| October 24, 2009
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The treacherous deal very treacherously |
1 Thessalonians 5:6
so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
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Isaiah 24:16
From the ends of the earth we hear songs, "Glory to the Righteous One,"
But I say, "Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!
The treacherous deal treacherously,
And the treacherous deal very treacherously."
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Acts 20:29-31
"I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.
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Matthew 24:10-13
"At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. "But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.`
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Proverbs 29:18 (ESV)
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
Ezekiel 8:15
He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these."
Ephesians 5:11
Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them
Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
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| Shalom in Christ Jesus, |
Pub nights, "Extreme Fight"
nights, a film that documents the 'journey' of a divorced, transsexual on
his/her way to being ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church, a
letter from over forty Christian denominations written in support of abortion
funding to the United Stated Congress. Add to that vulgar language during
sermons, pornographic literature on a church website, special treatment for
bald people, the skyrocketing growth of Eastern influence and the decline of
the belief that the Bible is the Word of God and its doctrinal infallibility
and you have just some of the news items covered in this alert that document
just how profound the great apostasy has become. In fact, when you step back and
take it all in it is breathtaking and absurd what is transpiring. We are to the
point where even those in the world have to begin to wonder if those in the
church have completely lost their mind. We will get to a point where
unbelieving but concerned parents would not let their child get near a church
because of the depravity. Hence, the march of the "real" locusts are coming,
the locusts of the heavy hand of Marshall Law and Islam, not "drunken"
Christians.
The sense that I get from is that many believers are still asleep or pleasantly deluded by the lies of Dominionist theology that has mixed into and polluted much of the Evangelical church, or they view the world from inside the wall of a mega-church where everything looks and sounds perfect and so they are secluded from reality. The very sobering fact is that most of what is called "the church" is not, and much of what is, is in very bad shape, cut off from one another and starving from a diet of junk food and sick from the poisoning of false teaching. This alert is just a snapshot of how bad is has become as the doctor needs to tell you the bad news before your willing to accept what needs to be done for the cure. May this alert encourage you to look at many of the sermons on our website if you have not yet or have not looked recently. May the Lord bless you and keep you,BE/\LERT!Scott Brisk |
Pub Night: Go on, have a pint with the Lord
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Beer isn't the only thing on tap at the local pub. It may be an unorthodox place for a theology group, but pastors who've tried it! say a little libation goes a long way in having honest-to-God discussions on faith
THE TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL [CTVglobemedia] - By Wency Leung - October 12, 2009
On Wednesday nights at Ballygiblin's pub in Ottawa, the most animated conversations involve neither hockey nor politics. Instead, over pints of their local microbrew, patrons are more likely to be engrossed in debate over the significance of Jesus Christ in the modern world.
Pastor Ahren Summach of the Ottawa Valley Vineyard church realizes it may be an unorthodox place to hold his weekly theological meetings.
But since they began earlier this year, his sessions regularly draw more than a half-dozen men who gather to drink and examine such questions as, "Is Jesus God?" and "If God is good and all powerful, then why is there suffering in the world?"
The appeal of holding the meetings in a pub, Mr. Summach said, "is trying to blur the lines between what's a sacred space and what's a secular space. Without the religious setting, you get more authentic discussion, more honest questions and a little more honest sharing."
He is not the only one who believes in the benefits of mixing spirituality with spirits.
A growing number of Christian groups from a variety of denominations are taking God to the bars, launching religious-themed pub nights dubbed "martini masses" or "theology on tap" in an effort to broaden their reach.
The trend, believed to have started in Britain, where pubs are an integral part of social life, has spread throughout the United States.
Over the past year, new theology pub groups have also cropped up across Canada, in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.
Often organized by church leaders, these pub nights are generally little different from traditional discussion groups held at churches or community centres, aside from readily available alcohol. While some include a sermon or prayer, Mr. Summach's consists of about an hour-long, informal discussion about a selected topic on faith.
Not everyone within the Christian community approves, however.
Darryl Dash, who organizes a theology pub group in Toronto with members from various churches, said some people have declined to attend because they were uncomfortable with the location. Others said they were worried about how their churches would react.
"There are some churches that are still into temperance and complete abstinence from alcohol," said Mr. Dash, pastor of the Richview Baptist Church.
But he noted that more churches are now tolerant of moderate consumption.
Mr. Summach has also seen a shift in Christians' attitudes.
"Two decades ago, a pastor in an evangelical church trying to do a meeting of any kind in a pub would have been tarred and feathered and run out of town," Mr. Summach said.
Pub nights are part of an ongoing trend of Christians entertaining ideas once considered taboo and exploring religion beyond church walls, he said.
Jesus Christ himself, Mr. Summach noted, was believed to have kept company with religious and non-religious people alike, in all types of situations.
If Jesus were alive today, Mr. Dash adds, a pub is "probably one of the places he would go."
Mr. Summach said his theology pub group was not intended as a vehicle for evangelism. However, pub patrons seated nearby occasionally overhear their discussions and spontaneously join in. Participants of his group range from high-school students (who stick to non-alcoholic beverages) to men in their mid-60s. A few have never been to church at all.
The eclectic mix often results in differences of opinion, Mr. Summach said. But so far, the disagreements have never gotten out of hand. "We haven't really touched on anything that has caused any strong emotional reaction yet." ...
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Also:
Church blesses fathers with beer
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Jonathan Wynne-Jones - June 20, 2009
A senior bishop has backed the move, which is part of a Church of England initiative to put a Christian emphasis on the annual celebration of fatherhood.
Concerns over the lack of men attending services year-round has led clergy to offer a range of incentives today, including free beer,
bacon rolls and chocolate bars.
It is the first time that the Church has attempted to treat Fathers' Day in the same way as Mothering Sunday, which has traditionally formed part of its calendar.
The plan to distribute ale has upset groups working to tackle alchohol abuse, but the Rt Rev John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester, said that it could help churches to attract more men.
He argued that the free beer was intended to be symbolic of "the generosity of God".
Read Full Report
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Live Teaching Engagements
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Joel 1:4
What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten;
And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten;
And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.
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Fight Nights and Reggae Pack Brazilian Churches
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Alexei Barrionuevo - September 14, 2009
S�O PAULO, Brazil - The atmosphere was electric at Reborn in Christ Church on "Extreme Fight" night. Churchgoers dressed in jeans and sneakers, many with ball caps turned backward, lined a makeshift boxing ring to cheer on bare-chested jujitsu fighters.
They screamed when a fan favorite, Fabio Buca, outlasted his opponent after several minutes. They went wild when Pastor Dog�o Meira, 26, took his man down, pinning him with an armlock just 10 seconds into the fight.
With the crowd still buzzing, Pastor Mazola Maffei, dressed in army pants and a T-shirt, grabbed a microphone. Pastor Maffei, who is also Pastor Meira's fight trainer, then held the crowd rapt with a sermon about the connection between sports and spirituality.
"You need to practice the sport of spirituality more," he urged. "You need to fight for your life, for your dreams and ideals."
Reborn in Christ is among a growing number of evangelical churches in Brazil that are finding ways to connect with younger people to swell their ranks. From fight nights to reggae music to video games and on-site tattoo parlors, the churches have helped make evangelicalism the fastest-growing spiritual movement in Brazil.
Evangelical Christian churches are luring Brazilians away from Roman Catholicism, the dominant religion in Brazil. In 1950, 94 percent of Brazilians said they were Catholic, but that number fell steadily to 74 percent by 2000. Meanwhile, the percentage of those who described themselves as evangelicals grew by five times in that period, reaching 15 percent in 2000. A new government census is due out next year.
Despite Brazil's deep connection to Catholicism, more and more Brazilians want to experiment and choose their own religion, said Silvia Fernandes, a professor at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, who wrote a book about Brazil's evangelical movement.
She said more Brazilians were attracted to evangelical churches, or Pentecostalism, for the "flexibility of the religious expression." They see churches like Reborn as places where they can express themselves more freely, and "not only look for solutions to personal problems, but also find a place to meet and socialize."
Pastor Meira said that for young people seeking salvation, evangelism could fill a void. "Here they enter the church, sometimes to see a fight competition, they receive the word of Jesus Christ, and they begin a transformation. They will get off drugs, start to respect their parents and start to cure the illnesses of the soul, like anxiety, depression, drugs and alcohol, prostitution," he said.
Amid the youth movement, Reborn in Christ has suffered its share of controversy. The church's leaders, Estevam and S�nia Hernandes, returned to Brazil last month after serving several months in an American prison for trying to smuggle more than $56,000 into the United States, including $9,000 concealed in a Bible. They still face fraud, larceny, tax evasion and money laundering charges in Brazil.
Reborn tries to hire younger pastors who can relate better to adolescent members. Pastor Meira is a part-time pastor; he also has a day job in marketing for a household paints company and studies advertising at night.
The night of the Extreme Fight, dozens of teenagers and young adults hovered around the church. In the front room, booths sold hot dogs and pizza, and young people lined up in one corner to get religious-theme tattoos like "I Belong to Jesus." In the main room, there were video games, a D.J. spinning a mix of hip-hop and funk, and a projection screen showing a DVD of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Though most came for the main event, the Extreme Fight, they lingered. After four fights and Pastor Maffei's sermon, members paired up. One placed his hand over the other's forehead and spoke of Jesus Christ; the other closed his eyes tightly.
The growing evangelical youth movement takes aim at Brazilians of all classes. At Bola de Neve Church, young professionals blend in with lower-income families and troubled youths.
Pastors lead a flock of more than 2,500 members on Sunday evenings in rousing reggae and rock songs, with religious lyrics projected on a huge screen.
The church's "apostle," Rinaldo Pereira, said he had a near-death experience related to drugs and hepatitis some 17 years ago before a "supernatural" event led him to dedicate his life to God. ...
Today the church says it has 100 chapters, mostly in Brazil. One chapter, in the Barra da Tijuca area of Rio de Janeiro close to the beach, was started three years ago by seven people and now has about 3,000 members.
Sports and music "overcome all sorts of boundaries," Mr. Pereira said in an interview.
"People may not enter a church but will definitely attend a fighting match, a surfing championship, a musical event," he said. "Both the athlete and music transmit a message to the audience."
