Evangelicals Condemn Torture - washingtonpost.com

Evangelicals Condemn Torture - washingtonpost.com:

"The National Association of Evangelicals has endorsed an anti-torture statement saying the United States has crossed "boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible" in its treatment of detainees and war prisoners in the fight against terror.

Human rights violations committed in the name of preventing terrorist attacks have made the country look hypocritical to the Muslim world, the document states. Christians have an obligation rooted in Scripture to help Americans "regain our moral clarity."
..."

As I pointed out in an earlier posting, evangelical Christians have historically taken the lead in issues of justice and compassion. And yet, while their giving patterns have exceeded many other groups in their generosity toward those in need, their public image has been one of withdrawal from the secular world and a strict focus on spiritual matters. Personally I feel this is incorrect, but stereotypes, wrong though they may be, often have a grain of truth buried in all the chaff. The NAE is to be commended for their courage in taking on such issues as part of their Christian witness.

Issues of justice, human rights and compassion are not issues that belong to one side or another in our "sectarian" political debates. These are issues in which Christians are required to speak boldly (as well as truthfully) to power:

¹Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

²to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.

-- Isaiah 10:1-2

And Micah 6:8 should always be before us. We are "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God".

Withdrawing from the world and ignoring the problems around us is not an option that God has offered us.

Amazing Grace

My family and I went to see Amazing Grace in the theater Friday evening. As luck would have it, 300 was dominating the ticket lines, and we barely made it in time for the opening credits.

The story is told in a combination of the present (early 1800's, not today) and flashbacks, as we see how William Wilberforce changed from a young, reasonably well-off young man just starting out in Parliament, to an ardent abolitionist. Ioan Gruffudd plays Wilberforce sensitively, and we get a glimpse of the toll extracted on his mental and physical constitution as he brings his bill before Parliament year after year, only to have it voted down. Albert Finney appears as John Newton and presents a powerful image of a man who is haunted by "20,000 ghosts". His hymn, Amazing Grace, is a theme that runs through the film.

There is a bit of an anachronism with regard to the hymn -- The tune used in the film, New Britain, while familiar to most Christians today, was not written until 1831 -- well after the events depicted in the film.

Most reviews on Christian blogs have been pretty favorable, but some have criticized the film for giving short shrift to the evangelical faith that impelled Wilberforce to take on the slavery issue. This criticism also appeared in an article I linked to a few days ago, written from a Jewish perspective. After having seen the film, I have to respectfully disagree. The theme of Wilberforce's faith runs through the film, and while it is not a constant drumbeat, it is clearly portrayed.

Amazing Grace is a powerful film and I recommend it highly.

Evangelical Body Stays Course on Warming - washingtonpost.com

Evangelical Body Stays Course on Warming - washingtonpost.com:

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 11, 2007; Page A05

"Rebuffing Christian radio commentator James C. Dobson, the board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals reaffirmed its position that environmental protection, which it calls "creation care," is an important moral issue.
...
The Rev. Leith Anderson, the association's president, said yesterday that the board did not respond to the letter during a two-day meeting that ended Friday in Minneapolis. But, he said, the board reaffirmed a 2004 position paper, "For the Health of the Nations," that outlined seven areas of civic responsibility for evangelicals, including creation care along with religious freedom, nurturing the family, sanctity of life, compassion for the poor, human rights and restraining violence. ..."

Historically evangelicals have taken the lead in issues of justice and compassion. The recent film, Amazing Grace, has underscored the role that Christian faith played in the abolition of slavery in Great Britain.

Christian witness in the world needs to be one of compassion as well as telling the Good News. We can ill-afford to be seen as the religious wing of either of the two main political parties -- and this goes as much for the PC(USA) as it does for fringe groups on the right and left.

The National Association of Evangelicals has done well to reaffirm its core values across a spectrum that includes more than just abortion and sexuality issues.

Revisiting the Power of Faith | The Jewish Exponent

Revisiting the Power of Faith | The Jewish Exponent:

The above-linked article is written from a Jewish perspective, and has some surprising things to say. Jonathan S. Tobin of the Jewish Exponent begins with a review of the issues that cause many Jews to view evangelical Christianity with suspicion -- in spite of the common goals that the people of these two faiths share. Tobin begins the heart of his article with the following:

"...Given the persistence of this debate, perhaps this is an apt moment to re-examine the role of faith in democratic politics with a recently released film as the starting point.

The movie is "Amazing Grace," which depicts the long struggle by English parliamentarian William Wilberforce to end the British slave trade.

Arriving on the 200th anniversary of the House of Commons' vote to outlaw the slave trade in 1807, the film tells of the triumph of Wilberforce and the abolitionists. For 20 years, they persisted despite repeated defeats at the hands of a large and wealthy pro-slavery camp. This faction was funded by West Indies sugar planters whose money enriched the British Empire, as well as corrupt members of Parliament. But this film is not merely the history of a good cause. It is primarily the tale of how religion can improve, rather than pervert, politics.

Any telling of Wilberforce's story must come to grips with the fact that his primary motivation wasn't an abstract vision of the injustice of slavery, but one based almost entirely on his evangelical Christian faith. ..."

His opinion of the film was that while it set out to portray the forces that drove Wilberforce, it failed to follow through, perhaps to avoid offending secularists. Tobin summarizes a portion of his thesis by saying:

"...But its shortcomings as art should not divert us from Wilberforce's heroic example and its influence on Christians and Jews today. The truth is, modern Jewry has long embraced Wilberforce's faith-based activism on issues from civil rights to freedom for Soviet Jewry. Those non-Orthodox Jews who regularly speak of tikkun olam or a Divinely ordained mandate to "repair the world" are, ironically, most likely to fear evangelicals who revere the same tradition. ..."

Food for thought...

I am beginning to think that Amazing Grace will not get to Columbia, so I expect I will have to await its release on DVD.

[UPDATE] -- It just hit Columbia today, so I know what I'll be doing this evening.

Wired News: Adobe Tackles Photo Forgeries

Wired News: Adobe Tackles Photo Forgeries:

"A suite of photo-authentication tools under development by Adobe Systems could make it possible to match a digital photo to the camera that shot it, and to detect some improper manipulation of images, Wired News has learned.

Adobe plans to start rolling out the technology in a number of photo-authentication plug-ins for its Photoshop product beginning as early as 2008. The company is working with a leading digital forgery specialist at Dartmouth College, who met with the Associated Press last month. ..."

This should have a clear effect on the use of images, which are powerful adjuncts to news stories (and propaganda). Photoshop has been a highly useful tool in dealing with digital photos, but it can be turned to dishonest ends just as easily.

This work is based on the research of Dr Hany Farid who has written a short (5 page) explanation of how forgeries can be detected, using as examples several recent manipulated images, including one particularly blatant one from Lebanon that was reported first on a blog, and then by the Washington Post.

So much data, relatively little space

So much data, relatively little space:

"A new study that estimates how much digital information the world is generating (hint: a lot) finds that for the first time, there's not enough storage space to hold it all. Good thing we delete some stuff.

The report, assembled by the technology research firm IDC, sought to account for all the ones and zeros that make up photos, videos, e-mails, Web pages, instant messages, phone calls and other digital content zipping around. The researchers also assumed that on average, each digital file gets replicated three times.

Add it all up and IDC determined that the world generated 161 billion gigabytes -- 161 exabytes -- of digital information last year. ..."

In 2003 the estimate was 5 exabytes (5 followed by 18 zeroes)-- and various groups are pushing for a law requiring ISPs to retain nearly everything that users do online.

