Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Baldwin Says, Save the Republic

Yesterday, the Politico quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as saying, "I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet." She was responding, of course, to pressure that she and her fellow Democrats are experiencing to suspend a congressional ban on offshore oil drilling in the face of skyrocketing energy prices. It would be really wonderful, however, if the liberal congresswoman could get as energized about saving our once great republic.

Read more here (from Constitution Party Presidential nominee Chuck Baldwin)

Obama lauds EU and globalism to Germans

(Text abridged; from http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/24/raw-data-transcript-of-obamas-speech-in-berlin/ )

“I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before, although tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for president, but as a citizen, ­ a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world....”

"People of the world, look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.

"...We know,­ we know that these walls have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace.

"If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman, in London and Bali, in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope."

"This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets.

"No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done.

"America can’t do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops, our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaida, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.

"This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children to a world where the oceans rise, and famine spreads, and terrible storms devastate our lands.

"People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time."

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Wow: YCLA Rally a Big Success

Thank you so much for your prayers, everyone! Praise the Lord!

Our Creation rally last night was a smashing success. We had close to fifty people attend, at least two-thirds of whom were young people. We re-organized the schedule for the evening at the last minute, so that we sang first, then Mr. Orcutt spoke, then we had pizza, then games, and finally, the door prizes and dinosaur giveaway. This lineup made for a much more suspenseful and dramatic evening I believe. :-)

Special thanks to Pastor John Griffith and Faith Independent Baptist Church for the use of their folding chairs, to my brother John for his great work in helping clean the building, and to Rahab Hackett for the piano and harp music. Also, thanks to my dad, Roy Magnuson, for his brilliance of ideas and hard work helping me organize everything, and to all those who provided food, drinks, donations, etc., including my sister Stephanie for baking her famous giant chocolate-chip cookies!

Thanks most of all to our amazing speaker, Mr. Jon Orcutt. Mr. Orcutt spoke on the need for leadership in America from a Creationist perspective. He emphasized that a new reformation is within our reach. He said if all the two million Christian homeschooled kids in the United States would mobilize and take initiative, it would be a complete juggernaut for the forces of evil in our country. However, he said that nothing will happen until we are willing to face real persecution and perhaps death. We must, in truth, give everything we have back to our Creator.

My dad gave a brief invitation after this stirring message. He asked whether anyone wanted to change from being a "consumer" Christian to a "producer" Christian. Did we want to seriously follow Christ in our lives? Many people raised their hands.

Afterwards, the pizza was great and the games were a blast. We played "Upset the Fruit Basket," in which players must switch seats when their team name (a kind of fruit) is called. We also played the secret magazine game (shhh!) where players take turns trying to figure out how the second of two people is being communicated to regarding which magazine of nine the first of the two people has chosen. There was also a treasure hunt for the younger children, for four lizards hidden around the building. :-)

The life-size dinosaur turned out to be (for those who didn't know what it was) a model of a baby T-Rex. It was only about two feet high. An often-asked question is, "How could Noah have gotten all those dinosaurs on the Ark?" The answer is that the dinosaurs on the Ark, like the baby T-Rex, would not have had to have been fully grown; and, very few dinosaurs grew to a large size to begin with. The average size of a dinosaur is currently estimated to have been somewhere around the size of a sheep.

We concluded in a word of prayer, asking God to continue to bless our efforts and help us finish raising the money for our Creation Museum trip in mid-August, and praising him for the wonderful success which our meeting was!

Hopefully, we will be able to have another meeting like that in the not-too-distant future. Also, we are hoping we can have a fund-raising car wash sometime in the first week of August, perhaps Wednesday afternoon the 6th.

Thanks again to everyone for your ongoing prayers and efforts! God Bless!


Your friend,

R. Josiah Magnuson
http://www.youngchristianleaders.org/

Dobson to Endorse McCain?