In S�o Paulo, the church is truly a family affair. One Sunday, Mr. Pereira, 37, led a sermon that lasted three hours, still using an upside-down surfboard as his pulpit. His wife, Denise, also a pastor, warmed up the crowd, belting out lyrics with a rock band at her back.
In the church basement, their 16-year-old son, Nathan, led a teenage and younger crowd. The spiky-haired pastor-in-training delivered a sermon about Jesus Christ with talk-show-host skill. At one point, he held up a white plastic container and urged the young followers to donate, assuring them that God would "give back twice" whatever they offered. ...
Mery Galanternick contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.
Read Full Report |
Baptist, Brethren, Lutheran, Methodist Clergy Promote Abortion in New Letter
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LIFESITENEWS.com - October 2, 2009
They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with the blood. - Psalms 106:37-38
Washington, DC -- A coalition of mainline Protestant church clergy have authored a letter promoting abortion. The group sponsoring it intends it to make a statement on abortion funding as members of Congress consider health care bills that fund abortions.
The letter comes from a group of church clergy who have long advocated the pro-abortion position.
Under the umbrella of the Religious Institute, the more than 1,100 pastors and church staff from the denominations endorsed the letter.
The letter calls abortion a "morally justifiable decision" and opposed any amendments to the House and Senate bills, which current contain massive abortion funding, to strike that taxpayer-financing.
"Already, federal policy unfairly prevents low-income women and federal employees from receiving subsidized [abortions]," Rev. Debra W. Haffner, executive director of the Religious Institute complained.
The letter added that she doesn't want more abortion funding bans in place and complained that additional "restrictions" on abortion funding constitute a "serious moral injustice."
The denominations of the clergy who endorsed the letter include the American Baptist Churches, Church of the Brethren, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church, and others.
"We affirm women as moral agents who have the capacity, right and responsibility to make the decision as to whether or not abortion is justified in their specific circumstances," the letter says.
The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, Unitarian Universalist Association, and United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism also had clergy endorse the pro-abortion letter.
The Religious Institute claims to represent 4,800 clergy and 40 Christian denominations. ...
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Church tells worshippers to give special treatment to overweight or bald people
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LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent - July 25, 2009
Churches should try harder to make bald and overweight people feel welcome, according to new guidance that is being issued to clergy.
A Church of England book published this week says they should be regarded as worshippers with "special needs" alongside the blind, the deaf, breast-feeding mothers, very short people and readers of tabloid newspapers.
The advice is part of an initiative launched this week to make churches more friendly and less intimidating to newcomers in an attempt to increase attendance at services.
Among those considered to warrant particular attention are people who are blind, deaf or in wheelchairs.
However, it also warns that bald people could be "in trouble from those overhead radiant heaters some churches have unwittingly installed" and that special arrangements may need to be made for people who are overweight.
"Some pew spaces and chairs are embarrassingly inadequate for what is known in church circles as 'the wider community'," the book says.
Consideration should be given to recovering alcoholics who want to receive communion wine, it suggests, and for those who "find loud noises from organs or music groups distressing".
The book, called Everybody Welcome, claims that only one in ten church visitors return because existing worshippers tend to be so unwelcoming.
It urges churches to become more professional in their attitude to attracting newcomers and suggests they follow the example of department stores in appointing customer-care managers. ...
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Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth. - John 17:17
Research: Young Adults Skeptical of the Bible but Open to Learn
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THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Jennifer Riley - October 20, 2009
New research shows that the younger generation in America is less likely to view the Bible as accurate or sacred, but at the same time they are slightly more interested in gaining knowledge about the Bible than older generations.
Based on five separate studies conducted between 2006 and 2009, The Barna Group found that only two out of three Mosaics (adults between the ages of 18 and 25) view the Bible as a sacred or holy book. By comparison, 81 percent of Busters (ages 26 to 44), 89 percent of Boomers (ages 45 to 63), and 90 percent of elders (ages 64 and above) consider the Bible as sacred.
Younger adults also are significantly less likely than older adults to strongly agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all the principles it teaches. Only 30 percent of Mosaics and 39 percent of Busters strongly agree that the Bible is "totally accurate" in all the principles it teaches. The majority of Elders, however, strongly agree with the statement.
Mosaics also are more likely to hold universal religious beliefs than their elders. The majority of Mosaics believe the Bible teaches the same spiritual truths as other sacred texts while only 4 out of 10 Busters and Boomers, and one-third of Elders feel the same way.
David Kinnaman, who directed the analysis of the research, commented that the "central theme" of young Americans' approach to the Bible is skepticism. Young adults question the Bible's history and relevance to their lives, leading them to reject the idea that the Bible contains everything they need to live a meaningful life.
"This mindset certainly has its challenges but it also raises the possibility of using their skepticism as an entry point to teaching and exploring the content of the Bible in new ways," said Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group.
Yet despite the skepticism, Mosaics express the most interest in improving their Bible knowledge. Nearly one in five (19 percent) of 18- to 25-year-olds say they would like to improve their Bible knowledge.
By comparison, only 8 percent of Elders, 12 percent of Boomers, and 14 percent of Busters want to learn more about the Bible.
Christian leaders, Kinnaman suggested, should take advantage of young people's interest in learning about the Bible. Instead of the traditional way of learning, such as attending Bible lectures or training rooms, the younger generation wants to be engaged in interactive learning.
The Christian pollster suggested allowing Mosaics and Busters to ask open and honest questions, and to use creative or technologically stimulating ways to teach them the Bible.
"Their expectations may or may not be entirely healthy, but without considering these issues, the Bible will continue to lose hold on the next generation," Kinnaman maintained.
The report was based on five separate studies each surveying nationwide, random samples of over 1,000 adults. The research analysis was conducted on behalf of the American Bible Society.
Original Report
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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...
Knowledge of Bible 'in decline'
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BBC NEWS [PSB operated by BBC Trust] - July 12, 2009
Knowledge of the Bible is declining among people in the UK, according to academics from Durham University.
The National Biblical Literacy Survey found that young people believe the Bible is old-fashioned and for people like EastEnders' character Dot Cotton.
More than 900 people from faith and non-faith backgrounds were surveyed, with fewer than one in 20 able to name all of the Ten Commandments.
But the study showed many still turn to the Bible at times of emotional stress.
The researchers said their findings showed the Church and politicians could no longer make assumptions about people's knowledge of the Bible, which in under 45s is in decline.
No assumptions
The study revealed that 62% of respondents did not know the parable of the Prodigal Son and 60% could not name anything about the story of the Good Samaritan.
One respondent said David and Goliath was the name of a ship, while another thought Daniel - who survived being thrown into the lions' den - was the Lion King.
The study was funded by a consortium of national churches, charitable trusts and Bible agencies.
Younger interviewees told researchers that the Bible was "old-fashioned", "irrelevant" and "for Dot Cottons" - in reference to the churchgoing character in the BBC One soap.
The Rev Brian Brown, a Methodist minister and visiting fellow in media and communication at St John's College, Durham University, said: "The Church and political leaders should take serious note of the findings and recognise that we cannot make the assumptions we used to make about the Bible and its place in contemporary people's lives and culture."
But he added: "Many respondents said they still turn to the Bible for support and guidance at key moments."
Original Report
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"The last four major studies show there's no difference between evangelical fundamental born-again Christian kids and the average secular kid,"
Christian Retailers, Publishers Convene for 60th Convention
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THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Lillian Kwon - July 13, 2009
DENVER, Colo. - Ron and Carolyn Meyer see few young people at their local Christian bookstore. They're more likely to see moms and grandmothers come in to purchase devotionals that may help guide their children in their faith.
Owners of Genesis Christian Bookstore in Montrose, Colo., the Meyers are among thousands attending the 2009 International Christian Retail Show, now in its 60th year.
Independent and national Christian retailers and publishers have convened in the Mile High city to connect, learn the latest trends and tools to help grow their ministry's impact, and to support each other - especially during economic hard times.
For the Meyers, the main reason for attending this week's show is to seek out sources for gift products to feature in their store. But when probed about their customer base, they expressed some concerns over the rarity of seeing a young face.
"We don't have the youth coming to our stores much anymore," Ron Meyer said. "They're getting their music sources [and other] resources elsewhere" - mainly the Internet.
Data collected by R.R. Bowker General Manager Kelly Gallagher and a consumer research panel shows that the "active Christian," who has a high belief of Scripture and a high level of church involvement, is the core customer of Christian retailers.
And the active Christian is on average around 48 years old - about six years older than the general book-buying population.
"We are serving an older audience," Gallagher said Sunday during an afternoon session.
Some retailers say they're losing younger patrons to the Internet. Amazon.com is now the largest single sales channel in the United States for book purchases, says Gallagher.
But many believe they're simply losing youths, period.
Author and popular speaker Josh McDowell gave attendees at the International Christian Retail Show a wake-up call when he presented them with sobering statistics about today's youths. Among the data, only nine percent of young Christians in America say there is truth. That's only three percent higher than the general youth population.
"The last four major studies show there's no difference between evangelical fundamental born-again Christian kids and the average secular kid," McDowell told them, insisting that these are not a spike in research.
McDowell, who has worked with youths for five decades, says there is an onslaught of young people leaving the Church because they don't believe it's true or relevant. ...
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New NIV revision due 2011
Evangelicals prepare gender-neutral Bible
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - September 2, 2009
The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gendered terms in the sacred text.
The New International Version (NIV), the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in biblical scholarship, its copyright holder announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.
"We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand," said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.
But past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been beset by controversies about gender language that have pitted evangelicals against each other.
The changes did not make all men "people" or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn't intend it. So in some verses, references to "sons of God" became "children of God," for example. Supporters say gender-inclusive language is more accurate and makes the Bible more accessible, but critics contend they twist meaning or smack of political correctness.
Acknowledging past missteps, the NIV's overseers are promising that this time the revision process will be more transparent and that they will actively promote what they describe as a long-held practice of inviting input from scholars and readers.
The NIV was first published in 1978 and more than 300 million are in print worldwide; its publishers and distributors say the translation accounts for 30 percent of Bibles sold in North America.
The Committee on Bible Translation, an independent group of conservative scholars and translators formed in 1965 to create and revise the NIV, will oversee the new revision. An effort earlier this decade to create a separate version of the NIV that used more gender-inclusive language in an attempt to reach a younger audience fell flat with groups that felt it crossed the line.
