• Will Stoller-Lee

Christian leaders from across the nation plan to be in Washington, D.C. tomorrow. They'll attend an Evangelical Day of Prayer and Action on Immigration Reform, which is being billed as an "unprecedented, nationwide evangelical gathering on immigration will show a unified evangelical voice echoing a biblical vision for immigration reform that respects the rule of law, reunites families and upholds human dignity."

A number of influential evangelicals, including the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land and Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, have broken with their allies on the Right to advocate a more humane approach to the starving people who risk their lives to come to this country to wash our dishes and pick our fruit.

According to the Colorado Evangelical Immigration Table, the state branch of a nationwide reform effort we wrote about last June, a number of Coloradans will be in D.C. tomorrow for the rally.

On that list of evangelicals are Colorado Springs' Yolie Lalama of One Child Matters, and Fuller Theological Seminary director Will Stoller-Lee.

We first interviewed Stoller-Lee for a story that examined the Christian responsibility when dealing with the immigrant; and how far the Republican Party has strayed from that calling, despite its touting of the cross.

Here's what Stoller-Lee told us in 2011:

"The Bible is pretty honest about the issue of immigration," notes Stoller-Lee. "God's people have been exiles a lot. It is the story of the exodus. Shortly after Jesus is born, his young family is forced into exile. It's not like this is a minor theme."

Throughout the Old Testament, God instructs the Israelites to be kind to the immigrant. In Leviticus, as in Exodus and Deuteronomy, God is clear that "when a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt."

And here is his recent statement on the current immigration reform being debated in Congress:

As the Director of Fuller Theological Seminary in Colorado Springs I will be joining a group of pastors and ministry leaders from Colorado attending the Evangelical Day of Prayer and Action for Immigration Reform on April 17th in Washington, DC. I am looking forward to meeting with Rep. Doug Lamborn and other members of the Colorado delegation to encourage them to work together toward a truly bipartisan solution. The tone of this divisive debate has changed significantly in the past 6 months as business leaders and politicians have looked for constructive ways to work together on a political solution that is both just and compassionate. At the same time this is a justice issue that demands that people of faith reflect biblically and prayerfully on the how to welcome a new generation of immigrants to our society, and our churches. I began this process by reading through scriptures as part of the "I Was a Stranger" campaign. In the process I have discovered a new group of brothers and sisters who have enriched my journey of faith.

• Congressman Doug Lamborn

According to this article from the thoroughly un-biased Redstate.com, Congressman Doug Lamborn is demanding an apology from the Secretary of the Army:

“This is astonishing and offensive,” read a draft of the letter written by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO). “We call on you to rescind this briefing and apologize for its content and set the record straight on the Army’s view on these faith groups by providing a balanced briefing on religious extremism.”

Apparently, according to the article, "Lamborn is referring to an Army training session conducted last year that featured a presentation listing Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of extremism — alongside Al Qaeda and Hamas."

The article continues that a lieutenant colonel in the Army allegedly wrote an email calling the Colorado-based Family Research Council and the Mississippi-based American Family Association hate groups.

If true, this officer in the Army isn't alone in identifying the two anti-gay organizations as such — both groups are considered "hate groups" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Read the full article here.

• Blue moon in her eyes
• Nuns will take a stand for the poor.

Nuns, pastors and ministers plan to gather in the streets of Denver on Wednesday.

No, it's not an abortion protest. No, they're not going to make a stink about civil unions. Get this: They're upset because the nation's budget hurts the poor.

Old-school, I know.

Despite the proliferation of "WWJD?" bracelets and the contents of the New Testament (e.g. widows, orphans, rich men, eye of the needle), defending the downtrodden seems to be a radical move for the clergy these days. Gospel of prosperity, anyone?

Anyway, at least 50 Christians are expected to organize in Denver and ask legislators to reconsider budget cuts that have hurt the poorest while helping the rich.

Read on:

Colorado Nuns to hold press conference to urge Congress to fix budget on Wednesday
Will pray for families and kids suffering due to cuts in housing, food assistance

DENVER — Fifty nuns, ministers, pastors and struggling Coloradans will hold a press conference to urge Congress to fix budget sequester cuts causing Colorado families and children to suffer needlessly at Triangle Park (across from the Denver Rescue Mission and Catholic Samaritan House) on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 at noon.

The nuns will lead attendees in prayer to restore housing, food, job training and other federally funded assistance programs to help the poor survive and become self-sufficient — and make the case for a fair tax system that expects the wealthy and corporations pay their share of taxes so that we can invest in programs for working Coloradans and those most in need.

