Amazing Grace History/"Amazing Grace" By Wintley Phipps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMF_24cQqT0

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What Would Jesus Buy?
Category: Blogging

Retailers refer to the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest shopping days on the calendar, as "Black Friday" because it's the day they hope will attract enough customers to put them back into the black for the year. This year, it was also known as "Buy Nothing Day" to anti-consumerism activists like filmmaker Morgan Spurlock of "Supersize Me" fame. Spurlock has produced a new movie that features a performance artist who assumes the persona of Rev. Billy, an evangelist who tries to convert people to his "..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Church of Stop Shopping." Do you think this is just a cheap stunt to promote a movie or do you think the filmmakers have a point that we've become too obsessed with material goods?..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Death of a Giant

My friend and mentor Ray Ortlund died on Sunday July 22.  We were away on vacation and now that we have returned home, the reality of it is hitting me.    If you did not know Ray, Anne or their ministry, I trust you will know some of them through us.  Quietly they shaped our hearts and ministry.  Ray will be greatly missed.

Here are some links for more info:

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07070148.htm

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/?pageSize=25&pageNumber=2

http://www.ortlund.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

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National Day of Prayer

Some have suggested that the National Day of Prayer, which was held Thursday, has taken on too much of a Judeo-Christian focus since the National Day of Prayer Task Force has organized it. The organization states on its website that the day of prayer is, "offered to all Americans, regardless of religion, to celebrate their faith through prayer. However, the efforts of the NDP Task Force are executed specifically in accordance with its Judeo-Christian beliefs." Are the National Day of Prayer activities inclusive enough or is more effort needed to broaden the event's reach

I don't think any one group should "own" the National Day of Prayer organizing.  I would hope that each faith group could have its own NDOP committee to organize more effectively.  Catholics should be encouraged to pray in a manner meaningful in their tradition.  Buddhists, Muslims, Mormons, etc. should also be encouraged to pray in manners meaningful and consistent with their respective traditions.  Groups that share affinities should be encouraged to pray together, but please, if you ask me to participate, don't ask me to leave my tradition and beliefs at the door and pray generically.  I would never ask a Muslim to pray in Jesus name, nor any other faith.  If you want me to participate, let me do so in a way that is meaningful to me.  I have prayed with Jews and Catholics as we share the same deity.  I have no problem hearing a Muslim or a Hindu pray, but please don't ask me to agree.  I don't expect them to agree with me.    Let the colors of our faith traditions shine in their own brilliance rather than blend them into a secular uniform grey.  

11:45 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Partial Birth Abortion
Category: Religion and Philosophy

The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld a law banning a method used in some mid-term abortions. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the government cannot prohibit all abortions but that it "may use its voice and its regulatory authority" to discourage women from terminating pregnancies. Kennedy also noted that there were other ways doctors could perform the mid-term abortions and that they were not entitled to "unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice." What do you think of the high court's decision?..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

We wonder why the rest of the world abhors ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />America. One of the reasons is they fear our overindulgence and self indulgence.  Abortion is a question of convenience, not of choice.  How could any civilized nation consider legalizing a procedure where a near viable fetus (baby in my world) is pulled partially from a mothers womb up to its neck (once the head comes out the doctors are obligated to save its life) and then, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times "doctors collapse the fetus' skull, or drain its content, to permit its removal?"  Have you ever seen an abortion through an ultrasound?  I have.  It is horrid.  The child I saw actually tried to get away from the device that was trying to suck its limbs off.  I am sorry to be so graphic, but this is awful stuff.  This procedure, D & E is its quaint name, is used on infants far younger than those attacked during the D & X procedure ruled on today. 

My goal though is not to win the hearts of our legislators because I don't believe morality can be legislated.  My goal is to catch one rain drop at a time and give it hope that one day it too can be a rainbow again.   

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faith and politics

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony this week denounced proposed legislation that would allow mentally competent individuals who have six months or less to live to obtain drugs that can end their lives. Mahony singled out Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez who has said he was "ready to buck my church" on the issue. A Nunez spokesman framed it as an issue of "individual choice where the overwhelming majority of Catholics have a different perspective than the official position of the church." With surveys showing many evanglical Christians setting aside their opposition to abortion to support pro-abortion rights GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, are you concerned about this apparent trend of voters and elected leaders prioritizing politics over religious beliefs?

I have long been concerned that Americans vote their pocket books and "winning" over moral convictions.  We see on a regular basis the satisfaction with our leaders changing as often as the economic or opportunist winds change.  Politics is founded on the "poli" the people.  When we are most concerned about politics, we are most concerned about the will of the people.  As a republic, meaning we have a representative form of government we are intended to elect people who will represent us, but not based on our day to day whims, but on our convictions.  We are meant to elect people with moral fiber who will lead with conviction.  Unfortunately, we often elect people who are influenced more by power and money than by conviction.   So they end up being like a thin weed blowing in the winds of change, dependent on the kindness of the wind for survival.  When we do get a political leader with any moral conviction, who doesn't bend to the winds of convenience, they are chided as stubborn, imperialistic, ignorant and out of touch.  Unfortunately, even people in the pews are not immune to this trend, especially if they are not people of conviction themselves.  ..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

It is ironic that the same people who demanded Bill Clinton be impeached for his moral behavior are pushing for the election of someone whose behavior makes Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout.