Dear concerned citizen,

We just discovered in a recent news article on Yahoo! News that Dr. James Dobson is considering endorsing John McCain for President.

"I never thought I would hear myself saying this," Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air Monday. "... While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080720/ap_on_el_pr/dobson_mccain

Please show your support of Chuck Baldwin by calling Focus on the Family and encouraging Dr. Dobson to support Chuck Baldwin for President.

You can call this number: 719-531-3427

Please remind them that Chuck Baldwin gives you hope for the future of our country. For example:

"Hi,
I recently heard that Dr. Dobson was considering endorsing John McCain for president, and I just wanted to encourage Dr. Dobson that McCain is not his only choice in this election.There is a candidate in the race who is unashamedly Christian, 100% Pro-Life, and who is committed to defending our families at any cost.His name is Chuck Baldwin, and he gives me hope for the future of our country.Thank you for your time, and please let Dr. Dobson know that we hope he chooses to endorse Chuck Baldwin for President."

Thank your for your help in this urgent matter,


With radical optimism,

~Jonathan Kayser
Deputy Director, Web Campaign
616-534-5861
www.baldwin2008.com

Ron Paul Announces Minneapolis Rally

If they expected us to retire quietly from the scene, the political elite are in for a surprise. Today I am making some very big announcements.

First, from August 31 to September 2 in Minneapolis, we will host a handful of events that will shake the political establishment. Everything will culminate on Tuesday with the official launch of the Campaign for Liberty at the Rally for the Republic.

The Campaign for Liberty will be the largest organization for peace, freedom, the Constitution, and sound money in American history. It will launch in grand fashion with lots of special guests and - if the early television and print inquiries we've received are any indication - plenty of media attention.

I would like to personally invite you and your family to join me and thousands of others in Minneapolis for these events and send a message to the Republican Party.

Tickets will go on sale for the Rally for the Republic this Friday, July 25 @ 10AM CST. We want this to be an unforgettable day, so we are holding a ticket bomb all day Friday in the tradition of our famous money bombs. How many seats can we sell on the first day?

In patriotic fashion all tickets will cost $17.76, so you can afford to bring the whole family.
This leads me to the second big announcement. After measuring the excitement and enthusiasm, we decided that the Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota was just too small to hold you. Therefore, we are making a significant upgrade. The Rally for the Republic will now take place at the Target Center,
the largest arena in Minneapolis!

This promises to be the most spirited and provocative political event of the year! We held some very large rallies during the presidential campaign, but I have never attempted anything of this scale before. Its success rests entirely in your hands.

Later this week I will announce two internationally renowned musicians as headliners for the Rally for the Republic. We'll also be joined by rock star Aimee Allen, NBC's Tucker Carlson, Barry Goldwater Jr., Gov. Gary Johnson, conservative stalwart Grover Norquist, former Reagan deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein, presidential historian Doug Wead, MTV's Adam Curry, musician Mark Scibilia, and Frank Sinatra impersonator Rick Ellis. Other special guests will be announced soon.

My staff has been working overtime to provide you with three full days of entertainment. Please visit the schedule page of the website and read all about upcoming events. We also have a lodging page to help you find accommodations in Minneapolis.

Together we are taking back our government and restoring the republic. Please join me in Minneapolis to kickoff the Campaign for Liberty and support our Revolution. Can I count on you to be there?


In Liberty,

RON PAUL

P.S. I know that you have done so much already, but with both major party nominees threatening to lead us into bankruptcy at home and more wars abroad, the success of the Rally for the Republic and the launch of the Campaign for Liberty is crucial. Please do what you can to be in Minneapolis August 31 - September 2 and send a loud and clear message of freedom, peace, and prosperity.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

August Answers Adventure


My Dad wrote this a few days ago regarding the August Answers Adventure trip and its preparatory meeting on Monday. Please read, and come if you can! -Josiah

Greetings friends. Please forward this "invite" as you feel led. . . .

