A MOMENT OF SILENCE?

by  Dr. Ergun Mehmet Caner                                                                                    Vol. XXI, No. 7, September 2008

Recently I had the honor of speaking at the Pacific Northwest Apologetics Conference in Seattle, Washington. The conference ended on Saturday, and I stayed after to preach for Ken Hutchinson, the pastor of the Antioch Bible Church. He is a former Dallas Cowboy football player, and has pastored that church for almost twenty-five years. He is a looming figure on the west coast, both physically and spiritually.

Ken Hutchinson’s public stance for Christ has led him to be a target of the left. The week after the conference, the public school where his children attend was planning on having a “moment of silence” for the homosexual community. He announced to the church of well over a thousand that he was planning on showing up and protesting this event. The media was attacking him from all sides.

The battle was not limited to just the homosexual agenda. The week prior to the Conference, high school students were given the day off from school, and bussed into the Key Arena in downtown Seattle for the “Seeds of Change” event hosted by the Dalai Lama who was visiting the city!

Can you imagine? What would happen if we asked the schools to allow for a moment of silence for the children sacrificed in abortions? Would the school system allow our students a day off for a revival service or Christian concert? Of course not.

The battle is getting more heated every day, and men like Pastor Hutchinson are a dying breed. In the name of “Christian civility,” we have allowed our voices to be silenced. Most churches no longer protest anything, because we fear the disdain of the elite in our society. Most pulpits are filled with diplomats. I define a diplomat as a soldier who has laid down his sword.

I am not ready to put my sword down yet…not while my heart is still beating. Are you?

[Dr. Ergun Mehmet Caner is the President of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Professor of Theology and History at Liberty University. This is the first of a regular column he will write for The Baptist Banner. For comments, he can be reached at ecaner@liberty.edu <mailto:ecaner@liberty.edu> . For complaints, don’t bother.]