Saturday, December 4, 2021
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary Bauer
Friends, the challenges we face are enormous. To defend our values, we are partnering with various allies, including Lindsey Communications, The Lindsey Foundation, Faith Wins and the Pacific Justice Institute to empower the resurgence of the Church vote. Below is their latest alert. Please share the resources included here with your church leaders and fellow worshippers. – Gary
The Church Finds Its Voice
A Coalition of Lindsey Communications, The Lindsey Foundation,
Faith Wins and the Pacific Justice Institute
to Empower the Resurgence of the Church Vote!
Comm #26: Makin' A List, Checkin' it Twice
What is on your Christmas wish list, dear pastors and ministry leaders? This month we're out to give you the best gifts we can offer, and put them in the easy form of lists you can 'check twice'!
Here we go, and I'll start. This is Joan, and may I say how joyful it was to get to meet and know so very many of you as we traveled the states on the American Restoration Tour? It was our pleasure to bring our nation’s greatest historian, David Barton, to over forty cities and witness the strengthening of the Church as so many of you heard the truth about America’s Christian founding.
Here are my top 7 gifts in my list. I trust you'll check it twice!
1. America really is a Christian nation, founded by believers following Biblical ideas to produce a system of government that has been, and is, the wonder of the world. One doesn't have to be a Christian to live here, but our Constitution is Bible-based, and that's why it works.
2. And you are its leaders. By historical legacy, and by calling. Only Christians can carry forward a nation devised to uphold Biblical precepts, and must do so.
3. You must 'be the media' for your kids and grandkids. For your congregation and your neighbors. Use the resources provided at WallBuilders.com, which is David Barton's organization, and teach, teach, teach our country's Godly history to others.
4. Give goofy news the go-by, and get your news from accurate sources. Experts we have consulted recommend the following list:
Washington Examiner: Probably the most robust alternative, conservative-leaning news site with broad coverage and many fresh posts every day, with categories such as "Defense & National Security," "Healthcare," "Business" and "Energy." Plenty of political news ("Beltway Confidential," "Washington Secrets" and Byron York's "Daily Memo" providing an excellent political news rundown from a conservative perspective), podcasts and a slate of opinion columnists.
Daily Caller: Co-founded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the site reflects his sensibilities with an emphasis on liberal intolerance and posts about topics suppressed by the leftist media, as well as looks at how traditional media outlets are distorting the news. But it also provides fair and accurate coverage of all the major news of the day.
The Washington Times: In addition to providing a conservative opinion perspective and highlighting right-leaning interests in their news section, they also do investigative reporting on subjects that the liberal media aren't interested in (Biden administration, cultural issues, free markets). Downside: They have a paywall which requires a paid subscription after viewing just a few stories a month.
RealClearPolitics: As the name suggests, of the sources in this list, the one most focused on politics. The site features dependable statistics and significant original reporting, but its strength is its daily list of a well-balanced selection of political articles from the left, the right and in between.
The Daily Wire: Created by Ben Shapiro, the podcaster/talk radio host very popular with younger conservatives, the site's posts are oriented toward content that resonates with people in their 20s and 30s.
CNSNews, with "the right news, right now," aims "to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story and debunk popular, albeit incorrect, myths about cultural and policy issues." The site specializes in the angles to events ignored by the major media outlets, with a special focus on life issues and the federal debt.
FoxNews, Newsmax and One America News Network (OAN). Whether by watching their TV channels or by reading their web sites, they all provide news you won't see on the other news channels, free of the all-too-widespread antipathy toward conservatives and religious believers. Newsmax has the advantage of being the easiest for "cord cutters" to watch, with a free online feed (https://www.newsmaxtv.com/) and is free to watch on Roku, Amazon Fire stick and other streaming services with free channels.
El American: A new, bilingual site with news of interest to Hispanic Americans, emerging as a trustworthy news source that reports on matters often omitted by Univision or Telemundo.
