STORY: Raises questions of faith

That was an interesting article on Jeff Cheeseborough (Dec. 24). I heard Jeff speak at Candlelight Church one time, and I can attest to his ability to gain and hold people’s attention by telling funny stories about otherwise serious subjects.

This tactic supposedly creates an opportunity to promote Christianity by then telling the youngsters about Jesus. Mr. Cousins, however, fails to tell us exactly what it is that Mr. Cheeseborough tells them about Jesus, as if that were incidental. It’s not! In fact, it is paramount. Scripture tells us that we should not believe every spirit, but that we should test the spirits to determine if they are really of God or not, because many false prophets (teachers, pastors, interpreters of the Word) have gone out into the world (1st John 4:1).

Has this been an ongoing problem for the last 2,000 years? Well, yeah it has, and we are warned about it many times in verses such as 2nd Timothy 3:13: “But evil men, and (Spiritual) seducers, shall wax (grow, become) worse and worse.”

Since no statistics were cited by Mr. Cousins regarding Mr. Cheeseborough’s accomplishments, we can only assume there has been no record-keeping since 1993. Of the 70,000 youngsters Mr. Cheeseborough has entertained in the last 20 years, how many have been delivered from the power of sin via faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Does he even teach that? And of those, how many have maintained their commitment and did not recidivate? There are lots of ways to change lives, but the real question is are the changes real, and did they last, and where is the proof?

The county paying 16 percent of his funding is not only a clear violation of separation of church and state, but opens the door for any other religion to have access to the same youth population, and to demand a percentage of their funding from the taxpayers. The county can say that they will cross that bridge when they come to it, but meanwhile they are setting a clear precedent, and potentially inviting an expensive legal challenge they are sure to lose.

BILL JOHNSON

Rathdrum