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I heard Leslie H. Gelb being interviewed last night on NPR’s “All Things Considered” concerning the opinions he expressed in this New York Times op-ed piece titled “The Three-State Solution.” In the essay, Gelb proposes that the most effective way to build a democratic Iraq is to create three ethnically different Iraqs — in the north for the Kurds, in the central region for the Sunni majority, and in the south for the Shiites.
Gelb contends that this sort of division falls along natural ethnic borders, artificially united through force since the 1920s. Leaving the Sunnis with an oil-poor region, they would have to learn to get along with their neighbors or suffer the economic consequences.
Gelb doesn’t deny that this solution isn’t without its costs — monetary and human. Inevitably the Sunnis, placed in a power-starved situation, would rebel violently, requiring force to protect the Kurdish and Shiite areas. Protection would also be required for people emigrating from one new state to another. Taking this course, the U.S. might well be trading one bloody insurgency for another. And he even admits that it may take nine months to settle the Sunni state into some semblance of peace.
Gelb doesn’t mention how this scenario would affect the Al-Qaeda types from Syria and other neighboring Arab states, now aiding the Iraqi insurgents. It’s unrealistic to think they’d all pack their bags and head back home. Would they start causing trouble in the (now relatively stable) Kurdish north and Shiite south? Gelb also completely overlooks the needs of the Christian minority in Iraq. What becomes of them? Which of the three “new Iraqs” would be safest for them?
This article made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Thanks to the erudite Paul Cella for the link. I think what is more disturbing than the many uncontrollable “what ifs” that Gary North raises in his article is the blatant neglect of the U.S. government’s intelligence community to allow Oswald to return to the United States despite his defection and espionage for the Soviet Union, as well as his continued activities to undermine U.S. national security.
Looking for parallels to the 9-11 hijackers is inevitable. In Oswald's case, there was a clear paper trail showing that he was a all-but-sworn enemy of the U.S. government. The final trip to Cuba should have sealed him as a persona non grata. Intelligence on the 9-11 hijackers was more piecemeal, with no real "smoking gun" document pointing to their intentions.
Like every Christian parent, I want to teach my daughter a spirit of compassion and giving for those less fortunate. I want to teach her a spirit of thankfulness for the many material blessings we have. But words don’t do a good job. I can tell by the glazed-eye look I get when I’m telling her to clean up her room and take better care of her stuff.
But sometimes one example can say a lot.
A man and his wife came to our church Sunday, running on fumes. They put aside their last shred of pride and asked for help. After two weeks without income, they were almost out of food. Could someone give them a ride to the food bank? During our “passing of the peace” time, they spoke their need to someone, and someone passed it along to me. I spent the rest of the service praying and planning.
I hit up my husband, the deacon, to help me put together a few bags of non-perishables for them. And then Amy and I drove them to the food bank. Along the way, they talked about the hard knocks life had given them lately. Butch had broken his foot and couldn’t work for six weeks at his carpet-laying job. Debbie was suffering from clinical depression and could only work intermittently. The only food in the house was a can of beans and some pork chops for that night’s dinner.
At the food bank, they were able to get enough to see them through for a month or so, if they were careful. And Debbie got a lead on a program that could pay for her prescription of anti-depressants. You could tell that a big load of care had been lifted from their shoulders. As I hugged them good-bye, it was Butch who said they’d be coming back for worship next Sunday, without an invitation from me.
So what did Amy get from all this? Here’s what she had to say in her on-line diary:
“it couldn't help but make me think that I’m really lucky for everything i have. this thanksgiving I’m going to be surrounded by my family and friends and have a huge dinner at my grandparents...and i can’t help but wonder what these people and others that don’t have much are doing. it makes me realize how much that we take for granted. i mean, this computer i take for granted...my house, my parents, my friends, just everything in general that we don’t really think about at times. we could all be in serious shape if we didn’t have all these things. So now I’m asking you, what have you done to help other people less fortunate than yourself?
