*Opinions expressed in Letters to the Editor are not necessarily those of The Messenger.
According to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1996), evangelism represents a personal commitment to the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the case of Bible believing congregations and their pastors, this high calling does not end in the pulpit on Sunday morning. Instead, you will find them willing to stand on the Bible whenever and wherever they can. It represents a behavior that is called the Great Commission. Sadly, their numbers seem to be diminishing before our very eyes. Searching for evangelicals!
On Veterans Day 2000, the community I served as a middle school principal saw what happens when Christ is removed from the agenda. Just when I had hoped that the fight for American values would be supported by a local “ministerial association,” this group of men turned their backs on God and country and, in doing so, our local veterans lost the opportunity to have an “open” prayer at the year's annual Zumbrota-Mazeppa Middle School Veterans Day Program. Unfortunately, this kind of godless behavior was just the tip of the iceberg. As of today, the best our veterans and students can hope for, in most of our public schools, is a brief moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag once a week. Searching for evangelicals!
In looking back to when a group of local pastors forgot who God really is, I am struck by the fact that this kind of behavior has actually gotten worse. Forget for a moment that the Superintendent of Schools in question thought he had won; forget for a moment that the school board would later admit that they had destroyed evidence that should have been presented to the Court (See Zumbrota News Record) prior to trial. And if that was not enough, forget for a moment that a member of the same school board was motivated to make a wager that I would lose my fight for prayer because he knew what had been done. Today, this career attorney serves as a Deacon at a local church. Searching for evangelicals!
On November 11, 2025, I had the privilege to attended my third Veterans Day Program at the Rochester Airport with an old friend and a wonderful array of men and women who had faithfully served their country. Although I would have preferred a school district gymnasium full of K-12 students, I now know the drip I first saw at a Minnesota Middle School of Excellence has become an open faucet across the land. Why? Because so many of our neighbors have left their first love (Revelation 2:4-5) and gone on to support people who would like nothing better than to dismantle America on the eve of its 250th anniversary. Searching for evangelicals!
And so when I said it was getting worse, I was not exaggerating. Just recently, an area pastor used his church's Book of Discipline (not the Bible) to make an argument that the “Complexities of the world we now live in allows for a different standard when it comes to abortion and the practice of homosexual behavior.” While this is not surprising when one recognizes the fact that a large portion of the state's population has long since forgotten their evangelical roots, his response took me back 25 years to a day when a body of local pastors turned their backs on a group of veterans and middle school students...and never apologized. Searching for evangelicals!
Today, I sit here contemplating where America has gone over the past quarter-of-a-century. While I am now an old man who has met some wonderful pastors and church leaders along the way, once again, I was unable to find the help I was looking for. You see, in this particular case, not one pastor had the courage to step out of their pulpit and publicly condemn the kind of behavior that is contrary to the teachings of the Bible. In the military, we had a name for people who went AWOL in the heat of battle. Searching for evangelicals!
Finally, let me end with author and biblical scholar Renald Showers' classic work Maranantha: Our Lord Come. A Definitive Study of the Rapture of the Church. After spending years of reading and reviewing various forms of literature, Showers' writings keep bringing me back to the words imminent and left behind. Now, more than ever before, I find myself wondering where the world will be on the morning after the Rapture of the Church. Searching for evangelicals!
In conclusion, I leave you with a stark warning: Minnesota, with its foulmouthed and Communist sympathizing governor, is in trouble. Sandwiched between New York City and Mayor elect, Zohran Mamdani, Communist, and Seattle and Mayor elect, Katie Wilson, American progressive activist, we are quickly becoming their equal. No longer a state that stands on its Christian heritage, large numbers of Christians have gone silent when it comes to an East African culture that refuses to assimilate as our ancestors did. And to make matters even worse, this kind of silence has allowed for a new culture, one whose religion has never been compatible with Western cultures (See Ishmael in Genesis 16: 11-12), to establish the kind of behavioral norms that are promoting division throughout the communities and school districts they reside in. If one did not know better, they might think it was Somalia's capital city, Mogadishu. But there is more....
Just recently, Omar Fateh, running for mayor in Minneapolis, took a page out of llhan Omar's public statement when she said, “I do not represent America but, rather, I represent Somalia.” In doing so, he was found gleefully campaigning across the city waving the flag of his ancestry as if Old Glory no longer existed. And to him, it didn't. It reminds me of our current governor and his phony excuse for a “new” Minnesota State Flag. But there is even more....
Just remember, the tax payers are picking up the tab for the Somalian way of life in Minnesota. Until we get rid of people like our current governor and his progressive agenda, this invading culture will go on stealing hundreds of millions of dollars while most of them will continue to draw paychecks without working for them. It is called fraud and slothfulness...and it needs to come to an end immediately. Searching for evangelicals!
Dr. James Russell Lehman
Kenyon MN