Just to put things into perspective, in my job we are working with storage arrays of up to 50 terabytes, and the need continues to rise. And that is just in our group (support for scientific research). The email group has their own storage needs, in addition to the thousands of desktop computers and laptops with their internal and external drives. I just did a quick mental calulation of my internal and external drives, and they add up to about a terabyte of storage.

So what does this mean?

Each increment of 1000 bytes gets its own prefix:

Kilo 1000
Mega 1,000,000
Giga 1,000,000,000
Tera 1,000,000,000,000
Peta 1,000,000,000,000,000
Exa 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Zetta 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Yotta 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Exa-, zetta-, and yottabyte storage on a single system is not feasible at this time, but that may change in the next few years (months? days?). According to the Wikipedia entry on "Exabyte", 64-bit computer architecture has an address space of 16 exabytes.

As chilling as the thought of everyone's web browsing history being open to subpoena, more data are being generated than can be feasibly stored. Much of it goes into the bit bucket and is lost.

Now it's time to go to work and deal with storage issues, albeit more on a gigabyte scale.

Presbyterian News Service: Ministry tries making fishers of men

Presbyterian News Service: Ministry tries making fishers of men

"HUNTSVILLE, AL — Jesus called his first disciples away from their fishing nets, but a new group in Madison County is calling Christians and seekers down by the riverside.

Flyfishers of Men, a fairly informal school of new and experienced flyfishers, both men and women, believe that the practice of wading into beautiful streams, fly rod in hand, can help a person catch more than fish. ..."

I get altogether too few opportunities to get out into clear streams, but I treasure it every time. Kay Campbell of Religion News Service has captured much of the allure of fly fishing in this article picked up by Presbyterian News Service.

Fishing with artificial flies slows you down. You see things you might not ordinarily see. Herons, kingfishers, beavers, minks, even otters are regular denizens of my favorite spring-fed creek. There is plenty of time for contemplation, and the natural beauty of the creek and its watershed provide an atmosphere that leads me inexorably to a sense of God's presence.

I know that God is present in all the activities and locations of life, but I have to say that getting away from the day-to-day distractions, even if it is only for a day, is a spiritually rejuvenating experience for me.

One of my favorite books is "A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean (1902-1990. It was made into a pretty good movie in 1992, but the book (as is often the case) is far better. It starts off like this:

"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman. ..."

Maclean, who was an English professor at the University of Chicago, wrote with great sensitivity about his family, Montana, his experiences working for the US Forest Service and various other topics.

I gotta get out there and fish......

NASA - Blinding Saturn

NASA - Blinding Saturn:

"Surely one of the most gorgeous sights the solar system has to offer, Saturn sits enveloped by the full splendor of its stately rings. ..."

What can I say?

St Louis Post Dispatch: Faith behind bars

St Louis Post Dispatch: Faith behind bars

"RICHMOND, Texas — The circle of 12 men joined hands and closed their eyes. Latino, black, white, some baby-faced, some marked with blurry neck tattoos — all bowed their heads in prayer.

They had gathered Tuesday at the town's minimum-security prison for Leon Johnson, who was finishing a 10-year stint. It was the 55-year-old's third time in prison, this one for a trio of drug charges.

Johnson's fellow inmate, Jeff Smith, began. "God, guide him as he leaves here. We pray he will be mindful that you're just a prayer away, and that he seeks your strength when he needs to. We thank you for giving us all a second chance."

Second chances are the specialty of the InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a prisoner re-entry program where Johnson spent the last two years. The controversial program, based on fundamentalist evangelical Christianity, aims to reduce the rate at which freed inmates wind up back in prison. The program gives prisoners practical life-skills — how to write a résumé, what to wear to an interview, how to pass a driving test — and a Christian-values-based foundation upon which they can rebuild their lives.

On Thursday, Missouri launched InnerChange at the men's Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City, becoming the sixth state to adopt the program. This summer, it will begin the initiative at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia. ..."

It's good to see something like this come to Missouri. The article goes on to point out that the Missouri program differs in one significant way from other programs in other states that are under legal attack -- InnerChange does not receive state funding. In addition, the sidebar to this article lists ten religions, eight of which are not Christian, which are fully accommodated in Missouri prisons, as well as 8 other "solitary practice" religions (including Wicca and Satanism) which are accommodated in a limited way.

As far as prison, rehabilitation, and the eventual release of most prisoners, we have a lot of experience and data to tell us what DOESN'T work. As long as such programs do not coerce prisoners to participate and as long as state or federal funding is not an issue, I really can't see that any harm is done. The "establishment clause" is not to be interpreted as "freedom FROM religion". Rather it means that the state shall not foster a state religion. Beyond that the purpose of the First Amendment is to preserve the right of citizens to practice their religion, or no religion, without interference by the State, along with other rights such as peaceable assembly, freedom of the speech and the press, and the right to petition the government:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

We know what doesn't work; why not provide a little hope to those who have little hope left?

'Lost Tomb of Jesus' Claim Called a Stunt - washingtonpost.com

'Lost Tomb of Jesus' Claim Called a Stunt - washingtonpost.com:

"Leading archaeologists in Israel and the United States yesterday denounced the purported discovery of the tomb of Jesus as a publicity stunt.

Scorn for the Discovery Channel's claim to have found the burial place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and -- most explosively -- their possible son came not just from Christian scholars but also from Jewish and secular experts who said their judgments were unaffected by any desire to uphold Christian orthodoxy. ..."

Here is a pretty interesting take on the recent "bombshell" which seems more like a squib these days.

Alan Cooperman, Washington Post staff writer, interviews people from the archaeology community as well as the Israeli director of the film, the the preponderance of scientific opinion is that this is more about money than it is about science.

One archaeologist, William G. Dever, points out that not only are the some of the inscriptions unclear, but the purported names are common names. Dever also stated that this find has been known for many years, and he and other colleagues have been of the opinion that this was not a particularly important find.

A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill archaeologist, Jodi Magness noted that these claims have not been peer-reviewed in a research article, but rather have been publicized as if it were a matter of academic debate.

Magness suggested that the practice of placing the dead in hand-cut stone tombs and later transferring the bones to ossuaries, was a practice of the wealthy. According to Scripture, Jesus was placed in such a tomb, but it belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. It was not the tomb of a poor family from Nazareth.

There have been other blog entries on this subject, but Russell Smith's entry stands out. Take a look at "The Talpiot Tomb Controversey -- What to make of the latest eastertime criticism of the resurrection" -- He has done a good job of aggregating information from many sources.

Update (2/28/2007) -- Quotidian Grace mentioned in a comment that Ben Witherington also had a good posting on the subject: "THE JESUS TOMB? ‘TITANIC’ TALPIOT TOMB THEORY SUNK FROM THE START". I like the alliteration in the title, but the whole article is well worth reading.

Dr. Witherington also posted some additional information today in a posting called "PROBLEMS MULTIPLY FOR JESUS TOMB THEORY". (Thanks to Brett for pointing this out)

It's great that so many good bloggers are out there passing on their knowledge and experience. I tend to agree with Russell Smith and QG that this is getting to be an annual irritation, and that the timing is no accident. The antidote is to shine a bright light on the claims have been and continue to be made -- and in this case it comes not only from the faith community, but the archaeology community as well, many of whom are non-Christian or agnostic, thus have no vested interested in propping up Christianity.

Megachurches desegregate worship - Yahoo! News

Megachurches desegregate worship - Yahoo! News:

"LEXINGTON, Mass. - Sundays at the evangelical Grace Chapel megachurch look like the American ideal of race relations: African-American, Haitian, white, Chinese and Korean families sing along with a white, guitar-playing pastor.

U.S. churches rarely have this kind of ethnic mix. But that's changing. Researchers who study race and religion say Grace Chapel is among a vanguard of megachurches that are breaking down racial barriers in American Christianity, altering the long-segregated landscape of Sunday worship. ..."

