East Shore Baptist Church

Today, I will be looking at a local Harrisburg area church that seems to have a lot going on especially in the outreach they are doing.  Let’s take a look at East Shore Baptist Church (ESBC) located at 6721 Jonestown Road, in Harrisburg.  During my conversation with Pastor Brian Harrison he told me of a project that I found interesting and very much needed in the area.  ESBC has a ministry to the Keystone Correctional Services facility, a men’s halfway house nearby the church on Allentown Blvd.

Last year, Keystone entered into the neighborhood with much negative press and many hard feelings from local residents.  But ESBC had been praying for a way to do various types of outreach and Keystone has fulfilled that need.  Their opportunity came in the spring of 2010 when they were contacted by one of the facility’s counselors. So now in addition to a monthly service held at the Facility, usually on the third Sunday of every month, they engage the men in numerous activities at our church, including a special small group on Sunday mornings, Bible studies, breakfasts, and a steak night.  In an attempt to engage the families of those at Keystone, ESBC will be holding a their second family gathering to include food, music and ministerial outreach to help show the men and their loved ones that the love of Christ has the power to radically transform lives.  Pastor Harrison has even had the wonderful occasion to baptize men in the facility that come to Christ.  I’d say the outreach is working.

It has been my experience that churches do not do much outreach especially here in our own state and neighborhoods, but East Shore Baptist is making a difference in those men’s lives as well as touching the lives of those congregants in church.  Pastor Brian Harrison says the mission of the church is to set people free, and they are doing just that.  (John 8:32, Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”)

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Are abortion clinics medical facilities?

Abortion clinics are making the news again, this time in Virginia.  How this affects abortion clinics in Pennsylvania will be clear to see.  It seems that the legislature in VA has voted to make the abortion clinics as clean and up to date as most medical centers.  Why is this so important?  Because when these death clinics are unregulated or regulated very little you get atrocities like we had in Philadelphia.  That’s where the abortionist was charged with seven murders including one woman in her last trimester, often throwing baby body parts in the dumpster or storing them in bottles in the refrigerator.

I’m not sure that any reasonable human being would argue with the fact that when a woman is placed on an operating room table and invasive surgery is performed that they should be treated any differently than at a medical center, would they?  But this has the pro-abortion people in VA up in arms saying that regulations to make the clinics safer and cleaner will force most abortion clinics to close because they can’t meet the standards.  We are not talking about drastic changes to the way clinics are dealing death but they would be required to widen hallways and having increased training for staff as well as having modern and up to date equipment.  Even our own Harrisburg abortion clinics have been cited for various problems similar to these and the Corbett administration has vowed to regulate and inspect these death “clinics” more extensively.  So what is the problem here?  The problem doesn’t seem to be the cleanliness or medical standards, it’s about ideology.   How dare a republican governor (who is also a Catholic) and the republican house want abortion clinics to be as safe and clean as possible?  The outrage!

"It is not about banning abortions," said Sen. Jill Vogel, R-Winchester. "It is simply caring for women who are about to have an invasive surgical procedure and creating an environment for them where they have the opportunity to do that in a place that is safe."  Again, it sounds reasonable – to most people.  As I said in earlier articles we must continue to pray like nobody’s business on the abortion issue.  We must pray for our state legislators and our governor to look after the unborn and provide them with safe alternatives like adoption rather than ending a life.  Its time for our elected officials take a stand on the sanctity of human life and praise God that their mothers did not chose to abort them.  Catholics, Protestants, Jewish people and other religions need to take a stand here in Harrisburg and pray for a revival that will set this commonwealth back on the path of following the Almighty.

Lots of sex with no romance

That was the headline in The Daily Item printed in Sunbury, PA on Monday.  No doubt the headline on the front page was meant to grab the attention of readers who glanced at the paper.  It’s when you actually read it that it becomes less titillating and just plain sad.  The article goes on to show what college students are going through in their personal lives at our universities.  Even though the article was about Bucknell University it can be said it goes on every where.

This is not good news to those parents who have kids in college (my son is a senior at York College – so I know this to be true) and may be wondering what actually goes on during after school hours.  In case you are not up on the current vernacular, its called “hooking up”.  What this means is that kids get together, drink a little, party some, and then have sex.  Kids may not even know each other very well or at all and more than likely its unprotected sex since it is done in the “heat” of the moment.  Isn’t it great moms and dads, you daughter or son is having sex with someone just because it feels good.  Gone are the days that sex is saved for marriage, gone are the days that sex is for that someone special, and in are the days of doing it just because you can.  No wonder our young girls are disillusioned about relationships, and no wonder that our boys treat women as sex objects.  As I said earlier, its just plain said.

