Free Republic

When Christian actor Eduardo Verastegui devoted his career to serving God, he had no idea what might come out of his decision. He certainly couldn’t have imagined that his widely acclaimed movie Bella would literally save lives and souls. But that’s the story that author Tim Drake tells so well in his book Behind Bella.As the book shows, God’s hand was on Eduardo and on the making of the movie from the very beginning. To prepare for his role in Bella, Eduardo wanted to find a real-life Nina—the co-lead in the film struggling with her unwanted pregnancy. So Eduardo...

WHY CHRISTIAN WOMEN MARRY MUSLIM MEN Wake-Up Call By Mark Earley Note: This commentary was delivered by PFM President Mark Earley. It was while vacationing in Turkey that Miriam, a British subject, became fascinated with Islam. She was mesmerized by the beauty of the mosques and spellbound as she heard the daily calls to prayer. Miriam had been raised a Christian, but had turned against God when her mother died. The simplicity and security that Islam seemed to offer appealed to her: She decided to convert and married a Muslim man. But within a few years, cracks began to form...

In the 16th century, London’s mentally ill were often kept at Bethlem Royal Hospital. The conditions inside the hospital were notoriously poor. Patients were often chained to the floor and the noise was so great that Bethlem was more likely to drive a man crazy than to cure him. The conditions were so infamous that the nickname locals gave the hospital—Bedlam—has come to mean any scene of great confusion. Unfortunately five hundred years later, we’re still treating the mentally ill more like prisoners than patients. Fifty years ago, more than 550 thousand people were institutionalized in public mental hospitals. Today,...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. In the book Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love, and Lose at Both by Washington Post journalist Laura Sessions Stepp, many stories are told about young women who have plunged headlong into the “hookup culture,” only to end up bruised, broken, scared, and isolated. Stepp spent time with high school and college girls who were all, to some extent, participating in this ubiquitous “hookup culture.” Their experiences—as disturbing as they are—are something that every parent should know about. But in large part, it’s parents, along with educators...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. On Friday I discussed the sexual and spiritual wasteland where so many of our kids have ended up. And they don’t even know how they got there or how to get out. Today I want to talk about how parents—and especially dads—can combat that culture. The truth is, contrary to what the media tells you, dads do matter. As Dr. Meg Meeker puts it in her new book, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, “Most of you out there are good men . . . but you are good men who...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. For the past two days, we’ve talked about how Christians can help their kids navigate the spiritual and sexual minefield they each face. But what happens when these kids aren’t kids any more? Christian parents tend to think, “My kid is a good kid and wouldn’t have premarital sex.” Wrong, says Laura Sessions Stepp, author of Unhooked. From what she saw, “nice” girls, when they didn’t have strong family and church support, were more apt to fall prey to the “hookup culture” all around us. Many of them couldn’t...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. What is the most powerful room in the United States Capitol? Ask some members of Congress and you would probably hear this: Room 219. It’s the room closest to the House Chamber, and its walls have been privy to some of the most pivotal discussions of our history. Recently, however, Room 219 just got a whole lot more powerful. How so? You see, in Room 219 some of the highest elected officials of our land are bending their knees in weekly prayer gatherings—openly declaring, not their power, but their...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. If I were to ask you to imagine what a typical U.S. marshal looks like, you might think of John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. Or maybe Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. Tough guys, gun in hand, pursuing justice with steely-eyed coolness. This March, the U.S. Marshals Service appointed a new director—John Clark, a twenty-three-year veteran of the department. Like the other men and women of U.S. Marshals Service, Clark is an expert at protecting the public and chasing down the “bad guys.” But a recent...

DES MOINES, Iowa - A judge has ruled that a Bible-based prison program violates the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates. Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was sued in 2003 by an advocacy group, was ordered Friday to cease its program at the Newton Correctional Facility and repay the state $1.53 million. "This calls into question the funding for so many programs," said Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed the suit. "Anyone who doesn't stop it is putting a giant 'sue...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A judge has ruled that a Bible-based prison program violates the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause by using state funds to promote Christianity to inmates. Prison Fellowship Ministries, which was sued in 2003 by an advocacy group, was ordered Friday to cease its program at the Newton Correctional Facility and repay the state $1.53 million.