That edition, Today's New International Version (TNIV), will cease publication once the new NIV is released, said Moe Girkins, president of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Zondervan, its North American publisher.
"Whatever its strengths, the TNIV has become an emblem of division in the evangelical Christian world," Mr. Girkins said.
It was the TNIV that ushered in changes from "sons of God" to "children of God," or "brothers" to "brothers and sisters." In Genesis I, God created "human beings" in his own image instead of "man."
Many prominent pastors and scholars endorsed the changes. But critics said masculine terms in the original should not be tampered with. Some warned that changing singular gender references to plural ones alters what the Bible says about God's relationships with individuals.
The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution saying the edition "has gone beyond acceptable translation standards." ...
Douglas Moo, a professor at Wheaton College and chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation, said the group is committed to "a complete review of every gender-related change." ...
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Church Group Helps Fund Jewish Anti-Zionists
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ARUTZ SHEVA (Israeli National News) - By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu - September 17, 2009
The United Church of Canada has donated travel expenses to a new Jewish organization that hosted Muslims at a convention backing a boycott of Israel, according to the National Post.
The Protestant church group admitted that it donated $900 to the organization but said that officials did not need to authorize the donation because of its small size. However, United Church officials told the National Post that the description of the event that led to the creation of the Independent Jewish Voices was "consistent with our overall policy that the end of the occupation must come in order to bring peace and justice."
The expenses were earmarked for a two-day Alliance of Concerned Canadians conference which provided the catalyst for the formation of the new group. Among delegates who were invited and whose travel expenses were defrayed were "members of Jewish-Muslim, Jewish-Arab and Jewish-Palestinian groups."
The Canadian Jewish Congress is furious over the donation, calling it "shocking, outrageous, shameful and scandalous." The group's director Bernie Farber declared, "Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and the Canadian Jewish Congress or another mainstream Jewish organization were to have funded a Christian group to be critical of the United Church of Canada."
Church spokesman Bruce Gregersen emphasized that the money was for travel expenses and was not intended to help get the new anti-Zionist group off the ground, but Farber said, "It is a horse by the same name. The United Church provided funding to establish an organization whose goal it is to target and attack the mainstream Jewish community."
He asserted that "the average United Church member will be as shocked as am I to discover that money from their church has gone to help create an anti-Zionist organization." ...
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Awake, drunkards, and weep
Report: Global Muslim population hits 1.57 billion
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Eric Gorski - October 7, 2009
The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy. ...
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A fifth of European Union will be Muslim by 2050
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Adrian Michaels - August 8, 2009
Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time, an investigation by The Telegraph shows.
Last year, five per cent of the total population of the 27 EU countries was Muslim. But rising levels of immigration from Muslim countries and low birth rates among Europe's indigenous population mean that, by 2050, the figure will be 20 per cent, according to forecasts.
Data gathered from various sources indicate that Britain, Spain and Holland will have an even higher proportion of Muslims in a shorter amount of time.
The UK, which currently has 20 million fewer people than Germany, is also projected to be the EU's most populous country by 2060, with 77 million people.
The findings have led to allegations that policy-makers are failing to confront the widespread challenges of the "demographic time bomb".
Experts say that there has been a lack of debate on how the population changes will affect areas of life from education and housing to foreign policy and pensions.
Although some polls have pointed to a lack of radicalisation in the Muslim community, little attention is being given to the integration of migrants, it is claimed, with fears of social unrest in years to come.
Original Report
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Americans Are Exploring New Ways of Experiencing God
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THE BARNA RESEARCH GROUP - THE BARNA UPDATE - June 8, 2009
Americans are in a new age of exploration, deploying new approaches to marriage, communications, sexuality, education, and more. According to the results from a new nationwide survey by The Barna Group, the "and more" includes how people pursue their faith and how they choose to relate to God and other people of faith.
What People Are Thinking about Their Faith
The new study reveals some intriguing perspectives embraced by adults in the U.S.
- 88% of American adults say that "my religious faith is very important in my life."
Faith is not going away despite the prolific media attention devoted to the demise of traditional faith practices and beliefs. Nine out of ten adults admit that their faith plays a meaningful role in their life. There is nothing on the horizon to suggest that this is likely to change in the foreseeable future.
- 75% say they sense that "God is motivating people to stay connected with Him, but in different ways and through different types of experiences than in the past."
There is a growing sense of release from traditional religious practices in this country. People are suggesting that they want more of God and less of the stuff that gets between them and their relationship with God. This mindset is equally common among Catholics and Protestants.
- 45% say they are "willing to try a new church."
A staggering number of Americans - almost half of the nation's 230 million adults - are open to changing their church home, demonstrating their lack of connection with their present community of faith and their desire to have a more significant connection. It may also be a reflection of people's increasing lack of loyalty to both organizations and personal relationships, and the growing sense that there is always something better available if you can simply find it.
- 64% say they are "completely open to carrying out and pursuing your faith in an environment or structure that differs from that of a typical church."
Two out of three adults contend that they are not tied to a conventional church setting as they seek to experience and express their faith. This openness to new contexts, processes and structures is especially common among Baby Boomers (68%). Interest in pursuing faith is similar in all areas of the nation with the exception of the Northeast (56%).
- 50% say "a growing number of people I know are tired of the usual type of church experience."
It is not just the survey respondents who indicated their willingness to change churches or to consider different forms of church experience. Half of all adults said they are aware of such a willingness to experiment on the part of people they know because those individuals are tired of the common church experience. This awareness was especially acute among blacks (59%) and Hispanics (58%).
- 71% say they are "more likely to develop my religious beliefs on my own, rather than to accept an entire set of beliefs that a particular church teaches."
Levels of distrust toward churches, church leaders and organized Christianity have been growing over the past two decades. That concern - along with the heightened independence of Americans and the profound access to information that has characterized the past decade - may have led to the emergence of a large majority of adults feeling responsible for their own theological and spiritual development. Other studies have shown an inclination for people to view a local church as a supplier of useful guidance and support, but not necessarily a reliable source of a comprehensive slate of beliefs that they must adopt.
Across the board, the research showed that women are driving these changes. This is particularly significant given prior research from Barna showing that women are more spiritually inclined, are the primary shapers of family faith experiences, and are the backbone of activity in the typical conventional church. Specifically, Barna discovered that women were more likely than men to pursue their faith in a different type of structure or environment (68% of women, 59% of men); to sense that God is motivating people to experience faith in different ways (79% vs. 60%, respectively); and to be willing try a new church (50% vs. 40%).
Changes Are Already Happening
George Barna, whose firm conducted this study, pointed out that this is not mere daydreaming by Americans, but that a spiritual makeover is already taking place in America.
Barna revealed that about 7% of adults attend a house church in a typical month, which is a seven-fold increase in the past decade. In addition, about half as many people now rely upon marketplace ministries for spiritual experiences as attend a conventional church service during a given month, and millions of adults are becoming increasingly reliant upon faith-based media - such as television, radio, and the Internet - for religious experience and expression. Put together, this represents a massive realignment of religious behavior over the past decade.
The rapid growth of the house church or simple church movement has been especially significant. Barna has just released a new book, co-authored with simple church pioneers Tony and Felicity Dale, entitled The Rabbit and the Elephant. The book discusses the growth of the simple church movement, describing home-based churches as a form of "new wineskins" (i.e., a new approach) in an age when people are seeking faith experiences that are dynamic and genuine. ...
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Surveys Reveal 'Widely Divergent' Views of Religious U.S. Activists
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THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Jennifer Riley - September 16, 2009
First-ever polls comparing conservative and progressive activists are revealing to what degree these groups diverge when it comes to issue priorities, issue positions, and beliefs about scripture.
While the majority of both groups say religion is important in their lives, for example, they have strikingly different beliefs about scripture. Nearly half of conservatives (48 percent) believe scripture to be the literal word of God, while only three percent of progressives shared the same view, according to the 2009 Religious Activist Surveys conducted by the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in partnership with Public Religion Research.
The surveys, the results of which were released Tuesday, also show how religious activists part ways on issue priorities.
While the vast majority of conservatives identify abortion (83 percent) and same-sex marriage (65 percent) as the most important priorities among eight issues listed in the surveys, less than 10 percent of progressive religious activists called abortion and same-sex marriage the "most important" issues.
Instead, progressive activists identify poverty (74 percent), health care (67 percent), environment (56 percent), jobs/economy (48 percent), and the Iraq war (45 percent) as the highest priorities.
Religious activists further split in their views on each of these important issues.
On abortion, nearly all conservative religious activists opposed legalization of the practice (95 percent). In sharp contrast, the overwhelming majority of progressive religious activists support some form of legal abortions (80 percent). Twenty-six percent of progressives say abortion should be legal in all cases and 54 percent say it should be legal in most cases.
Regarding same-sex marriage, conservatives overwhelmingly (82 percent) oppose both same-sex marriage and civil unions. By contrast, 59 percent of progressives support same-sex marriage, and a third say the law should recognize legal agreements between same-sex couples but define marriage as a union between a man and woman.
On health care, only six percent of conservatives agree the United States should have comprehensive national health insurance even if it resulted in fewer choices for patients, compared to 78 percent of progressive activists who say the same.
"If anyone still believed that committed religious activists come down on only one side of any major policy issue, these surveys should finally put that idea to rest," said Dr. Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research. "These activists are faithful, engaged, and have widely divergent views about both the place of religion in public life and the political implications of their faith."
While both conservative and religious activists agree there is a role for religion in public life, the overwhelming majority of progressives (81 percent) say the United States should maintain a strict separation of church and state. In comparison, only 21 percent of conservative activists agreed with that statement.
Conservative activists rather believe America was founded as a Christian nation.
The surveys also found a significantly different makeup of conservative and progressive religious activists. Conservatives are mostly composed of evangelical Protestants (54 percent), Roman Catholics (35 percent), and mainline Protestants (9 percent).
Meanwhile, progressive activists are made up of mainline Protestants (44 percent), Roman Catholics (17 percent), evangelical Protestants (10 percent), and interfaith bodies and groups (12 percent).
