with the girls from her class, so she could pack a little backpack of things to do, maybe crayons and coloring books to share. Totally on her own, she chose a Bible out of our kids Bible basket and said she wanted to take a Bible with to tell stories about Jesus. Of course, I did not object!

After rehearsal when I picked her up, I immediately started talking to her and encouraging her regarding how well she danced for their number. She was excited and said thank you, but then she started telling me how she had been reading Bible stories to some of her friends. She told me she had asked them if they loved Jesus. She also told me she talked to them about heaven and going there and also about about hell and how it was called the lake of fire and how her brother thinks there must be fire ants there who bite a lot and how you had to trust Jesus to forgive your sins. She told me that while she was talking, it was just a few girls from her class, but then more girls from other classes started coming over too and sitting in the group and listening. Her eyes looked the most excited when she said, "Mommy, it felt like the whole world was listening!" This made me more proud than any turn or tutu ever could!

"Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman (or girl) who fears the Lord is to be praised."

Here is the whole ballet number.

Manti 2008 Team T-Shirts

2008-05-30T14:42:00.006-05:00

As is our tradition, we design a new t-shirt every year for our mission team. Last year's shirt was a big hit that helped draw people into conversations. Numerous people approached me and asked what the shirt meant.

We are hoping for similar responses this year with our new design. The stop sign is similar to the shirt we had for 2004, but our message this year is different. "Stop Repenting" is a phrase that most Mormons would find contradictory to their beliefs. They are told that they must repent or they will not be forgiven. Part of repentance is forsaking sin. If a Mormon does not forsake a particular sin, they are not forgiven for the offense. However, the vast majority of Mormons believe that if they repeat a sin, they can always "repent again." What they fail to realize is that if they really repented of all of their sin the first time, there would be no need for repentance later. Why? There would be no sin for which they need to repent.

The small print underneath helps explain what we mean by the larger eye catching phrase. Mormons need to stop repenting and just keep the commandments. If you have kept the commandments, you would not be guilty of sin which requires repentance. This never ending cycle of sin and repentance can only be escaped if the commandments are perfectly kept.

Joseph Smith understood this idea when he stated that God is not pleased with continual repentance. Continual repentance means that you are continuing to sin. According to Alma 11:37 in the Book of Mormon, we will not be saved if we are in our sins. If Mormonism is correct, then
Stop repenting and keep the commandments!

The back of the shirt lists our web site where they can get more information.

San Antonio Ex-Mormon Meetup Group

2008-05-29T11:31:00.003-05:00

We have recently started an Ex-Mormon support group which meets on the third Friday of every month. We have had a few meetings thus far and things are going great. We have made a number of new friends and look forward to meeting more.

If you know of a former Mormon who you think will benefit from our group, please point them to this blog entry. You can also have them call our office for more information. 210-340-TRUE (8783)

Click here to check out
The San Antonio Ex-Mormon Meetup Group!

Memorial Day 2008

2008-05-26T23:46:00.003-05:00

Thank you to all who serve our country and are willing to make the sacrifice that deserves remembrance on this day.

Not Your Normal Back Flip

2008-05-22T15:13:00.002-05:00

Here is a video of me coming down the big slide at Mo-Ranch.

Two more videos of our family playing with a Texas Turtle.

Mini Vacation At Mo Ranch

2008-05-16T16:05:00.003-05:00

A number of years ago, Becky attended a Woman's retreat at a place called Mo-Ranch which is a Presbyterian camp/conference center. She has always kept it in mind for possible vacations. Since then, we have taken the kids once and we have gone by ourselves once. Becky had the idea of getting away for a short vacation before our "four-family" becomes a "five-family" so we decided to go to Mo again. We stayed for three days and two nights and had a good time. The river was very warm and pleasant.

I put together a slide show of our trip and thought that it would be good to give you a guided tour of our mini vacation. You can start the slide show, then pause it and scroll down to read my commentary.

1) There are lots of different kinds of rooms at Mo-Ranch. We stayed in a building that looks very much like a motel. We were the only visitors in the building so it was nice and quite. Mo-Ranch offers a clergy rate during the week when business is slow so we were able to go without spending an arm and a leg.

2) We brought some digging toys for the kids. They got to work right away.

3) On our way down the hill, there is a neat walk way with what looks to be grape vines all over it.

4) Then even more down the hill is a bridge on the way to the play ground.

5) One of the first things we wanted to do was get in the river. The kids are ready to go!

6) Here is a picture looking up the river towards a 30 foot tall river slide. That is also the direction we are headed to go to the swimming hole.

7) There are lots of little holes to just sit and soak. The water was VERY warm.

8) On our way back to Mo-Ranch. Our daughter was helping me "oar" the canoe.

9) Relaxing after a long day of... relaxing.

10) The food was awesome and the kids made friends with the kitchen staff! Our son was so comfortable with them that he excitedly told them, "I got to pee in the forest!"

11) The kids standing at the entrance of a very long walk-way.

12) Here is a picture of the same bridge.

13) It was windy that day as you can tell from Becky's hair. She didn't like being photographed much during this trip. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that she is seven months pregnant?

14) The kids enjoying some cactus.

15) Here is a picture of a labyrinth made out of sand and bricks.

16) Here was are going back to the swimming hole the next day. We had to row upriver about a half mile to get there.

17) I know I titled this picture "Cooling off," but it was more like "warming up." The air was cooler than the water.

18) High above the swimming hole is a big wooden cross. The is a nice reminder to have as you sit and enjoys God's creation.

19) Me and the kids soaking.

20) Hmm... what could that be in the water?

21) Holey buckets! It's a Texas turtle!

22) Our daughter enjoying the water.

23) Our son enjoying his ice cream.