I have expressed my skepticism in the past about megachurches. My problems are not with their theology, but with their size. It seems, though, that they are further along in at least one area with which traditional denominations are struggling.

The church service is often called the most segregated time and place one can find in the United States, and much discussion in the "mainline" denominations has revolved around the question of how to change that. My observations over the years lead me to believe that this segregation is largely an artifact of people choosing congregations where they are comfortable, rather than resulting from overt racism. This must not preclude our asking "why?", though. Nor should it preclude out making efforts to welcome everyone around the Lord's Table.

This issue of segregation is one where the megachurches seem more effective than the mainline congregations. This Associated Press article suggests that many of the traditional denominations have a lot of baggage when it comes to racial issues, and that minorities may view such denominations with suspicion. Megachurches, many of which are non-denominational, may not have as much of a history of racial issues to overcome. On the other hand, when I searched for the original report (from 2005) on which much of this article is based, it appeared that megachurches are not particularly non-denominational by nature.

Scott Thumma, the lead author on this report, is also working on a book to be published in July of 2007, and thus may have supplied additional information to the author of the AP report. I'd like to learn more about this. It seems we might have something to learn from the megachurches.

Showers of Blessings

I had my first full shower in two weeks this morning, and I feel gooooood! I was actually cleared to get my foot wet on Wednesday, but I had to file an environmental impact statement before I could step in the shower.

My visit to the podiatrist went fine. It started off on a sour note as he unwrapped the ace bandage and removed the gauze. The first words out of his mouth were "Oh [expletive deleted]". It turns out that a pocket of fluid had accumulated under some dry, flaky skin and as soon as he confirmed that it did not come from deeper in the foot, he told me that it was a false alarm.

I am cleared for sit-down showers but still need to keep the weight off the foot. The stitches will come out next Thursday, and then I can start putting some weight on the foot. It will be good to resume a normal outdoor lifestyle to balance my daily routine sitting in front of a computer. Which reminds me -- I am going back to work Monday.

On the weather front, there are still patches of snow around, but we have had warming temperatures that have cleared the roads and parking lots. I can't remember a time in Missouri when we have had snow on the ground for 5 weeks. I'm ready for Spring -- and I suspect by the time it gets here, I'll be ready for bicycling.

Outlook -- Living the Hosea life: An open letter to my Presbyterian friends

Outlook -- Living the Hosea life: An open letter to my Presbyterian friends
by Faith Jongewaard

"All his friends would have understood if he had left her. She was unfaithful, wandering, adulterous--plain and simple, she was a whore. The children, who all bore his name, didn’t all look very much like him. He was always having to go after her, always having to hunt her down in bars and strip joints and other men’s houses. He was always having to bail her out of some mess or another—and, that wasn’t cheap or easy. So, everyone would have understood if he had left her. Some would have even applauded. Some would have said, “Well, it’s about time! She’s been playing him for a fool for way too long!”

But, he didn’t leave her. He couldn’t leave her. It wasn’t that he didn’t get frustrated with her—angry, furious, raging mad. But, he couldn’t leave her. He had made a promise—not just to her, but also to God. And, truth be told, it was often only the promise to God that kept him going. He was, he said, being faithful to God, not to her. And that mattered to him more than anything—more than her unfaithfulness, more than the shame he felt about her lifestyle, more than the fantasies (and the advice of well-meaning friends) that he might really have a much better life without her or with another. ..."

I saw this linked today in Presbyweb, and I was impressed with its strong advocacy for remaining together as as denomination. I can understand the frustration many feel with the apparent disconnect between the powers in Louisville and the people in the pews, but my heart is with this denomination, as imperfect as it is. And I am very thankful for those who choose to stay and provide a faithful witness as spiritual leaders.

Home Sharks: Christianity Today

Home Sharks: Christianity Today:

"Spikes in property values have made Habitat for Humanity homeowners prime targets for predatory lenders. Some lenders have enticed clients of the Christian housing ministry to borrow against their homes, as the owners build equity quickly due to Habitat's no-interest loans. But the deals almost never pay off for the borrower.

"First-time homeowners don't have a lot of credit," said Cheryl Peterson, mortgage foreclosure prevention counselor at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity in Minnesota. Some see refinancing as a means of paying off consumer debt. But "it's never as affordable as a Habitat loan," Peterson said. ..."

I try not to be judgmental, but it is difficult, especially when I read something like this.

I have worked on a number of habitat houses and I have a deep respect not only for the Habitat for Humanity organization, but also for the people who are served by Habitat. I just read an article (hat/tip to Presbyweb) about attempts to build Habitat houses in affluent Marin County, California, and the hostility of the well-to-do homeowners who are afraid that their property values will plummet. Even here in Columbia, Missouri there is a "not in my neighborhood" attitude -- and this in areas that, judging from the yard signs during election campaign, tend to see themselves as "progressive".

In this article, the "sharks" use phone calls, home visits, and brochures resembling Habitat literature to entice first-time homeowners into taking on new, high-interest debt.

According to Peterson, the mortgage counselor for the Minneapolis Habitat organization, only about 2% of Habitat mortgages are foreclosed after refinancing, and that Habitat homeowners may, in fact, be more aware of pitfalls due to required classes in personal.

Sociologist says Islam questions privatization of religion thesis

Sociologist says Islam questions privatization of religion thesis:

"The growth of Islam in Europe is challenging deeply-held notions that faith is a private matter which should be banished from public life, a prominent sociologist of religion has told a gathering of European Christian leaders - writes Stephen Brown for Ecumenical News International (ENI).

"We ignore the presence of Islam at our peril," Professor Grace Davie of the University of Exeter told leaders from Europe's main Christian traditions at a 15-18 February meeting in Wittenberg in Germany. "This is a catalyst for a much more profound change in the religious landscape of Europe." ..."

This conference in Wittenberg, Germany addressed an issue that many in Europe thought was closed. It has long been assumed that religion has no place whatsoever in public life. Laws, such as the banning of head scarves in French schools, have attempted to enforce this attitude.

But with increasing open expressions of Islam in public life and in politics, the thrust of this conference was to explore ways in which Christian denominations can make a positive contribution.

It should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

U.S. senator: It's time to ban Wikipedia in schools, libraries - Computerworld Blogs

U.S. senator: It's time to ban Wikipedia in schools, libraries - Computerworld Blogs

by Preston Gralla

"Here's the newest from Sen. Ted Stevens, the man who described the Internet as a series of tubes: It's time for the federal government to ban access to Wikipedia, MySpace, and social networking sites from schools and libraries.

Early in January, Stevens introduced Senate bill 49, which among other things, would require that any school or library that gets federal Internet subsidies would have to block access to interactive Web sites, including social networking sites, and possibly blogs as well. It appears that the definition of those sites is so vague that it could include sites such as Wikipedia, according to commentators. It would certainly ban MySpace. ..."

Sigh....

Technorati tags: blogging, technology

It Is Well With My Sole

I visited the podiatrist today, and after 7 days of healing, the incision on my sole is closed and looking good. The doctor says he tends to leave stitches on the sole in place for at least three weeks, and he expects that will be the case for me. In the meantime, I am to keep weight off the foot and he will see me again next Wednesday.

Still no pain, and thus no reason to fill my vicodin prescription. That suits me just fine. Life is too short to spend it in a drug-induced haze (when you don't have to).

I took advantage of my ephemeral freedom, and Susan and I stopped by my favorite Mexican restaurant for some therapeutic tacos de carne asada. It's right on the way home -- if one first drives two miles south from the hospital...

