URGENT PRAYER REQUEST- Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"- CBNNews.com, Aug 14, 2013 http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/ - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.]
“Abandoned” For Christ" - Graham Calls On White House To Support Abedini - By Dr. Tom Askew, Aug.8, http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/opinion
Franklin Graham is the latest to join the chorus of voices calling for U.S. State Department and White House officials to take a more vocal role in protesting the Iranian imprisonment of American pastor Saeed Abedini. September 26 will mark the one year anniversary of Abedini’s imprisonment for allegedly “endangering the national security” of Iran.
Graham pointed out that, in contrast to Iranian accusations, “Pastor Saeed was in Iran trying to help children. With the permission of Iran’s government, he was working to build an orphanage. But his humanitarian mission led to an arrest on bogus charges and nearly a year of inhumane treatment, simply because he loves Jesus Christ.”...
Behind the scenes, more than 600,000 people around the world have signed a petition sponsored by ACLJ in support of pastor Abedini. A concerted movement this past May brought together Christians from many nations to set aside Pentecost to pray for Abedini. On June 13, demonstrations were held at Iranian embassies in at least six countries to protest Abedini’s treatment. And, on July 29, Arizona Republican Representative Trent Franks spoke on the floor of the House to urge other Congressmen to join him in “adopting” Pastor Abedini through the bipartisan Defending Freedoms Project.
Saeed’s response…and yours - Through his family living in Iran, Pastor Abedini has been made aware of these efforts on his behalf, and is grateful. “I heard that the persecution, my arrest and imprisonment has united churches from different denominations, from different cities and countries. That the churches have united together in prayer to put one request (my freedom) on one day (Pentecost) before God,” he wrote in a letter.
The story of Saeed Abedini, the jihad against Syrian Christians, the attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt, and the ongoing desecration of churches in Nigeria and India should cause every American to reflect on the blessings of freedom still enjoyed in this nation.
PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
Go to SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release.
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"Faith in God inspired Martin Luther King, Jr" . John A. Murray, August 13, 2013 http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/08/13/martin-luther-king-march-washington-god-column/2650743/ {John A. Murray is headmaster of Fourth Presbyterian School in Potomac, Md.}
[NOTE: Please also read the fascinating article that follows entitled: "King's Speech Impact Less Than Remembered" as it looks at the little recalled historical context of the speech.]
In preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, the National Park Service is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove a controversial quote on the side of the King Memorial: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." Though the inscription was paraphrased from a sermon King delivered in Atlanta, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar endorsed the change after critics denounced it. "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit," proclaimed poet Maya Angelou.
If King were alive, would he be less concerned about being called a drum major than he'd be by the omission of any reference to God? Curiously, when the 14 quotes on the inscription wall were chosen for King's memorial, not one mentioned the Inspirer of his faith and courage to challenge the nation's racial injustice of his generation. Can you imagine a Lincoln Memorial without such references as, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right"?What a blessing it would be to include a reference to the Father that motivated not only the King, but the lives of so many men and women He has inspired over the years as well. For me the point is particularly serious, considering the impact the "I Have A Dream" speech had on one of my educational mentors, Chuck Johnston.
As a young teacher in Atlanta's segregated schools, Johnston's original purpose in viewing the 1963 march was not to hear King but instead Peter, Paul, and Mary's performance of Blowin' in the Wind.
Providentially, it would be King's words that would leave the greatest impression on Johnston: "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood." This proposition stirred the heart of the Georgia native, the great-grandson of a former Mississippi slave owner, who began his teaching career in the 1960s and worked hard to bring about racial reconciliation in the schools he led. I witnessed this firsthand when we served together in the late 1990s, as Johnston diversified the administration, faculty and student body. As a matter of fact, when President Obama recently weighed in on the Trayvon Martin verdict and the need to "bolster and reinforce our African-American boys," I couldn't help but think of Johnston's vision and work.
Johnston answered the president's question — "Is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?" — when he assumed the role as executive director of the Atlanta Youth Academy (AYA) in 2001. Seeking to give underprivileged, inner-city children the opportunity to overcome a difficult upbringing, Johnston shepherded the graduation of nine AYA eighth-grade classes by his retirement in 2012 — none of the students has dropped out of high school, with many matriculating on to college.