WHAT: Press conference, demonstration and prayer

WHEN: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 from 12:00 — 12:15 p.m.

WHERE: Triangle Park, where Broadway, Lawrence St. and Park Ave. intersect
Across Lawrence St. from Catholic Samaritan House, 2301 Lawrence St. and cross Park Ave. from Denver Rescue Mission, 1130 Park Ave. West

WHO: Catholic sisters from Colorado Nuns on the Bus, clergy from many faiths, struggling Coloradans affected by federal sequester cuts
* Sister Mary Catherine Rabbit, an advocate for people with disabilities, seniors
* Katie Stanton, single mother denied previously approved housing assistance
* Katrina Hall, formerly homeless woman and current guest of the Catholic Worker program

WHY: Show the suffering of Colorado families and children due to federal sequestration — and the need for a fair tax system that supports housing, food, job training and other assistance programs

VISUALS: At least 50 attendees, including nuns and clergy wearing religious garb like collars; large crosses, signs and banners with religious themes

Coloradans for Tax Fairness is a coalition of 20 nonprofit, community and labor groups seeking to make sure large corporations and the richest two percent pay their fair share of taxes and protect cuts to vital services upon which the middle class depends, like Social Security, Medicare, education and Medicaid.

• File photo
• Dread Lord Dobson.

James Dobson's getting up there in years, so understandably he's starting to look to his legacy of civil action, to see what all those decades have wrought. Talking in his most recent newsletter, Dobson realizes: not much.

"I'm sure many of you are discouraged in the aftermath of the National Elections, especially in view of the moral and spiritual issues that took such a beating on November 6th," he writes. "Nearly everything I have stood for these past 35 years went down to defeat."

Now, as Daily Kos notes, that's a rough place to be. Nothing worse than seeing a lifetime of social repression go to waste. But who to blame?

"There is no acknowledgement that in re-electing this President, the country provided a sound repudiation of Dobson's brand of extremism," Steveningen writes. "It wasn't any of the factions he cited in his newsletter that brought about his defeat. It was the electorate, who, among other things, has grown weary of the distortions and ugly tactics employed by social conservatism."

Maybe it was the electorate; maybe it was Mitt Romney's fault for not hatin' more on "the military and its gay agenda." Maybe it was the fact that all Democrats want to slip all zygotes back into the womb so they can be all aborted again.

Or is that not what he said? Ah, right: Dobson says the Democratic Party officially thinks "abortion should be legalized through nine months of pregnancy." See? That's better. A lie bad enough to make Baby Jesus weep, but better.

Moving on: "Do you remember the courageous position taken by Chick-fil-A in defense of traditional marriage?" Dobson asks, and I answer: Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Most fun is Dobson's middle finger to people like the new head of Focus on the Family, Jim Daly, who spoke with the Indy a few years ago about a more "respectful" Focus. (Of course, Daly still keeps some pretty gross company.)

"Unfortunately, what we are hearing from some of our Christian colleagues is that believers must become 'softer and gentler' in response to sin and evil, and to compromise our basic beliefs," writes Dobson. "It is never right to do what is wrong, and we will stand our ground in the defense of biblical principles. If that firmness in response to evil means hostile books, articles and Internet blogs will be written about us, then that is the price of carrying the banner for Christ.

"Our goal must continue to be winning souls for Him," he writes, adding — like somebody who says a phrase like "Internet blogs" would add — "Everything else is wood, hay and stubble."

• God hates a lot of stuff.

Been meaning to post this since before the world ended in an alternate Mayan universe. One of our readers, Arval Becker, touched on it in a letter in today's paper:

Dr. James Dobson, with his far-right Christian extremism has finally hit the lowest of the low. This "man of God," as he calls himself, followed former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fischer for the American Family Association, laying the blame for the massacre in Newtown, Conn., squarely on the victims by proclaiming that the reason for the senseless killing was because of God being kicked out of schools.

In discussing the Dec. 14 nightmare at Sandy Hook Elementary that claimed 27 lives, Dobson said these words on his radio show Dec. 17 (transcription provided by Right Wing Watch):

Our country really does seem in complete disarray. I'm not talking politically, I'm not talking about the result of the November sixth election; I am saying that something has gone wrong in America and that we have turned our back on God.

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences too.

And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on.

This is an honest question: Can anyone explain to me what the difference is between Dobson's apologetic-but-still-righteous riff and the universally despised ravings of the professional antagonists at Westboro Baptist Church?