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Reflections on war in Iraq

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Immigration and Faith
Category: News and Politics

Roman Catholic leaders began the Lenten season with a plea to parishioners to commit to immigration reform. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said he will go to  Washington this month to lobby Congress to consider immigration reform legislation. Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Anaheim acknowledged on Ash Wednesday that Orange County is "ground zero" for immigration reform opponents, but was "hopeful that even people who have trouble with the church's position on immigration might dedicate a day to fasting and come to a new understanding that this can be beneficial for all." Jim Gilchrist, a Catholic who is founder of the Minuteman Project that opposes illegal immigration, slammed the Ash Wednesday messages. "The church should stay out of government business unless it wants to lose its tax-exempt status," he said.

Do you think immigration reform is important and have you encouraged your followers to get involved in the issue?

MY RESPONSE:

Immigration is not as simple as closing borders and people staying on "their side."  Life would be easy if it were.  Immigration policies must see the human faces of the 11 million considered "illegal" or "undocumented."  Yes, many of them are here and up to no good, but MOST of them are good people trying to make a living and support their families.  Many of them are brought here illegally against their will and forced to work as slaves and prostitutes.  They fear being caught more than they fear their work, so they stay quiet.  We have many business owners in our congregation and we constantly discuss the need to hire legal immigrants and respect the law.  On the other hand we also know that those left outside of the law are being abused by people who don't want to pay them a legal wage and benefits, or provide them with medical care, not realizing that if they don't pay it in insurance now, they will pay it through the cost increases in overall healthcare to the rest of us later.  This way we all get burned.  Immigrants get burned by not getting the healthcare they need and we get burned by higher healthcare costs. 

These people are human.  They cry, they laugh, they have children, and they need Jesus as much as anyone.  We have worked with organizations like MIKA CDC and others to reach out to them.  Last summer, Harbor Trinity Church worked with MIKA to repair homes and fences on the west side of Costa Mesa.  Harbor Trinity has hosted a Hispanic congregation on campus for years.  We made it a policy not to ask the immigration status of those coming through the doors.  How could we?  Would we only do that for Hispanic looking people?  Talk about racial profiling!  What about the illegal Chinese or Vietnamese or Arabs or Eastern Europeans?  We cannot be about the business of checking the political status of someone, but must be about the business of caring for the eternal and physical status of everyone.  Just as we should not have passports with a person's religion on them, we also should not have the Lord's Supper (a celebration of our Christian Unity and Jesus' death for us) with a political requirement on it.  It is important that people be treated humanely in the immigration process and too many people are involved in a way that makes this impossible.  It is important for the Christian church, and I would hope other faith communities to stand with immigrants. 

9:36 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Should the U.S. recognize Armenian 'genocide'?
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) recently sponsored a nonbinding resolution calling on the president to recognize the killing of 1.5 million Armenians at the end of World War I as genocide. Some political observers say it could seriously rupture U.S.-Turkish relations and lead Turkish leaders to withdraw military support in Iraq because Turkey insists that the deaths were not genocide but a consequence of the Ottoman Empire splintering apart. Others argue that it's time for America to put truth ahead of politics. In the past, similar resolutions have been shot down, but with the Democratic majority in Congress it has a chance to finally reach President Bush's desk. Do you think the U.S. should go on record recognizing it as genocide?

MY RESPONSE:

It is clear that the events happened. The international community recognizes it happened. But it is not the first time. Not only did the Turks chase out the Armenians, but they chased out the Greeks as well (Turkey was Greek before the Ottomans invaded).

One of the greatest churches in history now stands as a museum because the Greek community was chased out. But do we stop there? What about Nazareth and Bethlehem? The historic Christian communities in these cities have dwindled to nearly nothing because of the Muslim occupations.

The cities where Jesus was born and grew up no longer are Christian cities. Nations like Jordan and the countries of North Africa were historically Christian countries. Since the militant forces of Islam conquered the region, it has become predominantly Islamic. The last country to remain largely Christian is Lebanon, and we have seen Hamas bully the Christians there since the end of the Hamas war with Israel.

Is it necessary for us to get a formal federal resolution passed condemning each of these things to right past injustices?

It may help for a short time Armenians affected by the genocide, but at the same time it would help, it would fuel the ethnic tensions with the Kurds in Iraq and explode into chaos beyond the terrible things we are already seeing happen in Iraq.

Is another war really the answer to solve the injustice of the past? I don't think so. Like our own history with slavery and Japan's history during World War II, descendants of the atrocities live allowing themselves to continue to be victimized by the past by demanding an apology, and unless they get it, they fester and ache.

Jesus told us that we need to forgive one another "70 times seven" — or infinitely. It does not mean we forget and remain open to becoming victims again; it does mean we don't allow the past to continue to victimize us.

The only power the past has over us is the power we give it. To refuse to forgive is like refusing to have a cancerous tumor removed. The cancer will grow and take over your body.

The Amish response to the school shootings last year of so many of their children was overwhelming. Before the blood dried on the schoolhouse floor, they sent word to the shooter's family that they had forgiven him. They suffer, like anyone else, but remember the words of Jesus on the cross as he was about to die: "Father, forgive them. They don't understand what they are doing."

I think it is short-sighted of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to force a bill that will certainly add to our national insecurity and proof that agendas are more important than dealing with real issues.

But in a culture where people feel they have the right to be angry and get revenge, it seems inevitable.

11:59 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

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