Christian Issues

•

This was on the back of a magazine a few years ago and a friend made a file of it and saved it. I want to keep it handy.

~~~

August 20, 2027

Dear Mom,

I'm not sure how to tell you this, but Jenny is becoming such a burden on our family here. Ever since her addition to the family in '24, she has been nothing but problems for us: finding a school, daycare, and even clothing have cost us money. After four years, her brother still isn't getting used to sharing his room with her, being as she's so curious about everything and goes through his things. She's so cute and she is showing signs of real intelligence.

We've discussed the problem with our pastor, and he said that sometimes, difficult decisions have to be made. We decided to seek the help of the state Family Planning and Assistance Center and we think we've come up with the best solution. Jeff is only a few years older than she is, so I don't think he'll understand where she went or remember her for long. We plan on telling her friends that she moved. We made the appointment as soon as they could get us a spot, they're so busy. Jenny has no idea of what it is, she thinks she's going for her vaccinations so she can start school with her friends next month. I'm not concerned since the shot is relatively painless and the whole termination process takes only five minutes, she won't feel a thing.

Mom, I don' t want you to think that we don't love her, we do, but it's just not fair to continue to keep her in a world where she's unwanted. A world of wanted children would be a better place, don't you think? Please, don't give us any of that "right-to-life" grief that grandma gave you about abortions, you know I don't believe in that garbage. I believe no one has the right to control how or when I choose to raise my family. At least they've barred those religious bigots from preaching that Jesus stuff at the centers. Well, anyway, I guess it's good that you and Dad never really spent much time with her, or it might make you feel different. Love to Dad. Let us know if you want some of her ashes.

Sincerely,

Patti

P.S. I just found out that the IdentiChip we had to have put in her hand is returnable, so you and Dad can get your loan back.

• 3 Comments

•

I'd like to be at one of them...

Here's the website.

T.D.Jakes drummed up a little extra controversy at the January 25th setting.

First, there was what was said (his history of modalism and current - possibly Trinitarian - beliefs)

Jakes: I believe the latter one is where I stand today. One God – Three Persons. I am not crazy about the word persons though. You describe “manifestations” as modalist, but I describe it as Pauline. For God was manifest in the flesh. Paul is not a modalist, but he doesn’t think it’s robbery to say manifest in the flesh....We need to humble both sides and say, “We are trying to describe a God we love.” Why should I fall out and hate and throw names at you when it’s through a glass darkly? None of our books on the Godhead will be on sale in heaven.

And there was what was NOT said (prosperity gospel)

The Elephant Room isn't perfect, and there are a few folks who will point out everything that Driscoll does wrong.

I believe that many of the Oneness folks also preach "health and wealth" - they go hand in hand.  I haven't watched the whole Elephant Room video, but people seem to be unhappy that "health and wealth" wasn't addressed more.

• 3 Comments

•

From "The Gender Blog"

The article is mostly good, but when the whopper comes...

Misconception #4: Submission is a right-a husband has the right to demand his wife's submission.

A husband does not have the right to demand or extract submission from his wife. Submission is HER choice-her responsibility... it is NOT his right!! Not ever. She is to "submit herself"- deciding when and how to submit is her call. In a Christian marriage, the focus is never on rights, but on personal responsibility. It's his responsibility to be affectionate. It's her responsibility to be agreeable. The husband's responsibility is to sacrificially love as Christ loved the Church-not to make his wife submit.

My thought is that a Christian man, who has married a woman who claims to be a Christian, has the right to expect her to act like one.  That includes being a submissive wife.

If he has not rights, then he is effectively in a hostage situation.  Not a pleasant place.

 

She is to "submit herself"- deciding when and how to submit is her call.

Agreed.

The "when" is when she says "I do" on the altar.

The "how" is "as unto the Lord."

Anything other than that is disobedience to the Law of Christ, Scripture and love.  It saddens me to see Kassian teach so.

 

 

 

•

Two paragraphs that struck me, given some of the conversations I have in various places.

In the past several years this word has begun to be overused, to our detriment. “Hate” is something deep and serious. It is instantly recognizable and intends to wound. But recently people have begun to fling this word around every time someone disagrees with them. “Hate” is now intended to mean anything seen as “intolerant” or “judgmental,” since nowadays the only sin most people believe in is believing in sin. So basically, if you disagree with it, you can call it “hate,” and your opponent, fearing that they might be seen as hateful, will probably stop arguing.

I have conversations with people who support "gay rights" and people who support "abortion rights" - "hate" is one of the first weapons to come out of their arsenal.

It is incredibly important that we argue honestly and with courage. Make no mistake: calling you intolerant, judgmental, or hateful is intended to shut you up. The PC police have been so effective that many people are now afraid they will be discounted, marginalized or shut down if they don’t play by these new tyrannical speech rules.

My reply to this tactic is that the conversation needs to happen, and that conversation will not take place, if one side of it is silenced.