Instead of putting God Almighty to the side, Johnston placed Him at the center — embodying St. John's charge, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God." And given the August anniversary of the March on Washington, rather than modifying the "drum major" quote, I would recommend one from King's powerful 1963 speech that not only touched the life of Johnston but so many to follow:
"I have a dream … when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!' For that is a Gospel worth etching not only on a memorial but also the hearts of all God's children today.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
"King's Speech Impact Less Than Remembered":by Philip Klinkner, August 17, 2013; http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/08/17/king-march-washington-have-dream-column/2657701/
The March on Washington was indeed an influential moment, but not in the way most Americans have come to believe.
This month we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Americans have come to see the march as a turning point in our history when, inspired by the eloquence and moral urgency of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, our nation set out to make racial equality a reality for all Americans. Few of us would remember that at the time an August 1963 Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans either disapproved of the march or didn't think it would accomplish anything.
The March on Washington was indeed an influential moment, but not in the way that most Americans have come to believe. It, along with other protests and demonstrations at the time, pushed white Americans to support civil rights, not as much out of a sense of justice as much as out of a desperate desire to prevent disorder and to help win the Cold War. After all, how could America win the hearts and minds of people in Africa and Asia when non-whites at home were marching to obtain freedom and democracy for themselves?
At the time, most white Americans saw the March on Washington as a profoundly disruptive, even dangerous event, coming in the midst of an unprecedented level of racial conflict. Beginning in Birmingham, Ala. where white authorities used police dogs and fire hoses against peaceful black protesters, the summer of 1963 saw protests, riots, and demonstrations throughout the United States. According to journalist Theodore White, in the 10 weeks following the Birmingham uprising, the Department of Justice counted 758 demonstrations across the nation; during the course of the summer, there were 13,786 arrests of demonstrators in 75 cities of the 11 Southern states alone.
White Americans began to realize that blacks would no longer tolerate the status quo and were coming ever closer to the violent "fire next time" described by writer James Baldwin. Time magazine illustrated these fears with a drawing of a phalanx of angry blacks marching toward the reader. The caption read, "June 1963 -- The moment seems to be now." With this in mind, most white Americans were wary of the march.
President John F. Kennedy shared these worries. He called for Congress to pass civil rights legislation in order to meet "a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety." Even worse, this unrest threatened social peace at home at a time when the nation faced grave Cold War threats. According to President Kennedy, "Rancor, violence, disunity and national shame can only hamper our national standing and security."
Hoping to avoid trouble, President Kennedy met with civil rights leaders to get them to call off the march. If Kennedy had hoped that the authority of his office might help him get his way, he failed to account for the presence of A. Philip Randolph. As head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Randolph had been at the forefront of the civil rights struggle for over 40 years and was not one to be intimidated by presidents. If anything, he intimidated them. In 1941 he used the threat of a march on Washington to pressure Franklin Roosevelt to establish a fair employment practices committee to fight discrimination in defense industries.In 1948 his threat to organize draft boycott by blacks helped push Harry Truman to desegregate the armed forces. "There will be a march," he declared to Kennedy.
With the march going on as planned, the Kennedy administration worked with civil rights leaders to make it as orderly and peaceful as possible. Nonetheless, the administration deployed thousands of troops to the city with even more on alert nearby. Most businesses shut down, the city banned liquor sales and put every available police officer on the street. The Washington Senators cancelled two of their games.
Although there was no violence and the march's most lasting impression was the uplifting moral vision offered by Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, it probably failed to persuade many Americans of the morality of civil rights. In September 1963, 50% of Americans said that the Kennedy administration was pushing civil rights too fast, exactly the same percentage as before the march.
Still, white Americans also knew that King was right when he told the marchers, "Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual." Eventually, America passed historic civil rights legislation but less out of a commitment to American ideals than out of a desire to maintain social stability. Over the last 50 years, America has made amazing progress toward racial equality, but it has yet to fully realize Rev. King's dream. Now as then, progress will require not just words, but constant pressure and struggle.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
John A. Murray is headmaster of Fourth Presbyterian School in Potomac, Md.
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