Here's how Westboro tied that random and brutal massacre to God's wrath:

Now you’re in a fever for the chase for same sex marriage. Connecticut was one of the first states to come out for same sex marriage. You guys think you can brute force away the standard of God. It’s not gonna happen. You heard it here first. Soon. Soon. Connecticut is gonna look like a tea party. Many more shooters, many more dead are coming.

• provided
• Blake Page

A senior cadet's decision to withdraw from the distinguished, New York-based West Point has made national news.

According to U.S. News, Blake Page has quit over "what he sees as the illegal infusion of military procedures and events with fundamentalist Christian proselytizing."

The article points to Page's opinion piece published by Huffington Post. In it, Page details his decision:

As I write this, I am five months from graduation. After nearly three and a half years here, there is no reason to suspect that I would be in any way incapable of completing the final requirements and walking across the stage in Michie Stadium with diploma in hand in another 174 days.

...

While there are certainly numerous problems with the developmental program at West Point and all service academies, the tipping point of my decision to resign was the realization that countless officers here and throughout the military are guilty of blatantly violating the oaths they swore to defend the Constitution. These men and women are criminals, complicit in light of day defiance of the Uniform Code of Military Justice through unconstitutional proselytism, discrimination against the non-religious and establishing formal policies to reward, encourage and even at times require sectarian religious participation. These transgressions are nearly always committed in the name of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity.

The U.S News article also quotes Mikey Weinstein, the local Air Force Academy graduate who runs the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, (whose own battles over religious freedom we have written about extensively).

"This kid just torched his career in the Army, and his degree at West Point," said Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates for total separation of church and state. He likens Page’s move to those of Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement and monks who light themselves on fire to protest Chinese policies in Tibet. "People should recognize courage when they see it."

• Patrick Subotkiewiez
• A succubus caught in action.

Here's an inexplicable item we found in our news feed.

Alternet picked up on a recent article featured in Charisma magazine about Contessa Adams.

The Charisma article goes into detail about Adams' belief that, back in the day, she was the sexual plaything of demonic spirits.

For nearly two decades, Contessa Adams felt as though she had no power against the demonic violators of her body. She felt trapped in secrecy and shame and knew that the demons tormenting her wanted things to stay that way.

But God had another agenda for Adams when she found Christ in 1979. The former stripper has a ministry through which she exposes one of Satan's darkest secrets—sexual demons.

These spiritual rapists, as Adams describes them in her book, Consequences, often prey on people by performing sexual acts through nightmares and erotic dreams. Some people become so dependent upon these demonic experiences that they actually look forward to them.

This isn't the first time Charisma wrote about Adams. Back in 2000, the magazine did a story about her escape from voodoo.

According to Adams' autobiography, Consequences, Satan claimed her from birth by using a midwife named Flossie—a known witch on the Caribbean island of Dominica.

"In retrospect, my theory for all this was that when the servant of Lucifer blew breath into my mother...hell spoke," she writes. "The monarch of hell uttered, 'Both can live, only if I have the soul of the child!' [My] mother admits that she was voodooed or hexed, as it were. One could easily say that from my birth I was raised by a hexed, voodooed or a demon-possessed woman."

Adams had other relatives who were involved in the occult. The most notable was her maternal grandfather, who was a witch doctor. He was considered a "good" one because he reversed spells and curses that were cast on family members.

For Adams, practicing voodoo and various forms of Santería was kid stuff, she says. There was a deeper evil she craved, and she literally had an appetite for it. One of her favorite delicacies was "black pudding"—a concoction containing raw animal blood.

Yum.

Anyway, you can imagine the treatment that Alternet gave Adams' "demon sex" claims.

Then God came along and ruined everything, I mean saved her, putting her on the path to righteousness and helping others who are (naked) wrestling with their own sex demons.

But demons aren't just about getting laid. They're wreaking havoc all over the place, in addition to the mischief they've wrought on confused Christian genitalia.

The primary demon fighter in the modern Christian world is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a global network of Charismatic Christian ministries devoted to Dominionism, the idea that they must take over public institutions in order to save America and the world from ... demons (and gays, of course).

It's interesting that the Alternet article jumps (rather abruptly) to the issue of NAR.

We wrote about the apostolic movement a while back, when we profiled Robert Henderson and his local apostolic center, Wellsprings.

During the research for that article, I came across an article by researcher Rachel Tabachnick detailing Charisma magazine's love affair with the Pentecostal leaders in NAR.

