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Pastor Rod Parsley: American Created by God to Destroy Islam

Jeremy Reynalds, Ph.D. - 6/5/2005

If you're of the politically correct persuasion, Pastor Rod Parsley will cause your blood pressure to rise. However, if you're BC (Biblically correct), Parsley's new book "Silent No More" (Charisma House) is a resource you'll want to buy. In the book, Parsley calls for men and women of faith to take action to influence the critical moral issues of our day. In a recent e-mail interview, Parsley shared his thoughts about some of the issues which he deals with in the book.


PARSLEY ON ISLAM

Parsley, who lives and ministers in Columbus, Ohio, a city with a significant Muslim population, had strong words about Islam.

"The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed," Parsley said. "That's why I believe Sept. 11 2001 was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore. Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on the earth."

Parsley continued. "I look to the horrors of Sudan, and I find slavery, massacre and traumatic human upheaval of the sort that even beleaguered Africa has seldom seen. Unless Islam is checked from without and reformed, at the least, from within, it will become a force that shapes the future of our world as much as any other on earth."

Reflecting back on the tragedy of 9/11, Parsley said it isn't true to say that the day was the dawning of a "brand new world."

According to Parsley, "Rather, what happened was that a battle that has been raging for centuries merely crashed into our lives. A war that has raged in nations around the world merely exploded onto our western landscape - the war between Islam and Christian civilization."


PARSLEY ON THE ISSUES

However, in "Silent No More," Parsley deals with much more than radical Islam. He tries to apply some common sense thinking and analysis to a number of other hot button issues such as race relations, homosexuality, education, the right to life, judicial tyranny and poverty.

Parsley said readers of his book will notice that he talks about issues commonly identified with conservatives, and also about issues that are usually associated with liberals.

There's a reason, he said, why he attempts to speak to both sides of the political spectrum. It's because, he said, the critical moral issues with which America is being confronted don't belong exclusively to either political party.

"I told an audience of 1,000 pastors we hosted recently that I'm not a Republican or a Democrat - I'm a Christ-ocrat," Parsley said. "I want to commend issues to the political left that typically belong to the right and vice versa. What I'm promoting, essentially, is Biblical morality, and that's neither conservative nor liberal."

Parsley said he has some specific goals for the book, one special one being that he would like to increase people's understanding of what the term "moral issues" means.

"I stand strong for life, marriage and family, like many conventional political conservatives," Parsley said. "But to me, moral issues go far beyond that. They go to issues of race and poverty, which conservatives by and large don't cover. I also want to motivate people to take action. Above all, I am seeking to move people - first, to compassion, then to wisdom, then to duty. Without all three-compassion, wisdom, and duty-our country has no hope."


PARSLEY ON THE RIGHT TO LIVE

Parsley also addressed the recent death of Terry Schiavo, and the renewed focus it has brought to life issues.

Parsley had a passionate response, saying, "A society that values the sanctity of human life wouldn't have considered killing Terri Schiavo. Instead her estranged husband, a man who had taken up housekeeping with another woman while his wife was incapacitated, was allowed to speak for her."

He added, "We all instinctively know that people matter more than anything else. When you pass an auto accident you don't worry about the property value of the damaged autos. You wonder if the people are all right. That's because the cars can be replaced, but the people can't. What outraged me and so many other Christians - and to be fair, people of all faiths and even some of no faith background - about the Terri Schiavo case, was that her estranged husband and the courts acted as though she didn't matter. But she did! Even though she was disabled, she had a right to life. But she died because she was inconvenient to others."

The Schiavo case, Parsley said, clearly points out a need in two specific areas.

"(We need)," he said, "an advance directive, a legal document that spells out your wishes should you become profoundly disabled as Terri was. And it should doubly convince us of the need to reform the judiciary, making sure that the men and women who hold these positions understand and respect their proper role in government."


PARSLEY ON JUDICIAL TYRANNY

Parsley was actively involved recently in the battle to have President George W. Bush's judicial nominations voted on in the U.S. Senate. He said it is extremely important to have the right kind of judges in the United States.

