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In the movie Big Jake (1971), John Wayne plays Jacob McCandles, a storied gunman who happens upon a lynching. Unnoticed by the mob, McCandles reaches for his rifle, draws a bead on the action, pauses, then lowers his rifle.

Recalling an earlier event in his checkered past that almost cost his life, Big Jake decides to move on and not get involved. Just then, the leader kicks a young boy and, in our cue there’s gonna be trouble, Jake winces, muttering, “Now what’d he have to go and do that for?”

I had the same reaction months ago when the Obama administration delivered a body blow to the Catholic Church in the form of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) mandate.

When I heard that the rule required employers, regardless of religious convictions, to provide contraceptives, sterilization procedures, and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge to female employees through company insurance plans, I thought, “Now what’d they have to go and do that for?” Politically, altruistically, economically, medically, and constitutionally, it made no sense.

Why, why, why?

Politically, Catholics make up one fourth of the electorate and, by a majority, supported the winning candidate (including Obama) in nine of the past 10 presidential elections. Why risk alienating a significant group in your base, along with others in liberal precincts who oppose the mandate’s encroachment on personal liberty?

Altruistically, the Catholic Church is one of the largest and most effective social service providers in the country. Why risk punishing the poor and needy by forcing it out of business? From past showdowns with the state, the Catholic Church has made its position clear: When faced with obeying God or obeying man, the Church will give Caesar what is due him, but no more. If the state sticks with its position, the predictable outcome (again) will be the unnecessary disruption of services to those who need them most.

Economically, women already have ample access to low-cost and often free contraceptives through community clinics and discount stores like Wal-Mart. Why coerce employers to provide them free of charge? Besides, they won’t really be free, hidden in the cost of increased insurance premiums.

Medically, how is this a women’s health issue as supporters insist? Did I miss the announcement by the AMA that fertility is a disease? If so, what about men? If women need free cervical caps and tubectomies for their health, don’t men need free condoms and vasectomies for theirs?

Then again, if the real concern is health, why not target the biggest health issue in America, obesity, by requiring insurance plans to provide personal trainers and memberships in the YMCA and Weight Watchers to employees of both sexes, free of charge?

Constitutionally, the free exercise of religion enshrined in the U.S. Bill of Rights presupposes the freedom of conscience recognized by the international community in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So why pick a fight, fraught with constitutional difficulties, especially in an election year when jobs and the economy are foremost on the minds of voting Americans?

From every angle I considered, the HHS mandate was a senseless, heavy-handed action that served the interests of no one, including the Administration.

Then again...  Continue reading here.

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I have come to believe that the most urgent business of the Church is not the evangelization of the lost, as important as that is, but the re-evangelization of the saved. Why so? For over a decade, George Barna has been studying the beliefs and behaviors of Christians; his findings are not encouraging.

In his 2001 book Growing True Disciples, Barna reported, “To the naked eye, the thoughts and deeds (and even many of the religious beliefs) of Christians are virtually indistinguishable from those of nonbelievers.” Six years later, he similarly reported, “Born again Christians are statistically indistinguishable from non-born again adults on most of the behaviors studied.” (The studied behaviors included lying, substance abuse, and extramarital sex.)

The pollster’s latest research suggests some underlying causes.

Based on surveys taken from 2005 to 2010, Barna found that less than 20 percent of Christians in America are committed to spiritual formation. What’s more, says Barna, “less than one out of ten have talked about their faith with a non-Christian, fasted for religious purposes, and had an extended time of spiritual reflection during the past week.”

He goes on to report that among self-identified Christians, less than 3 percent “have surrendered control of their life to God, submitted to His will for their life, and devoted themselves to loving and serving God and other people.”

Just think: Eighty percent of Americans profess to be Christians, yet only between 3 to 20 percent (likely closer to the lower end of that range) could be called disciples -- that is, believers who have dedicated their lives to become more like Jesus by learning to do the things He commanded us to do. Is it any wonder that Christians are succumbing to the cultural influences of a secularized society and that the Church is losing its social and moral capital?

But imagine if the discipled population was doubled, tripled, or quadrupled over the next decade. What might happen if the majority of professed Christians were actually practicing Christians -- believers whose works and words align with the teachings of Jesus? I suspect that we would see a kingdom movement not experienced since the time of the early Church.

It’s not working

I am not alone in recognizing the pressing need of re-reaching the “saved.” Continue reading here.

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Each year Prison Fellowship bestows an award on the person who has best exemplified the work and spirit of William Wilberforce. Past recipients include U.S. congressmen, senators, a British parliamentarian, a former U.S. Treasury secretary, clergymen, and scholars.

In 2005, I had the privilege of attending the award ceremony in Washington, D.C., honoring Gary A. Haugen. Gary is the founder of International Justice Mission, a Christian human rights advocacy group. With support from a stable of lawyers, investigators, and government liaisons, Gary travels around the world to help victims of human trafficking, slavery, and sexual exploitation.

After receiving his law degree from the University of Chicago, Gary worked for a human rights group fighting government corruption and abuses in the Philippines. Later, in 1994, he headed a U.S. Department of Justice team charged with investigating the Rwandan genocide.

During one of his trips to that devastated country, Gary scanned a mass grave with thousands of machete-hacked corpses. Overwhelmed by the human tragedy, Gary wondered what one “white bread” boy from the California suburbs could do. As it turned out, more that most people could have imagined.

Gary and his team conducted field investigations and gathered evidence from among 100 graves sites in the region. They applied their legal expertise to develop strategies of securing reliable eyewitness testimony and bringing guilty parties to justice -- skills and tools that Gary realized were sorely absent in the existing overseas relief groups.

The experience convicted Gary to found IJM in 1997 and put his expertise to work for the victims of injustice worldwide. It was, and is, a formidable undertaking.

Slavery today

Today, as in the time of Wilberforce, slavery is an invisible evil in a culture easily distracted by American Idol and the latest inanities of the Kardashians. Yet 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, 27 million people are enslaved around the world -- more than the sum total of victims during five centuries of European slave trade.

It is estimated that up 800,000 persons -- half of whom are children -- are trafficked across their nation’s borders each year for the commercial sex and forced labor industries. And that does not include those trafficked within their country. The story of “Maira” is typical: Continue reading here.

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Under the leadership of William Wilberforce, the British slave economy ended, emancipation was won, and compassion became fashionable, all within the span of 50 years. Individually, these accomplishments were remarkable; collectively, they were breathtaking, especially when compared with the experience in the United States.

Behind the British success was a band of individuals who were burdened by their Christian faith to be difference-makers. The Clapham Sect consisted of a dozen or so philanthropists, led by Wilberforce, who were well-placed in British society. Their ranks included scholars, writers, statesmen, clergymen, and economists, all committed to use their positions and talents for the betterment of society.

Throughout history, groups dedicated to social change have come and gone with differing measures of success. However, few of them, since the time of the apostles, achieved what the Clapham group did in so little time. Underpinning their commitment was an understanding of humanity that made their cause a “non-negotiable.”

Their belief was that, in the divine calculus, every person is a creation of inestimable worth. That meant that all men, regardless of color, race, education, or social class, were entitled to equal treatment and liberty. Thus, human rights were not inventions of man or privileges granted by the state; they were endowments from God to be acknowledged, respected, and defended.

From that fixed platform, the Clapham group launched a movement that changed a nation and fueled the hopes of abolitionists on the distant colonial shores... Continue reading here.