Inspire Louisiana is back

It is very interesting to report that Inspire Louisiana is back in print, publishing faith-based news and encouraging spiritually edifying articles; albeit we are only publishing online at this time. However, it is our prayer and intent that you will find printed copies of Inspire Louisiana around the Baton Rouge area within the next three months, as you did back in 2015. Our online publishing is in PDF format, so you can download what we post on our InspireLouisiana website for your reading pleasure and encouragement.

We suspect of the “Powers that Be” – local, state and national – that once they discover we are the same core group which in 2015 were evangelizing the Word of God, and promoting the Great Commandment of Christ: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and your neighbor as yourself;” they’ll seek to put us out of business again! If that be the case, so be it; however, we believe the power of God is stronger than all that may muster against us.

Back in 2015, when we initially began publishing Inspire Louisiana, our company was a not-for-profit 501-C3 corporation. Such corporations are within the purview of the Internal Revenue Service; and in the year 2016 our “non-profit” status was revoked when it was determined that the better part of our mission was spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and encouraging spiritual renewal.

You will recall, the devastating Flood of August 2016 was a near-death knell for the economy of South Louisiana. Rather than adopting a commercial advertising base for financially supporting the publication of InspireLouisiana, we decided not to solicit advertising from financially-strapped businesses that survived the flood.

Much has transpired since Inspire Louisiana ceased publishing in 2016, and the changes over the past six years have NOT been all good, nor fruitful, for Baton Rouge. Violent crime, and all crimes in general, has skyrocketed – particularly murder. The murder rate in the middle years of the last decade averaged sixty homicides per year. Now the Baton Rouge murder rate has topped 140 in 2021 alone – the highest in the city’ history.

Statistics indicate that upward of five percent of the population of EBR parish, and city of Baton Rouge are what the Chief of Police and other local officials have termed “bad actors” (i.e., criminal miscreants). In raw numbers that equals nearly 20,000 “bad actors” who are assumed to be armed and dangerous. For military-minded Folk, we know that 20,000 people is the size of two Divisions of soldiers. So, we have potentially two Army-size Divisions of “bad-actors” in our area to deal with.

Just considering, for a moment, the violent crime and murder rate in the area, we know there is a humongous dis-connect between what is happening on the streets and what SHOULD BE occurring based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. And it is worth noting that Baton Rouge is a city where there is an established church congregation or house of religious devotion on practically every street corner! It begs the question: Just what is being taught and preached, what role models and exemplary behavior patterns are being set forth in many of these churches?

Our core group made little to no deliberate nor concerted first effort to relaunch InspireLouisiana. Various critical and even unexpected factors simply assembled into place and presented themselves in short order. It is as though we were suddenly offered the prime opportunity to start a Christian Faith-based publication. So we stood tall and said: “Here we are, Lord; send us to the front lines.”

So by the Grace and Mercy of God, we at Inspire Louisiana stand ready to tackle and accomplish that which we are led to do by our great God: to help reclaim Baton Rouge and surrounding area from the clutches of His demonic Adversaries.