5. Keep going in your role as a budding David Barton- trained American historian; consider encouraging your church to use the outstanding Constitution Coaches program run by Rick Green (Rick is a close associate of WallBuilders). Click this link for more information.
6. It's Christmas! Bless your family with the book The American Story by David and Tim Barton. It is, in my view, the most accurate well-written summary of U.S. history out there, and every Christian American should read it and know it. Do that, and the next time you hear some goofy, wrong blather about America, you'll know just what to say back.
7. Personal messages are so powerful; a handwritten note or call to a TV network, a news organization, a corporation, a legislator is the most powerful media you can employ. It's a version of showing up, and leaders are incredibly impressed by these personal efforts.
That's it! And now, here is your list and an incredible recap of the American Restoration Tour from The Church Finds Its Voice coalition member Chad Connelly, President of Faith Wins.
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Well, we pulled it off!
When our coalition planned The American Restoration Tour with David Barton teaching the irreplaceable role that God has played in American history, our team prayed we could get to 25-35 cities in 10-12 states in a two-month period.
As I've written in previous letters to y'all, it got out of hand—in a very good way. The response from pastors across the nation who wanted to have David Barton in to speak was truly overwhelming and amazing. In fact, when it has all been said and done, we did 42 meetings in 12 states between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, and we had just over 13,000 people in those meetings!
To say the tour exceeded our expectations is a massive understatement to be sure.
David told me personally, "We've never had trouble booking speaking, but no one has ever strategically booked us in key spots in such a short period of time as you and your team did."
Maybe that's why God let me be in politics --the recognition that we as believers need to be more politically strategic in our thinking! Whatever the reason, we give HIM the glory and praise for so many Americans getting to hear the truth about God's role in our nation.
There were so many positives that came from the tour. I could write pages and not cover them all. Certainly, we achieved our overall goal—find and identify other pastors and faith leaders who would help expand our voter registration program next fall. There is no doubt that if we can raise the necessary funding, we will increase the 750,000 new evangelicals we registered in 2020 in 2022.
But maybe the best thing was the impressive and truly reassuring hunger for truth that we witnessed across the nation. It fired me up to discover that all is not lost in our nation!
We met parents who have now seen exactly what their kids are learning, and NOT learning in school, who showed up to their school board meetings demanding that anti-American and anti-God teaching stop!
We met normal, everyday Americans who are now running for local and state office, who just emerged to run after watching the chaos that some elected officials have allowed in their states.
We met pastors who literally APOLOGIZED for neglecting to engage the culture and fulfill their Biblical mandates to be salt and light.
We helped recruit HUNDREDS of Bible-believing, patriotic men and women who became poll watchers in the state of Virginia and who helped lead a wave of conservative Christian voting that astounded the "experts" who just didn't see that coming!
While we don't tell anyone who to vote for or even which party to support, there is no doubt that Christians vote for Biblical values and those are more associated with conservatives. A political news aggregator developed this map to show the real impact across Virginia that clearly demonstrates the difference church voters made in that state. Many pundits, elected officials and even media outlets made statements that the church voter turnout was the difference maker in the state's fall election.
In a big picture sense, Christians recognize that our society is changing. While we see those changes and sometimes succumb to the media narrative that Christianity and conservatism are dying, it's just not true.
Conservative policies work when they are enacted, and despite changing ideas in society, truth doesn't change. God-fearing, patriotic Americans KNOW that many of the policies we've seen enacted at the state and national level over this past year are not good for our country.
You can't kill truth, and God's people are out there wondering what they can do regarding making a difference in these crazy times! We have a path for anyone sitting in a pew to engage to make a Matthew 5 Salt and Light impact right in their community, state and nation right now.
Consultants and most party officials have seemingly given up on trying to engage the Christian voter. I saw it first-hand working in politics at the highest levels in America, but at least party leadership at that time understood the vital importance of engaging the evangelical right.
As a former state party chairman, I don't begrudge the efforts at "outreach" – politics is a game of addition after all. However, personnel IS policy and when the national party many thought were dedicated the most to Biblical values hires staff for a "Pride Coalition" that will obviously fight against core values in their platform -- there is a massive problem.