24) Me and the kids at my second favorite Mo-Ranch spot; the bridge.

We all had a great time and can't wait to go back again with our fifth family member. If you are even in need of a nice get-a-way with your family, consider Mo-Ranch. If you let us know of your plans, we might even meet you there.

San Antonio Authorities Arrest Syringe Exchange Workers

2008-05-12T14:55:00.005-05:00

I have been hearing about this program on the radio for the last week or so. It seems that Bill Day, a 73 year old lay chaplain for Saint Marks Episcopal Church, is in a heap of trouble. Mr. Day "could spend up to a year in jail for breaking a law that he considers immoral. Day hands out clean needles to drug addicts on some of the seediest streets in this south Texas city. He does it because he's convinced that it reduces human suffering by curtailing the spread of HIV, a view that has been supported by medical research for more than a decade. However, Day's actions are illegal in Texas."

According to an article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Day's supporters are livid. They do not understand why senior citizen activists are being treated like criminals. Hmm... that is a tough one. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they are breaking the law? Jill Rips the deputy executive director of the San Antonio AIDS Foundation, asks "Don't police have something better to do?"

You know Mrs. Rips. You are right. I think the police DO have something better to do. How about we use the same logic applied to the needle exchange program and teach gang-bangers how to be come more accurate marksman? This way, with proper police instruction and supervision, gang-bangers will be better shots and will only kill each other instead of hitting so many innocent bystanders. Come to think of it, this new project could also have the side benefit of reducing the number of violent gang members in San Antonio.
Hey, if gang members are going to shoot at each other anyway, we might as well train them not to accidentally kill the innocent.

Deadeye Keith's Youtube Channel

2008-05-07T10:40:00.004-05:00

As many of you know, I am involved in competitive handgun shooting. I put about 50 rounds down range every week. I shoot pistol leagues and USPSA matches at the Bullethole Shooting Range here in San Antonio Texas. I belong to the Bullethole Practical Shooters Club which hosts IPSC matches every first and fourth Saturday of every month to provide South Texas with another venue to shoot and compete in practical shooting matches.

Their mission is to promote safe, fair and fun participation in Practical Shooting competition, for shooters of all ages and skill levels. They take great care in introducing new shooters to the sport of practical shooting, yet create courses of fire that will challenge even the most experienced of shooters.

I started recording some videos of me shooting so that I could go back and watch them and see what areas I need to improve. I've got videos of other shooters too. Some of them are really fast! I had been hosting my videos on our ministry Youtube Channel, but then thought it would probably be best to separate all of my shooting videos from all of our Jehovah's Witness and Mormon related videos. We certainly do not want people to get the wrong idea!

My personal Youtube Channel is named after my moniker from the pistol league. I am on a team called, The Deadeyes so I am "Deadeye Keith." My Youtube channel is http://www.youtube.com/deadeyekeith The best way to sort through all of the videos is to go to my playlist. I've got more than 100 videos on my channel so using the playlist option to find videos will be helpful. Be sure to visit the channel and feel free to make comments. I will also put family related videos on my channel as well. There is an option to subscribe to my channel also so if you would like to be notified of new videos, that is the way to go.

Hey, if you join the Bullethole Pistol League, I could video you and put it up on Youtube for the world to see! Here is one of my most recent videos.

National Day Of Prayer

2008-05-01T11:39:00.004-05:00

Millions United. 1 Day. 1 Voice.

The 57th Annual National Day of Prayer takes place today, -May 1, 2008. The theme for this year is "Prayer! America's Strength and Shield" and is based on the verse from Psalm 28:7 which states: "The Lord is my strength and shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped." Dr. Ravi Zacharias will help lead this nation in prayer as the 2008 Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Through the efforts of the Task Force, more than 35,000 prayer gatherings will be conducted by approximately 40,000 volunteers across the country. Several million people are expected to participate in this call to prayer for our nation, its leaders and citizens.

More...

"Lord Jesus, I confess that prayer is my weak point. I confess that I often rely more upon the gifts, talents and abilities that you have given me rather than on the gift giver. Please forgive me for my arrogance and help me to trust you more than I do. I thank you for the gentle reminder that you are in control and that nothing we or this nation can do will ever surprise you. Help us to return to our roots and place you where you should be in this Nation.

Father, help us to focus more upon what is pleasing to you rather than on our failing economy. I think there is an incredible irony in printing, "In God We Trust" on our money, yet we fail to recognize that we need you to sustain our Country. I confess that as a Nation, we do not trust You. We fear the ire of our politically correct culture more than we cultivate a healthy fear for You and Your Word. Please bring a revival to our Land and help us to be the examples and witnesses that you meant for us to be.

Holy Spirit, fill us with your power, convict us of our sin and lead us in the way of righteousness. I know that I do not rely upon You for my daily living and I ask forgiveness for that. I ask for grace and desire that my children follow me as I follow You. I ask that they become better, stronger Christians than I. Give us holy boldness help us the be the salt and light that our Country needs. Please cleanse us and use us a vessels usable for honorable service.

In Jesus' name,

AMEN."

A Typical Dinner Conversation At The Walker Home

2008-04-30T19:42:00.005-05:00

Our family was sitting at the dinner table tonight and I asked our son how he knew about a certain piece of information. He looked over my shoulder and focused on the wooden goose hanging on the wall behind me. The following is my best recollection of the conversation.

Dad: How did you know that?

Son: (looks over Dad's shoulder and sees the goose.) "The goose told me."

Dad: The goose told you? Do you speak goose?

Son: What?

Dad: If the goose told you something, you must be able to speak goose.

Son: I don't speak goose. The goose speaks English.

Dad: No, this goose does not speak English. He speaks goose.