I'm being good. I'm even using the crutches for the 4 or 5 steps from the bed to the bathroom. I pretty much have been spending my days inside a circle 30 feet in diameter, but I think I will be allowed to get out on a limited basis as long as I use the crutches. Maybe Saturday... A green tea latte at the Barnes & Noble café sounds really good!

Photo: Skeletons locked in eternal embrace | CNET News.com

Photo: Skeletons locked in eternal embrace | CNET News.com

"It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in an eternal embrace and buried outside Mantua, Italy, just 25 miles south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet. ..."

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Problem with Mere Christianity | Christianity Today

The Problem with Mere Christianity | Christianity Today:

J. Todd Billings

"In a recent ecumenical meeting of Christian leaders discussing theology and worship, two evangelical representatives expressed a shared dilemma: How should they integrate concerns for justice and care for the poor into worship? One complained that modern praise songs do not speak about these issues. Given their nondenominational backgrounds, they were not sure where to turn for help.

These evangelicals hit one roadblock that arises when "mere Christianity" severs our ties to theological traditions. At its best, mere Christianity can be summed up by Augustine's proverb: "In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity." Mere Christianity should also remind us to celebrate the oneness of all believers, united through our one head, Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:15). However, mere Christianity will disappoint when it becomes a substitute for the Christian faith. At its worst, mere Christianity shifts with the trends of praise music or the latest evangelical celebrity. Despite our best intentions, our theology and practice can become "conformed … to the pattern of this world" (Rom. 12:2). ..."

I've been sitting on this posting for a few days, mulling it over. When I first saw the title I thought of C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity, a book that has affected many people, me included.

So what is "mere Christianity"? As with Lewis, Billings sees it as peeling away the human traditions and trappings of religion that tend to obscure the core of our faith. Lewis wanted to speak of the common characteristics of the various Christian traditions, without making his picture of Christianity look like the Church of England (or Presbyterian, Methodists, Lutherans or Roman Catholics). Billings recognizes the various traditions, and is not so concerned about stripping those away.

We Presbyterians have this enshrined in our Book of Order where it states that "God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word, or beside it, in matters of faith and worship." -- G-1.0301(a) This powerful statement at once establishes limits not only on the "doctrines and commandments of men", but also, by specifying the standard for our beliefs, provides us with the boundaries of our beliefs. This statement, however, becomes meaningless when it is stripped down to the first seven words.

Billings provides many examples and illustrations of how Christianity can be stripped down so far as to make it all-inclusive (albeit bland), as well as examples of how the "essentials" can be drawn so rigidly as to be unnecessarily exclusive.

Early in his article he asks rhetorically "If you take Presbyterian out of the church name and avoid teaching about predestination and the sacraments, more people will come, right?" He then goes on with an illustration of a man who belonged to a Reformed denomination speaking with his daughter-in-law who was a member of a non-denominational church. He showed her the Heidelberg Catechism to help her understand where his denomination was coming from. She replied that her church used the Heidelberg Catechism all the time and it was an important part of what they taught. In Billings words, "Consider the irony: While many Reformed churches push their own catechism to the side, this large nondenominational church discovers the same catechism to be a profound tool for teaching the Christian faith."

Neither denomination was, in Billings' view, a particularly good example of "mere Christianity": "One church claims to be nondenominational instead of naming its tradition. The other fails to uphold its explicitly named tradition."

Traditional Christianity is not a pejorative to Billings -- rather he holds that it can act as a defense against "succumbing to the 'spirit of the age'." He notes that the Holy Spirit has been working actively in the Church for 2000 years, and that the wisdom of our predecessors in faith can be an important resource in our own spiritual development.

What I understand him to be saying is that what defines us as Presbyterians (or Baptists, or Methodists, etc.) can provide a far better platform for moving into a complex and uncertain future than jettisoning our distinctives and traditions in favor of trying to be more attractive.

Definitely food for thought...

WiFi Turns Internet Into Hideout for Criminals - washingtonpost.com

WiFi Turns Internet Into Hideout for Criminals - washingtonpost.com:

"Detectives arrived last summer at a high-rise apartment building in Arlington County, warrant in hand, to nab a suspected pedophile who had traded child pornography online. It was to be a routine, mostly effortless arrest.

But when they pounded on the door, detectives found an elderly woman who, they quickly concluded, had nothing to do with the crime. The real problem was her computer's wireless router, a device sending a signal through her 10-story building and allowing savvy neighbors a free path to the Internet from the privacy of their homes. ..."

This is a cautionary tale for all who use wireless technology in their homes. There are several things you can do to cut down on illicit use of your home network.

First is to filter based on hardware address of your network interface. By allowing only certain addresses to attach to your network you reduce greatly the chances that someone parked out front or living next door can tap into your service.

Second is to not advertise your network name (and make it obscure). When you scan for available wireless networks only those wireless access points that advertise their name are visible. Note that there are default names provided by the manufacturers and these are well-known to the signal thieves.

Third (and in my opinion the least effective) is to use WEP key. These are strings that serve to perform weak encryption on your wireless packets. The major problem is that at some point during the wireless connection negotiation that key is broadcast in the clear, and someone with a wireless packet sniffer can get all the information needed to attach to your network.

And a fourth suggestion is to change the default password on your web interface (which are also well-known). Make the password a good one.

Read the manual that came with your wireless access point/router and take the time to protect yourself.

laughing pastor: From the Top Down

laughing pastor: From the Top Down:

"... The room I sat in is typical of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).....old. Her words were not the typical words we hear from the top down. She challenged us to do the following in the midst of a denomination that is not functioning:

1. We've tried to fix the church ourselves. Presbyterians are smart people. It is time for smart people to realize we can't fix this church on our own. If we could we would have already done it. We must turn to God who is sovereign. Turn to God with hope and trust that God will mold us into the church we will become.

2. We do not spend enough time in prayer. We say we pray daily....but a very small percentage of our people say they pray one hour or more a week. We need to spend time in prayer. It is time for us to listen to God's words rather than our own! ..."

Presbyweb linked to this posting by a Texas pastor and I found it to be a breath of fresh air. Too often we hear things from the top that suggest that the only thing standing in the way of Peace, Unity, and Purity is our lack of respect for connectionalism.

Joan Gray, the moderator of the 217th General Assembly was in Texas recently and had something different to say, and I find this to be a refreshing change from the rhetoric that has characterized the debates following the last General Assembly.

Instead of the knee-jerk reactions -- from BOTH sides -- threatening legal action and bringing actual lawsuits, Joan Gray suggests that there is a way we should have been employing all along.

This is the Lord's Church, not ours, yet we are unwilling to surrender our wills. We need to serve the Lord in more than just an advisory capacity. As Joan Gray has said in the past, we need to lead from our knees.

Whatever else the 217th General Assembly may have done or failed to do, their choice of moderator for the next two years is one for which I am thankful.

Technorati tags: PCUSA

Update On My Foot

I've been a little preoccupied lately with a flare-up in my left foot infection.

For the second time in the last three months I've reached the end of my antibiotics and within two days, the infection was back. I was referred to a podiatrist who had new X-rays taken and concluded that a sesamoid bone was still infected. This pea-sized bone in a tendon does not get much of a blood supply, so the antibiotic failed to clear it out. The result was a self-regenerating infection.

Today I went in for same-day surgery and the infection was cleared out and the offending bone removed. This should make it possible for the foot to heal properly. Since the incision was on the sole of the foot, I will be essentially confined to my house for at least a week, leaving only for the follow up appointment with the podiatrist in a week. I'll miss CE this evening, Presbytery on Saturday, church on Sunday, and Mission Committee on Tuesday. I'll be reading a lot, keeping my foot elevated, and perhaps have some time to do a little more blogging than I have over the past few weeks.

