LUBBOCK?”God sent me to prison to set me free,” Sheila Walsh told those gathered Oct. 26 for the 11th annual SBTC Bible Conference Women’s Luncheon at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.

The thought of being institutionalized or even visiting such a place terrified Walsh. After all, her father died shortly after being admitted to a psychiatric ward. He was only 34 when he escaped from the facility and drowned in a nearby river. It wasn’t until many years and one nervous breakdown later that Walsh walked into such an institution. For her there was no where else to go.

Walsh said she has shared her testimony with millions of people in the hope that they will understand that God loves them “regardless of what you bring to the table.” Of her month in a psychiatric hospital Walsh said, “That was one of the greatest gifts God ever gave me.”

That journey began in a small town on the west coast of Scotland. In a country where less than 2 percent of the population attends church, Walsh said she was blessed to be born into a Christian family. Her parents loved the Lord and were faithful members of a Baptist Church. Her father even worked for the Billy Graham ministry.

“I adored my father,” Walsh told the audience.

But one night their father suffered a massive aneurism. Thinking they would lose him, their mother sent out prayer requests around the world and “God heard those prayers.”

Her father survived but lost his ability to speak and movement on his left side. Walsh said she would sit “on his good knee” and tell him about her day. It was not long, though, until the blood shifted in his brain, altering his personality. He became violent only toward Walsh. She assumed, because he could not speak, his hair pulling and spitting were his ways of expressing his disapproval of her.

One day as she was sitting on the floor playing with her dog, the dog began to growl?something he had never done. Walsh turned to look behind her only to find her father towering over her poised to strike her on the head with his cane. She instinctively grabbed the cane, causing her father to lose his balance and hit the floor hard. Her mother herded the children into a bedroom and called the doctor and the police.

Walsh listened as her father beat her mother. His strength during his tirades was enormous. He was put in a high-security psychiatric ward. At her mother’s request he was moved to a different ward with men his own age. He escaped one night and found his way to the river where he drowned.

Because tradition excluded children from funerals, Walsh lived with a sense of dread. She still believed she had done something wrong to make him so angry. And because tradition excluded children from funerals she had no real confirmation that he was dead and she worried that he would come back to finish his work.

That anxiety carried over into her faith.

Walsh made decisions based on what she believed would make God happy, not what she desired.

“Surely he’ll know how much I love him,” she said.

Her choices lead to a stint with Youth for Christ and then a recording contract that brought her to the United States. A one-shot TV appearance on “The 700 Club” with Pat Robertson?which she believed she flubbed miserably?landed her a job with the ministry and, eventually, her own segment on the program. She said the best way to hide troubles is to throw oneself into Christian ministry. Her five years of zealous work and tireless efforts were seen as a devotion to the cause.

LUBBOCK?Christian ministers played a prominent role in the American Revolution and the development of the fledgling country’s government, said Tim LaHaye during his address to the President’s Luncheon during the SBTC annual meeting. LaHaye said today pastors must once again engage in politics and culture in order to prevent the United States from going the way of socialistic, post-Christian countries.

LaHaye said a person’s philosophy defines who they are and the decisions will make. As the U.S. is embroiled in debates about issues that could have a significant impact on the social and economic structure of the country, LaHaye said it is time for pastors to spur their congregations on to have a voice in shaping the culture.

Speaking to nearly 500 people at the luncheon, LaHaye said, “It’s people like you and me that made a difference in this country.”

He said it was ministers like those of the Presbyterian Church, whose influence King George referred to as the Presbyterian War, who added fuel to the fire in the drive for independence from England. That influence extended to the creation of the American Republic and its founding documents.

It is that kind of sway today’s ministers must have on the culture in order to stem the tide of humanistic influences in America, LaHaye argued. Urging church members to be civic-minded by voting for principled leaders could have a considerable impact, and, he added, those principles include “voting for people who are opposed to murdering the unborn.”

LaHaye said people of principle include those like the pastors of California who disregarded charges of homophobia and hate-mongering to speak out in support of Proposition 8 defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

LaHaye said, “Being so silent you don’t say anything controversial is passé.” Standing firm on the Word of God is essential in fulfilling this mandate, he said. Do not be tempted to give in to novel ideas or reinterpretations of Scripture because “the wisdom of man is foolishness.”

“The ministers of America are the future of America,” LaHaye told the audience. He continued to say the primary call of believers is to share the gospel of salvation but he fears for the future of that privilege in America if humanist and socialist ideas gain sway.

LaHaye was one of seven people who signed the Moral Majority into existence in 1979. Of those seven, only LaHaye and Charles Stanley are still alive. He said it is time for a new resurgence of Christian influence in America.

“It’s time to pass the mantel on to someone else,” he concluded.