Daughter: The goose in Charlotte's Web spoke English.

Dad: That is because it was an English goose. This is not an English goose. English geese have bigger feet. This goose has little feet.

Daughter: God made a donkey speak in the Bible.

Dad: Yes, but the donkey spoke Hebrew.

Becky laughed so hard she almost had milk come out of her nose.

Former Mormon Baptized

2008-04-24T15:53:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday we had the privilege of watching a new friend of ours get baptized. We acknowledge that every baptism is special, but this one was more so to us. Paige was raised as a Mormon and has recently come to Christ. She had mentally left Mormonism eight years ago, but came to Christ just six months ago. It took her that long to work her way through the concept of grace (pun intended) and to understand that the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient for all of her sin. This baptism was additionally special to Paige because her young son was baptized with her. They both went into the water and came back up at the same time.

Paige's family now attends Oakhills Church, pastored by the famous author, Max Lacado. Let me say a few things about this baptism service. Oakhills really knows how to put on a party! We're talking BBQ-ed burgers, a live band, 75 foot water slides and those bouncy jumpers things for kids. All of this right along the banks of the Guadalupe River!

Here are some pictures of the event and the kids playing in the river afterwards. Praise God for a wonderful day!

I've also got a video of it. You'll have to excuse the shaky camera as I was balanced on a log and people kept getting in front of me. I missed the "dunk moment" as I was trying to move to get a better view.

Preparations For Our Annual Mission Trip To Utah

2008-04-17T13:03:00.003-05:00

It is that time of year again. For those readers who may be new to our blog, every year we take a team of Christians to Manti, Utah (pronounced man-tie) to street witness to the Mormons who attend the Mormon Miracle Pageant. Since 1967 the Mormon Church has presented a pageant every year at the Manti temple grounds. This pageant is an outdoor play that depicts the beginnings of Mormonism through the trek out West and up to its present day.

This highly professional drama is approximately one and a half hours long and includes scenes from the Book of Mormon. Average nightly attendance is 10-15,000 people. The temple grounds open at 6:00 PM, but since the pageant does not start until after dark (9:30), Mormons will typically walk around town and visit vendor’s booths and local stores. The streets surrounding the temple grounds are closed to traffic so this gives Christians a wonderful opportunity to stand in the streets, give out tracts to passing Mormons, and engage in fruitful witnessing conversations.

This short-term mission trip is unique in that before you can share your faith, you must be able to defend it. Evidence Ministries will equip team members to be able to give a reason for the hope we have as Christians with gentleness and respect. (1st Peter 3:15) The camaraderie and fellowship one experiences on this mission trip is worth the cost of the trip itself. The spiritual growth that team members undergo on this trip is amazing to see. The dates for the trip are June 10-15 and/or 15-22, 2008.

Even if you cannot come on the mission trip, you can still attend the training and learn more about Mormonism and how to witness to Latter-day Saints. Although the training is designed to equip Manti team members for the mission trip to Manti, it will be beneficial for those who would like to learn more. The seven weeks of training will consist of;

April 21st- Week one: Introductions and Mormon Puzzle Video.
April 28th- Week two: Understanding Mormon salvation and exaltation.
May 5th- Week three: The Impossible Gospel of Mormonism Part 1.
May 12th- Week four: Impossible Gospel of Mormonism Part 2.
May 19th- Week five: God Is Not a Man.
May 26th- Week six: Sharing the Gospel with a Latter-day Saint.
June 2nd- Week seven: Role playing.

Call Evidence Ministries for time and directions. 210-340-TRUE (8783). Childcare is available with seven days notice.

Here is a short video that describes what it is like to be a witness for Jesus Christ to the Mormon people.

Students Want Chance To Defend Themselves

2008-04-15T18:12:00.006-05:00

"Would you rather just sit there and cower underneath a desk when someone executes you or would you rather have a chance to defend your life? That's what it really boils down to."

Michael Flitcraft, a 23-year-old sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, has become a leading advocate for college students to carry weapons on campus. He's an organizer for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a grass-roots organization that was formed after last year's Virginia Tech massacre that left 32 college students and professors dead. More...

The above comes from an article from CNN about a growing number of students who want to be able to defend themselves while on campus. This movement, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, started in response to the Virginia Tech massacre.

While many people do not like the idea of students carrying guns on campus, it cannot be argued that gun free zones have done anything other than give maniacs a target rich environment with little to no resistance. We have to remember that while a great majority of students are young adults, more and more older people are going back to school.

Why is it that a person who has a license to carry cannot legally protect them-self with a gun on a university campus? I believe that if a facility bans a citizen from protecting them-self in that manner, then they should bear the responsibility if that person is harmed. I find it extremely unjust to require someone to disarm, yet not accept the liability for the safety of that individual.

Political Correctness Gone Wild- Teacher Attacked Then Blamed For 'Threatening To Defend Herself'

2008-04-10T13:52:00.008-05:00

A teacher in Baltimore, MD was attacked and isn't getting any support from the school administration because, "she egged the student on by threatening to defend herself." Threatened to defend herself? That is ludicrous! How can informing an aggressor that you will defend yourself be considered a threat? Does that mean that because I am angry with what the administration told Mrs. Berry that I can fly out there and beat up the person who said it? What is this politically correct, crazy, twisted (lots of expletives coming to mind), nation coming to?

I can tell you exactly where it is going, but I will not let it go there without a fight. I just got off the phone with Reginald F. Lewis High School in Baltimore and asked to speak with the person who told Mrs. Berry that she was responsible for being attacked. I was placed on hold for 10 minutes before I finally hung up. You know I'll be calling back. Not only that, but I encourage you to do the same. Call, write letters, e-mails or blog about this yourself. Heck, do it all!