Bliss Institute of Applied Politics and Public Religion Research conducted the surveys by polling religious activists affiliated with representative organizations. Random samples of 4,200 progressive activists and 3,000 conservative activists were sent a ten-page survey in the spring and summer of 2009. The mailings produced 1,886 usable responses from the progressive samples and 1,123 usable returns from the conservative sample.
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From the ends of the earth we hear songs, "Glory to the Righteous One,"
But I say, "Woe to me! Woe to me! Alas for me!
California Christians worship in a big way
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The state has more megachurches than anywhere else in the country, with the majority in the suburbs between Los Angeles and San Diego. Their upbeat approach is luring thousands each weekend
LOS ANGELES TIMES [Tribune Company] - By Duke Helfand - October 11, 2009
Once again, the Sunday faithful have packed the cavernous sanctuary at Shepherd of the Hills Church in the San Fernando Valley, clapping and swaying for Jesus as a band rocks the hall.
"Come bless the Lord," the worshipers sing. "Praise his name to the ends of the Earth."
Most churches would be thrilled to fill their sanctuaries any day of the year.
Shepherd of the Hills, a nondenominational church in Porter Ranch, does it six times a weekend, attracting 8,000 people to its energetic services and offering a lesson about the growth of evangelical Christianity in California.
Thanks to good weather, sprawling suburbs and a number of charismatic pastors, the Golden State has more of these megachurches -- defined as those with at least 2,000 congregants -- than any other state. California is home to 193, slightly more than Texas with 191, according to the most recent survey by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, one of the nation's leading authorities on megachurches.
The majority of these congregations are in the suburbs between Los Angeles and San Diego, an area that some who study the phenomenon call the Southern California Bible Belt.
A handful have risen to national prominence -- notably Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and its celebrity pastor, the Rev. Rick Warren.
But dozens of other large, if lesser-known, churches also are growing, even as many traditional houses of worship struggle to fill their pews.
The megachurches are expanding by adapting to changing times and tastes, scholars say. Many have jettisoned formal rituals such as organs and hymns in favor of Christian rock music and overhead projection screens that display lyrics and prayers.
They deliver upbeat biblical messages about applying faith in everyday life and building a personal relationship with God. They organize parishioners into small "life" groups that study Scripture. And they encourage their followers to recruit new members.
Although some critics refer to the megachurch phenomenon as "church lite," evangelical Christian scholars say the congregations are reaching the unaffiliated or disaffected by turning church attendance into a more comfortable, positive experience, bound by fewer rules or obligations than traditional churches.
"They want to reach people . . . with the life-changing good news about Jesus Christ," said Warren Bird, research director of the Dallas-based Leadership Network, a nonprofit that disseminates information about innovative church practices.
Southern California's sprawling suburban housing tracts have provided ready supplies of potential new members -- including Geraldine Victoria, who was raised Catholic but decided to visit Shepherd of the Hills on a recent Sunday at a friend's invitation. ...
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In Canada, church clings to relevancy as congregations dwindle
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CANWEST NEWS SERVICE [Asper-CanWest Global] - By Mohammed Adam - October 10, 2009
... Across the country, the United States and Europe, changing demographics, shifting values and growing secularism are taking a toll.
In a British report published two years ago, an independent organization called Christian Research said thousands of churches are closing for lack of practising Christians.
It said more churches are closing than opening. In a warning to church leaders, it predicted that by 2040, 18,000 churches in England will close.
Closer to home, experts say Quebec -- where the Catholic Church once called the shots in public and private life -- stands to lose about half of its 2,000 churches by 2016.
As the mainstream religions wither, the evangelical and Pentecostal denominations are packing in millions of worshippers who seem to have discovered a new path to God.
While the traditional church is still the dominant player in Canada, experts say it must adapt or it will become irrelevant, or die. ...
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Benny Hinn: 'I Would Not Do This for Money'
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Evangelical Leader Under Senate Investigation Sits With 'Nightline' for Rare Interview
ABC NEWS [American Broadcasting Companies, Inc./The Walt Disney Company] - By Dan Harris - October 19, 2009
Miraculous cures for cancer and AIDS, people in wheelchairs getting up and dancing. It's business as usual for Benny Hinn, perhaps the world's most famous, successful and controversial televangelist. Hinn is a faith-healer who almost never grants interviews -- until now.
"I'll try to explain it to you," said Hinn in a wide-ranging interview with ABC's "Nightline." "The anointing, which is God's power, comes on me. ... I can actually feel it. And people start getting healed. 'From the cancer, the pain is gone. ... I was sitting on my wheelchair and I can walk now,' such things like that."
Hinn took questions about disillusioned followers and about the U.S. senator who is investigating him. The questions clearly dismayed Hinn's handlers.
He was born Toukif Benedictus Hinn to a Greek Orthodox Christian family living in Israel. As a child, he moved with his family to Canada, where he became an extremely devout evangelical. In his 20's, Hinn moved to Florida, where he married a preacher's daughter -- and then went into the family business.
Hinn said he realized early on that something extraordinary was happening.
"In fact, I was shocked, really I was, when people came up to me claiming they were healed back in the 70s," he said. "And the crowds grew. Uh to, goodness, we would have 2,000 or 3,000 show up on Monday nights. And then the word spread."
Hinn's ministry exploded. Within a few years, he was traveling the world, preaching to millions of people. In the early '90s, he started a television show, which now airs in more than 200 countries. Along the way, he has made a series of truly extraordinary claims.
In one video clip on YouTube, he said he had seen a dead man resurrected.
"Well, Ghana. It was in Akra, Ghana," Hinn explained to "Nightline." "I didn't exactly ... I had no proof he was dead. That's what they told me. They laid him on the platform, and at one point he got up. But that's not the question, the question is, can God raise the dead? Yes or no? And the answer is yes. He has. It's in the Bible, so if God did it then, why shouldn't he do it today?" ...
Full Report Posted on the Be Alert! Blog
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Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Laurie Goodstein - August 15, 2009
FORT WORTH - Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and economic insecurity, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and their all-star lineup of "prosperity gospel" preachers delighted the crowd with anecdotes about the luxurious lives they had attained by following the Word of God.
Private airplanes and boats. A motorcycle sent by an anonymous supporter. Vacations in Hawaii and cruises in Alaska. Designer handbags. A ring of emeralds and diamonds.
"God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you," preached Mrs. Copeland, dressed in a crisp pants ensemble like those worn by C.E.O.'s.
Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the "prosperity gospel" movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message - that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold - is reassuring to many in hard times.
The preachers barely acknowledged the recession, though they did say it was no excuse to curtail giving. "Fear will make you stingy," Mr. Copeland said.
But the offering buckets came up emptier than in some previous years, said those who have attended before.
Many in this flock do not trust banks, the news media or Washington, where the Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the Copelands and other prosperity evangelists used donations to enrich themselves and abused their tax-exempt status. But they trust the Copelands, the movement's current patriarch and matriarch, who seem to embody prosperity with their robust health and abundance of children and grandchildren who have followed them into the ministry. ...
"The folks who are coming aren't poor," said Jonathan L. Walton, a professor of religion at the University of California, Riverside, who has written about the movement and was there doing research. "They reside in that nebulous category between the working and the middle class."
Sitting in Section 316, eight rows up, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a Bible at lunch time, was a family who could explain the enduring loyalty the prosperity preachers inspire.
Stephen Biellier, a long-distance trucker from Mount Vernon, Mo., said he and his wife, Millie, came to the convention praying that this would be "the overcoming year." They are $102,000 in debt, and the bank has cut off their credit line, Mrs. Biellier said.
They say the Copelands rescued them from financial failure 23 years ago, when they bought their first truck at 22 percent interest and had to rebuild the engine twice in a year.
Around that time, Mrs. Biellier first saw Mr. Copeland on television and began sending him 50 cents a week.
Others who bought trucks from the same dealer in Joplin that year went under, the Bielliers said, but they did not.
"We would have failed if Copeland hadn't been praying for us every day," Mrs. Biellier said.
The Bielliers are now among 386,000 people worldwide whom the Copelands call their "partners," most of whom send regular contributions and merit special prayers from the Copelands.
A call center at the ministry's 481-employee headquarters in Newark, Tex., takes in 60,000 prayer requests a month, a publicist said.
The Copelands' broadcast reaches 134 countries, and the ministry's income is about $100 million annually.
The Bielliers were at the convention a few years ago when a supporter made a pitch for people to join an "Elite CX Team" to raise money to buy the ministry a Citation X airplane. (Mr. Copeland is an airplane aficionado who got his start in ministry as a pilot for Oral Roberts.) At that moment, Mrs. Biellier said she heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling her, "You were born to support this man."
She gave $2,000 for the plane, and recently sent $1,800 for the team's latest project: buying high-definition television equipment to upgrade the ministry's international broadcasts.
Mrs. Biellier said some friends and relatives would say the preacher just wanted their money. She explained that the Copelands did not need the money for themselves; it is for their ministry. And besides, even "trashy people like Hugh Hefner" have private airplanes.
"I remember Copeland had to once fly halfway around the world to talk to one person," she said. "Because we're partners with Kenneth Copeland, for every soul that gets saved, we get credit for that in heaven."
But while a band primed the crowd, Professor Walton called the prosperity preachers "spiritual pickpockets."
"To dismiss and ignore the harsh realities of this economic crisis," he said. "is beyond irresponsible, to the point of reprehensible."
The Copelands refused an interview request, but one of their daughters, Kellie Copeland Swisher, and her husband, Steve Swisher, who both work in the ministry, spoke for them.
Mrs. Swisher said the ministry gave away "a minimum of 10 percent of what comes in" to other charities. Her father's current favorite, she said, is a Roman Catholic orphanage in Mexico.
The ministry has resisted providing the Senate investigation with all the documents requested, she said, because the Copelands did not want to publicly reveal the names of the "partners." The investigation, which could result in new laws, is continuing, a committee spokeswoman said. Among those being investigated is Creflo Dollar, one of the ministers at the Copelands' convention.
Mr. Swisher said that even in the economic downturn, the ministry's income going into the convention was up 3 percent over last year. Asked if they had adjusted the message for the economy, Mrs. Swisher patted the worn Bible in her lap and said: "The message they preach is the Word of God. The Word doesn't change."
At the convention, the preachers - who also included Jesse Duplantis and Jerry Savelle - sprinkled their sermons with put-downs of the government, an overhaul of health care, public schools, the news media and other churches, many of which condemn prosperity preaching.