I feel fine for now, and have a prescription for vicodin in case I need to dull my senses. The worst part is that I can't just get up and do things. It's going to be a major adjustment, but I'll cope. In the meantime, please pray for me, especially for patience.

Shedding Light on The Dark Tower -- Christianity Today

Shedding Light on The Dark Tower -- Christianity Today:

"Alastair Fowler, Regius Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, may have inadvertently settled the biggest Christian literary scandal of the last 50 years.

In 1988, Kathryn Lindskoog accused Walter Hooper, who was briefly C. S. Lewis's secretary and later a trustee of his literary estate, of forging a number of manuscripts that he attributed to Lewis, in particular The Dark Tower, an unfinished science-fiction novel.

"If Lindskoog is wrong," said Don King, author of C. S. Lewis, Poet, "[then] Lewis wrote some pieces that were stillborn at best or just plain bad at worst. If she is right, then someone is a forger." Indeed, Lindskoog's allegations raised doubts about anything ascribed to Lewis but not published in his lifetime. ..."

Those who have read The Dark Tower have, no doubt, been as perplexed as I was (and perhaps a little frustrated at the abrupt ending of the text). It struck me as just plain weird, but I really wanted to know where it was headed and how it would end.

Harry Lee Poe, the author of the article quoted above, summarizes the controversy that involved questionable statistical analysis, bitter acrimony between two of the people concerned, and finally a resolution to the controversy. It turns out that a living former student of Lewis remembers conversations with his mentor in which Lewis discussed The Dark Tower and the reasons why it was shelved in favor of other writing.

It's a pity that so much vitriol has been expended in Christian and academic circles -- and over things that were only speculation. As Poe points out:

"...Perhaps we too easily idolize an important thinker like Lewis, thinking he never had a bad day, never struggled to write, and never committed a flawed plotline to paper. Fowler's revelation of Lewis's struggles to write and his shifting priorities should help us be more realistic in our appreciation of this modern saint."

Lewis' reputation certainly hasn't been damaged by the 1977 publication of The Dark Tower, and now we, perhaps, can gain some more insight as to how this fragmentary work fit into his science fiction writing.

Technorati tags: CS Lewis, religion

Reaching Out With the Word -- and Technology - washingtonpost.com

Reaching Out With the Word -- and Technology - washingtonpost.com:

"With 13,000 worshipers, a $93 million campus and multimillion-dollar budget, can McLean Bible Church -- the Christian colossus in Tysons Corner -- possibly get any bigger?

Yes, it can.

The evangelical megachurch, one of the country's largest and fastest growing, is launching an ambitious expansion. It plans to build a "spiritual beltway" around the D.C. region by opening nine satellite locations to bring tens of thousands more into its fold. Through televised broadcasts, congregants at each location would see and hear portions of the same service at the same time. ..."

As much as I respect technology as a tool in communication, I am just a little skeptical about the need for this. A pastor I knew in the early 1970s went from a large Florida church to a small congregation in Colorado, saying that he wanted to get out of the ranching business and back to being a shepherd. Extending that metaphor, this seems a lot like corporate mega-ranching.

I find that fellowship in a congregation small enough that I know almost everybody is far more conducive to worship and spiritual growth -- and that the members are better equipped for the ministry to which every member of the Body is called.

Scientist provides evidence that God does not exist

Scientist provides evidence that God does not exist:

"... After evaluating all the scientific evidence—the studies done by reputable institutions on the power of prayer; the writings of philosophers who have puzzled over the problem of God and of good and evil; the efforts of biblical scholars to prove the accuracy of holy scriptures; and the work of biologists, geologists, and astronomers looking for clues to a creator on Earth and in the cosmos—Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God. He convincingly shows that not only is there no evidence for the existence of God, but scientific observations actually point to his nonexistence. ..."

This is quoted from a book blurb from Prometheus Books, and one should read it through one's "marketing hype" filters.

Still, though, it all boils down to another scientist making statements about something that falls completely outside the methods of science. He is entitled to his opinion, but he should not be identifying it as the outcome of scientific inquiry. By its very nature it cannot be.

You cannot logically prove a negative. This author shows his blind faith by attempting to do so.

Monday Dog Photo and Culture Quiz

"... [a] vulture's eye of a cold pale blue .."

I'm a mainly a cat person, but every so often there is a dog that worms her way into my life. Dally has been with us for two months and has striking eyes -- one blue, one amber.

Here's a cultural quiz:

1. The caption to the photo is from a 1976 song. Name the artist, album, and song.
2. To what 19th century literary work does it allude?

It may be possible to get the second question without knowing the first, but if you know the answer to the first, you can't possibly miss the second.

Found Through Translation - washingtonpost.com

Found Through Translation - washingtonpost.com:

"Most Christians search for the meaning of the New Testament. But for Alpheaus Zobule, the quest wasn't remotely metaphorical.

Growing up on a South Pacific island where life stops twice daily for church, he knew Christianity -- or thought he did. Yet he hadn't read the Bible; few people on his wave-whipped island had. They speak an oral language, Lungga, making them largely reliant on Methodist missionaries and lightly trained preachers to translate their faith.

Until recently, that is. Driven to make the Bible available to the 5,000-plus people who live on Ranonga in the Solomon Islands, the 37-year-old son of subsistence farmers came to the United States, earned master's degrees in linguistics and theology and spent six years figuring out how to write down Lungga -- all so he could translate the New Testament. ..."

Michelle Boorstein's article in today's Washington Post tells a story about a man whose thirst for God's Word compelled him to take a path that few western Christians have taken -- or even need to take. (On my laptop I have the full text of the NIV, NRSV, KJV, NASB and some other, lesser known translations -- as well as commentaries, dictionaries, and other resources. The browser can synchronize bible text and commentaries, and allow me to look up the meaning of the underlying Hebrew and Greek -- courtesy of the Zondervan Bible Study Library Leader's Edition 5.0. It boggles my mind to realize the extent to which this man has gone to achieve what is literally at my fingertips)

The task was complicated by the fact that Lungaa, like so many languages in the world, is not a written language. In fact, according to Wycliffe International, of the approximately 2000 current bible translation projects, the majority involve non-written languages.

Much is being discussed about the strength and growth of Christianity in the "Global South" -- it's stories like these that help to explain why.

Sunrise on Moloka'i

Just another reminder that somewhere the weather is balmy.

4 days till Susan returns....

New York Times: Furor over 12-year-old actress’s rape scene

New York Times:

"LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 — [D. F.] will turn 13 next month, and she has a short answer for anyone who questions her decision to play a 1950s girl who gyrates in her underwear, wakes up as her naked father climbs into her bed, demands that a prepubescent boy expose himself to her in exchange for a kiss and, finally, is raped by a teenager who lures her with tickets to an Elvis concert:

She’s growing up. Get used to it.

Ms. [F], best known for leading roles in children’s movies like “Dreamer” and “Charlotte’s Web,” thrillers like “Man on Fire” and “War of the Worlds,” and the horror film “Hide and Seek,” now is starring in “Hounddog,” an independent film that is to have its premiere on Monday at the Sundance Film Festival. It has already won attention far out of proportion to its budget of less than $4 million. ..."

This story was linked in PresbyWeb (subscription required, but a free trial period is offered) and it raises serious and disturbing issues.

This is not the first time that child actors have taken on roles that are questionable.

The young girl who played Regan in The Exorcist had a difficult time during her adolescent years involving living with her boyfriend at age 15 and serious drug charges in the late 1970's. Eventually she started making better choices, and while her film career was not anything like the heady days of The Exorcist, where she was in the running for an Oscar, she has done found fulfilment as an advocate for animal cruelty issues.