They can be reached at;

Reginald F. Lewis High School
6401 Pioneer Dr.

Baltimore, MD 21214

Baltimore city County

Phone: (410) 545-1783 or 545-1746

The Principle's name is Jean Ragin

CES National Web gives this e-mail address for the Principle.
@bcps.k12.md.us

You can also contact the Baltimore City Public School System here.

Let's let them know that our teachers will never be able to effectively teach until they are respected. If the school administration doesn't respect the teachers, why should the students?

The Importance Of Doing Your Homework

2008-04-08T14:08:00.007-05:00

I have been active in witnessing to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons on the Topix.net forums. Months ago on one of the conversation threads, a Mormon, who goes by the name “Larry,” asked me about a quote used by Gerald and Sandra Tanner of Utah Lighthouse Ministry. According to Larry, the Tanners are guilty of “telling outright lies about what the Early LDS Leaders have said” (Post #13 of the above thread). I decided to look into the issue for Larry. This exercise was a good reminder of how important it is to take care in research and to be sure to consult primary resources, and if necessary, even contact the originator of the quote.

To give a little history, Larry challenged me about this issue some time late last year and produced two quotes for me to evaluate. One of the quotes was easily dealt with, but the other one was not. I did not have the primary resource (a talk given by the Tanners) and Larry did not provide it. I told him that until he could provide me with a reference, I could not comment on the quote because I wanted to see the context in which the statement was made. Since that issue last year, I temporarily stopped posting on Topix because other ministry responsibilities were taking priority.

I’ve recently started posting on Topix again and Larry brought up the same issue once more. I answered Larry’s challenge with the following post (#57), “I did, months ago. But at this point, I do not remember which thread it is on or even which quote you are referring to. If you would be so kind as to provide the quote in question, I will look at it again.” Larry says that he never saw the post. At this point I need to say something about Topix.

Since it is primarily a source for news, they do not have any features available for forum posters to search for older posts. I tried to go back and find Larry’s original question and my original answer by looking at older threads, but since conversations rarely stay on topic and there are no search features, it was near impossible to find our original posts. Instead of continuing to waste time looking for the old posts, I just asked Larry to resubmit his question so that I could take a look at it.

Larry reposted his concerns in post #62.

The link in Larry’s post is to an LDS apologetics site (FAIR) which addresses this alleged misquote of the Tanners near the bottom of the page. Look for the “Orson Pratt” heading. As FAIR does, Larry believes this to be a dishonest use of this resource and wants to know if I agree. To make his case, Larry quotes the Tanner’s partial use of this resource (only showing the appearance of an angel) and then gives the full quote which shows that Orson Pratt did know about the Father and Son in the First Vision. According to Larry in post (Post #81);

It is realy (sic) not that hard. Sandra Tanner said Orson Pratt and the other Early LDS leaders did not know about the first vision and gave a quote from Orson Pratt to show this. I gave both he (sic) quote and the original quote from Orson Pratt with the 200+ words that Sandra Tanner removed. Is it wrong to remove 200+ words tomake (sic) a quote say the exact opposite of what the person said? I did not ask for anything on the other items like the 1840 pamphlet printed by Orson 2 years before the official version was published that gave every account found in the official version. i (sic) just asked about the one quote and gave you both the Tanners version and the original version. It shold (sic) not take more than 10 min. to come up with an oppinion. (sic)

Due to family and other ministry responsibilities, I was not able to immediately look at this issue. Once I had the time, I tried to post my response. As mentioned in my Monday, March 31st blog entry, I have been having trouble with my posts appearing on Topix. For some unknown reason, a good number of my responses were never posted on Topix. I did not realize just how many of them were never posted until I started writing this response to Larry.

In order to look at the resource, I asked Larry for the reference to the Tanner talk. If the Tanners supposedly said something on a recording, I want to hear the recording so that I can understand the context in which the quote was used. I do not think it is fair to ask me to judge a statement outside of its context. As show above, Larry has already provided a context for me, but I reserve the right to evaluate that for myself. Here is Larry’s less than cordial response to my request for the reference. “I gave you thye (sic) date of the Talk. Do I need to go to your house and do the work for you? You asked for the site I got the information from and gave it to you. Have you even looked at the information or are you just dodging me still?” (post # 113)

Do you see the problem here? Larry trusts a secondary source and thinks I am trying to avoid the subject because I want more information. When I ask him for the primary resource, he becomes indignant. Since Larry does not have the primary resource, and has probably never heard the Tanner talk himself, I decided to look at the reference anyway and try to understand how the Tanners were using the quote. If I could not understand how the quote was used, I could easily call Sandra Tanner and ask her.

When I look at the partial quote by the Tanners and then the whole quote provided by FAIR, I can understand why Larry has a problem with the use of this quote. If the Tanners used this partial quote to try to prove that Joseph Smith did not see the Father and the Son, then this is clearly a quote taken out of context.

It is interesting to note that FAIR does not provide a reference link to the Tanner’s web site so that you can check the quote for accuracy. The FAIR article is referring to this item on the Tanner’s web site which Larry later provided for me. When you look at this web page, you will see that it is a list of “References for a talk given Nov. 8, 1998, Salt Lake City, Utah.” The reference in question is the second quote under the 1869 heading. On of the first things you will notice is that very little of the information on this Tanner web page is written in article format. Since most of what appears on this page is just references, it is not possible to determine the context in which the quotes are given or how they were used in the talk. Remember, Larry said in post #81 that Sandra Tanner claims, “Orson Pratt and the other Early LDS leaders did not know about the first vision and gave a quote from Orson Pratt to show this,” and disregarded the fact that the whole quote shows the opposite.