“you know..christmas is coming up and some kids aren’t going to be lucky and have a tree, lights, and gifts under the tree...they are going to be lucky to even get a nice christmas dinner. It’s not hard to give anything to someone that needs it...it doesn’t take much time either. it just takes a little piece of your heart. after you give someone something...and you know that it was good, it makes you feel so good about it, and i think that’s the true gift of giving. if you could just see those tears in debbie’s eyes as we were driving to the food bank and picked up the food...or the hug that butch gave to my mom...it would make you truly thankful for everything that you have...because hey, you could be in worse shape.
“i don’t know about any of you...but during this holiday season, I’m going to try my best to give to others...because i cannot stand seeing someone starve, and i cannot stand seeing a child cry because it doesn’t have enough warmth and loving parents to take care of it. actually not just this holiday season should we be giving....we should do it without thinking....and just knowing that it’s right.”
It seems like every news organization, from the large networks to the local hometown papers are doing their Kennedy assassination retrospectives. Where were you when you heard the news? I have been surprised to find that my own experience is much the same as others who were my age.
I was 7, in second grade at St. John LaLande Catholic School in Blue Springs, Missouri. Was either in Sister Mary Margaret's class or Mrs. Looney's -- I am not clear on who taught second grade that year. Our principal was a very tall, imposing nun, Sister Bernadette. She was so tall that she seemed awesome to us little kids, even when she was smiling or laughing. But that afternoon, when she swept into our room, the skirts of her long habit flying, she was not smiling. She was pale as if she'd seen a ghost. She told us the president had been shot and we were immediately going into church to pray a rosary for him. All us girls went to the cubby in the back of the room to get our little beanies to wear into church. After we prayed, they sent us all home early because they said the president had died.
When I got home, my mom was ironing (I remember because she used to have an old 7-Up bottle with a sprinkler thing fitted into the top so she could dampen the clothes as she ironed -- does anyone do that anymore?) and she was watching the news of the assassination on TV. We watched all of the events unfold on TV, the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the president's funeral. I remember being especially interested in Caroline and John Jr. because, after all, they were kids about my age, and I couldn't imagine my own dad being killed.
We felt numb. As if everything had changed, and we weren't certain how. Very much the way we felt on September 11, 2001.
Update: In a very personal and moving tribute, Jared of The Thinklings writes about another Jack who died on this day in 1963 -- but with much less fanfare. C.S. Lewis. I would do well to read more of Lewis' work. I have "Mere Christianity" and "The Screwtape Letters" of course, and read "The Chronicles of Narnia" as a teen, but he's written so much fine stuff and excellent apologetics, no Christian library is complete without Lewis.
Oswald Chambers on humility in the Christian life. It really hit me between the eyes!
"It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are a spiritual prig. ... Beware of posing as a profound person; God became a Baby. ... We are so abominably serious, so desperately interested in our own characters, that we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life. Determinedly take no one seriously but God, and the first person you find you have to leave severely alone as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself."
Pride is such a sneaky thing. Oooh, look at me! I'm a blogger, I lead small groups, I lead worship! I'm so spiritual! I'm so deep! Ha. What kind of Christian am I in the ordinary concerns of life -- eating, talking, driving, shopping?
Thanks to Josh Sargent for the link. It’s funny … someone was just telling me at our last Alpha get-together that he didn’t think I ever felt overwhelmed. Boy, have I ever got him fooled! I am OFTEN overwhelmed or scared. I couldn’t get through the day without the Spirit’s power.
This reminds me of another game I sometimes play with myself. If you knew you were going to be stranded on a desert island or put away in prison for years, and you could take one book or chapter of the Bible with you, what would it be?
It’s been a rough week here in the land of “such small hands.” So I am really looking forward to a fun and restful weekend.