"The woeful state of our federal judiciary system won't improve," Parsley said, "until qualified men and women like the president's nominees take their rightful place on the bench and begin to function the way judges are supposed to function - as interpreters of the law, not as a second, unaccountable lawmaking body."

Judges acting as part of an "unaccountable, lawmaking body," Parsley referred to as "judicial tyranny." But, he said, there are many solutions. For example, Parsley said, judges are popularly elected in many states, so electing judges with a proper view of their role in our government is essential.

As federal judgeships are lifelong appointments, Parsley said, "The controversy we saw in the U.S. Senate over judicial appointments stems from President Bush's commitment to appoint judges that interpret the law. That's what upsets liberals; they want to make sure that like-minded judges are on the bench to create policy they agree with, because they don't have the popular support to get their policy initiatives adopted through the democratic process."

Another solution, Parsley said, is that the U.S. Congress can limit what courts can and cannot address â€" such as restricting judicial review in certain areas. With that in mind, Parsley said, "I'd encourage Congress to exercise that right more frequently."


PARSLEY ON THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Parsley also addressed the issue of strict separation between the Christian faith and the public square. Originally, he pointed out, separation of church and state was supposed to protect the church from the government.

In fact, he said, that was one of the reasons why he wrote "Silent No More."

Parsley lamented, " How can I remain silent when the founding faith of our nation is driven from the marketplace of ideas? How can I sit quietly by while the very words our Founding Fathers intended to protect faith are used to destroy it?"

He added, "Owing to a horrible perversion of language and law, the same First Amendment of our Constitution that bars government from restricting belief has been used to drive Christianity from the national public square. Our society ought to be secular, we are told: no prayer in our schools; no God in our pledges; no faith in our politics. And all this we are to accept from the hands of activist judges who repeatedly overturn the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives. No, I will not let such outrages go unmarked!"

Parsley also talked passionately about America's failed attempt to effectively help the poor with welfare.

"I know from experience how grinding poverty eats away at people," he said. " And I believe what that Ronald Reagan was right when he said that there was a war on poverty and poverty won. The ‘war on poverty' has become, in fact, a ‘war on the poor.' Welfare has become a trap; victimizing the very people it was intended to help. Liberal poverty programs and policies have not helped America's poor. After billions and billions of dollars have been spent, there are more poor than ever before."

Parsley said the best way for the government to help the poor is to move out of the way.

"The poor can best be helped if the government would reduce the level of taxation, remove industrial restraints, eliminate wage controls, abolish subsidies and tariffs and other constraints on free enterprise. Moreover, the responsibilities for charity and social security lie with the family, church and private institutions, not the government. Churches have largely been silent on the issue of poverty. It's time for them to speak out for change."


PARSLEY'S CENTER FOR MORAL CLARITY

An epiphany happened to Parsley when he was present at the signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in Nov. There were several other Christian leaders there, and Parsley said it occurred to him that he was the youngest one present.

"I realized that someone needed to take up the causes these great moral leaders have championed, and speak the truth to the next generation of Christians. I determined right then to be an agent of change, to help bring America back to the discarded values of the past."

As a result, Parsley said, he founded The Center for Moral Clarity in July 2004 to address critical moral issues facing the nation.

"Now, more than at any other time in our nation's history," Parsley said, "there is a need for moral clarity, and I sense an urgency to speak out. In fact, as I write in my book, to be silent would violate a sacred trust."

Parsley explained just what the Center for Moral Clarity, or CMC, is.

He described it as a Christian grassroots organization aimed at the individuals dubbed "values voters" in the days following the Nov. 2004 election.

"One of the interesting things we learned last fall," Parsley said, "is that ‘values voters' aren't exclusively conservative Protestants. They are also Catholics, people of Jewish faith and people of no religious faith who nonetheless have a strong moral orientation. We provide information and other resources to individuals, especially pastors, on the crucial moral issues of our time."

In addition to his work with the CMC (www.centerformoralclarity.net),
Parsley is the senior pastor of World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio (www.breakthrough.net/world-harvest-church.asp).