If this is what the Tanners have done, then they have born false witness against the LDS Church. If Larry is wrong about how the quote was used in the Tanner talk, then he is bearing false witness against the Tanners. Because there is no context given on the Tanner’s web site about this talk, I decided to call Sandra Tanner and ask her about it.

Sandra and I talked on March 28, 2008. When I brought up the item on her web site, she was already familiar with which quote was in question and how Mormon apologists have attacked it. We talked for 10-15 minutes and I made sure that I understood her argument and how the quote was used in her talk. I will do my best to explain that here.

Sandra explained that the topic of her talk was how the first vision itself has changed throughout the years and that it was not always used to prove that God has a physical body, especially in early Mormon history. In other words, the first vision story was never used by Smith as proof that God the Father has a physical body. Although he mentions seeing two personages in an 1838 vision account, the purpose of Smith sharing that alleged vision was never to prove the physicality of the Father like the LDS Church does today. According to Tanner, the first vision was never used as proof of the physical nature until “YEARS after Brigham Young died, probably around the turn of the century” (Personal email from Sandra Tanner to me).

Tanner also noted that the quote in question mentions the appearance of an angel before the appearance of the Father and the Son and then another appearance by an angel. Tanner’s use of the ellipsis is not to try to hide the fact that the Father and Son are mentioned, but instead to show that angels are mentioned both before and after the alleged appearance of the Father and Son. With this information the question must be raised, “If Smith saw an angel before the first vision, then why is the appearance of the Father and Son called the first vision when it would have had to have been the second vision? Let’s look at the quote.

By and by an obscure individual, a young man, rose up, and, in the midst of all Christendom, proclaims the startling news that God had sent an angel to him; that through his faith, prayers, and sincere repentance he had beheld a supernatural vision, that he had seen a pillar of fire descend from Heaven, and saw two glorious personages clothed upon with this pillar of fire, whose countenance shone like the sun at noonday; that he heard one of these personages say, pointing to the other, "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him." This occurred before this young man was fifteen years of age; and it was a startling announcement to make in the midst of a generation so completely given up to the traditions of their fathers; and when this was proclaimed by this young, unlettered boy to the priests and the religious societies in the State of New York, they laughed him to scorn. "What!" said they, "visions and revelations in our day! God speaking to men in our day!" They looked upon him as deluded; they pointed the finger of scorn at him and warned their congregations against him. "The canon of Scripture is closed up; no more communications are to be expected from Heaven. The ancients saw heavenly visions and personages; they heard the voice of the Lord; they were inspired by the Holy Ghost to receive revelations, but behold no such thing is to be given to man in our day, neither has there been for many generations past." This was the style of the remarks made by religionists forty years ago. This young man, some four years afterwards, was visited again by a holy angel. (Journal of Discourses V.13 P. 65-66)

Notice that the second mention of the angel says that Smith was visited “again by a holy angel.” According to the official version of the first vision, the initial vision Smith ever had was of the Father and the Son, then three years later Smith claims to have been visited by an angel in his bedroom. The above quote shows that Smith was visited by an angel, then by the Father and the Son, then four years later was visited again by an angel.

Now that we have seen how the Tanner quote was used, we see that there are no motives of deception, thus the Tanners are not guilty of bearing false witness against the LDS Church. Even if you disagree with the Tanner interpretation of the quote, there is no basis for accusing them of dishonesty. I understand where the miscommunication has taken place and think there is a simple solution to avoid any confusion in the future.

If there was a bit of commentary on the Tanner web page that explains how and why each quote is being used, there would be no misunderstanding of the quotes. Regardless of the fact that there is no commentary on this page, I believe that it is irresponsible to create your own context for how these quotes are being used and then accuse the Tanners of deception. Remember, in post #81 of the Topix thread, Larry said that, “It shold (sic) not take more than 10 min. to come up with an opinion.” (sic) That is precisely why Larry and FAIR have misunderstood the Tanners. If Larry and FAIR had just done a little homework, they would not be guilty of bearing false witness against the Tanners.

In Memory Of Julie Abbott

2008-04-07T16:14:00.008-05:00

Sunday was a weird day. Our pastor, Robert Emmitt, started his sermon by mentioning a number of recent murders where people were killed by, "an angry, obsessed man." Friday, Emmitt went on, pausing for a moment with a pained expression, "our own beloved doctor, Julie Abbott, was shot to death by an angry, obsessed man." Becky was shocked. Julie was one of the teachers who taught three Precepts Bible studies that Becky has taken at our Church.

Robert centered his whole message around the person of Julie Abbott and how she lived her life for Jesus. He spoke about how she met her husband, Ben, in college and how they pursued each other and Jesus Christ. Robert took this occasion to remind us that we are not guaranteed our next breath. We need to live for Jesus NOW. Just like Julie did. Since Becky knew her better than I did, I think it fitting to have her describe Julie.

Because of a series of Divine appointments, Becky was interviewed by the San Antonio Express Newspaper and our local Fox News station. The see Becky's TV interview, go to http://www.kabb.com/ click "video on demand" under the header and then look at "Prayer Service For Slain Doctor" and "Friends, Family Remember Slain Doctor."

Please join us in prayer for the Abbot family and for the murderer and his family.

Rest In Peace, Julie. We know where you are, but more importantly, we know Who you are with.

****
This is a late edition to this post. I was also interviewed today at the memorial service. Be sure watch the video on the right.

Baseball Ready!

2008-04-04T14:51:00.004-05:00

Our son is playing T-ball for the very first time! He is excited to have something for himself as his sister has been doing ballet for more than a year. We practice hitting in the back yard with a wiffle ball bat and a bunch of wiffle balls. We also practice catching grounders and throwing a real baseball.