Tomorrow will be great. Ken’s sister Connie and her husband Tom are coming to spend the night. We’re taking them to Mongolian Barbecue for dinner and then it’s a rematch of the euchre competition we started back in August.
I have to agree with his point that the decline of the family in our culture is not the fault of gays and lesbians. We heteros can pretty well mess up a family all by ourselves. You can blame it on easy divorce, and on welfare laws that basically encourage single parenthood, but that’s really not the root of the problem. It’s that old human selfishness — “I want what I want when I want it, and to hell with you.” It’s putting self above spouse and children — no wonder the whole family unit crumbles.
Wallis seeks a way to give gays and lesbians the social justice they seek — civil unions that allow them to enjoy health-care insurance benefits, family visitation rights at hospitals and inheritance rights — while still preserving the definition of marriage between a man and a woman. This of course would not affect the church’s definition of marriage. Unless the individual church chooses to recognize such unions (as some Episcopal congregations in the U.S. do)?
I don’t know the answer. I can appreciate the social justice issues here. It is cruel for long-time homosexual partners to be unable to support each other when one is sick or dying. But does this third way open a door to “culture creep” — so that what is acceptable in the culture becomes acceptable in the church? Will those of us in the church continue to defend the traditional definition of marriage, which Wallis himself says is “the way our society best orders itself”?
A Michigan Court of Appeals has decided that a man’s home is still his castle — or the Lord’s, if he chooses to declare it so. In a neighborhood of $1 million homes, a devout Catholic couple built the home of their dreams and decided to declare their faith by working the words “Jesus is King” into the stonework. (Click over to “Top Stories” for a photo.)
Apparently the neighborhood association disagreed with the family’s right to make a statement of faith with their home, and it sued the couple. The Circuit Court ordered the couple to remove the statement, but the Appeals Court disagreed with them. The deed restriction didn’t specifically prohibit messages or patterns in the building materials, so the law comes down on the side of the property owner’s freedom.
I’ll never be able to own a $1 million house, but I’d be proud to live there when the couple decides to sell.
Does it glorify God? Does it lift up Jesus Christ?
Is it consistent with the rest of Scripture?
What sort of fruit does it bear? “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matt. 7:15-16) Does it lead people to a greater openness to the Gospel?
Ask these questions about the ideas presented in “The Da Vinci Code” and tell me what you decide.
I appreciate Alicia’s point that Protestants don’t have the Magesterium to give an authoritative interpretation of Scripture. She writes: “However, if the main standard for determining authenticity of truth is a personal and subjective interpretation of any kind, it becomes very difficult to persuade convincingly against the neo-Gnostic heresies such as that found in the Da Vinci Code. I admire greatly those Protestant apologists who have tried. For Catholics, we can also argue the blatant anti-Catholicism of the book in our apologetics, but it seems to me to be a much harder task for Protestants.”
Protestants aren’t completely without our own traditions, which those of us in the Reformed faiths find in the creeds and confessions of the church. In the Westminster Confession, we find this: “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it in matters of faith or worship.” (italics mine) The governing bodies of individual denominations (the General Assembly in the case of the PCUSA) does at times deliver “definitive guidance” or “authoritative interpretation” of Scripture on certain issues. And when I consider that, despite our differences, there is a wide agreement among orthodox (small “o”) Christians, Protestant and Catholic, on basic issues such as who Jesus is, then I believe it is the Spirit’s work.
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Tim. 4:3-4)
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.” (2 Peter 2:1-3)
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” (1 John 4:1-3)
It shouldn’t, but it amazes me how the things we believe are “new” ideas are really old heresies dressed up in modern so-called scholarship. Test the spirits, folks.
This weekend Ken and I bought a new vacuum cleaner and an orbital buffing machine to clean the carpets. Oreck. They are so cool. We just let them sit in the living room Saturday night so we could look at them. Sunday evening we dry-cleaned the living room carpet. It looks awesome.