In the years following The Exorcist, Pretty Baby (1977) and The Blue Lagoon (1980 remake), both starring the same child actress/model, raised issues of propriety and child pornography. To be fair, this actress took four years off from her film and modeling career and earned a degree in French Literature at Princeton University and did not seem to have the issues with drugs as the girl who acted in The Exorcist.

Reading the New York Times article on the 12-year-old who acts in Hounddog, and the answers she gave to interviewers, I have to question whether any child of that age can give informed consent to play such roles. Who is making the decisions here?

Child actors have a hard time just being normal children without dealing with issues that they should not have to deal with at their age. I sincerely hope that the actress in Hounddog does not go the way of many of her predecessors.

Still, it is strangely comforting that people who have been treated to some pretty raw stuff on television and at the movies, are still capable of being offended.

Seven Days...

... and Susan will return. In the meantime, here are two more images of Moloka'i:

A path through an evergreen forest on the north side of Moloka'i

The peninsula on which the leper colony was situated
as seen from the above evergreen forest.

This peninsula is virtually inaccessible from land, which no doubt influenced its choice of location for the leper colony where Fr. Damien performed his ministry, and eventually died of leprosy.

GPS devices lead to suspects' home - Yahoo! News

GPS devices lead to suspects' home - Yahoo! News:

"LINDENHURST, N.Y. - Three thieves who allegedly stole 14 global positioning system devices didn't get away with their crime for long. The devices led police right to their home.

Town officials said the thieves didn't even know what they had: they thought the GPS devices were cell phones, which they planned to sell. ..."

Sometimes you just gotta smile...

This is 911. Please upload your video

CNET: This is 911. Please upload your video:

"New York City will install new technology to allow 911 centers to receive images from cell phones. Citizens will be able to send still images or videos from camera phones or computers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The city joins several other municipalities that are testing similar services, though it is probably the largest to try such a project. ..."

This sounds like an idea that could really make a positive difference. Thomas Friedman might see it as yet another world-flattener.

The View From The Condo

My wife sent a picture a few days ago of a sunset over the ocean channel between Moloka'i and Lana'i. This is a view looking toward the mountains (4500'). If I understand her correctly, the distance from the tallest peak to the beach isn't really that far.

The flora and fauna include a lot of introduced species including various sparrows, cardinals, mongooses, and so forth. The animal life is not particularly forthcoming about having their pictures taken. I'm hoping she can get some pictures of native plants and animals.

The pollinations are about to ramp up in a big way. It seems that the two plantings, which ordinarily would have spread themselves out over a couple weeks, are maturing at about the same time, so Susan and her boss are going to have to cram a lot into next week.

There were initial delays in getting the corn to the stage where they were tasselling out and shedding pollen. Graduate students had to be back on campus, so Susan was drafted for this dirty, unpleasant job in surroundings that leave much to be desired.

Yeah, right...

On the down side, the cell service is spotty, resulting in many dropped signals, and internet isn't much better. Would I trade reliable internet and cell service for a chance to do some sightseeing in Moloka'i? In a heartbeat.

AP News | The Columbia Daily Tribune: Science and Faith Join Forces

AP News | The Columbia Daily Tribune Science and Faith Join Forces:

BOSTON (AP) -- Some leading scientists and evangelical Christian leaders have agreed to put aside their fierce differences over the origin of life and work together to fight global warming.

Representatives met recently in Georgia and agreed on the need for urgent action. Details on the talks will be disclosed in Washington on Wednesday.

"Whether God created the Earth in a millisecond or whether it evolved over billions of years, the issue we agree on is that it needs to be cared for today," said Rich Cizik, vice president of government relations for the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 45,000 churches.

Eric Chivian, director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, agreed, saying: "Scientists and evangelicals have discovered that we share a deeply felt common concern and sense of urgency about threats to life on Earth and that we must speak with one voice to protect it." ...

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Last year the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard, declined to sign a statement of concern on behalf of the organization because he did not feel it was the consensus of the NAE. This was in spite of his personal beliefs that there was an environmental crisis and that it needed to be addressed.

Now we see the vice president for governmental relations of the NAE quoted prominently in this story. Hopefully this signals a new willingness to engage the problem.

Granted, there is a legitimate scientific debate as to the extent of global warming, and whether we are looking at natural cyclical changes. It is true, however, that Scripture clearly requires stewardship of God's creation. Lowering "greenhouse emissions" will do no harm, and will likely do a great deal of good.

Mike Kruse tagged me

Mike Kruse tagged me this morning, and now I have to come up with 5 odd facts about me that people are not likely to know already. Hmmmmm.

1. By the time I was 16 I had spent approximately 8 years living outside the United States -- Japan and Okinawa in the 1950s and Germany in the latter 1960s.

2. While in Heidelberg, Germany, I attended a University of Maryland overseas graduation ceremony and had the opportunity to meet the then governor of Maryland, Spiro Agnew. I also met Kurt Georg Kiesinger, the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, who gave the commencement address.

3. Also, while living in Germany, I was a member of the Protestant Chapel Choir, which teamed up on a regular basis with the Hockenheim Evangelical Church choir to form a group known as the Deutsche-Amerikanische Kantorei. Every October while I lived in Germany (1966-1969) we participated in the annual Reformation Service at the Evangelical (Lutheran) church in Worms.

4. As an undergraduate at Colorado State University, I attended a lecture in Boulder by the renowned paleontologist Louis Leakey. This was shortly before his death in 1972.

5. I appeared on the stage at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. -- My high school graduation was held there.

I suppose I need to tag some people. How about Beau Weston and Jody Harrington? Email will follow....

A Mission of Understanding - washingtonpost.com

A Mission of Understanding - washingtonpost.com:

"Danny Leydorf's world was about to be turned upside down, and he couldn't wait.

The extroverted teenager had shined at the mostly evangelical Annapolis Area Christian School since kindergarten, but now he wanted to test his faith in a more diverse world. With hopes of becoming a lawyer or politician, he badly wanted to understand people who didn't think like him.

"I feel like I exist to be interacting," the lanky, towheaded 19-year-old said eagerly one day last summer, shortly after his graduation, "and part of that is just getting out there."

So he'd deliberately picked a large, secular college: the University of Maryland. But the week before he was to leave, the wider world dealt him a blow.

"I hate evangelical Christians," read the Facebook.com profile of his roommate-to-be, who had seemed so perfect on the phone. He loved politics and "The Simpsons," like Leydorf, and they even had the same views about how to set up the room. Could it still work? ..."

Here is an informative, fairly well written (and a bit rambling in spots), article on how a young man went from a private Christian school to a state university. He had deliberately sought out opportunities to engage with people whose world views differed from his own, including an internship with Charles Schumer (D New York), whose politics had little in common with his own. This was while he was still in high school. In college, he sought out public forums and debates to learn what people of different backgrounds thought.

Much of this article goes into the background of the evangelical movement, and the different ways in which believers approach engagement with the world around them. The author of this article, Michelle Boorstein, seems to have done her homework, correctly pointing out that the American evangelical movement began as a response to the separatism advocated by American fundamentalists in the 20th century, This movement, known as neo-evangelicalism, is associated with such people and institutions as Billy Graham, Christianity Today magazine, and Wheaton College.

C.S. Lewis -- The Problem of Pain

I resumed reading The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis after a several week hiatus, and after I read couple more chapters I came across a passage that really hit me. In chapter 6, Human Pain, Lewis speaks of the illusion of self sufficiency -- That human attitude that "find[s] God an interruption". Or as Lewis suggests a few lines further in the chapter:

"...Now God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as He leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call 'our own life' remains agreeable we will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do in our interests but make 'our own life' less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible source of false happiness. It is just here where God's providence seems at first to be most cruel, that the Divine humility, the stooping down of the Highest, most deserves praise. ..."