If there is any good news to this “hooking up” culture, it’s that most kids involved in it want out. It’s just that they keep participating in it.  Our young people want a normal relationship, just plain old fashioned dating, this according to Donna Freitas, a religion professor at Boston College.  Freitas goes on to say that there is not any dating on campus anymore and that is what students want.  Somebody needs to start the dating trend so it continues.  I’m sure we realize that a great percentage of marriages come from dating in college.  Today that does not seem to be true.  Just look at you son or daughter’s facebook page and see what goes on in your child’s life.  Scary, very scary.

Hats off to new Bucknell University President John Bravman for looking into to the “hook up” culture on campus.  Universities should be compelled to do this to at least cut down on the number of sexual assaults, unwanted pregnancies, kids dropping out of school and even worse – suicide.  But the thing that we must do as parents is talk to our kids in college and warn them of the impending eternal consequences of this activity as well as the consequences here on earth.  STD’s, depression, isolation, fear, peer pressure, and lack of good grades are all possible.  Bring your children up in the House of the Lord and teach them the way that Jesus wants us to live.  We need to get them involved in one of the many religious organizations on campus (Campus Crusade for Christ, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and InterVarsity just to name a few) so we can give our young people a fighting chance for some type of normal relationship that will carry through for the rest of their life.

Just one good man

Last week, I had the sad occasion to read a headline that just should rip the hearts out of Christians - “Minister found guilty of sex crimes”, it read.  After the initial holding back of the vomit in my mouth all I could do is think to myself, what the heck is going on with the so called leaders of religious organizations?  I really can’t even call these people ministers, preachers, or clergy of any kind.  They are not worthy of that moniker.

Samuel Jordan served as a “minister” at Laddsburgh Church near Towanda, in Bradford County and is facing prison time after being found guilty of child sex crimes.  In a bench trail, a judge found Jordan guilty of child sex crimes involving a 15-year-old boy. The boy’s family said, "Our family trusted this man who was the pastor of our church. He took advantage of these victims and forever stole their innocence. The effects will last the rest of our lives. "

Even more troubling is the word “victims”, which obviously means more than one person went through this horrible trauma.  And indeed there are more traumatized individuals. In 1986 Jordan was convicted and served jail time for another child sex crime and again, wait for it, he is also charged with sexually assaulting another boy and that case is still awaiting trial.

If you are like me, you are scratching your head wondering how an animal like this could ever get to the pastorate of a church.  Who did the due diligence on his hiring?  What were the elders, the deacons, or other supposed church leaders doing when Jordan got hired?  What were his qualifications, how about a safe sanctuary policy, how about state police checks, FBI checks, child abuse checks?  Some churches and denominations have these policies in place to prevent this type of crime.  All ministers, clergy, and anyone who works with children ought to at lease have the same background checks that school teachers have,  It’s not that hard or expensive to get – heck even I have all that stuff just to show that I’m not a pervert.

Churches, I admonish you to please check on every person that is in a leadership position and those who come in contact with children.  It is up to us to proclaim the word of God and to lead people to Christ not damage them for life.  Pastor’s, if you are tempted in any way, let someone know about it so they can be your accountability partner.  Always put Billy Graham’s policy in place – Never be with a female (or young male) alone, ever.  Make sure all church office doors have windows or the doors are not shut all the way (especially the pastor’s office).  Let’s look out together for the Kingdom of God.

PA abortion clinics still in the news

Well the abortion clinics made the news again here in Pennsylvania.  Health inspectors have ordered 14 of the states 22 abortion clinics to correct problems found.  What is even more disturbing is the fact that these inspections have only started again last year after a 15 year layoff.  If this is a “medical” procedure why aren’t these house of horrors regulated to the “nth” degree like my local doctor’s office is?  Just think Christians you can kill babies and in some cases the mothers in an uninspected room with baby parts sitting in plastic bags, jars, and even in the refrigerator like in some macabre horror film of the 1970’s?  This is just one reason that this killing field must be stopped – legally through our elected officials and our democratic practices.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health located in Harrisburg found that abortion clinics in York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Allentown, East Liberty, Upland, West Chester, Reading, Norristown, Warminster, and in Harrisburg had several violations to include not monitoring blood pressure, pulse, and oxygen levels (I’m no doctor but this seems important during a procedure); not examining tissue from first trimester abortions to see if the women were actually pregnant (Yikes), among others.  In Harrisburg specifically the inspectors found that there will bags of pills that were unlabeled as well as posting the names of women who were having abortions that day on the wall for all to see.  How is that confidentiality and HIPPA rules working out there?  There is supreme irony here is the attempt to make an abortion clinic safe for everyone but the baby. Let's not forget, no matter what barbaric treatment women receive at abortion clinics, the babies received worse.