Several things at church lately have me feeling discouraged and frustrated, wondering where the Lord wants me to focus my energies. It’s a lot of little things, and I thought blogging about it would help me to focus my thoughts and prayers better.
One of our younger members has been attending a different church and probably will leave entirely in the next year or so. I’m pleased that she has found a place where she is being fed and senses the Spirit moving — but I can’t help but wonder why she isn’t feeling the Spirit move at FPC. Her leaving would also leave our fledgling coffeehouse ministry short-handed. Is that something that needs my gifts right now more than, for example, singing in the choir?
Getting the schedule changed so that we have more choices available on Sunday mornings. Looks like that won’t get moving until after the holidays now. I see this as so crucial to our moving forward — to increasing attendance at the contemporary service, to celebrating Communion more frequently, to reaching out to younger people. Keeping the focus of our worship on God, and not falling into the popular temptation of slicking up the worship service just for the sake of having a slick production.
More and more, my heart seems to be with the contemporary service and looking for new, creative ways to reach out to our community. My heart is with the small-group ministry and Alpha, where I have really seen some results in people’s spiritual growth and people coming to Christ. Singing in the choir is fun and I love praising God with music, but I can’t do everything.
My heart is also burdened for the spiritual direction of our people. This is the second Sunday in a row in which I have either heard of or been involved in a discussion of “The DaVinci Code” with people who are accepting it as plausible. Where does this come from? Why aren’t people using their discernment and testing the spirits? How is this consistent with what we know of Jesus through Scripture? At the root of it seems to be a sort of self-centeredness and a deep-seated mistrust of all authority. Instead of seeing the apostles and early church fathers as faithful and Spirit-led caretakers of the faith, we seem more willing to write them off as liars or scoundrels with a devious secret agenda.
The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home. -- C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God. "I shall never do that" -- in all probability you will have to, if you are a saint. There never was a more inconsistent Being on this earth than Our Lord, but He was never inconsistent to His Father. The one consistency of the saint is not to a principle, but to the Divine life. ... It is easier to be a fanatic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling, particularly to our religious conceit, in being loyal to God. -- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Mark Byron has ruffled more than a few feathers with this post, in which he questions the value of civil disobedience in bringing about social and political change. He uses the daring technique of constructing an imaginary attack on liberals in the federal government to carry the “combating evil” rhetoric to its logical, sickening conclusion.
When Christians use the “God is on our side” rhetoric against their political opponents over issues such as abortion, the right to die, the conduct of the war in Iraq, etc. it damages the cause of Christ. That does not mean we don’t need to speak out, to admonish, exhort, prophesy and warn when Christians see the culture headed in a direction that dishonors God. But no human party or label has the corner on the peace and justice market. While Jim Wallis is speaking out for the poor and homeless, Catholics and many conservative Protestants defend the rights of the weak, the unborn, the disabled and the aged. We all want to see the Kingdom of God on earth.
It brings to mind something I just read in Curtis Chang’s “Engaging Unbelief” (more on this book later). Here’s the pertinent excerpt:
In the final judgment, all is unveiled because God himself is unveiled. … In the light of this final judgment, all of history’s ambiguities are finally resolved. … Lest the visible church and individual Christians assume that this ending means their side wins and everyone else loses, Augustine reminds the reader that the new epistemological clarity will bring surprises. Some who seemed to walk outside the visible church on earth will end up revealed as true members of the City of God; other individuals who seemed to travel “mingled in the Church” will end up revealed as “reprobate” members of the city of men. In this final chapter we will see that God’s metanarrative is so wide that he outflanks all the “sides” we may have smugly established in our human conflicts. A wise word to all Christians involved in partisan politics.
The Holy Spirit has been convicting me of this a lot lately, as I am as guilty or more so than anyone.
Update: Mark Butterworth has a slightly different take on the issue in this excellent essay.