It is amazing how quickly he is learning and progressing in skill. When we started, he was hitting the ball off of a tee and rarely put the ball over the fence. Now he is doing that when I pitch the ball to him. We still need to work on throwing the ball better and the rules to the game, but we're getting there.

The reason the above picture is so important is because it shows our son "baseball ready." You know, as opposed to playing hide and seek with his glove, picking flowers, dancing and kicking the dirt; All of which happens regularly in a tee-ball game for 4-6 year olds.

A few days ago, I pitched a ball which was immediately smacked hard. It hit me right in the crotch. Since it is just a wiffle ball, it didn't hurt at all. Both of us started laughing and our son said, "That just made my day!"

Mormon Archaeology: Interesting Find At The Hill Cumorah

2008-04-01T18:02:00.005-05:00

The hill Cumorah is sacred ground to the Latter-day Saint. This is supposedly where Joseph Smith found the golden plates, buried under a stone. It was these golden plates that Mormons believe was translated by the gift and power of God into what is now known as the Book of Mormon.

I stumbled across this interesting video that discusses a recent find at the Hill Cumorah.

Oh, did I wish you a happy April Fool's day?

Trouble With Topix

2008-03-31T13:51:00.004-05:00

I have been active in Witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons for the last couple of months through a news site called Topix. Along with reading all sorts of news items, readers can also participate in conversation about those news items or they can post their own comments and questions in the Forum. Obviously I participate in the JW and Mormon forums.

Because of some research that I was doing for a Mormon who asked me a question, I found that a great number of my posts were either never posted to Topix or have been taken down. Now that I realize that there are a substantial number (23) of my posts missing from the conversation, I understand why some of the Mormons have been confused and/or angry with me. I'm not too happy about it either.

I've spent a good amount of time writing these responses only to have them disappear into cyberspace. The interesting thing is, I can see the posts from my computer when it is signed into Topix, but I cannot see them when I am not signed in. Frustrating the say the least!

I am writing this blog in hopes that someone from the "Are you scared we are right" conversation thread will see it and let the others know that I have been having trouble with my posts. I have also contacted Topix in order to get the issue resolved. Here is an e-mail that I have written to Topix.

Topix,
I have been having some real issues with a number of my posts either not showing up on the Topix Forum or indiscriminately taken down. I assure you that they are not in violation of the terms of service. The thread with which I am having trouble is titled "Are you scared we are right?" and can be found on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Forum. http://www.topix.net/forum/religion/latter-day-saints/TT0IDLHULVDIVKMJV

If there is a problem with posting, please let me know how to resolve the issue. If this is some sort of "moderation punishment," I would like to speak with a supervisor. I have screenshots of my missing posts so that I can prove that they are completely in line with the terms of service. I eagerly await your response.

Keith Walker

The slide show below shows the screen shots I have taken of my missing posts. The quality of the pictures was much better before I converted them into the slide show. If anyone wants to see the pictures of the posts, I can e-mail them to you. Please pray that this issue is resolved soon.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Kingdom Hall...

2008-03-26T11:29:00.001-05:00

Kingdom Hall... When Becky and I were going to the JW memorial last Saturday night, we decided to make it a date night too. We got a babysitter and left early to go out to eat.
We were sitting down and our waiter came up to us, took one look and said, "I know you guys." We immediately recognized him as the younger brother to one of our ex-Mormon support group members. He was very happy to see us.

We talked a bit and he told us that his sister had invited him to the support group. E. has left the LDS Church and knows it isn't true, but has still not committed himself to Jesus.
I think is is pretty cool how God does things some times. When I suggested the restaurant to Becky, she was not all that thrilled about it because it is a little more expensive than we are use to. I told her that I did not feel guilty and that we needed to just go and enjoy ourselves. This proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that some times a Man's craving for ribs is divinely inspired. ;-)

Heller v. District of Columbia

2008-03-19T12:38:00.003-05:00

HUGE issue to be argued in the Supreme Court.

Although I feel for Michele and Oscar Wilson, I do not understand how they fail to see that the man who killed their daughter, killed her with an illegal gun. How is making all guns illegal every where going to change anything?

Raining Mud?

2008-03-18T21:12:00.012-05:00

OK, this is weird. I took our son to T-ball practice tonight and it drizzled on and off. As we were practicing, one of other Dad's said something about it raining mud. I thought he was talking about dirt being kicked up off of the infield, but didn't really pay much attention to what he was getting at.

After practice, we were walking to our car and noticed the mud-spots all over my car. I was wondering if the water was sticking to the dirt we picked up in the parking lot, but that was not the case. As we drove home, I noticed that every car on the road had the same spots. Dirty, yucky, muddy spots.

Once we got home, I notice that Becky's car had the same spots. The kids helped me spray the mud off of the cars with the hose. Here is what mine looked like before the car-bath.

After we were done, I got on the web and checked the weather on a local TV station web site. Steve Brown said that there was a dust storm in Mexico and that the wind carried all that dust into our area where it was deposited on our cars while it rained. Weird stuff.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day From The Late, Great "World's Best Guard Dog!"

2008-03-17T15:51:00.004-05:00

My Mom came by today to help out in the office and she showed me this cute, old picture of a dog we use to have. Her name was "Nushi" and she lived for 16 1/2 years. Evidently this picture was taken on Saint Patrick's Day. My Mom likes to decorate for just about any holiday. If it isn't moving, it gets decorated. Nushi must have been asleep and woke up in green.

One of her nick-names was "ugly dog," but my Mom and Dad liked to refer to her as, "The World's Best Guard Dog." Of course this was an honorary title and certainly not something that was earned. Regardless, she was a great little dog.