Would you like to meet and hear Noah and his hard-working kids, life-size, and Adam and Eve eating and working in the Garden, life size, and dinosaurs (of every variety!) eating vegetation and many more rooms of wonderful simple displays and large screen videos that help to understand the complexity and wisdom of our great animal Designer, the Bible and especially the Book of Genesis???

HEH! Josiah Magnuson is at "media camp" this week, so i get to do the honors of sending you an "invite" to our Creationist Rally at the Scriptorium here in Taylors this next Monday night at 6:30 p.m.! (Please RSVP asap)... We will be discussing the Museum adventure in August, and having FREE pizza with special Steffi cookies. We are asking you all to bring drinks and any other "eats" as you feel led. We will be giving away "dino" door prizes and even have a life size dinosaur (model) to give away. Also we will be discussing our SuperSummerSpectacular pilgrimage. All ages and denominations are welcome!

The speaker of the evening is our very own Greenville County Creationist leader Mr. John Orcutt. He is an inspiring speaker, and we trust that the "traditional" Christian sing-along with keyboard and guitars (and maybe a harp!) will equally inspire your souls.

To know and discuss further details for the August Creation Museum pilgrimage but is a key reason for the Rally, Monday! That museum mentioned above is just a couple miles from the Ohio airport, in Kentucky and has to be the world's most amazing museum for numerous reasons! Our Magnuson family visited back when it was under construction, wow! then we visited again last year for its grand opening, double-wow!!

This year we plan to attend again and already have a number of families going along. Some folks from Faith Independent Baptist Church in Cleveland SC, and a few other homeschooling families are very excited. We want to find a few public school children to bring along also! Do you know anyone that you would like to invite?. . . If you know of any honorable, well behaved public school children, (they do not necessarily have to be born again) that go to your church or that you are ministering to and you would like to send along we have about a half a dozen free entrance passes for them and are praying so as to make the trip free for them. To learn more details about the "faith" trip please come Monday! We are also looking for a church that would be willing to consider loaning us their bus and driver for the weekend.

Times Examiner will be having a writeup on Josiah, the YCLA and this new "annual" event of the YCLA, so please check out this weeks Times Examiner for an article and picture, and/or go to the website, youngchristianleaders.org.

Thanks for reading about this rally event, only days away and the subsequent pilgrimage to the Creation Museum. Please, if interested at all, come Monday evening! We will be so excited to see you and show you some video clips and pics of the museum which we took so you can be even more excited and amazed at our wonderful Lord's creation back in the beginning and also here in recent years - the museum that Ken Ham and AIG (Answers In Genesis) has brought about!

By the way, the Scriptorium is on the same road as Channel 16 TV. The address is 3501 Rutherford Rd. Ext. Don't forget the "Extension" as it is just off of Rutherford Rd. Travel north on Wade Hampton past the Kmart and Walmart. Cross over the railroad bridge and turn left at the Hardees onto Rutherford Rd. Immediately turn left again onto Rutherford Rd. Ext. Drive about a quarter mile and around the bend is 3501 Rutherford Rd. Ext, a gray building with beige highlights. It is this years Constitution Party headquarters (since Josiah is a key worker for our party) and the Home of The Scriptorium where God's words are beautifully lettered, researched and displayed.

Please pray for this initial pilgrimage, and pass on this news and email to whomever may have an interest in these types of things, even if the Museum pilgrimage may not be feasible for them next month. AIG, their magazine and the museum have been a tremendous ministry to all of us!


Yours, for our wonderful Creator and Redeemer, (and Soon coming Saviour!), the Lord Jesus,

Roy Magnuson

113 page views last week on YCLA site

We have been steadily increasing in site traffic on the YCLA site over the past month, reaching what I believe is a record for this year of 113 page views this past week. That is good, of course, and means that the efforts of David Merck and others to give our group some publicity are working. (Thanks, Mr. Merck!) It also probably means that a bunch of the people I've been meeting at camps have been checking us out.