I was a good girl and got my flu shot on Monday. Of course, there was an e-mail in my inbox on Tuesday that FREE flu shots are going to be available at work today. That’s what I get for trying to be organized.
Several days ago, Bryan proclaimed, “I’ve Been Shot.” I wonder if he’s still whining. ;-)
Oswald Chambers often writes about this in “My Utmost for His Highest” about how the real work of the Christian life is often in the humdrum and mundane parts of life.
A lot of the work I do around the church tends to be “front of the house” stuff — like teaching on Saturday nights and leading the Worship Committee.
But I have so much admiration for the gifts of the “behind the scenes” people — the ones who make the sanctuary beautiful with their flower arrangements, or decorate our entrance bulletin boards with beautiful and inspiring seasonal stuff. Their creativity and artistic eye glorifies God and draws my thoughts to His transcendence.
Those who share the gift of hospitality by making coffee and serving lunches and dinners are sometimes our “front lines” with newcomers to the church and people on the fringes. A friendly word or a welcoming handshake along with the food can make people feel cared for; it brings the love of Jesus to people on a tangible level.
Fantastic!! You are GEORGIA O'KEEFE.
You are a true spirit of nature, and it shows in the flowing floral paintings for which you are most famous. You feel the beauty of all things around you, and your friends appreciate you for your ability to share that extraordinary beauty with them.
It’s pretty bad to be beaten to the punch by a former state resident when something happens right under your nose. But former Michigander Mark Byron links to a Grand Rapids report, hinting that rock guitarist and hunter extraordinaire Ted Nugent might be thinking about a run for the governor’s office.
Coincidentally, I read this snarky little piece in my hometown paper over breakfast this morning. Lansing columnist Tim Skubick snickers and sneers at the idea, with snide little references to the “orange hats” in the audience. (I assume he means hunters. Opening day is Nov. 15, Tim. I’d stay out of the woods if I were you, dude.)
Michigan is bigger than Detroit, and most of it is rural and Republican, plus we have those “swing Democrats” who played such a big role in getting Reagan re-elected. Michigan voters care deeply about jobs, the environment, hazardous waste disposal, the state budget deficit and education — issues that the conservative Nugent could leverage to his advantage. I’d have a hard time imagining the Republican Party stalwarts putting him up against the charismatic incumbent Gov. Jennifer Granholm. They’re just too timid. I mean, look at their 2002 candidate — the affable gentleman farmer Dick Posthumus. Posthumus was principled but ultimately couldn’t charm the voters. But who else do they have waiting in the wings?
If the Nuge can get over his bad-boy past (as Ventura and Schwarzenegger have been able to do), then Michigan might see a rocker in the governor’s mansion. He's settled down some in recent years with marriage and family, his hunting advocacy and a conservative talk-radio gig.
I hope he invites me to the inaugural venison roast.
Australian blogger Jan of Shalom comments on “Jesus junk” and how it trivializes God, robbing Him of His majesty and transcendence. In our desire to draw people closer to God, sometimes we forget His majesty and we fail to give Him the proper awe. Call it another of the paradoxes of the Christian life — through Christ, God becomes our “Abba” and at the same time He is the Lord seated on the throne before whom the six-winged seraphs call day and night, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:1-3)
This struck a chord with me today because I started reading Robert Webber’s newsletters on worship, which discuss at length the idea of bringing God’s transcendence into worship without losing His immanence, or His ever-near presence in us and among us by His Spirit. How do we do that? And how can we do it without going to the extreme of cold, remote, over-intellectualized worship? If our surroundings are less than majestic (like the church fellowship hall), how can we bring a sense of majesty into the physical worship space? Does it matter what things look like?
Just a few of the thoughts I’ve been wrestling with lately.
As a result of the Holy Spirit’s working through the Alpha Course, one of the men attending with his wife put his faith in Christ as his Lord and Savior and will be baptized in our church at the end of the month! His wife, a believer, sat beside him beaming last night as he told the small group. Their joy was wonderful to behold.