Before my Mom left for the day, she reminded me of how Nushi died. My Mom didn't want to have to take her to the vet "one last time" and God honored that. She was laying down in her little bed while my Mom was petting her. The last thing Nushi's ears ever heard was, "You are the World's Best Guard Dog."
She drew her last breath after hearing that.

Bullethole League #13 Week Two

2008-03-16T00:24:00.004-05:00

Friday night a friend of mine asked if I am still shooting and that he had seen shooting videos here on our blog. It occurred to me that it has been awhile since I've posted any (January 22nd). The last video I posted was week one of the Bullethole Pistol League #13. This video is week two of the same league. We shot my favorite target, the Texas Star.

Notice that I have to reload right in the middle of shooting the star. Lesson learned? Yes, make sure all of your magazines are loaded to their limit before you start the course of fire.

From The Jewel Box # 21

2008-03-14T15:35:00.000-05:00

July 26, 2007

Our four year old son was outside and was getting use to his new bike. He almost fell off his bike and said,
"If I crash, I could fall and break my bone head."

*******
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!

Baby Walker Sonogram

2008-03-10T17:55:00.003-05:00

Becky and I went to go see a specialist today just to make sure everything is all right with the baby. Recently, Becky had a blood test come back with some possible abnormalities for the baby. The specialist was looking for certain things in the sonogram, but everything looked normal. Praise God for that.

The machine they used for the sonogram is the cadillac version and also has the capability to record pictures on a DVD. As you will see from the slide show below, the pictures are much higher quality than if I had scanned in the pictures myself. Pay close attention to the pictures as you can clearly see certain body parts. If you are observant, you can even tell the sex of our child.

Where Were All Of The Republicans?

2008-03-04T12:21:00.005-06:00

Becky and I voted this morning and we experienced something that we have never seen before. Since we take our kids with us, we take turns. I voted first while Becky stayed outside and let the kids run around and play hide-n-seek. Once I finish voting, I play with the kids while Becky votes.

Although I enjoy playing hide-n-seek with the kids, I did not expect to play it while voting. I walked into the room where we were to vote and there was one line approximately 40-50 people long. The volunteers were not very organized as we were not informed that there were really three lines. Two lines for democrats, depending on which district you live in, and one line for republicans. Once we all realized that, I was the only person in the room to step out of line towards the republican area.

I looked back into the faces of all the democrats and said, "I guess I'm a little outnumbered here." Most people smiled while a few chuckled. I kept my next comment to myself, but thought, "Wow, look at all those wrong people." I'm sure I would have received a more vigorous response had I said that.

Once I was at the front of the line or the only person in line depending on how you want to look at it, I asked the volunteer, "Where are all of the republicans?" She explained that many of the republicans voted early, but aside from that, she really didn't know what to say. When Becky had her turn, there were three people in front of her. The volunteer told her that it has been that way all day.

I realize that Texas is a red state, but that does not comfort me in the least. If Texas republicans don't vote, We'll be blue in more ways than one. On the way out of the polling place, Becky and I talked about what we just experienced. She had a good outlook on the situation. She said, "That just means my vote counts more."

Evidence Ministries At An Early Age

2008-02-29T10:38:00.003-06:00

I have a picture on my desk. This picture was taken when I was about five years old. Any guesses on the identity of the cute little red head next to me? Here is a hint. The caption on the picture frame reads, "Evidence Ministries at an early age."

Thank God There Was No Practical Application!

2008-02-22T12:48:00.004-06:00

This is a short video that you will find interesting if not downright humorous. There is a phrase that, to my knowledge, appears only in the King James Version of the Bible. The reason why, according to our preacher, is that the translators of other Bibles all pee sitting down. If you are confused about what you just read, watch the video.

Again, I am happy there was no practical application.

Utah Students Hide Guns, Head To Class VS. 40 Reasons To Ban Guns

2008-02-21T14:04:00.005-06:00

I was alerted to a CNN news story about Utah College students and their right to bear arms... in a location that most other states consider "No gun zones." It is a good story and contains comments and concerns from both sides of the gun control issue.

It reminded me of an e-mail that a friend of mine sent to me a little over a year ago. It is titled, 40 Reasons To Ban Guns. There are some really doozies here, but my favorite is number five.

40 Reasons To Ban Guns
1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, Detroit & Chicago cops need guns.
2. Washington DC's low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis' high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.
3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics."
4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates, which have been declining since 1991.
5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.
6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.
7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.
8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.
9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should "put up no defense - give them what they want, or run" (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die - People Do, 1981, p. 125).
10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.
11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seat belts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.
12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.
13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons, vehicles, buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a "state" militia.
14. These phrases: "right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people" all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" refers to the state.
15. "The Constitution is strong and will never change." But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to that Constitution.
16. Rifles and handguns aren't necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.
17. Private citizens shouldn't have handguns, because they aren't "military weapons'', but private citizens shouldn't have "assault rifles'', because they are military weapons.
18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, fingerprinting, government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's, anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations, variety stores, Sears mail order, no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms and there were no school shootings.
19. The NRA's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign is responsible social activity.
20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.
21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.
22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is "an accident waiting to happen" and gun makers' advertisements aimed at women are "preying on their fears."
23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.
24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.
25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.
26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a "weapon of mass destruction" or an "assault weapon."
27. Most people can't be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.
28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.
29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self- defense only justifies bare hands.
30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.
31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored, but Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.
32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do "civilians" who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.
33. We should ban "Saturday Night Specials" and other inexpensive guns because it's not fair that poor people have access to guns too.
34. Police officers have some special Jedi-like mastery over handguns that private citizens can never hope to obtain.
35. Private citizens don't need a gun for self- protection because the police are there to protect them even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.
36. Citizens don't need to carry a gun for personal protection but police chiefs, who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun.
37. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.
38. When Microsoft pressures its distributors to give Microsoft preferential promotion, that's bad; but when the Federal government pressures cities to buy guns only from Smith & Wesson, that's good.
39. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.
40. Handgun Control, Inc., says they want to "keep guns out of the wrong hands." Guess what? You have the wrong hands.