Here's the link to "You've Gotta Fight for the Right in the Party," a great article on the topic by Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council.
I am thankful for Joan Lindsey and her vision to come alongside my program and help give it the boost we needed to expand. We as believers must conclude that there are literally people on "our side" who simply don't hold our values and if we financially support their efforts, we are truly paying to fight ourselves internally. We simply must create efforts to maximize the faith vote and that's what our program has done and is doing.
We hope you had the chance to come out to one of our American Restoration Tour stops this fall, and if not, I have a sneaking suspicion that folks all over America are talking right now about how to make sure we include them next year, so we'll invite you to one of those, too.
Thank you for all you do for our nation. God's hand on America is undeniable, but while there are people doing their best to cover it up and lie about His role, we'll be out there reminding them of the truth and activating them to go make an impact for America and God’s Kingdom here on earth!
God Bless you and Merry Christmas!
-Chad
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And now Pacific Justice Institute with their Christmas list for you…
While this last year has been full of challenges, it has also resulted in tremendous opportunities for churches to serve, impact and receive protection like never before. As we wrap up 2021, let us not forget those opportunities as we move into 2022. Here is PJI's Christmas list of ways we are actively empowering churches across America:
1. What a gift! We are leading the charge as it relates to Church Homeschool Co-Ops. One way we're doing this is...
- Providing direction/resources as to HOW to start and complete educational curriculum requirements.
2. We are protecting their congregations from losing their jobs in these ways...
- We are providing resources focused solely on religious exemption or accommodation letters.
- We are providing steps to take action in the event of religious exemption or accommodation denial.
- We are representing tens of thousands of people across the country to defend their religious freedoms.
- We are serving thousands through our bi-weekly Zoom calls to provide legal advice and answers to your most important questions.
- We are hosting Town Hall meetings throughout the country.
3. Another gift! We.re expanding the ways we can support you by opening new offices:
- We are opening offices coast to coast, (20 in total) which include the following: California (5), Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Illinois, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
4. And finally we're orchestrating voter registrations at hundreds of churches on Sunday mornings, most for the first time ever!
- We are doing this by working to empower more than 1,000 such churches in 2022.
Pacific Justice Institute's gift to you is that we are standing with these churches and pastors to provide confidence and clarity to know how to navigate the resistance that comes when churches start to find their voice. PJI offers protection to those who have suffered from government overreach and vaccine mandates. But most importantly, we are standing with those who feel they are in this fight alone. We want everyone across the nation to know that when you stand for freedom, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
-Brad
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Hi all, Kielle here. I want to start by wishing you all a very blessed and Merry Christmas! This season tends to go by in a flash, and so this year I'm personally challenging myself to slow down and enjoy every moment of it, turning my focus to Christ and the beautiful story of why He was sent to us here on earth. How blessed we are to have such a loving God and to live in a great nation gifted to us by Him.
Another gift to be thankful for is our Church Finds Its Voice coalition. God has blessed us mightily in this small group of 4, and we praise and thank Him for giving us the foresight, strength and wisdom needed to accomplish the American Restoration Tour with David Barton, and for what's to come next!
My Christmas list to you is a simple one and the best gift that I can offer you...these resources that we've been carefully and thoughtfully compiling for you this year.
Our goal in starting The Church Finds Its Voice has always been to support the faith leaders and pastors of this nation, to strengthen you with aid, education, resources, connection, legal resources and a whole lot of prayer. We've done this through 26 communications (Comms) now, and we want to gift you access to everything we've ever shared with you in those Comms so that you can easily find and refer to those resources. The Church Finds Its Voice website has every Comm available to you, so please visit it and utilize those at any time.
Wishing you all the gracious blessings of our Lord during this season of hope!
-Kielle
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We stand with you and are praying for you!
-Joan, Brad, Chad and Kielle - Your Church Finds Its Voice Leadership
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