Let us work together to end this slaughter of innocents and take it from the “No man is going to tell me what I can do with my body” childish argument to the eternal consequences for this selfish decision.  Most abortions (93%) occur for a social reason like the mother doesn’t want another child or it is simply inconvenient for them to bring it to term.  I have on other occasions laid out the alternatives, like adoptions, that we as Christians must use to support those women who are hurting and in need of spiritual guidance.  Let us preach the actual Word of God from our pulpits instead of politically correct social justice mumbo-jumbo so we can all learn that abortion is wrong.  Let us hear what God said to the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."  God knows each one of us while we are in the womb – why do we think we know better than God in these circumstances? 

Support for the unborn

This week many churches headed south to Washington DC to participate in the March for Life held annually to commemorate the horrible Roe v. Wade decision that sanctioned the killing of the unborn just because you can law created on January 22, 1973 – a day that will live in infamy.  From the upper Susquehanna Valley 50 area residents headed to show their support to overturn this ruling and show their support for the unborn.  Members of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St. George Catholic churches in Lewisburg and Mifflinburg respectively made the trek according to Richard Owen, a deacon at Sacred Heart in Lewisburg.  This group will join the over 26 other buses from the Diocese of Harrisburg and meet up with more than 200,000 others on the National Mall.

Bringing attention to the sanctity of life and protecting the unborn is one of the main goals of the Catholic Church and most protestant churches as well.  Richard Owen said, “We want to change hearts and bring attention to the problem”.  Changing hearts and minds is a difficult thing especially today when so many of our friends, relatives, and yes, fellow congregants who think that a women’s choice to kill her unborn child is somehow a good thing to do.  Isn’t it funny that those who push the pro-abortion agenda never have had an abortion (or at least express it publically) and have seen the physiological and psychological effects of this deadly decision?  But that is exactly what pro-lifers must do, change hearts and minds.  It is incumbent upon Christians everywhere to protect those who can not protect themselves – the unborn.  Life begins at conception and that is a proven fact just Google what happens in gestation and you will see the stages of fetal growth and see that it is definitely a child. 

Let us fight the good fight and run the race that has been set before us to stop the millions of abortions that happen each year.  We must educate our youth, preach it from the pulpits, and contact our legislators to get them to stop abortion funding.  We must pray with fervor that our nation will turn from its wicked ways (including the support that President Obama has for Pro-Aborts) and turn towards God.  A nation that is godless is doomed to fail; just pick up the Bible and read the Old Testament to see for yourselves.

Throw me a life-line.

There is a new program in the region specifically aimed at throwing a lifeline to parent(s) that may be  having extreme difficulties to get help with their children for a short period of time.  This new program is called Safe Families for Children and is getting started in the Dauphin County area.  The program puts together volunteer families who are willing to act as a surrogate extended family, to parents who need some time to deal with with what ever their challenges may be.

The Safe Families for Children program is under the auspices of Bethany Christian Services, one of the nation’s largest adoption agencies based in Atlanta, GA.  Bethany Christian Services has 28 satellites across the country and they have three here in Pennsylvania located in Wexford, Elkins Park and right here in Harrisburg.

This program was designed to go in effect when a short term parental crisis strikes.  Most people can usually rely on relatives or if you have one, a church family for support.  But for many parents, there isn't a lifeline they can count on for support. Often problems such as drug addiction, domestic abuse, incarceration, or illnesses can be devastating, making it tough for parents to care for their children properly at that moment.  With the downturn in today’s economy many more families are experiencing financial crisis, unemployment, and homelessness.  During these times children are at-risk for neglect or abuse as their folks struggle to cope with their circumstances and emotions.  That’s where Safe Families for Children steps in to help.  Since 2005, Safe Families for Children has offered refuge to thousands of children, minimizing the risk for abuse or neglect and giving parents the time they need fix their personal issues in order to help their families survive.  According to their website (www.safe-families.org) they have these tree goals in mind when throwing a lifeline to parents in need:

1.       Child Welfare Deflection: Safe Families provides a safe alternative to child welfare custody, thus significantly reducing the number of children entering the child welfare system.

2.       Child Abuse Prevention: Providing an overwhelmed and resource limited parent with a safe, temporary place for their child without threat of losing custody. By offering support, the goal is to avert potential abuse/neglect episodes.

3.       Family Support and Stabilization: Many parents struggle because of limited social support and unavailable extended family. Many Safe Families Volunteers become the extended family that a parent never had.

Now is time for churches and volunteer families to step up to the plate and help these parents and needy children.  What can you do to help?  Become a volunteer family to host hurting kids on a temporary basis.  Children, will spend about 30-45 days (on average) with volunteer families and the children’s parents retain all their legal rights, and communication between parents, children and volunteer families is encouraged. The staff at Bethany Christian Services will be reaching out to churches, schools, hospitals, and other community groups to get the word out and recruit volunteer host families.

This program will not take the place of foster care – but will supplement it in times of need. To volunteer for Safe Families for Children or seek help from the program, call Bethany Christian Services at 717-238-3549, or toll-free at 800-472-6898 or visit them on the Web at www.bethany.org/harrisburg.