I was not particularly happy to read this, as the idea of God deliberately inflicting pain to make a point makes me very uncomfortable. But was Lewis referring to the choices that we humans make that are at odds with God's will for our lives? Are those choices what result in pain? And if so, how do they fit into God's providence? A couple pages later in this chapter, Lewis has this to say (and this is what jolted me):

"...The dangers of apparent self-sufficiency explain why our Lord regards the vices of the feckless and dissipated so much more leniently that the vices that lead to worldly success. Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: The proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous are in that danger. ..."

The Roman Catholics include pride and avarice on the list of Seven Deadly Sins, and a case might be made for self-righteousness to be placed under pride. I wonder if Tolkien's Roman Catholic faith influenced Lewis here?

In any event, it seems to me that sin has consequences, and that such consequences cause pain. This is true whether the sinner feels the pain or victims feel the pain. Lewis makes a key point here that where sinners are aware that their lives leave much to be desired, that they can turn to God more easily. In contrast, those whose desire for material gain leaves a trail of hurting people, but whose lives are, superficially at least, what they want, have a far longer way to go before it even occurs to them to call on God.

Perhaps this is why the tears of the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with costly ointment (Luke 7:36-50) meant more to Jesus than the sorrow of the rich young man who just couldn't give up his wealth to follow the Lord (Matthew 19:16-30). Both the sinful woman and the rich man felt pain. Whose pain presented the opportunity to turn to God and repent?

Icebound in Columbia

[UPDATE 4:46 PM] Here is a screen shot of the regional radar. Columbia is midway between Kansas City and Saint Louis. It looks worse than it really is, but my planned trip to Starbucks may have to wait....

Most of the churches in Columbia canceled services today.

We have been in the grip of a three day series of ice storms The first wave came Friday afternoon and went overnight, leaving about an inch and a half of freezing rain and sleet on the ground. Saturday morning and afternoon provided a short respite, allowing me go go out and get people food, dog food, and some miscellaneous supplies. The second wave started in the late afternoon and added another inch or so of sleet. The third wave is just beginning as I write this. It should last through the evening, and then we should get some better weather for the next week.

We can count ourselves fortunate that most of the precipitation was sleet instead of freezing rain. Columbia, thus far, has not endured power outages like Saint Louis, and I sure hope that continues.

I have had some time to catch up on my reading, and I picked up C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain (which I started several weeks ago, but put aside in favor of my Christmas book haul). It is a short book, but one that does not lend itself to fast reading. It's more like read a section, reflect, reread the section scratch my head a little, then maybe have a flash of insight. One such insight will be the subject of my next blog entry.

I am glad to have had this opportunity to relax and read, (in between blogging, feeling trapped in my home, and logging into the servers at work to make sure they are working properly.)

Columbia Tribune: Boys' case stands out among abductions

KIRKWOOD, Mo. (AP) -- The safe return of two kidnapped boys - one missing for four days, the other for four years - is being heralded as nothing short of a miracle by their families.

Parents of the now-15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck and 13-year-old Ben Ownby on Saturday told of their tearful reunions, hugs and the almost unbelievable discovery of the boys in a tiny apartment in a St. Louis suburb on Friday.

News in Missouri over the past week has focussed on the kidnapping of a 13-year-old boy. An "Amber Alert" was published and tips were received by law enforcement agencies, including a description of a white pickup truck that was seen driving driving at high speed near the time of the kidnapping. When a pickup matching the description was spotted in Kirkwood, Missouri while police were serving a search warrant on a nearby apartment, they returned the next day and found not only the recent victim, but a boy who had been kidnapped 4 1/2 years ago.

Bill McClellan, and St Louis Post-Dispatch columnist titled his column today "Uplifting news captivates us and grabs headlines", and related how the family of the boy taken in 2002 kept their son's disappearance in the public eye, and devoted their time to helping others in similar situations.

The Washington Post had an article, "Family's Ordeal Ends as Missing Son Comes Home", which told of hope kept alive and prayers answered.

It sure it nice when stories can end this way. These two families have a lot to deal with, but their children are safe and at home. And as Bill McClellan pointed out, this news was powerful enough to shunt aside, for the moment, the major ice storm that is crippling the state of Missouri and other states in the nation's midsection.

Going in religion-news circles

Going in religion-news circles:

"Journalists may not know the precise meaning of the word "theodicy," but, year after year, they know a good "theodicy" story when they see one.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines this term as a "vindication of God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil." Wikipedia calls it a "branch of theology ... that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil in the world with the assumption of a benevolent God."

There were three "theodicy" events in 2005, so the Religion Newswriters Association combined them into one item in its top-10 story list. What linked Hurricane Katrina, the Southeast Asia tsunami and another earthquake in Pakistan? Each time, journalists asked the timeless question: What role did God play in these disasters?

Last year, it was the schoolhouse massacre of five Amish girls in Bart Township, Pa. The stunning words of forgiveness offered by the families of the victims added yet another layer of drama to the story. ..."

Terry Mattingly, who also blogs at GetReligion.org, is especially interested in how religion is covered in the various media. He quotes Richard Ostling, the recently retired Associated Press religion reporter, as saying "Every year there is going to be some great tragedy or disaster and that causes people to ask, 'Where was God?' These events may not seem like religion stories, but they almost always turn into religion stories because of the way people respond to them."

Because of the pervasiveness of religious faith in people's lives all over the world, it is difficult to separate religion from politics whether it be in the recent US election or the violence that characterizes much of the Middle East. The result is that, according to Ostling, people tend to react to the same stories (or what seem to be the same stories) that come up year after year.

This is complicated by the fact that there are stories within stories, and events that are directly and indirectly related -- or maybe only coincidental. Ostling sees the election of a woman as the Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop to be important, but not particularly surprising. He feels that the larger story is the nationwide revolt by individual Episcopal congregations to be far more difficult to cover. Mattingly points out that the Ted Haggard story was big, but that every year seems to find at least one high-profile sex scandal involving a religious leader.

I wonder what the theodicy stories will be for 2007? And will the news media get it right?

An Email From Moloka'i

My wife has a real hard job. While I am wrestling recalcitrant computer clusters here in mid-Missouri, she is in Hawai'i for three weeks attending to the winter research corn crop. The temperature highs are in the upper 70s with the overnight lows in the upper 60s. They can count on rain every day, but it hasn't been overly soggy.

Last night she found a coffee shop with wireless internet and emailed me this image of yesterday's sunset over the channel between Moloka'i and Lana'i.

She promises some images of Hawaiian birds and more scenery, and I'll post them as they come in.

She asked what she could bring back, and I wistfully mentioned that Kona coffee was $25/pound at our local coffee shop and that it sure would be nice if it were a little cheaper closer to the source. It is, by about $5... So she will bring me a pound of 100% Kona beans from Hawai'i.

In the meantime my son and I are living the bachelor life. Thus far this week he has made it out the door in time to walk to school, the dog has been walked regularly, and the house looks more or less organized. But I don't want her to think we can get along without her.

Well, it's off to work for me...

Quotidian Grace: Separating the Viable from the Non-Viable Church

Quotidian Grace: Separating the Viable from the Non-Viable Church

QG has hosted a really interesting discussion on her blog regarding the viability of congregations.

Thanks to Mike Kruse for pointing me there.

Columbia Tribune: Charitable groups find providence after storm

Columbia Tribune: Charitable groups find providence after storm

"About a month before Christmas, it didn’t look good for the Central Missouri Food Bank. The 40,000-square-foot Vandiver Drive food storage area was less than one-fourth full, donations weren’t coming in and the agency was about $250,000 in debt.

Then people learned about its plight.