A November Charisma Magazine article is titled the “Rising Tide of Influence: How Pentecostalism is gradually changing the dynamics of American Politics.” But most of the leaders in the article are not traditional Pentecostals — they are apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation. The NAR is one of the current forces behind the radicalization of the Religious Right, and in turn, U.S. politics. NAR leaders teach a dualistic worldview in which all other religions and philosophies, including secular democracy, are considered controlled by demonic entities in a cosmic battle with Christianity. They are leaders on social issues, like fighting abortion and gay rights, but they also emphasize a mandate to take “dominion” over all of the “Seven Mountains” or cultural power centers — arts, business, education, family, government, media, and religion.

But getting back to this most-recent Charisma article on demon sex and Adams: Why? Or, more specifically, why was another article published about a 13-year-old book? The demonic sex-life of a former stripper is sexy, no doubt, and worthy of pondering at length, but this is seriously missing what we in the biz call a "news hook."

Unless, of course, there has been an uptick in accounts of demon sex attacks?

• Flaunting political speech: Pastor Mark Cowart.

The popular magazine Christianity Today published an article a few days ago questioning the IRS' complete lack of action when it comes to churches violating IRS regulations.

We wrote about such violations a couple weeks back when some local evangelical pastors took part in the fifth Pulpit Freedom Sunday, a nationwide movement of pastors interrupting their regular Sunday sermons to their congregations to vote for Mitt Romney how to vote.

The strategy is to draw the IRS into a lengthy court proceedings, with the ultimate goal being to overturn the the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which banned certain nonprofits from engaging in partisan speech. The churches participating in the movement are aggressively challenging the law, some going so far as sending copies of their politics-laden sermons to the IRS.

The idea, explains Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with [Alliance Defending Freedom], is to push the issue into court. Then, he says, "We will have a test case, and we will seek to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional."

Then-Texas Sen. Lyndon Johnson introduced the amendment in 1954 to deal with what he thought was inappropriate campaigning by tax-exempt entities. But Stanley says it infringes on the First Amendment's guarantee to religious freedom.

"You don't get more to the core of religious freedom than a pastor preaching from the pulpit on a Sunday morning." Pulpit Freedom Sunday is less about the restriction on talking about candidates and elections, he says, than "the fact that there is a restriction on the pulpit at all. What we are trying to do is remove an unconstitutional restriction."

And the IRS has, so far, done nothing.

Christianity Today reports that though the IRS only recently announced a moratorium on church audits, Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), says a moratorium has essentially been in effect since 2009.

An IRS official at the level of regional commissioner or above is required to approve any church audits before they are initiated, according to a law passed in 1984. But in 1996, Congress reorganized the IRS from geographical regions to national practice groups—a move that eliminated the office of regional commissioner.

"The IRS designated an official within [its] exempt organizations section to be the one to approve the church audits," Stanley said.

But that position did not rank high enough to be adequate, the court decided after a Minnesota church challenged the legitimacy of their audit in 2009.

"The IRS shut down all church audits at the time," Stanley said. The agency proposed new regulations in 2009, but never got past the review process, he said.

"After that, it has taken absolutely no action on finalizing the regulations," he said. "They've just been sitting out there."

"We deeply want to see a God-movement that ripples outward from Colorado’s Front Range," says the organizers of the upcoming Multiply Conference at Vanguard Church.

It's not breaking news that the number of churchgoing Christians in this country is on a steady decline. In fact, that hasn't been breaking news for a while.

In an effort to combat this trend, and usher in a new age of Christian growth, religious leaders are trying to re-imagine the church's role in American culture and the methods they can use to prosthelytize and expand. Thus, we have things like the Multiply Conference, an outgrowth of Frontline Church Planting.

From the event site:

The church in North America faces curious times. The old operating system and status quo of the Church no longer resound with our culture. In the western U.S. we have sensed these things coming for a long time.

Church leaders are in process of making seismic shifts toward more mission-grounded and multiplication-based expressions of the Body of Christ, but we must move quickly.

They've lined up an interesting group of speakers, including New Life Church's Brady Boyd, Steve Holt (Steve Holt!) of Springs Mountain Springs Church, and author Alan Hirsch.

The event is being sponsored by Frontline Church Planting, Colorado Baptists, Pikes Peak Baptist Association, and Fuller Theological Seminary among others.

If you are interested, tickets are still available for this Nov. 2 and 3 affair at the event site.