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. When Joe’s dad went to prison, Joe went to prison too—a prison of shame and anger. Responding to his father’s incarceration, Joe fought, drank, and smoked dope. And while Joe’s prison was figurative, he was on a path leading to a real prison with bars and barbed wire. Joe is not a unique case. As a recent article in the National Journal claimed, “The next generation of prisoners is going to come from the current generation of prisoners.” Sadly, society stands idly by as the children of prisoners become...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. I have a quick test for you. Don’t worry, it’s a multiple-choice test and won’t take long. Ready? Here’s the question. Which of these things doesn’t belong: A) children, B) Easter egg hunts, or C) political activists? Unfortunately, the homosexual activists of the Family Pride Coalition did not pass this test on Easter, when a nearly 130-year-old tradition of hunting for eggs on the White House lawn suddenly became the bull’s eye of controversy. Three months before the event, the Family Pride Coalition announced that gay and lesbian couples...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Throughout America last week, more than a million illegal immigrants poured into the streets. They took the day off from work, forcing many businesses to close for the day. They got everyone’s attention. However, it appears they only inflamed an already overheated debate. And the early polls are not showing any change in public opinion. We need to pause and take a good look at the roles of the Church and the government here. They are different and, in some ways, conflicting. But this is not the first time...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Not long ago, an ex-con named Umar Abdul-Jalil gave a speech in which he said the “greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House,” and that the “Zionists of the media” should not be dictating “what Islam is to us.” That was bad enough, but what was worse was the fact that Jalil is the chief Islamic chaplain in the New York City Department of Corrections. After his comments became public, he was suspended from his job. But New York’s Mayor Bloomberg refused to dismiss him, claiming that...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. In McLean, Virginia, a young mother named Silvia began channel-surfing, looking for something that would amuse her 4-year-old daughter. Up on the screen popped something called “Girl Next Door.” It was a photo shoot for a Playboy centerfold, and it showed women in sexual poses, completely nude, except for portions that were blurred. “It was very clear what was going on,” Silvia relates. She grabbed the remote—but it was too late. Her little girl was already asking questions. The program was not a cable or satellite offering. In fact,...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. There are many so-called strategies for redeeming the culture. For instance, there’s electing pro-family representatives at the state and federal levels, nominating and confirming the right kind of judges, and, of course, there’s evangelism and the ability to articulate a Christian worldview in a way that our non-Christian neighbors can understand. And while all of these are important, there’s something else that is more likely to succeed than any of these: frequenting your local maternity ward. Regular “BreakPoint” listeners and readers have heard about the “birth dearth” in Europe...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. The clash of civilizations is a term most of us are familiar with. But it’s more than just a catchphrase or a book title. It’s a grim reality that we live with every day, as we deal with acts of religiously inspired terrorism. In such a difficult and often frightening situation, how should we live? How do we relate to the people of different backgrounds and beliefs that we see every day? And going beyond that, how do we talk to them to about Christ? In these tense times,...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. Geographically, all that separates Virginia and Maryland is the Potomac River, which is approximately four hundred yards wide for much of its length. This proximity makes it commonplace for people to live in one state and work in another. However, one thing I learned while I was attorney general of Virginia is that the geographical proximity doesn’t translate into cultural proximity. On many important social issues, the states are far apart. Maryland’s abortion laws, for example, go far beyond Roe v. Wade, while Virginia continuously tries to uphold the...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. The nation of Israel has an expression I love: “Never again.” No one has to explain what they’re referring to—it’s the Holocaust. It’s a great vow. The problem is the world still tends to look the other way, even when entire races of people are being systematically exterminated. To our everlasting shame, when genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994, the UN sat on its hands, as did the United States. But at this very moment, genocide is taking place again—this time, in Darfur in western Sudan. Again, the world...

Note: This commentary may not be suitable for young children. This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. A 25-year-old Christian man e-mailed a friend—a young Christian author named Lauren Winner—and asked her a question. He claimed he had endless opportunities for casual sex—including one that very evening. Why should he not take advantage of them? After all, he said, he was already “dealing with seventeen other things in my Christian walk. Shouldn’t I just focus on learning to pray, and deal with the sex stuff later?” Nice try, buster. Winner, the author of Real Sex: The Naked...