Bringing a Foreign Reality to Your Livingroom

I hope to post something original soon, but until then, I request that you go to Save the Children’s website and take the tour of Kroo Bay. This is a town built on a trash dump. The clinic, which is being helped by Save the Children, shares its building with other community functions like school and important social gatherings. The lack of equipment and medicines is shocking. Viewing this caused me to remember the reality of where I live and all that I have. There is another reality of which I know nothing. This kind of thing is what helps us to remember what is really important in life.

Women in Leadership and Why I am again Glad to be an Anabaptist

(I suggest you read the interview before you read my scattered thoughts) Here is a fascinating interview from CNN. I was reminded again of how delighted I am to be an Anabaptist, particularly one who believes in women literally having their heads covered, when Dr. Jones was put in a corner on the issue of the covering and also war and the government. I felt that Janet Parshall should have been a little more definite in stating that women and men are equal in value and importance, they simply have role differences. The example of women not being an afterthought of creation was good. I think that God made woman later than everything else to give Adam time to learn how handicapped and incapable he was without woman.

This interview does clearly highlight how flawed it is to believe that we can just read the Bible and know what is right. Everyone views Scripture through a lens. I believe that Jesus needs to be our lens for interpreting Scripture. He was the fulness of God revealed. It is through this complete revelation of God that we can understand all the rest of Scripture. I did like Dr. Jones’ point that the Scripture and the will not be inconsistent with each other because they are both of God. Jesus is the Logos, the source of all good and truth. He is the Word.

Larry King Live

Should Women Be Pastors?

Aired June 14, 2000 – 9:00 p.m. ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, a Baptist battle over whether women should be pastors. Joining us from Greenville, South Carolina, Dr. Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University; from Nashville, the Reverend Raye Nell Dyer, president of Baptist Women in Ministry; with me in New York, radio talk show short Janet Parshall of “Janet Parshall’s America,” and the Reverend Stan Hastey, executive director of the Alliance of Baptists. It’s all next on LARRY KING LIVE.

A Remarkable Surprise

http://www.homecomers.org/weblog/index.php/islam-and-christianity/

A Friend’s Wonderful Summary

A friend sent me a paper he read as a commencement address at a local Mennonite high school. He told me that it was very satisfying because it was the big picture view of all the things he has been referencing and trying to say to the graduates for the last four years. It is a masterful piece and it is available for reading here or for download as a pdf here.

London’s 2012 Olympic Logo

Imagine the planning that went into this logo. This will be used to represent probably the most international event on the planet. It will show up all over the world and especially in Britain for the next five years. The artist needed to create something that would appeal to most, be easily recognizable, and match the newest graphic designs in 2012. So, will this logo be a prophecy of where the graphic arts will go, or will it be a definer of where they will go?

Inside Tehran

This is an absolutely fascinating documentary by a very skilled BBC reporter and cameraman. It looks at people and life in Tehran, Iran. It is 1.5 hrs., but I believe it is well spent time. Enjoy and learn.

My Jesus Lives and Has Conquered Death

This may be shocking music for a Mennonite to listen to, but I found this music video to be quite jarring in an insightful way. All they can say is “Carry on, your memory will carry on.” Even if you do not know the lyrics, I think this video is very dark. Knowing the lyrics does not improve it much. As an alternative, I am delighted to say that my Jesus will carry on and that the strength of the Kingdom rests in Him and not my memory however long or short it may hang around. “I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”-Jesus

Song lyrics can be found here.

Was Hitler Bad Enough to Kill?

A friend and I were recently discussing a Christian response to evil in the world. We discussed what to do with very evil people like Hitler. My friend, to a certain degree playing the devil’s advocate, suggested that since Hitler was so evil, people were justified in trying to kill him. In fact, may people who have studied his life believe that he was demon possessed. As I understand Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in the little I have read of him, this is the line that he took. Hitler was so evil that it was for the common good of everyone if he was killed. He was the common thread that was holding the entire evil machine of the Third Reich together. If he was removed the evil would stop.

I counter: Neither Jesus or the apostles ever worked to assassinate Caesar or destroy the Colosseum even though horrible evil happened there. The Romans watched people kill each other or be eaten by animals for entertainment. They did it not out of hate and racial discrimination, but for pleasure. They left babies out on garbage dumps to die, divorce and immorality were rampant, and there was every kind of hideous and deviant behavior you can imagine. Still, Jesus and the early Christians did not try to kill anyone or even gain government power to stop the wrong doing.

To put the Hitler killing scenario into modern terms, Hitler was actively killing Jews for approximately three years. In this time he killed just slightly more Jews that America alone aborts babies in the same amount of time. Not only this, but America has been aborting babies for over twenty years. If we as Christians are justified in killing Hitler, then I would say that we are equally justified in killing abortion doctors.