Keep praying for us, please! If you want, you can donate too. Send checks to:

Young Christian Leaders Alliance
C/o Faith Independent Baptist Church
4905 Geer Hwy.
Cleveland, SC 29635


Thanks! -Jos

Friday, July 11, 2008

Constitution Party VP candidate to speak in SC

(From Pastor Tony Romo; I will not be able to be there as I will be at camp again, but everyone who can should try to be there!)

Hey Everyone,

Ready for this ?! It's a GO !!!

The Constitution Party Vice-Presidential Candidate, Darrell Castle http://www.baldwin2008.com/ , will be in the Upcountry on Monday, July 14th, 2008. More details later as they develop. But so far, we know that he'll be speaking at the Logos theatre in the Academy of Arts building just behind the new Presbyterian Seminary on Main st. in Taylors, SC http://www.theacademyofarts.org/main.html at 7:00 pm. The official address is : 80 School Street, Taylors, SC 29687.

The ph # for the Academy of Arts is : 864.268.9342.

Please invite your entire family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. This is a free, public, political event. It's open to all who wish to attend and there is plenty of free parking.

Mr. Darrell Castle is blazing a trail and making the case for the restoration of our Constitution, restoration of our America Republic and the accomplishing of it throught the election of the Baldwin/Castle ticket.

We need all of you to contribute your talents, skills, and finances as we co-labor together to win our country back for "we the People" !!

Please make your plans to be there on Monday for the Upcountry's first event in bringing sound constitutional candidates to the public's attention.

Please forward this e-mail to all you know in the State. Mr. Castle's itinerary will include other events throughout the rest of the State.

If any questions, please call me at 864-905 6052.

See you on Monday Evening !!!

Pastor Tony Romo

You Can Win a Life-size Dinosaur!

Hello, my fellow South Carolinians!

The YCLA will be having an exciting rally on Monday, July 21, 2008 at 6:30 PM. Its theme is Creationism. We will briefly discuss our planned trip to the most amazing museum in the world, the Creation Museum in Kentucky. (Maybe you can go along!) :-) Free pizza will be served, with giant homemade cookies.

We will even be giving away a free life-size dinosaur model! You won't want to miss it.

Our speaker will be Mr. John Orckutt, Director of the Creation Study Group, which is the largest creationist group in our area. He is an inspirational speaker who will be presenting how to use Christian principles of leadership. We'd love to see you there!

The rally will be held at The Scriptorium, 3501 Rutherford Rd. Ext., in Taylors near Channel 16 TV. Please RSVP as soon as possible. You can email us at info@youngchristianleaders.org, or call me at (864) 420-7933 and leave a message.

Have a great day, and please tell your friends about our event, too!


For Liberty in Christ,

R. Josiah Magnuson
www.YoungChristianLeaders.org

McDonald's Joins Anti-Family Movement

(The following is from an email from the American Family Association. While many people who read this website probably don't care for McDonald's anyway :-), here is just one more reason not to go there.)

Throwing out any pretense of being neutral in the culture war, McDonald's has taken up the rhetoric of gay activists, suggesting those who oppose same-sex marriage (SSM) are motivated by hate.

AFA has asked for a boycott of McDonald's restaurants because of the company’s promotion of the gay agenda. AFA asked McDonald’s to remain neutral in the culture war. McDonald’s refused.

In response to the boycott, McDonald's spokesman Bill Whitman suggested to the Washington Post that those who oppose SSM are motivated by hate, saying "...hatred has no place in our culture." McDonald's has decided to adopt the "hate" theme used by gay activist groups for years.

Whitman went on to say, "We stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment." Mr. Whitman has intentionally avoided addressing the reason for the boycott. This boycott is not about hiring gays or how gay employees are treated. It is about McDonald's choosing to put the full weight of their corporation behind promoting their agenda.

