Newsletter

April, 1997

Dear Friends and Support team,

When the story broke about the suicide of the west-coast cult I was real curious to see what kind of postmodern spin the news media would put on the story. I was not disappointed. What I heard was an extra-ordinary effort not to sound judgmental. In several cases I heard commentators say: "We cannot say these people were any more bizarre in their beliefs than some of the traditional religions. After all, Christians believe in a place called heaven; they believe in resurrection to a higher plane, and they believe in angels and demons."

This postmodern mood is sweeping the country and it is the reason why here at the office we are spending a great deal of time trying to understand and analyze what changes in our culture we can expect from its prevalence. Hence in our insert this month, we endeavor to share with you a general overview of this new mood or movement which we will no doubt hear much more of. For those of you who would like to do a more in-depth study of postmodernism for yourself we highly recommend: POSTMODERN TIMES by Gene Edward Veith, Jr., THE DEATH OF TRUTH, edited by Dennis MaCallum, and A PRIMER ON POSTMODERNISM by Stanley Grenz. If any of you are Star Trek fans you will be interested in the latter book in that he compares the old series to the Next Generation. In the comparison, the author points out how the two series are analogus to modernism and postmodernism.

The UFO cult story in California apparently affected traffic at our website. For the first quarter of the year we have seen a steady increase till we were averaging about 270 logons per day. However, in early April they shot up to over 350 per day! In checking the logs we believe the increase in traffic has to do with the fact that we have briefing papers available on cults and UFOs. We are certainly excited that they are reading our material. Remember, these are not necessarily Christians who are accessing the website!

We apologize for the lateness of the letter this month. We think all our computer problems are now behind us. We are enjoying the new system provided by those who so designated gifts at the end of last year. We are still learning how to use all its features for a more efficient ministry.

We greatly appreciate your generous support making this ministry possible. The message is going out to hundreds on a daily basis.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Bill Crouse, President