Micah 6:8

The Footage of the Attack!

A short while ago I shared that I had been attacked by a woman while I was protesting abortion. We just got the movie back from the police and we've had it digitized. If you would like to watch it follow this link. Be warned though that there is a reasonable amount of swearing and there is violence so you may not want to watch it if your kids are around.

Trinity Broadcasting Network = Total BS Network

We just had some friends visiting us today that are visiting Canada right now from Zambia. They were telling about Zambia which I find so fascinating because we intend to move overseas someday and I itch to know a little of what it will be like. Anyways, they were telling us that in Zambia there are two television channels that you can pick up without a satellite. One is the local station that is government run and doesn't always have programing available. The other is the trinity broadcasting network (TBN). How depressing. I just wish that my faith could have another name then Christianity so that I didn't have to associate with such an awful bastardization of what I love. It's not just the network that I hate being associated with but all the "Ra ra ra USA" and the "God will give us health and wealth" sort of Christianity that I despise. I think that TBN sort of represents it all and unfortunately is spreading the message to the world that that is what Christianity is all about.

About a year ago Joel and I went out and protested a Benny Hinn crusade that had come to town. It's so depressing to see so many people sucked in to such a crook and his schemes. We handed out pamphlets to people as they approached the stadium trying to educate them about the truth behind what they were about to see. Why are so many people sucked into this crap? The true church needs to stand up and speak out against these false prophets. When they are afraid to do so then people are going to be led astray because the silence of the church is a quiet affirmation of their messages. Also, the silence of the church to speak out against the false prophets means that the rest of the world will come to associate Christianity with the frauds because they don't know that there is anything different or any internal opposition.

I don't want my blog to become too whiney about the church but I must say that I'm frustrated. There is far too much navel gazing and far to little action. I know that TBN and their brand of Christianity is not true Christianity but I'm frustrated that so few people actually know this when it should be so obvious. The truth needs to get out and we need to spread it.

Networks vs Community

I've been reading John Taylor Gatto's book "Dumbing us Down - The hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling". He has a lot of interesting things to say about the education system but what I found particularly interesting was his discussion on how school are only networks pretending to serve as communities. What I thought was interesting was that his comments on this could just have easily been used to describe and critique churches.

What I dream for in church is what Gatto describes as a true community. He says, "A community is a place in which people face each other over time in all their human variety, good parts, bad parts, and all the rest. Such places promote the highest quality of life possible, lives of engagement and participation."

Networks, however, don't require the whole person, but only a narrow piece. If you function in a network it ask you to suppress all the parts of yourself except the network-interest part—a highly unnatural act although one you can get used to. In exchange, the network will deliver efficiency in the pursuit of some limited aim. This is in fact a devil's bargain, since on the promise of some future gain one must surrender the wholeness of one's present humanity. If you enter into too many of these bargains you will split yourself into many specialized pieces, none of them completely human. And no time is available to reintegrate them.

Unfortunately, this what churches usually become. There is usually the goals of getting the service prepared, the bulletin ready and Sunday school coordinated. There is usually the underlying goal for spiritual growth of some group of people. Fellowship is one component of church. Usually as part of a list of other things to get done. This creates a problem in that love is given a backseat to business. Gatto describes this problem as follows:

It is a puzzling development, as yet poorly understood, that the 'caring' in networks is in some important way feigned. Not maliciously, but in spite of any genuine emotional attractions that might be there, human behavior in network situations often resembles a dramatic act—matching a script produced to meet the demands of a story. And, as such, the intimate moments in networks lack the sustaining value of their counterparts in community. Those of you who remember the wonderful closeness possible in army camp life or sports teams, and who have now forgotten those you were once close with will understand what I mean. In contrast, have you ever forgotten an uncle or an aunt?

If the loss of true community entailed by masquerading in networks is not noticed in time, a condition arises in the victim's spirit very much like the "trout starvation" that used to strike wilderness explorers whose diet was made up exclusively of stream fish. While trout quell the pangs of hunger—and even taste good—the eater gradually suffers for want of sufficient nutrients.

Churches that become spiritual networks are dangerous and can leaves it's members as victims of trout starvation. They suck so much time and energy out of people without feeding them what they really need. Gatto says that the only networks he considers completely safe are "the ones that reject their communal facade, acknowledge their limits, and concentrate solely on helping (him) do a specific and necessary task. But a vampire network like a school, which tears off huge chunks of time and energy needed for building community and family—and always asks for more—needs to have a stake driven through its heart and be nailed into its coffin." The problem that we currently face is that "given our unquenchable need for community and the unlikelihood of obtaining that community in a network, we are in such desperation of any solution that we are driven to deceive ourselves about the nature of these liaisons." People are unwilling to admit that what they have in church is not really community. Gatto adds that "whatever 'caring' really means, it means something more than simple companionship or even comradeship of shared interests."