McDonald's donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in exchange for membership and a seat on the group’s board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies Congress in support of same-sex marriage.

McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner said the company will promote issues they approve. "Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world...and we do."

Take Action!
Sign the online Boycott McDonald's petition.
• Forward this to family and friends and ask them to sign the petition.
Print and distribute the Boycott McDonald's petition.
• Call your local McDonald's. Speak with the manager. Tell him or her (in a polite manner) that you will be boycotting McDonald's until they stop promoting the pro-homosexual agenda. To find the phone number of your nearest McDonald's, click here.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Watch the DBS conference

If you want to watch the 30th annual conference of the Dean Burgon Society, "In Defense of Traditional Bible Texts," you can click on the link here. It will be in progress all the rest of today and tomorrow. I'm getting ready to watch it right now with my Dad. :-)

Saturday, July 05, 2008

The YCLA Is Turning A Corner (yes!!!)

One year after we started, I believe we are definitely beginning to get moving with the YCLA, both with new support and membership potential. While the number of those interested in our work is now quite large, and we have contacts in fifteen States, it has been hard up to now to really get people motivated to do something. :-p

The ACG (Americans for Constitituional Government) banquet last Saturday was a Providential happening in relation to me in more ways than one - I might not have even known about it at all, for starters. :-) But especially it was great what came out of it: tons of contacts, a bunch of new enthusiasm and encouragement for what we are doing, two new Council members (Mr. Roan Garcia-Quintana and Rev. David Merck) and best of all, a permanent link from Rev. Merck's "Red Clay Man" emails to the YCLA website (http://www.youngchristianleaders.org/)!

Things are falling into place for the Creation Museum trip as well. We need more money, but planning-wise we are having a lot of success. Hopefully we will be having a big meeting sometime the week of July 20 (probably Monday the 21st) with actual speakers and some fundraising activities! The trip itself will be the weekend of August 15-17.

The LORD has really been good to us. We need to jump on the opportunities now. I'm hoping I can send out kind of an introductory email to all the folks I met at camp and so on recently, in the near future.


-Jos

Three Camps in Three Weeks

Wow! I just got back yesterday from three camps in direct sequence. I was pretty tired. :-p

The first one was Camp Raven Knob, a Boy Scout camp near Hickory, NC. I took the Photography/Cinematography, Wilderness Survival, Swimming, and First Aid Merit Badge classes. I was able to witness to at least three people, as well as planting a lot of seeds I believe for the concept of God as the Creator, etc. One boy named Jacob was really interested in dinosaurs, and seemed fascinated to learn that the Bible was not only compatible with science, but actually does a far better job of explaining life, fossils, and so on, than what he had been taught in school about the "millions of years." The LORD also gave me some great friends who loved the YCLA ideas. :-)

The second camp was Drama Camp at Bob Jones University. I learned a huge amount on speech and presentational skills, as well as having an enormous amount of fun and great spiritual input. We did a play at the end of the week. Ron Pyle, who played Yuri in The Printing, was the Director, which was really cool! There were a lot of possible YCLA contacts there as well.

The third camp, ending yesterday, was Harvest Time Bible Camp. I went at the last minute as a Junior Counselor. It was an amazing experience helping younger kids and being such an inspiration to some of them. In the whole week there were probably a dozen to two dozen people who gave their lives to Christ, including three from my cabin. One boy, who found out about the YCLA and was amazed to see me so excited about something like that, was saved in the service the last night I think. One of his friends also stood up at the campfire that evening and said that he "would use his life to go around telling people about Jesus." :-D

Please pray for all these kids and young people I have met over the last few weeks to grow in the LORD however they need to and not lose sight of God's purpose for their lives. Also, keep praying for me too!


-Josiah

Happy Independence Day!

I hope everyone had a great time yesterday remembering our Founders' work and sacrifice, and praising the LORD for bringing about our great country. It couldn't have happened without Him! :-)

-Jos