The link to What To Do With “Hate”

•

While Yahweh is revealing, instructing, and enabling, the people are busy forgetting, departing, and sinning. They have been redeemed from Egypt that they might serve Yahweh in the wilderness. They agreed to do everything he said when he spoke to them from the mountain, but these commitments are soon forgotten.

From: God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology

Aren't we all like that, to some extent or another?

The people, when times were good, partied on. When times were hard, they demanded His care.

Or they cried out for His help, only to slip back into forgetfulness.

I have had times like this - but after a time, the cycle is as much vanity as is all of "life.". One learns the comfort and stability of simply resting in Him...good times and bad. That is a powerful lesson to learn.

• 1 Comment

•

Jonathan Dodson, Resurgence blog, references a book, "God Is Not One," by  Stephen Prothero.

The basis of the book is good - but if we are going to compare religions that don't look very much like Christianity, I believe it is even more important to look at religions that DO look very much like Christianity.

On Page 12 of his book, Prothero writes:

And so it goes with all the world's religions.  Christians align themselves with Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, and fast-growing Mormonism may well be emerging as Christianity's fourth way.

This is a problem.  Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism have a few things in common, that Mormonism does not share.

  • The Trinity
  • Christ as eternally existent, not a created being
  • the mortality of man (we do not become gods, with our own planets
  • God the Father as eternally existent, not a created being
  • salvation by grace (compared to "we are saved by grace AFTER ALL THAT WE HAVE DONE."

Mormonism is not Christianity.  To blur that line, to put the gospel on that line...believing in a 'different Jesus' - Mormonism's Jesus - could have eternal consequences.

via a post at The Resurgence.

• 1 Comment

•

The Church and the "Clobber Scriptures:" the Bible on Homosexuality

I think this is going to be an issue - some of the media have already targeted Herman Cain's personal stand on homosexuality, expanding it to his public behavior (the media coverage doesn't stand up to examination, but it won't keep them from trying, and it won't keep a lot of folks from buying.)

• 1 Comment

•

"Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin. And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night.

"If anybody can show me in the Bible the command, 'Thou shalt not smoke,' I am ready to keep it; but I haven't found it yet. I find ten commandments, and it's as much as I can do to keep them; and I've no desire to make them into eleven or twelve.

"The fact is, I have been speaking to you about real sins, not about listening to mere quibbles and scruples. At the same time, I know that what a man believes to be sin becomes a sin to him, and he must give it up. 'Whatsoever is not of faith is sin' [Rom. 14:23], and that is the real point of what my brother Pentecost has been saying.

"Why, a man may think it a sin to have his boots blacked. Well, then, let him give it up, and have them whitewashed. I wish to say that I'm not ashamed of anything whatever that I do, and I don't feel that smoking makes me ashamed, and therefore I mean to smoke to the glory of God."

HT:  Gospel-Driven Church

• 5 Comments

•

I'm ending up doing a series on porn.  Since I'm a fan of "Read Your Own Mail" - I'm writing this from the view of a wife whose husband is using porn.

The truth is that this is far, far from being a "male user / women victim" sin.

This is from 2005:

* 34 percent of female readers of Today's Christian Woman's online newsletter admitted to intentionally accessing Internet porn in a recent poll.

From ChristiaNet:

"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography,"

Do more men use porn than women?  yes.

But here's a twist - if you figure in "erotica" - and add the typical "romance novels" to the mix - what figures are you going to get?  How many women who really wouldn't like their husbands to use porn, have a collection of "romance novels" and know exactly where "the good parts" are?

In my view, the bottom line is this:

If you are a wife who is reading fiction and enjoying the fantasy of a "knight in shining armor" - whether or not it's erotica - and if you'd like your husband to be "a little more like that..."

You are every bit as much importing an outside ideal onto your spouse, as is a husband who is looking at air-brushed images on a screen.

So when we write about porn and put all of the blame squarely on men, we're missing half the boat.

•

From "Out of Ur"

This is a blog by a single pastor...looking for a position.

I am single.  I don't want to be a single pastor.  I don't want to stay single.

I DO want to see churches embrace single people with the same dignity and importance as the do married people.

Three important paragraphs

These churches explicitly were not looking to hire someone single--like Jesus or Paul. I then was surprised to discover that even though the majority of adult Americans are single (52 percent), that only 2 percent of senior pastors in my denomination are single! Something was clearly amiss.

We need to move from a church culture that says “Many of my best friends are single” to one that can say “Many of our best pastors are single.” I don’t want to lose heart; I want to believe that it’s possible for 650 million Evangelicals to finally embrace the equal dignity the Scriptures bestow upon both singleness and marriage.

The bottom line is that it is not about being single or married. It’s about being called and gifted by the Spirit to minister to people both like and unlike us (race, gender, marital status, etc). I plead with search committees everywhere to reflect on the implications of 1 Corinthians 7 before overlooking your next single pastoral candidate. They deserve to be evaluated on their excellence, not their marital status.