A friend made me aware of this sweet call a young boy made to a radio station. Logan is a 13 year-old boy who lives on a ranch in a very small town in Nebraska. Logan listens to Christian Radio station 89.3FM KSBJ which broadcasts from Houston, TX. Logan called the Morning Show with Mike and Susan distraught because he had to take down a calf . His words have wisdom beyond his years. Get your Kleenex. 

UPDATE: Logan and his mother, Tee Jay, will be LIVE on The Paul Edwards Program TODAY (Tuesday, November 20) at 4:30 pm ET. Stream it live at http://www.godandculture.com.

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John Piper says in a recent blog post at DesiringGod.org:

What I want to say about Fundamentalism is that its great gift to the church is precisely the backbone to resist compromise and to make standing for truth and principle a means of love rather than an alternative to it. I am helped by the call for biblical separation, because almost no evangelicals even think about the doctrine.

Read the full post here.

Frank Lockwood over at Bible Belt Blogger highlights the attacks on Huckabee from conservatives in the wake of his positive showing at FRCs Values Voter Summit last week.  Phyllis Schlafley is leading the charge, accusing Huckabee of destroying the conservative movement in Arkansas, quite an accomplishment to lay at the feet of one man. Dr. Randy Brinson of Redeem the Vote is cited by the Washington Times saying that in a recent meeting of conservative leaders, some moved to support Huckabee, causing a “panic” at Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council.

So what is it exactly about Huckabee that concerns pro-family leaders like James Dobson and Tony Perkins? That same Washington Times piece quotes Family Research Council president Tony Perkins on Huckabee:

Mr. Perkins said during a Christian Science Monitor press breakfast that although Mr. Huckabee is good on all social issues, “he has not seemed to have found solid footing on the issue of the threat, internationally, from radical Islam. There is some concern there about that issue.”

Asked what Mr. Huckabee had said to elicit concern, Mr. Perkins said that in a Republican candidates’ debate, the former Arkansas governor “made the statement that we broke Iraq.”

“We didn’t break Iraq,” Mr. Perkins said. “Saddam Hussein broke it.”

Warren Smith at The Charlotte World, makes the following observation in a piece titled, Why Huckabee Poses a Dilemma for Pro-Family Leaders:

Among pro-family leaders, though, there is some hand-wringing because they worry that Huckabee – who is the candidate the followers of the pro-family movement are obviously behind – is unelectable. Pro-family leaders such as Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins would prefer to pick a winner, and be seen as the guys who made him a winner. However, they don’t yet see Huckabee as a winner, so they’re hanging fire.

Warren hits the nail on the head when he says pro-family conservative leaders are putting pragmatism above principle. Shame on conservative evangelical leaders who refuse to back a principled candidate simply because of the perception he can’t win. Of course he can’t win if we don’t support him. These same leaders would rather throw their support behind a tired, anemic movie actor whose own Christian principles are questionable rather than support a man who clearly articulates the values conservative Christians are known for, and does so passionately.

Mike Huckabee is clearly one of us. What makes pro-famliy leaders think Fred Thompson better represents our values than does Huckabee? Any support from conservative evangelicals for Thompson can only be justified on the basis of pragmatism (he is perceived as more electable than Huckabee) rather than on principle. I for one plan to stand on principle. If our leaders don’t stand with us on principle, it’s time for a grassroots revolt to overthrow the status quo.

Televangelist Paula White was a recent guest on my radio program in Detroit. She and her husband of 18 years, Randy White, announced in August that they would be divorcing and yet continuing their respective ministries: Randy as Senior Pastor of Church Without Walls in Tampa, Florida and Paula as an itinerant evangelist and “Life Coach.”

For most of the 30 minutes we talked I challenged her on her theology, as revealed in her latest book “You’re All That!,” as well as her divorce. I asked her to justify statements made by members of her church that her divorce would have no impact whatsoever on its ministry. How is that possible, I asked? How is it possible that two high profile ministers could conclude that their own relationship was so damaged that divorce was the only solution, and yet believe themselves spiritually fit to continue their ministries? She had no concrete answers, and so she concluded our 30 minute conversation this way:

“And while we’re talking about painful, difficult situations, with all due respect, I understand “let’s get the elephant out of the room,” we’ve taken 30 minutes on divorce. But I don’t understand why not an interviewer or a believer as yourself has not asked me how my daughter, who has a death sentence, with third and fourth stage cancer, how she’s doing now.”

I sat stunned for a moment; stunned because I didn’t know, but more shocked that she would use a family tragedy to make me look like a terrible person simply because I challenged her theology and lifestyle.

What pray tell, does her daughter’s illness have to do with answering questions about her divorce and her humanistic theology? Is Paula White above criticism because she has a terminally ill daughter?

The larger question is: if her daughter’s illness is so serious as to warrant her not having to answer questions about her very public divorce and her very abberant theology, why is Paula White on an eight city book tour while her daughter lay dying? During our conversation she boarded a plane for Detroit for a book signing the next day. 

The fact is, “her” daughter is not her daughter at all. “Her” daughter is actually her estranged husband Randy’s daughter from a previous marriage. “Her” daughter is an adult, not a child. She led me and my audience to believe that she had a young child at home dying of cancer. Paula White played the sympathy card when it became apparent she had lost the sympathy of the audience on the issues she was asked to address. 

Paula White is a well managed image worth millions of dollars. Behind that image is a real person, a wounded and broken human being, who lives in fear of being exposed. Paula White revealed how broken she is when she used her dying daughter as a desperate cover to protect at all costs her well managed image. She needs our prayers as much as her daughter.

Listen to the complete interview here.