But mostly the preachers were working mightily to remind the crowd that they are God's elect. "While everybody else is having a famine," said Mr. Savelle, a Texas televangelist, "his covenant people will be having the best of times."
"Any time a worried thought about money pops up in your mind," Mr. Savelle continued, "the next thing you do is sow": drop money, like seeds, in "good ground" like the preachers' ministries. "Stop worrying, start sowing," he added, his voice rising. "That's God's stimulus package for you."
At that, hundreds streamed down the aisles to the stage, laying envelopes, cash and coins on the carpeted steps.
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Global church groups praise Nobel Peace Prize to Obama
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ECUMENICAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL - October 7, 2009
The awarding of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama should inspire younger generations to become "bridge builders for understanding and reconciliation", says the general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.
"President Obama has helped generate a tidal wave of hope around the world," said the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Geneva-based LWF in a 9 October statement. This followed the announcement of the award to Obama for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation.
Obama "has begun to restore broken relationships, including across faith boundaries", said Noko, a theologian from Zimbabwe. "These are very significant contributions to progress towards peace and security, and important foundations for facing the global crises we must face."
Noko cited Obama's involvement in the search for peace in the Holy Land. "His leadership in this matter deserves the active support of all people of good will, for the sake of both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, and for the sake of peace with justice in the land of Christ's birth."
The LWF leader noted that the announcement of the peace prize laureate coincided with the 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolution in the former East Germany, which culminated on 9 October 1989 in peaceful demonstrations after prayers in churches in Leipzig.
"These events demonstrated the power of ordinary people coming together to achieve freedom through non-violent means, bearing candles against guns and the threat of violence, and the importance of the Church's role," said Noko.
Also in Geneva, the Rev. Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, said, "This is the right choice. We thank God for the wisdom President Obama continues to exhibit in navigating the complex issues of his nation and of the world - seeking peace, seeking justice and seeking the welfare of all."
In Rome, Vatican spokesperson the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the Roman Catholic Church "salutes with appreciation" the award to Obama, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
Lombardi referred to "the commitment shown by the president towards the promotion of international peace and recently in favour of nuclear disarmament".
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Obamas attend Episcopal church near White House
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Ann Sanner - October 11, 2009
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and his family attended Sunday services at St. John's Church, an Episcopal church on Lafayette Square just across the street from the White House.
Obama, first lady Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia listened to a sermon about how Christianity has consequences. ...
St. John's is a popular pick for presidents - both because it's near the White House and because it's familiar to the Secret Service.
A pew nine rows back from the altar carries a small brass plaque designating it as "The President's Pew." Former President George W. Bush often attended services, and church history claims that every president since James Madison, the nation's fourth chief executive, has visited.
The first service in the landmark church was held in 1816 and many former presidents have worshipped there.
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Why Obama's church choice matters
There are political and spiritual implications
USA TODAY [Gannett] - By Henry G. Brinton - August 3, 2009
Does it really matter whether the president goes to church? The Constitution says there shall be no "religious test," so perhaps Sunday morning should be the one day each week when the president gets to sleep in. He certainly works hard enough. But before he hits the snooze button, President Obama should return to the question of whether he and his family will join a congregation in the Washington area. He recently said that his family had not made a decision about joining a church, and I can respect that. Such a decision takes time. But it is a critical choice, with political and spiritual implications.
Politically, church attendance is a sign of integrity. If the president says he is a Christian, then going to church shows that he doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk. Americans are not interested in the specific doctrinal beliefs of a president, but they consider religion to be a proxy for "personal values." That is why 72% of Americans consider it important that the president have "strong religious beliefs," according to a poll last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
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Africa bishops speak of Obama in religious terms
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Daniela Petroff - October 7, 2009
VATICAN CITY - African bishops attending a Vatican meeting are speaking about the election of Barack Obama in divine terms-putting them very much at odds with many of their U.S. counterparts.
Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was "a divine plan behind" Obama's election.
"It's like the biblical story repeating itself," he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.
"We believe God has his own plans. God directs history," he said of the U.S. election. "We pray that it (Obama's presidency) brings blessings for Africa and the whole world."
He acknowledged that Obama has earned the wrath of many conservative American bishops because of his support for abortion rights. Earlier this year, dozens of U.S. bishops denounced the leading U.S. Catholic university, Notre Dame, for giving Obama an honorary degree.
"We are definitely aware of it," Palmer-Buckle said. "But we feel it our duty to meet him and find out what are the things that unite us more than divide us."
Earlier this week, the Ghanian prelate leading the three-week meeting on the Church in Africa, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, cited Obama's election in saying he didn't see any reason why there couldn't now be a black pope.
And the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, told the formal synod itself that it would be wise to not ignore what he called a "primordial event" in recent times.
"If the election of a black as head of the United States of America was a divine sign and a sign from the Holy Spirit for the reconciliation of races and ethnic groups for peaceful relations ... this synod and the universal church would gain from not ignoring this primordial event of contemporary history which is far from being a banal game of political alliances," he said in his speech. ...
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Everything to everyone
Obama celebrates the Hindu festival of lights
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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA - October 15, 2009
Barack Obama celebrated Diwali by lighting the ceremonial lamp at the White House amidst chanting of Vedic mantras seeking world peace, becoming the first US President to personally grace the occasion.
"I think it's fitting that we begin this work in the week leading up to the holiday of Diwali, the festival of lights, when members of some of the world's greatest faiths celebrate the triumph of good over evil," Obama said in his remarks on the occasion at a White House function held at its historic East Room on Wednesday.
This is the first time that a US President attended and celebrated Diwali at the White House, giving official recognition to the festival of lights celebrated across the world by millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. "This coming Saturday, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, here in America and around the world, will celebrate this holiday by lighting diyas, or lamps, which symbolise the victory of light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance," Obama said.
Among those present at the occasion were several eminent members of the Indian community, nearly half a dozen members of Obama's Cabinet and several Indian American members of his administration. The visiting Union Minister of Commerce, Anand Sharma, and Indian Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar also graced the occasion.
"While this is a time of rejoicing, it's also a time for reflection, when we remember those who are less fortunate and renew our commitment to reach out to those in need," Obama said, minutes before lighting the lamp while Pandit Narayanacharya Digalakote from the Sri Shiva Vishnu temple chanted Vedic mantras. "In that spirit of celebration and contemplation, I am happy to light the White House diya, and wish you all a Happy Diwali, and a saal mubarak," Obama said amidst a round of applause from the audience invited for the occasion.
During the observance ceremony, Obama signed an executive order to restore a US government panel to address concerns of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders and to work on improving their health, education and economic status.
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Sweat lodge deaths cast negative spotlight on guru
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Felicia Fonseca and Bob Christie - October 16, 2009
James Arthur Ray led a group of more than 50 followers into a cramped, sauna-like sweat lodge in Arizona last week by convincing them that his words would lead them to spiritual and financial wealth.
The mantra has made him a millionaire. People routinely pack Ray's seminars and follow the motivational guru to weeklong retreats that can cost more than $9,000 per person.
But Ray's self-help empire was thrown into turmoil when two of his followers died after collapsing in the makeshift sweat lodge near Sedona and 19 others were hospitalized. A homicide investigation that followed has cast a critical spotlight on Ray's company.
Critics are citing the sweat lodge tragedy as evidence that Ray is a charlatan who is not to be trusted. A relative of one victim accused Ray of exhibiting a "godlike complex" during the event that he said recklessly abandoned the safety of participants. Dedicated followers say they fully trust Ray to lead them through exercises that greatly improve their lives.
Shawna Bowen, once a James Ray fanatic who was among those who tended to the ill, has had a change of heart since the deaths.
"I could not imagine people looking to him after he made such egregious errors with human life," she said. "I don't think he has the right to be leading others right now. I think he needs to take a good look at where his ego, where his power trip got in the way" ...
Ray has become a self-help superstar by packaging his charismatic personality and selling wealth. Those who first attend his free seminars hear a motivational mantra that promises that they can achieve what he calls "Harmonic Wealth" - on a financial, mental, physical spiritual level.
But his technique is not just motivational speaking. It's a combination of new age spiritualism, American Indian ritual, astrology and numerology. The sweat lodge experience was intended to be an almost religious awakening for the participants.
Ray uses free seminars to recruit people to his expensive seminars, starting with $4,000 three-day "Quantum Leap" workshops and moving on to the weeklong $5,300 "Practical Mysticism" events and the $9,000-plus "Spiritual Warrior" retreats like the one that led to the sweat lodge tragedy.
About 50 people attended the retreat near Sedona, the center of the new-age movement where practitioners draw energy from the surrounding Red Rocks and various vortexes to heal others.
Sweat lodges, commonly used by American Indian tribes, also can be part of the healing process. Stones are heated up outside a lodge, brought inside and placed in a pail-sized hole. The door is closed, and water is poured on the stones, producing heat aimed at releasing toxins in the body.
The ceremonies have been part of Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" retreats for years.
Few details of what actually transpired during the two hours participants were inside the 415-square foot sweat lodge have emerged. Sheriff's deputies in Arizona's Yavapai County are investigating whether Ray or his staff may have been criminally negligent. No charges have been filed. ...
Ray, 51, grew up as the son of a Tulsa preacher. Bored with college, he says he pursued a career as a telemarketer and began leading training classes for his employer, AT&T. He began honing his self-help business in the early 1990s.
In a 2008 profile in Fortune magazine, Ray said 5,500 people paid for his seminars in 2007. His books also are major sales drivers, and he told the magazine his revenues went from $1 million in 2005 to an estimated $10 million in 2006.
He soared in popularity after appearing in the 2006's Rhonda Byrne documentary "The Secret," and he later was a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Larry King Live" to promote it. His 2008 book "Harmonic Wealth" made the New York Times bestseller list.
Whether Ray manages to maintain his success in the wake of the deaths depends in part on his supporters, and how long the tragedy dogs him as he goes from city to city recruiting paying customers for his wealth creation/spiritual harmony philosophy.
Critics point to the Sedona events as yet more evidence that Ray is a huckster, who, like other motivational speakers, present their philosophies as a magic bullet to all of life's problems.