"I just call it a miracle," said Peggy Kirkpatrick, the food bank’s executive director. "Everything just started pouring in, literally."

The agency distributed more than 20.5 million pounds of food in 2006 to the 33 counties it serves - a 14 percent increase over 2005. The agency helped feed more than 80,000 people per month - a 7 percent increase over 2005. The warehouse is full, and the bills are paid. ..."

In the two months before Christmas 80 food drives were held, and while this article is not explicit about funding, it seems that enough money also came in to meet expenses.

The pastor at my church often says that the Church's reserve account is in the members' wallets. When there is a need, people come through on a regular basis to help meet those needs.

It is nice to see that the observations from our local congregation can be extended to the other congregations in mid-Missouri, as well as other organizations and individuals that find themselves called to help alleviate hunger in our community.

Still, it would be nice if organizations such as the Central Missouri Food Bank did not have to enter crisis mode to cause the release of the wallet reserve accounts...

Worship, Websites, Conflict Affect Growth in Congregations

Worship, Websites, Conflict Affect Growth in Congregations:

The Presbyterian News Service picked up this report in an article titled "Study says conflict, race influence church growth" while The Christian Science Monitor, describing the same research report, titled their article "From US churches that are growing, a sound of drums."

I went over to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, affiliated with Hartford Seminary, and read their summary report which listed the following as their main findings:

• Congregations that change worship format and style are more likely to grow. More than half the congregations that use contemporary styles of worship have experienced substantial growth since 2000. Frequency is important as well: The more worship services a congregation holds, the more likely it is to have grown.

• Congregations located in new suburbs are more likely to experience growth. But surprisingly the second best area for growth is the downtown of metropolitan areas.

• Congregations that have experienced major conflict are quite likely to have declined in attendance. The strongest correlate of growth is the absence of serious conflict.

• Congregations that have started or maintained a website in the past year are most likely to grow. The effort to have a website indicates that the congregation is outward looking and willing to change by non-traditional means.

• While most congregations in America are composed of a single racial/ethnic group, those that are multi-racial are most likely to have experienced strong growth in worship attendance.

• More important than theological orientation is the religious character of the congregation and clarity of mission and purpose. Growing churches are clear about why they exist and about what they are to be doing – “purpose-driven growth.”

• Congregations that involve children in worship are more likely to experience significant growth. Also, important to growth is the ability of congregations to attract young adults and children with families.

• Almost all congregations say they want to grow, but it takes intentionality and action for growth to occur. Congregations that developed a plan to recruit members in the last year were more likely to grow than congregations that had not. Particularly helpful in achieving growth are sponsorship of a program or event to attract non-members or the existence of support groups.

Since these main points do not mention a percussion section, I would have to give the nod to the Presbyterian News Service version as being a little more accurate, if not complete in their assessment of the report.

To be sure, the actual report DOES mention that drums are a stronger factor than even multimedia in their correlation with growing churches, but it appears that even stronger are the clarity of mission and expectations of members that characterize growing churches.

The report acknowledges that, in general, mainline protestant denominations are in a decline while evangelical protestant denominations are growing, but is reluctant to propose theological conservatism as the reason. Fair enough. It seems to be generally true that such congregations also have a strong sense of purpose, and that IS a strong factor in church growth.

Beau Weston, who has studied such trends in the PC(USA), sees clarity of beliefs along with clear expectations of church members as characterizing growing congregations. (I hope I haven't oversimplified his findings, but I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong).

The full report is available in pdf and is titled "FACTs on Growth".

Presbyterian Outlook: Presbyterian mission in a flat world, part 3

Presbyterian Outlook: Presbyterian mission in a flat world, part 3

Scott Sunquist ends his three part series on mission in a "flat world by summarizing the issues and posing questions that the Presbyterian Church needs to answer:

1. Is it possible to harness the flattening agents to develop a more “flat” mission: a missional capability that shares openly, cooperates globally, and fosters dynamic and ongoing creativity?

2. How do we now promote Presbyterian mission recognizing the flat (mostly) non-western mission of God in the world?

3. Can we follow other mainline churches in multiple sending agencies, but do better in building mutual trust and coordination that allows for ongoing adjustments as with “work-flow software?”

4. How do we develop a new missional direction that reflects more a meritocracy than a bureaucracy, more open sharing than central planning, and more cooperation and trust than competition?

5. When so many of our Presbyterian friends are disillusioned and tired, how do we help to unleash the energy, confidence, and creativity in our young people, our
church leaders and our lay people to “come on board” God’s global mission?

In a world where we have an unprecedented and ever increasing ability to acquire and process information, and have the ability to collaborate with others on the other side of the world as they were around the same table, Sundquist suggests that we need to develop new ways of carrying out God's mission. And it looks like we need to learn to follow, rather than lead, considering the directions in which mission is growing around the world.

Index to Sundquist's series:

• Presbyterian Outlook: Presbyterian mission in a flat world
• Presbyterian Outlook: Presbyterian mission in a flat world, part 2
• Presbyterian Outlook: Presbyterian mission in a flat world, part 3

The Presbyterian Outlook allows one to read the full articles upon completion of the free registration process.

Humanity is keeping the faith, despite its doubters

The Herald: Humanity is keeping the faith, despite its doubters

"This was supposed to be the era when it would disappear, laughed out of sight, drowned under the weight of its own absurdity. It would be exposed as a sham, a con trick; it would also be shown to be responsible for most of the evils of the world.

It's religion I'm talking about. But far from lying still in its grave, the corpse is walking around, creating mayhem and misery while also bringing consolation and delight. Institutional religion may be faltering in western Europe, but it is flourishing in many other parts of the world. How can this be?..."

Here is a perspective from Ron Ferguson about the persistence of religion in the face a concerted attempt by many to destroy people's faith. Ferguson points out that, while many evil things are done in the name of religion, so is much that is good.

The "new atheists" typified by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and others worldwide tend to view religion as a disease organism that must be eradicated for the sake of humankind. Ferguson notes that these people characterize themselves as the "Brights".

"...No theologian would defend some of the things that go on in the name of Christianity. In fact, some of the most searing critiques come from theologians. (But the Olympian Professor Dawkins sees no need to read theology.) One searches The God Delusion in vain for full and generous acknowledgement of the fact that most parish churches are not full of raging terrorists or hate-filled zealots, or of the reality that down through the ages churches have built hospitals and schools, and have nurtured and supported vast amounts of caring work. ..."

This is something that is not always considered by those who would destroy people's faith in the name of saving humanity. And Ferguson presents another thing that should be acknowledged:

"...The mass murderers of the twentieth century - Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao - were atheists. Are we to conclude that atheism is dangerous? Science has given us eugenics and weapons of mass destruction. Do we, therefore, insist that scientists are evil? The Brights can't have this argument both ways. ..."

Ferguson answers his initial question "How can this be?" that religion persists in the face of the attacks against it by these words:

"...Why does religion persist into the year 2007? Because humanity persists, that's why. Religions are human creations and, therefore, constantly in need of reformation. Their ancient scriptures contain glories, but also toxic texts. (That's why Dawkins prefers dealing with fundamentalists.)

But the truly interesting question is whether religions are responding to something real or not. As creatures facing our own mortality, we rightly ask about the significance of our lives, about whether there is an eternal dimension to our living, and about the possibility of life beyond physical death. Any answers inevitably will be provisional and trembling; but thank the Lord that the dogmas of belligerent Brights and bombastic believers are not the only choices to be made."

I'm not sure what Ferguson's connection with religion is, but he sounds fairly reformed here. I imagine I could find points of disagreement with him, but his analysis of the manner in which the "Brights" try to convince others that their faith is a sham and actually harmful is well-reasoned. I am glad his voice is heard.