Spiritual warfare in Durham election

Editorial: Spiritual warfare in Durham election for mayor and city council

By Harlan Brown
Nov. 2, 2011

For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. – Ephesians 6:12 HCSB

DURHAM, NC — Securing each person's unalienable rights is the foundational purpose for which legitimate governments are instituted. Among those rights are the rights to life, liberty, and property.

Durham faces a number of challenges. Some neighborhoods have a high crime rate. Some areas of Durham have a high unemployment rate. Too many children are growing up in dysfunctional families, which in turn boosts the crime rate and interferes with their ability to become educated, productive citizens leading lives of fulfillment and accomplishment.

Every effect has a cause. Like the layers of an onion, the visible outer layer of economic turmoil has underlying factors that are political, moral, and at the core, spiritual.

Jesus Christ said, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things [physical needs] shall be added to you."

There is too much unrighteousess in Durham, and we are suffering the consequences of that unrighteousness. Most residents of Durham are appalled by gang violence. When a murder is committed, it is a tragedy. City and county law enforcement officers are working to combat crime. However, a particular type of violence against innocent human beings is being promoted in Durham, and many consider it acceptable.

Protecting innocent human lives

Visualize for a moment the following scenario:

You're visiting a city in a nation that has passed legislation to treat Jews as subjects rather than citizens, nonpersons rather than persons. They are allowed to be killed even if they have committed no crime, and killing centers have been set up in urban areas.

The city you're visiting has no killing center, but it has a processing center to send Jews to their death in a nearby city. Some people are pleased that no Jews are being killed in their city, but they ignore the fact that Jews are being sent to die elsewhere.

That city exists today, only it's not Jews who are being killed but innocent human beings of various religious and ethnic backgrounds, especially African Americans. That city is Durham, and the referral center promoting the killing of innocent human beings is Planned Parenthood.

Genocide is being committed in 21st century America. Genocide is underway here in North Carolina. Of the nine Planned Parenthood clinics in North Carolina, seven are in zip codes that are disproportionately black or Hispanic or both. Of the 13 independent aborticide (induced abortion) clinics in North Carolina, nine are in zip codes that are disproportionately black or Hispanic or both.

The video Maafa 21 documents the history of black genocide in 21st century America. Unfortunately, this video is banned from the Durham County Library.

Deliberately killing any innocent human being—black, white, Hispanic, or other—is evil. Promoting the killing innocent human beings is immoral, whether the promoters are gang members, isolated individuals, or Planned Parenthood.

The culture of death has come to Durham, and it needs to be replaced by a culture of life. Brian Rohrbough, whose son Dan was killed in the Columbine massacre, delivered perhaps the strongest and clearest assessment ever of America's culture of death when Katie Couric asked him to address the Amish school shooting on the CBS Evening News in 2006:

I'm saddened and shaken by the shooting at an Amish school today and last week's school murders. When my son Dan was murdered on the sidewalk at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, I hoped that would be the last school shooting. Since that day, I've tried to answer the question, 'Why did this happen?' This country is in a moral free fall. For over two generations, the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing Him with evolution, where the strong kill the weak, without moral consequence and life has no inherent value. We teach there are no absolutes, no right or wrong. And I assure you the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including by abortion. Abortion has diminished the value of children. Suicide has become an acceptable action and has further emboldened these criminals. And we are seeing an epidemic increase in murder-suicide attacks on our children. Sadly, our schools are not safe. In fact, we now witness within our schools our children have become a target of terrorists from within the United States.

God commands, "Do not murder!" Innocent blood is being shed. It's time to end this egregious violation of human rights.

Preventing child abuse

Another area of concern is the promotion of sexual immorality that leads to violation of the human rights of children. Some people want a society where sodomy is considered normal and it is considered acceptable to deliberately deprive a child of a mother's love or a father's love.

Jesus summarized God's paradigm for marriage and family when he said, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

We should treat all people, including those who disagree with Jesus, with love and respect. But that does not mean that we should condone sin. We should not create a climate where it is considered acceptable to conceive children in sin to deliberately deprive a child of a mother's or a father's love.

None of us gets to choose our temptations. But we all have to choose how to respond to temptation. The opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality; it is righteousness.

The God-ordained institution of marriage is under attack. To protect that institution, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a one-man one-woman marriage amendment that goes to the voters next May.

Candidates who defend marriage and life

The Holy Bible states where God stands on the issues of marriage and the right to life. Two candidates in Durham's 2011 general election have taken a stand in defense of marriage and the right to life: Sylvester Williams for mayor and Victoria Peterson for city council. For a summary of candidates' positions on these issues, see “Durham city council candidates at forum differ on marriage.” To read the pledge that Peterson signed, see petersonforpublicoffice.weebly.com/my-pledge.html.

Early voting has begun. The main election day is Tuesday, Nov. 8. I encourage all Durham voters who believe in the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of marriage to get out and vote.

And pray! Pray for the candidates who are taking a stand for righteousness, and pray that the candidates who are condoning sin will repent. The battle is on.

For further reading

For further reading, see the following items:

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