"It's honing in on peoples' needs, their hopes and desires, telling them what they want to hear," said Rick Ross, founder of a virtual library of information on controversial groups and movements. "That's how any good con man makes his mark."
Linda Jackson of Brentwood, Calif., already is looking forward to an event Ray has scheduled in the San Francisco Bay area later this year. The 59-year-old says Ray has a rare gift that coupled with charisma, power and a "walk the talk" attitude only helps mankind. ...
Ray has no plans to slow down, said his spokesman, Howard Bragman. He'll continue conducting seminars and be a leader, educator and mentor to the thousands who seek his help. ...
On the Net: James Arthur Ray: www.jamesray.com
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3rd person dies in Arizona sweat lodge ceremony case
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Felicia Fonseca - October 18, 2009
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A Minnesota woman who was hospitalized with damage to multiple organs after she was overcome in an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony died Saturday, sheriff's officials said.
The death of 49-year-old Liz Neuman brings the total number of deaths from the Oct. 8 incident at a resort near Sedona to three, Yavapai County sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn said.
Authorities are treating the deaths as homicides, but no charges have been filed.
D'Evelyn did not provide a city of residence for Neuman, but public records showed an address in Prior Lake, about 25 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
Neuman was among more than 50 people crowded inside the sweat lodge run by self-help guru James Arthur Ray. An emergency call two hours after they entered the lodge reported two people not breathing.
Twenty-one people were taken to area hospitals with illnesses ranging from dehydration to kidney failure. Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee died upon arrival at a hospital.
No one else remains hospitalized.
Authorities haven't determined what caused the deaths. Autopsy results on Brown and Shore are pending further testing. ...
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Oprah in clash of titans
Josh McDowell exposes Oprah's dangerous 'salad bar' spirituality
WORLDNETDAILY - October 5, 2009
As many Americans leave churches and give up on organized religion, they're turning to Oprah as their spiritual leader, says renowned Christian apologist Josh McDowell, one of the best-selling authors of all-time and co-author of a new novel released today, "'O' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality."
McDowell and his co-author, Dave Sterrett, contend that the "splintered belief" of Oprah and the advice of the colorful teachers she promotes are among today's most relevant issues.
"The danger is that while appearing to use Christian and inclusive language that at first seems similar to that of Christianity, Oprah teaches a message that is radically different and absolutely contrary to the true teaching of Scripture and historic Christianity," McDowell and Sterrett warn. ...
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Vatican seeks to lure disaffected Anglicans
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Nicole Winfield - October 20, 2009
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican announced Tuesday it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism - a surprise move designed to entice traditionalists opposed to women priests, openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.
The decision, reached in secret by a small cadre of Vatican officials, was sure to add to the problems of the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion as it seeks to deal with deep doctrinal divisions that threaten a permanent schism among its faithful.
The change means conservative Anglicans from around the world will be able to join the Catholic Church while retaining aspects of their Anglican liturgy and identity, including married priests. Until now, disaffected Anglicans had joined the church primarily on a case by case basis.
"The unity of the church does not require a uniformity that ignores cultural diversity, as the history of Christianity shows," said Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in announcing the decision.
The spiritual leader of the global Anglican church, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, was not consulted about the change and was informed only hours before the announcement. He nevertheless tried to downplay the significance and said it wasn't a Vatican commentary on Anglican problems.
"It has no negative impact on the relations of the communion as a whole to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole," he said in London.
The decision could undermine decades of talks between the Vatican and Anglican leaders over how they could possibly reunite. Although Levada insisted such discussions remain a priority, the Vatican move could be taken as a signal that the ultimate goal of ecumenical talks is to convert Anglicans to Catholicism.
Still, the decision confirmed Pope Benedict XVI's design of creating a unified, tradition-minded Catholic Church - a goal he outlined at the start of his pontificate and has been steadily implementing ever since. ...
The new provision also allows married Anglican priests and even seminarians to become ordained Catholic priests - much the same way that Eastern rite priests who are in communion with Rome are allowed to be married. However, married Anglicans cannot become Catholic bishops. ...
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Pope's gambit could see 1,000 quit Church of England
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THE TIMES of LONDON [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, and Richard Owen in Rome - October 21, 2009
As many as 1,000 priests could quit the Church of England and thousands more may leave churches in America and Australia under bold proposals to welcome Anglicans to Rome.
Entire parishes and even dioceses could be tempted to defect after Pope Benedict XVI's decision to offer a legal structure to Anglicans joining the Roman Catholic Church.
His decree, issued yesterday, is a serious blow to attempts by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to save the Anglican Communion from further fragmentation and threatens to wreck decades of ecumenical dialogue.
Dr Williams was notified formally only last weekend by the Vatican and looked uncomfortable at a joint press conference with the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to announce the plan.
Anglicans privately accused Rome of poaching and attacked Dr Williams for capitulating to the Vatican. Some called for his resignation. Although there was little he could have done to forestall the move, many were dismayed at his joint statement with the Archbishop of Westminster in which they spoke of Anglicans "willing to declare that they share a common Catholic faith and accept the Petrine ministry as willed by Christ for his Church".
In a letter to bishops and clergy, Dr Williams made clear his own discomfiture. He wrote: "I am sorry that there has been no opportunity to alert you earlier to this. I was informed of the planned announcement at a very late stage."
The Bishop of Fulham, the Right Rev John Broadhurst, chairman of Forward in Faith, which opposes women bishops, hailed it as a "decisive moment" and predicted that, based on his group's membership, up to 1,000 Church of England clergy could go.
Christina Rees, of the pro-women group Watch, described the Vatican's move as poaching. She said: "It is one thing to offer a welcome, but this seems to be a particularly effusive welcome where people are almost being encouraged. In the Anglican Church we like to operate with transparency. If this has not been done here that will add to the sense of this being a predatory move."
Pope Benedict wants to make Christian unity an enduring legacy of his papacy. He is due to visit Britain next year; Dr Williams will visit Rome next month. The Pope has already shown his determination to reunite Christendom at almost any price, welcoming back the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X despite a Holocaust-denying bishop in its ranks.
Under the plan, the Pope will issue an apostolic constitution, a form of papal decree, that will lead to the creation of "personal ordinariates" for Anglicans who convert to Rome. ...
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Queen 'appalled' at Church of England moves, claim Vatican moles
LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH [Barclay] - By Richard Eden - October 3, 2009
When Pope Benedict visits this country next year, he is expected to stay at Buckingham Palace as a guest of the Queen. The warmth of her welcome will come as no surprise to the Pontiff, if senior sources at the Vatican are to be believed.
According to informants quoted in The Catholic Herald, the Queen has "grown increasingly sympathetic" to the Catholic Church over the years while being "appalled", along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England. ...
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Emergent Apostasy
More Protestants Find a Home in the Orthodox Antioch Church
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Samuel G. Freedman - October 2, 2009
LINTHICUM HEIGHTS, Md. - Cal Oren was threading his way through the Santa Cruz Mountains of California early one evening in 1993, driving his wife, brother and three tired children back from a day of hiking amid the redwoods. As their car neared the town of Ben Lomond, Mr. Oren said, his brother pointed to a church on the roadside and said: "I've been inside this. It's really neat."
So Mr. Oren pulled to a stop, and as the children stayed in the car, the grown-ups gingerly padded into the sanctuary of Saints Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church. A lifelong Presbyterian, Mr. Oren knew virtually nothing about the Antiochians or, for that matter, Orthodox Christianity in general. He had always associated Ben Lomond with hippies, geodesic domes and marijuana fields.
As he entered, a vespers service was under way. Maybe two dozen worshipers stood, chanting psalms and hymns. Incense filled the dark air. Icons of apostles and saints hung on the walls. The ancientness and austerity stood at a time-warp remove from the evangelical circles in which Mr. Oren traveled, so modern, extroverted and assertively relevant.
"This was a Christianity I had never encountered before," said Mr. Oren, 55, a marketing consultant in commercial construction. "I was frozen in my tracks. I felt like I was in the actual presence of God, almost as if I was in heaven. And I'm not the kind of person who gets all woo-hoo."
The ineffable disclosure of that evening, a 15-minute glimpse into Byzantium, rattled everything certain in Mr. Oren's spiritual life. Even as he and his family kept attending a Presbyterian church near their home in suburban Baltimore, he stepped down as a ruling elder and Bible-study instructor. In 1995, he attended his first service at Holy Cross, an Antiochian church here, about 10 miles south of Baltimore. By late 1996, he was a regular, and in May 1997, he and his family converted and joined.
Any person's conversion is by nature an individual and idiosyncratic journey, and Mr. Oren's reflected not only his visceral sense that Orthodoxy had a "core of holy tradition" but also his intense concern over theological concepts like giving the Eucharist to baptized infants, which may not animate other believers quite the same way.
Yet in its broader outlines, his movement from the Protestant realm into the Orthodox one, specifically into the Antiochian branch, attests to a significant and fascinating example of denominational migration. Over the last 20 years, the Antiochian Orthodox Church - with its roots in Syria and Lebanon and its longtime membership in the United States made up almost entirely of Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants - has become the destination of choice for thousands of Protestants of Northern European ancestry.
The visible shift began in 1987 with the conversion of nearly 2,000 evangelical Christians, led by Peter E. Gillquist and other alumni of the Dallas Theological Seminary and the Campus Crusade for Christ. More recently, a wave of converts has arrived from such mainline Protestant denominations as the Episcopalian and Lutheran.
Some 70 percent of Antiochian Orthodox priests in the United States are converts, according to Bradley Nassif, who, as a theology professor at North Park University in Chicago, is a leading scholar of the religion. A generation or two ago, Professor Nassif said, converts made up barely 10 percent of Antiochian clergy.
Professor Nassif went so far, in a 2007 article in Christianity Today magazine, as to suggest that the 21st century might become the "Orthodox century" as disenchanted Protestants grew attracted to the historical roots, theological rigor and social conservatism of the Eastern Christian denominations. ...
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Buddhism strengthens ties to church
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THE DENVER POST [MediaNews Group] - By Electa Draper - August 9, 2009
For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with influences from the east,
And they are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.
What in the recent past seemed exotic and foreign is now almost routinely folded into "the fold."
Buddhism is not only accepted as a mainstream American religion, it is a path increasingly trod by faithful Christians and Jews who infuse Eastern spiritual insights and practices such as meditation into their own religions.