I think that answer lies in a complete gutting of all things to do with church besides loving God and loving others. Who says we need "services"? Who says that we need bible studies? Who says that we need budgets? Why do we use communion cups? Church should solely be about loving God and loving others. Absolutely everything else is dispensable. We will never see true community in our churches unless we stop running after other silly goals and make our first priority to love. By love I don't mean fondness or occasional small acts of service but messy, involved sort of love that leaves one incredibly vulnerable and exposed. If you think that this is hard then try carrying a cross.

Church Sign

I was passing a church the other day that had a sign on it that said something along the lines of "Since God has forgiven you, you need to forgive yourself". It made me cringe for a few reasons. First off, a church sign is public and everyone see it, Christian and non-Christian. God has not forgiven everyone. John 3:36 says that "whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." Having God's wrath on someone is not compatible with having God's forgiveness. Forgiveness is conditional on faith, true faith that involves repentance and surrender. This sign is harmful because it allows non-Christians to continue to self-delude themselves into believing that they are forgiven and that the wrath of God does not remain on them.

The second thing about this sign that bothered me was the encouragement to forgive oneself. This is terrible advise for a Christian or a non-Christian. We can not forgive ourselves. The truth is that we are awful. Everyone of us. Apart from the grace and mercy of God his wrath justly remains on us just as it should. Encouraging people to forgive themselves encourages them to bypass their need for the cross. Trying to forgiving ourselves is an attempt to escape the conviction of the Holy Spirit. This said, I do need to mention that Christians are freed from sin and death and should live in gratitude to God. Their sin is no longer holding them back and should not be depressing them. This is not the same as self-forgiveness. It is simply acknowledging and appreciating our position before God.

Another thing that I found frustrating is that these words are so similar to Christ's words about our need to forgive others. I think that that could potentially mislead people to think that this is actually a biblical principle. It does sound like something that you might find in the bible so people that don't know the bible very well might think that this as a command to be followed. This criticism on it's own would be insignificant but when coupled with the fact that the saying is not a biblical principle I think that it is dangerous. I'm sure that the creator didn't try to intentionally deceive people but I think that we need to be more careful to analyze sayings and expressions that we're fed by the church.

Sampson and Delilah Action Figures!?

A good friend of mine was recently in her local Christian bookstore where she noticed a new action figure section. In the section, which is bad enough for me to comment on, they had, believe it or not, Sampson and Delilah action figures. Why is there a market for these? Delilah looks like a seductive prostitute! She has cleavage! Part of the point of that Bible story is to teach us that if we're not careful to keep ourselves pure we can be tempted to do stupid sinful things. Maybe the fact that there is a market for these dolls is an indication that the church has done so poorly at keeping itself pure that it's become stupid enough to buy these toys and other similar junk.

My biggest beef is not so much the dolls but what they represent. James 1:27 says that "pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world." The fact that people buy things like these shows me that the church has largely failed to teach people both of the qualifications for a pure and undefiled religion. When people waste their money on stupid junk like this they are failing to help widows and orphans with their money. The fact that they are willing to buy slutty dolls for their kids indicates that they have not kept themselves unstained by the world.

I was Assaulted!

This last Friday, while I was peacefully protesting near a local abortion clinic, I was attacked. Here is the news story about the event. Please note that the article does seem a little dramatized. It was a pretty crazy thing to have happen but I don't feel that it was really as scary as it is presented. I'm hoping a praying that this event can be used for good through any press coverage that I can get.

Working Together

I remember back from my Bible school days at Capernwray Harbour during a lecture series on Romans the teacher of the series provided an uncommon interpretation of spiritual gifts. He taught that spiritual gifts should be understood as spiritual strengths rather then a one time gift that you receive upon conversion. He explained that this practically meant that strengths and ministries would change through out our lives but whatever we did we should do with enthusiasm and love. I think that he was right. This interpretation makes so much more sense when compared with reality.

I think that as we mature in Christ we naturally develop passions that incorporate our strengths. We also find where we want to focus our service to the kingdom of God. That ends up meaning that some will be apostles, some evangelists, some teachers, some workers of miracles, you can see where I'm going here. We're all in a body together filling different roles because we're all not going to be great at everything that is good.