I’ve noticed other good results, not a dramatic perhaps, but no less wonderful. People who were on the fringe are becoming more committed and more excited about their faith. They’re cleaning the junk out of their lives and putting Christ first. They are gaining boldness in sharing their gifts.
We have two more sessions to go, so it will be exciting to see what else God is doing in our midst. Adam of Kingdom Come has good news about the Alpha Course his church is running. And we thank God that you are feeling better, Adam!
Enetation seems to have entered The Matrix. It no longer knows the difference between objective reality and imagined reality. In other words, don't trust the counters.
For the benefit of my readers who are relatively new to blogs and this whole commenting thing -- you don't have to enter an e-mail address or web site address to make a comment. It's a nice thing to do -- it indicates that you're open to interaction away from this site -- but you don't have to enter that information to make the comment "stick."
“It’s odd, but movies have ceased to be important in the way they once were. I still love them; they’re still America’s Best Entertainment Value, unless they contain trace elements of Adam Sandler, but I no longer go to the movies hoping that this will be the One True Clear Sign that the zeitgeist is moving in the direction I desire. I assume the big ones will be clamorous bang-a-thons, that the small ones will be lapidary character studies with precise insights on the nature of modern life, and when the lights go up it will mean very little. Movies don’t change the world. The world changes movies.”
Is it a sign of maturity (aging) that you cease to expect popular culture to give you the Answers to Life? At this point, I’m pleased if they get the questions right.
What do you think? Are movies still “important”? Do they make statements about life and culture that change the world or people’s attitudes?
This morning as I was eating my usual bowl of All-Bran, I was scanning the local paper’s A-section, as I usually do. For some reason, a rather innocuous headline caught my eye, something about a prominent lawyer’s wife being killed in a car accident.
The 43-year-old woman and her family were on their way home from a weekend in Northern Michigan, making the trek down I-75. She had unfastened her safety belt to shift her position in the seat, when the driver drifted a bit off the edge of the highway. The driver pulled back onto the highway, and overcorrecting, went into the grassy median, flipping the SUV. The woman was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene. The other family members, who were all wearing seat belts, survived with minor injuries.
The driver was her 15-year-old stepdaughter.
When I told Amy this story on the way to school, she cried, “Oh, my gosh, Mom, I’d never be able to drive again!”
I don’t know this girl’s name, but would you please pray for her?
Bryan of Clarity Amidst Chaos watched the ABC-TV special on "Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci." He skillfully points out the flaws in the program's logic, then tells why this is important. Here's an example:
"If Jesus were to be married and father a daughter, then Jesus would have been giving priority to a competing agenda (at worst) or (at best) He was "hedging His bets." If either were true, then He's not Messiah at all, just a dead guy on a cross who left behind a wife and a baby."
Christian visual artists and musicians should read this article on “What Does Music Mean?” It comes from the new Te Deum newsletter, published by the fine folks of Christian Counterculture, who are behind the Antithesis Web site and the Discerning Reader Web-based Christian bookseller.
If you have observed or have been involved in contemporary vs. traditional worship music battles, this article will give you something to think about. Does music or art, in and of itself, have a moral content? What are our obligations, as Christian artists or musicians to make art to the glory of God? Can a true message of the Gospel cancel out artistic mediocrity?
Based on my reading of Francis Schaeffer, I thought that art itself does carry a propositional message about the worldview of its creator. According to the author of this article, I’m wrong. Or in other words, non-Christians can make beautiful and useful music. And art itself is morally neutral. Agree or disagree? Are some forms of music inappropriate for worship? Or does it just depend on your background and the context you place on the music? It’s food for thought to anyone involved in music, art and worship.
You also can find the article on Antithesis, but if you are really into music, subscribe to the Te Deum e-mail newsletter, which includes articles of interest to musicians, as well as reviews of new Christian CD releases.