When John Weber became a Buddhist at age 19, his devout Methodist parents were not particularly pleased.
In recent years, however, they've invited their son, a religious studies expert with Boulder's Naropa University, to speak at their church about Buddhism.
"That never would have happened before," Weber said. "They would have been embarrassed."
The Pew Forum's Religious Landscape Survey in 2007 found that seven in 10 Americans who have a religion believe there is more than one path to salvation. A growing number of people are contemplating more than one each.
And they are contemplating contemplation itself.
There are Jubus - Jews who bring Buddhism into their practice of Judaism - and Bujus, who are Buddhists with Jewish parents. Then there are UUbus, or Unitarian Universalist Buddhists, and Ebus, or Episcopalian Buddhists. There are Zen Catholics.
"There is a definite trend and movement that will not be reversed," said Ruben Habito, a laicized Jesuit priest, Zen master and professor of world religions at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "We are in a new spiritual age, an inter-religious age."
Search can lead back home
People are hungry for a deeper spiritual experience - meditation, mindfulness, personal transformation, deep insight, union with God or the universe.
Habito, who calls himself a Zen Catholic, is one of the experts who say the search is a little like Dorothy and her ruby slippers. The quest for meaning ultimately leads some, like Dorothy, to their own backyards.
Judaism, Catholicism and Islam have rich traditions in contemplative practices, yet these had all but disappeared from everyday congregational life.
For many Christians cut off from the past, or alienated from the faith of their upbringing, Buddhism has served as the bridge to ancient wisdom.
"The problem is the contemplative tradition in the Christian Church has had its ups and downs over the centuries," said Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and leader in the Centering Prayer movement, a modern revival of Christian contemplative practice.
"We sensed that the Eastern religions, with their highly developed spirituality, had something we didn't have," Keating said. "In the last generation, 10 to 20 years, some didn't even think there was a Christian spirituality, just rules - do's and don'ts and dogma they didn't find spiritually nourishing. It's important to recover the mystical aspects of the gospel."
Christian contemplative practices were lost or weakened in the Protestant Reformation and later in the Great Awakening - religious revolutions in colonial America that advanced the themes of Protestantism.
"There is growing permission to turn back to some of the early church practices and pieces that helped us to be whole," said the Rev. Stuart Lord, an ordained Baptist minister and new president of Naropa University, a Buddhist-founded institution. "I've been studying Buddhism and meditation for about seven years. I look at it as helping a person lead a fuller Christian life."
Cultivating an inner life
Buddhist scholar Judith Simmer- Brown, a professor at Naropa, said Christian denominations are working hard to rediscover contemplative traditions as one way to combat people leaving their churches.
"They literally have rebuilt their Christian meditative forms," Simmer- Brown said. "Some borrow heavily from Buddhism."
Lord said the interdenominational yearning for meditation and deeper spiritual experience is not reflective of a desire for different doctrines or ethos - or a taste for Asian cultural trappings.
"It's about cultivating an inner life, not the outer appearances," he said. "You don't have to shave your head."
The Buddha was non-dogmatic and non-authoritarian - a compassionate guide, not a god, Buddhist texts say. The Buddha was silent on the subjects of a supreme being and the immortality of the soul.
"Buddhism is more about spiritual practice than believing in certain doctrines," Habito said. "There are more definitive and particular requirements for saying 'I am a Christian.' "
Yet the fusion of strong Buddhist elements with mainstream Christian religion has created a backlash, Simmer- Brown said.
The nomination early this year of the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester to become an Episcopal bishop in Michigan's Upper Peninsula created a stir when it was learned he also practiced Zen Buddhist meditation.
Forrester's nomination failed.
Problems of religious rivalry
Blogger Greg Griffith, of StandFirminFaith.com, criticized the "progressivism" and the church's willingness to fuse differing religious beliefs that paved the way for Forrester's nomination in the first place.
"It starts with labyrinths, continues with Buddhist monks constructing mandalas in a cathedral, and over the background noise of pagan priests and books about love spells, proceeds to Muslim priestesses and now a Buddhist bishop," Griffith wrote .
Methodist Rev. Toni Cook, a founder of St. Paul's Buddhist Christian InterSpiritual Community in Denver, said religious rivalry creates more problems than reconciliation.
About 14 years ago, a gang member had laughed when Cook and a group of clergy asked how they could help get young people out of gangs.
"How are all the religions any different from street gangs?" he asked. "You mark off your own territory and defend it to the death."
Cook decided: "There's got to be a way to share sacred space without trying to convert one another."
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
By the numbers
- 12,000 Approximate number of adult Buddhists in Colorado, according to Pew survey
- 2,600 years Age of the world religion Buddhism
- 170 percent Increase of adherents during a Buddhist "boom" between 1990 and 2000, according to the American Religious Identity Survey
- 1.5 million Estimated total number of Buddhists in the U.S. in 2004
- 5 million Estimated number of Buddhists in the U.S. currently, not counting the numbers of Christians, Jews and others heavily influenced by Buddhism
Original Report
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A Look at Christianity, Through a Buddhist Lens
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Peter Steinfels - October 9, 2009
Five decades ago, Paul F. Knitter, then a novice studying to become a Roman Catholic priest, would be in the seminary chapel at 5:30 every morning, trying to stay awake and spend time in meditation before Mass.
Last Wednesday, at the same hour, he was sitting on his Zen cushion meditating in the Claremont Avenue apartment he occupies as the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
A few hours later he was talking about his pointedly titled new book, "Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian" (Oneworld). The book is the outcome of decades of encounters with Buddhism - and of struggles with his own faith.
Born in 1939, Mr. Knitter began his path to the Catholic priesthood at age 13, studied theology in Rome during the years of the Second Vatican Council, was ordained in 1966, completed a doctorate in Germany and began a long and influential career as a scholar addressing questions of the relationship between Christianity and other world religions.
He received permission to leave the priesthood in 1975, taught for many years at Xavier University in Cincinnati and after his retirement was invited to Union Theological.
"Am I still a Christian?" he asks in his new book. It is a question posed over the years by others, including some unhappy officials in the Vatican. But the question, he writes, is also "one I have felt in my own mind and heart."
"Has my dialogue with Buddhism made me a Buddhist Christian?" he writes. "Or a Christian Buddhist? Am I a Christian who has understood his own identity more deeply with the help of Buddhism? Or have I become a Buddhist who still retains a stock of Christian leftovers." ...
His focus here is on what he calls "the big stuff": What does it really mean for Christians to profess belief in an almighty "God the Father" personally active in the world, or in Jesus, "his only-begotten Son" who saved humanity through his death and bodily resurrection, or in eternal life, heaven and hell?
However much he tried, Mr. Knitter found that certain longstanding Christian formulations of faith "just didn't make sense": God as a person separate from creation and intervening in it as an external agent; individualized life after death for all and eternal punishment for some; Jesus as God's "only Son" and the only savior of humankind; prayers that ask God to favor some people over others.
Mr. Knitter's response, based on his long interaction with Buddhist teachers, was to "pass over" to Buddhism's approach to each of these problems and then "pass back" to Christian tradition to see if he could retrieve or re-imagine aspects of it with this "Buddhist flashlight."
He was not asserting, as some people have, that religions like Christianity and Buddhism are merely superficially different expressions of one underlying faith.
On the contrary, he insists they differ profoundly. Yet "Buddhism has helped me take another and deeper look at what I believe as a Christian," he writes. "Many of the words that I had repeated or read throughout my life started to glow with new meaning."
Those new meanings will unsettle many Christians, as Mr. Knitter recognizes, even as they address difficulties felt by many others. This will vary, of course, from issue to issue. Mr. Knitter's translation of Buddhist meditation into a call for a Christian "sacrament of silence" may be readily welcomed. His search for a "non-dualistic" understanding of God and the world may be only leading him through Buddhism back to Thomas Aquinas. ...
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Calvinism at its most grotesque
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SBC at odds over sale of Mark Driscoll literature
ONE NEWS NOW [American Family News Network] - By Jim Brown - July 6, 2009
A Southern Baptist pastor in Missouri wants LifeWay Christian Bookstores to stop selling books by popular Calvinist preacher Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
Jim Wilson, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Seneca, Missouri, introduced a motion at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) last month to remove Mark Driscoll's books from LifeWay Christian Stores because of his "reputation for abusive and ungodly language and...promotions of s-x toys on his church website."
SBC president Johnny Hunt ruled that the motion was "not in order." Pastor Wilson says he also was unable to convince Southeastern Seminary President Danny Akin no longer to invite Driscoll and members of his Acts 29 church-planting network to speak at the school.
Driscoll has drawn criticism from some fellow evangelicals for his frank talk from the pulpit about s-x, including his sermon series on Song of Solomon titled "The Peasant Princess." Well-known Calvinist preacher John MacArthur wrote a four-part critique of Driscoll's series titled "The Rape of Solomon's Song," in which he argued Driscoll's interpretation of Solomon's Song "is a molestation of the book, tearing off its God-designed veil, publicly defying its purity, and holding it up for leering and laughter."
Dick Bott, founder of the Bott Radio Network, recently ordered his stations not to carry any programs featuring interviews with Driscoll. In May, Bott stopped an airing of the program "Family Life" in the middle of the broadcast after learning that host Dennis Rainey was interviewing Driscoll.
Pastor Wilson believes his motion regarding Driscoll was shot down by SBC president Johnny Hunt because Hunt wanted to "skirt a controversial issue" and did not want to offend Southeastern president Danny Akin. ...
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Upcoming Film Follows a Transsexual's Ordination Journey
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THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Lillian Kwon - October 4, 2009
The journey of a transsexual woman seeking ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been documented on film, which is set to release next year.
"Thy Will Be Done: A Transsexual Woman's Journey Through Family and Faith" follows Sara Herwig, who transitioned from male to female and is seeking to "fulfill God's call."
In conveying Herwig's personal story, the documentary reveals the complex nature of the issue as faith groups, mainly the PC(USA), struggle to interpret their established policies and Scripture with regard to transsexualism.
Herwig began to pursue her call to ministry in 2001, seven years after switching from "Steve" to "Sara" - complete with a surgical procedure.