Something that I've noticed recently is that when people find their passion and strengths they tend to think that everyone else should be diving head long into the ministry that they are passionate about. I know that I'm often guilty of doing this. I care deeply about social justice and it drives me mad how few other people are doing anything in this important area. The problem is that I don't care to the same degree about evangelism or other important things to the kingdom of God. I have a couple friends that care deeply about this and don't understand why we spend so much time on social justice issues. I think that we need to learn to apply the following verses.

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. Rom 12:3–6a

I think that this would not be nearly as common a problem if the church as we know it was less apathetic. I get frustrated when I recognize that most people don't care about social justice because I feel lonely in my cause. If I knew 5 other people that cared I would feel like I had some friends to help me with my cause and that some difference could be made. Also, I have way more grace (but probably not enough) for people that are passionate about some other ministry. I still encourage them to seek justice for the oppressed but I don't end up feeling angry at their apathy because I know that their energy is just channeled into another part of the kingdom of God. People's stress would be eased if they felt that others were doing their part.

I think that helpful comparison might be to think of the natural body. Imagine that you were the left eye. You were doing your job but one day you noticed that the right eye wasn't working. You would get a little panicked when you realized that you had twice the work to do. You might try to enlist in the right nostril to take the place of the right eye. Unfortunately he's taking a rest too. Getting upset you turn to your hard working buddy the right ear. He says he can't spare the time because the left year is sleeping and he's exhausted. He's wondering why you're not helping him. Silly as this story is, it does illustrate that all the parts are needed in action. We have a job to do and their is no time for playing games. Let us seek first the kingdom of God and run the race until it's complete.

Importing Western Culture with the Gospel

I was a Christian dinner and missions talk this last weekend. The main speaker was a missionary doctor in Africa for several years. During his talk he shared several stories and slides and video clips. I love listening to missionaries share about their experiences because I know that someday I will likely be in similar situations. I also love to hear about the gospel spreading to unbelievers. This talk was particularly interesting to me because my husband is planning to eventually become a missionary doctor. There were lots of inspiring stories and it leaves me just waiting to finally go.

There were some things about the presentation that left me frustrated though. The speaker at one point showed a video clip of their first group baptism in a small creek a few miles away from the village he was in. The whole village trekked over to the creek because they were curious to see what was going to happen. All the baptizees and observers were dressed in their traditional garb and but the man baptizing, presumably the pastor, was dressed in western dress pants and a dress shirt! There were also several slides that showed similarly ridiculous imports of western culture such as wooden pulpits, western church buildings and even an artificial Christmas tree! Most the people that they were serving would never have even seen a pine tree before.

Why do western missionaries feel obliged to introduce all sorts of non-biblical tradition into countries that they evangelize? I suppose that it's probably because they don't know any better or differently. I think that the western church needs to seriously contemplate everything that they do and purge themselves of the non-biblical extras. These extras are not only wasting our time, money and other resources but when other cultures learn to associate Christianity with the whole western package as it's often presented, we run the risk of misleading people to believe that Jesus and his message is an irrelevant western superstition. For the sake of the gospel and it's relevancy lets carefully examine what we deem as essential to godly living and throw out everything that slows us down.

Zondervan is Producing Bibles in China!

I have a friend that just bought a bible for her sister and upon closely examining it she realized that it had been made in China! Chinese factories have a notorious track record for unethical treatment of their employees. Undoubtedly their are questionable practices occurring in the zondervan factories as well because if they really cared about being different then they would certify themselves as being a fair trade company.

Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you. Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.—James 5:1–5

Here's my action for you. Mull over the following verses. Consider boycotting Zondervan products and let them know why on the grounds that they are very likely not treating their employees fairly. These verses make it clear that God's judgment falls on those that act unjustly towards their employees. I think that God would see little practical difference if the owner of a field were to hire out the management of employees to someone that was holding back the wages unjustly. The owner would be empowering a manager to hurt others. Now consider the situation we are in in the west. Not many people here have employees but we buy products everyday from companies that do. Essentially our system has put middlemen between us and those that mow our fields and do our other work for us. How then is buying a bible from Zondervan any different then the owner of a field hiring out someone to manage his field employee without knowing if they will be ethically treated?

Another point to consider is what witness this gives to the people who work in the Chinese factories. The non-Christians in the factor are going to come to associate Christianity with unfettered consumerism (maybe rightfully so) and lack of concern for the poor. The Christians that work in the factor would become discouraged by recognizing the fact that their brothers and sisters that have the ability to help them are not.