And where do we draw the numerical line. If someone kills 1 million Jews in three years, are they still justified in being killed? How about 50 people a year? Should we take them out? If you step onto the boat of the one bringing justice, you become faced with the fact that a lot more people are really terrible. And if you look at yourself and are honest, you will realize like the Pharisees who wanted to stone the adulterous woman and the Israeli spy who mournfully testified against a Nazi war criminal, that I am just as evil inside.

Here are a few abortion statistics to remind you again of the need for the redemption of individual hearts in this world:

WORLDWIDE

Number of abortions per year: Approximately 46 Million
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 126,000

Where abortions occur:
78% of all abortions are obtained in developing countries and 22% occur in developed countries.

Legality of abortion:
About 26 million women obtain legal abortions each year, while an additional 20 million abortions are obtained in countries where it is restricted or prohibited by law.

Abortion averages:
Worldwide, the lifetime average is about 1 abortion per woman.

© Copyright 1999-2000, The Alan Guttmacher Institute. (www.agi-usa.org)

UNITED STATES

Number of abortions per year: 1.37 Million (1996)
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700

http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html

Saving Our Nation’s Moral Foundation-Is it our job?

If Jesus had wanted to cause moral reform, He would have got on the boat with the Pharisees. If any one was moral they were. Instead He rejected their moral actions which were not backed by an inner change. He rejected using their methods and organization for the purpose of coercing people to do right. Instead He called people to an inner change out of which would flow truly good action. It is not our business to try to cause people to do right or to deter moral decline in our nation. We are not to get on the bandwagon with the moral reformers of our day and attempt to use the government’s laws to cause right living and stop immorality and the breakdown of society and the family. We are to call people to love God and their fellow men with all their heart and they will begin to do right as an automatic response.

Against Such There Is No Law

On October 18 or 19 the Pennsylvania Senate adopted Resolution 373 commemorating the Amish and volunteers who were involved in the tragedy at West Nickel Mines Amish School and the Amish community in general. The resolution specifically thanks the Amish for their demonstration of mercy and forgiveness combined with a lifestyle of nonretaliation.

I find this remarkable. Here is an official government organization, announcing its admiration and appreciation for the loving and forgiving attitudes and actions of a group of people. If Christians are to influence government in no other way, demonstrating forgiveness and a nonresistant lifestyle is one way that is certainly supported by Christ. I am also reminded of the fruit of the Spirit and Paul’s statement that “. . . .against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). Not only is it not against the law, it is often recognized, sometimes even by the government, as being very good.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

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SENATE RESOLUTION

No. 373 Session of 2006

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        INTRODUCED BY ARMSTRONG, BOSCOLA, BRIGHTBILL, BROWNE, CONTI,
           CORMAN, COSTA, DINNIMAN, EARLL, ERICKSON, FERLO, FONTANA,
           FUMO, GORDNER, GREENLEAF, HUGHES, JUBELIRER, KASUNIC,
           KITCHEN, LAVALLE, LEMMOND, LOGAN, MADIGAN, MELLOW, MUSTO,
           O'PAKE, ORIE, PICCOLA, PILEGGI, PIPPY, PUNT, RAFFERTY,
           REGOLA, RHOADES, ROBBINS, SCARNATI, STACK, STOUT,
           TARTAGLIONE, TOMLINSON, VANCE, WASHINGTON, WAUGH, WENGER,
           D. WHITE, M. WHITE, A. WILLIAMS, C. WILLIAMS, WONDERLING AND
           WOZNIAK, OCTOBER 18, 2006

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        INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, OCTOBER 18, 2006

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                                  A RESOLUTION

     1  Honoring the lives and extending condolences to the West Nickel
     2     Mines Amish School shooting victims, their families and the
     3     entire Amish community.

     4     WHEREAS, The shooting at West Nickel Mines Amish School on
     5  October 2, 2006, has devastated the Amish community and the
     6  entire nation with its senseless violence; and
     7     WHEREAS, The loss of innocent lives and the unfathomable
     8  impact of this attack on those who mercifully survived has left
     9  our nation deeply saddened and grieving; and
    10     WHEREAS, The recent incidents of school violence have further
    11  shaken communities throughout the country; and
    12     WHEREAS, Law enforcement, emergency services and medical
    13  professionals have gone above and beyond the call to aid victims
    14  and their families; and
    15     WHEREAS, The Amish community has responded to this horrific

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     1  incident with unparalleled mercy and forgiveness that has
     2  deepened our profound admiration for the manner in which the
     3  Amish conduct their lives; therefore be it
     4     RESOLVED, That the Senate offer deepest condolences to the
     5  West Nickel Mines Amish School shooting victims, their families
     6  and the entire Amish community and extend heartfelt thanks to
     7  all who responded to the terrible tragedy.