Before the transition, however, Herwig divorced his then wife Billie Preston with whom he had a daughter.
"When Steve confessed his sin to me, it was all about sin. It had nothing to do with gender identity," Preston says in the film. "And if we loved the Lord enough and I loved him enough, gave him enough of myself, then it would be okay."
Before beginning the candidacy process for ordination, Herwig had walked away from the church.
"Like many other transsexuals I had reached the point where it was either transition or just end it," Herwig states in the documentary.
Now, Herwig is on the road toward becoming a minister in the PC(USA), after having been approved as a candidate for ministry by Boston Presbytery in 2002, but faces hurdles as the denomination debates over transsexualism and ordination. ...
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Lutherans accept clergy in 'lifelong' same-sex relationships
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CNN [Turner Broadcasting/Time Warner] - August 22, 2009
After hours of back and forth between members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided Friday evening to accept noncelibate clergy members and lay leaders who are in "lifelong" and "monogamous" same-sex relationships.
One of the country's largest Protestant denominations, the Lutheran church approved four recommendations to its ministry's policies that underscore a new approach to homosexuality.
While the recommendations passed at the weeklong Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, do not address recognizing same-sex marriage or civil unions, they do allow congregations to support same-sex relationships among their members and allow individuals in same-sex relationships to hold clergy positions.
The previous policy of the 4.6-million member church allowed gay people to serve as members of professional rosters only if they were celibate.
Some members argued prior to the vote that the change would fly in the face of religious teachings.
"Brothers and sisters, I ask you, before you dig yourselves deeper into this hole, if you are so absolutely certain that these behaviors are not sinful that you are willing to place yourselves and this church at the spiritual risk that comes from encouraging sin," said the Rev. Steven Frock of the Western Iowa Synod.
Among those on the other side was Alan Wold of the Northern Illinois Synod. "If according to some I am going to be in err for supporting this... Let me err on the side of mercy, grace, justice, and love of neighbor. Let me err on the side of gospel, which makes all things new."
Many feared the emotional debate could tear at the unity of the church. So the members voted to re-order their resolutions -- moving to the top a resolution that the church "commit itself to bear one another's burdens, love thy neighbor, and respect the bound consciences of all." It passed with overwhelming support.
Other religious denominations, including Episcopalians and Unitarians, have made moves to accept gay clergy, and Evangelical Lutherans would not be the first to accept those openly in same-sex relationships, said David Masci, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. But ELCA would be the largest to make such a move.
The church is the third largest Protestant denomination, representing 2 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Forum.
The battle Friday was the latest in what Masci said many "socially moderate" denominations, including those in Judaism, are grappling with: balancing the growing acceptance of same-sex relationships with traditional teachings. ...
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"Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, ..."
ELCA Assembly: Was God in Either Whirlwind?
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Tornado touches convention center as Lutherans approve sexuality statement by the exact margin it needed to pass.
CHRISTIANITY TODAY [CTI Publications] - By Ted Olsen - August 20, 2009
Most reports from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) assembly today attempt to tie together the denomination's vote to adopt a sexuality statement and the tornado strike on the Minneapolis Convention Center where the Lutherans were meeting. (No one was injured.)
"We trust that the weather is not a commentary on our work," said Steven Loy, chairman of the committee overseeing the statement. (He was quoted by The Washington Times and Associated Press.)
But WordAlone, a renewal group within the ELCA, reported that both sides sought to find commentary in the weather: "A supporter of the social statement typified the storm as a mighty wind of the Holy Spirit and as a positive message. Some WordAlone Network members heard a different message, a warning of God's anger at the ELCA in the wind."
John Piper, whose Baptist church is just down the road from the convention center, thought the storm was a message as well. "The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction."
Hours later, delegates voted on the sexuality statement, which needed 2/3 approval. It passed by exactly that margin: 676-338. One or two votes could have changed the outcome. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes that the vote came near dinnertime and some delegates had already started to leave. Twenty-nine of the 1,045 registered voters did not vote on the statement. (Any who opposed the sexuality statement are almost certainly kicking themselves this morning and are probably not telling their friends about it...)
The headlines are both dramatic and careful: "Lutherans move toward more open view on gays" (Associated Press), "ELCA validates 'chaste' same-sex relationships" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). ...
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Was Tornado God's Rebuke?
NEWS WITH VIEWS.com - By Jon Christian Ryter - August 27, 2009
[...] I believe the Minneapolis tornado, in this context, did allegorically represent God's anger and His disappointment in the elders of that body. And the torrential rains were His tears over the wrong decision made by His "freewill creation" as He watched with a freshly crucified heart as members of the Body of Faith divorced themselves from His Word and became part of the rapidly growing Church of Laodicea that sees no evil in evil. The ELCA mollified His commandments and bent them to the whims of man, who is now promoting the lukewarm societal church that offends no one-except God.
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Was God In The Whirlwind?
OLIVE TREE MINISTRIES - By Jan Markell - August 24, 2009
My home state of Minnesota has lots of lakes, bitter cold, and Lutherans. Over 150 years ago, Scandinavians targeted this state and its climate, perhaps because it resembled their homeland. Ironically, the fathers and grandfathers of today's Lutherans left Sweden back then because they saw corruption and bad doctrine within Lutheranism in Scandinavia. But these Lutheran immigrants built Bible-believing churches for future generations. No doubt they would be crushed at such a culmination of apostasy in recent years.
Wednesday, August 19, was an average day. It was cool with not enough humidity to stir up a storm. No unusual weather patterns were forecast in the Twin Cities' metro area. As I was out driving, there were no tornado sirens. It was going to be a memorable day, nonetheless.
During the week, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was holding its annual convention in downtown Minneapolis. Attendees were using the facilities of the Minneapolis Convention Center and Central Lutheran Church which is directly across the street. At this year's convention, a blatant pro-homosexual position validating "chaste" same-sex relationships was to be voted on. It was to be voted on at 2 PM on Wednesday, August 19.
Then for the first time in decades, a tornado touched down in downtown Minneapolis at, you guessed it, 2 pm. The tornado went through the western section of downtown, causing damage to the Central Lutheran Church building, which was being used as a central meeting place for the convention. ...
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It was the same as happened in the days of Lot...
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Episcopal Vote Reopens a Door to Gay BishopsNEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Laurie Goodstein - July 14, 2009 ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Episcopal Church voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to open the door to consecrate more bishops who are openly gay, a move that is likely to send shock waves throughout the Anglican Communion, the global network of churches to which the Episcopal Church belongs. By voting to affirm that "any ordained ministry" is open to gay men and lesbians, the Episcopal Church effectively ended what many regarded as a moratorium on ordaining gay bishops, which the church passed at its last convention three years ago. ... The battle over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church has been watched closely by other mainline Protestant churches. They are looking to the Episcopal Church as a bellwether that could foretell whether their denominations can survive the storm over homosexuality intact. ... Read Full ReportEpiscopal Church fires 61 Central Valley priestsCENTRAL VALLEY BUSINESS TIMES of Stockton, California - May 27, 2009The Episcopal Church has fired, or in its words "deposed," 61 priests and deacons in the Central Valley who followed former Bishop John David Schofield when he rebuked the national church and aligned with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, a conservative group based in South America. "I find the actions I was forced to take last Friday and Tuesday to be heartbreaking," says the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb, Episcopal Bishop of San Joaquin in written comments Wednesday. "I have known a few of these clergy personally and others by the stories I have heard about their ministry. But, the fact is, they chose to abandon their relationship with the Episcopal Church." Mr. Schofield was deposed in March 2008. He and the various priests and deacons objected to the Episcopal Church's ordination of gays to the priesthood among other things, "refusing to recognize the authority of the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and of the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church," as the church puts it. The clergy who have been fired had six months to deny their abandonment, recant, or renounce their ministry in the Episcopal Church, according to the diocese. ... Read Full ReportEpiscopalians Nominate Two Homosexual Priests for Assistant Bishop of Los AngelesASSOCIATED PRESS - By Michelle Rindels - August 3, 2009 Los Angeles -Two Episcopal priests in same-gender relationships are among the nominees for assistant bishop of Los Angeles, officials said Sunday. The Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool of Maryland will be among six candidates on the ballot when lay people and clergy vote in December, despite a long-standing request from world Anglican leaders for a moratorium on consecrating openly gay bishops. Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno said in a statement Sunday that he was "pleased by the wide diversity" of the nominees. Separately, the Diocese of Minnesota on Saturday announced that a lesbian was among its three candidates for bishop. That election is set for October 31. ... Read Full ReportLutheran bishop warns about withholding donationsASSOCIATED PRESS - September 23, 2009 CHICAGO - The presiding bishop of the nation's largest Lutheran denomination warned Wednesday that withholding financial support to protest a recent gay clergy vote would be "devastating" to the church. Bishop Mark Hanson laid out his concerns in a letter to leaders of the 4.7 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is based in Chicago. The ELCA churchwide assembly voted last month to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, dropping a requirement that gay clergy remain celibate. Hanson's letter comes on the eve of a meeting in suburban Indianapolis of conservative ELCA group Lutheran CORE, which has urged supporters to "direct funding away from the national church" because of the vote. Withholding funding would hurt the mission of the Chicago-based denomination, Hanson wrote. ... The Rev. Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE, said the gay clergy vote was the devastating event - "a departure from God's clear word." He called Hanson's letter "an attempt to shift the responsibility of this devastation and crisis within the ELCA away from the people who presided over it and are responsible for it." Lutheran CORE says 1,200 people have registered for this weekend's conference, which organizers say will start the process of forming an "alternative church fellowship" for traditionalists within the ELCA. Read Full Report Church May Split over Gay, Lesbian ClergyWSET-TV ABC 13/13 LYNCHBURG/ROANOKE, VIRGINIA [Allbritton Communications Co] - By David Tate - September 28, 2009Roanoke Co., VA - A Roanoke church has taken its first step toward breaking from its denomination, over whether gays and lesbians should be allowed in the clergy. St. John Lutheran Church, in south Roanoke County voted on Sunday to split from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. More than 70-percent of the congregation in attendance voted for the split. The decision follows a national ruling last month in Minneapolis to allow homosexuals in committed relationships to serve in the clergy. According to the church's pastor, Mark Graham, the issue has been the biggest challenge in the church's 51-year history. ... Read Full Report
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