Much Needed Web Site Overhaul

2008-02-18T13:10:00.003-06:00

As you've probably noticed, we've had some light blogging recently. I want to explain what is going on so that you don't feel like I'm neglecting you.

I have been working with a website builder and we are finally going to completely re-create our web site. The concept I have in mind is a pretty unique one and I hope it all comes together the way I envision. We are going to have three web sites connected to each other, all built with the same basic template. The three main addresses will be EvidenceMinistries.org, HappyXWitness.com and HappyXMormon.com. The color scheme will be different for each site so as not to confuse visitors as to which site they are currently viewing.

We are still working on the template and almost have it completed. Next we will work on keeping the navigation simple so it easy to find whatever information is desired. We also want it to be easy to add new information in the future. This is the hard part. We have to have enough foresight so that we do not run into any navigation issues as we add new content.

Please pray for God to help us through the process. We are excited about our final product and look forward to revealing it in the near future.

Hilary Clinton Visits San Antonio Today

2008-02-13T07:58:00.002-06:00

Hilary Clinton will be in San Antonio today so I thought it appropriate to post a picture that one of my friends sent me.

Thanks to Deadeye Steve for the picture.

We Need Political Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

2008-02-08T16:44:00.000-06:00

From The Jewel Box # 20

2008-02-05T11:26:00.000-06:00

Here is a deep thought from our daughter from a couple of years ago.

12/29/06

"When I dream, I imaginate things that are pretend."

Wow, man. That's, like, philosophical....

*******
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!

Webcam Pictures!

2008-02-01T00:18:00.000-06:00

I have had a rough couple of days with Dell on tech support. We bought a new laptop months ago that came with a built in video camera and microphone. I have never used the webcam aside from a few phone calls when I used Skype while in Moldova last year. The webcam has its own Dell software, but I have never used it.

I have plans to use the webcam for some future projects on our Youtube channel so I need to know how to use the software. I started messing with it on Tuesday and have had a nightmare trying to figure it out. I can usually figure stuff out like this, but this was just not working. I really don't like to have to call tech support because I know it is going to be a time commitment. I got tired of looking online for a solution so I called tech support.

If someone from Dell is reading this, I want you to know that I absolutely HATE trying to explain my computer problems to someone whose primary language is anything but English. It is difficult enough trying to understand someone on long distance, but if you add a thick, heavy accent, forget it. It is near impossible trying to communicate.

To make an extremely looooong story short, after two days and countless hours (<--- no joke) on the phone, the webcam finally works. I decided to take a few minutes of well earned play time and mess with some of the features on the webcam. I'll let you decide whether or not the time was well spent.

National Sex Offender Registry

2008-01-29T11:45:00.000-06:00

A couple of years ago we received a postcard in the mail informing us that a sex offender had moved into our neighborhood. There was a picture of the man and a list of the crimes he had committed. Our neighborhood was abuzz and parents made sure their children knew what he looked like and to stay away from his house.

I am sure that most of the families in the area have forgotten what he looks like if not the fact that he still lives in our neighborhood. The National Sex Offender Registry is a very useful web site that will show you where sex offenders live in your neighborhood. All you have to do is type in your zip code and a map will come up showing you the work and home locations of those convicted of offenses against children, rape, sexual battery and other offenses.

Not only that, but if you click on the work or home location, a picture of the criminal will pop up along with his/her description, address and a list of their offenses. I just re-checked our neighborhood and noticed another offender less than a mile from our home. We were never informed about this guy. At this time, there are three sex offenders less than two miles from our home.

We live in a nice neighborhood. You just might want to check yours too.

Mormon Prophet Dies

2008-01-28T13:36:00.000-06:00

The very first e-mail I saw this morning was an announcement that Gordon B. Hinckley had died. I can honestly say that I was saddened by this news. Even though I am an most outspoken critic of Mormonism, I realize that there is more to Hinckley's death than religious news. He was a man with family, friends and followers. I feel for them and pray that God will use Hinckley's death to draw them to Jesus.

For those who look at this as an opportunity to kick Mormons while they are down, please just take the day off. There isn't anything you can say with that attitude that will help them. Just offer your heartfelt condolences and let the Mormons heal. If you don't have any heartfelt condolences, then at least wait to talk to them once they have grieved. If you love the Mormons, and you should, then that is the very least you can do.

You can read more about Hinckley here.

Hey, Allah! Does This Count?

2008-01-25T09:02:00.000-06:00

I stumbled across an interesting article this morning. You can read the whole story here, but let me just quote one statement I found interesting.

A WOULD-be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan, police say.
Wow, this guy, with visions of glory, headed out to do Allah's will and blew himself up because he tripped down the stairs. He didn't get to his intended target and killed only himself. Three other people were wounded, but no one else died.

Suicide bombers are taught that if they die killing infidels in Jihad, then they will be granted the reward of living in paradise with 70 some odd virgins. I am not one to make light of the death of someone else. Truth be told, I even hesitated to write this entry at all, but I've got a few questions with how this situation fits into Islam. What are the repercussions and will this guy be rewarded? With this in mind, here are some of my questions;

1) Is the road to paradise paved with good intentions?
2) Was it the destiny of the terrorist to die a clumsy idiot?
3) Was it the will of Allah for this guy to trip and fail his mission?
and lastly,
4) Does it count?