March Madness has started again at SBC Voices. I’m in the East Division; you can vote for 4 blogs in each division. Put me over the top!!
March 13, 2009
February 11, 2009
The Mike Wallace Interview
“Whether you agree or disagree with what you will hear, we feel that none will deny the right of these views to be broadcast.”
A friend recently told me about a project at the University of Texas in which 1950’s era interviews by Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes fame. The name of the show was The Mike Wallace Interview.
There are some really interesting subjects here: Reinhold Niebuhr, Margaret Sanger, Aldous Huxley, Malcolm Muggeridge and others. Each appears to be about 30 minutes long and carries the original ABC lead-ins and Mike pitching, and smoking, Phillip Morris cigarettes (his sponsor). The worst part of each episode is the theme music which is laughably bad; it sounds like a Saturday Sci-Fi channel movie.
This link to the lineup an be found here.
December 4, 2008
Georgia pastor found murdered
Baptist youth pastor, Frank Harris, Jr. was found murdered around 4:00 am on Monday morning in the small north Georgia town of Cleveland. On Sunday evening, he had phoned his wife to inform her that he was giving a ride to a “some stranded folks,” apparently somewhere along GA 129. A 29 year old woman and a 20 year old man are facing felony murder charges, while the man is also charged with armed robbery. Harris leaves behind a wife, Tami, and three teen aged children.
(From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution or from Access North Georgia)
Cards or other encouragement can be sent to:
The Harris Family
c/o Pendergrass Baptist Church
105 Church Street
Pendergrass, GA 30567
November 10, 2008
Remembering Kristallnacht
Crystal Night. The Night of Broken Glass.
October 1938 saw the forced deportation of thousands of German Jews to the Polish border where some were allowed immigration but many waited. All were uprooted from their homes and dispossessed, many traveled penniless. This deportation was an inevitable result of the cumulative 90 discriminatory, anti-Jewish laws passed in Germany from 1933 to 1935.
Living in Paris was the seventeen year old son of two of the displaced, Herschel Grynszpan. From his sister, who was with their parents, he had received a post card telling him of their plight and asking for any money he could spare. The family had lived in Hanover for twenty seven years. After receiving the post card, Grynszpan purchased a newspaper where he read in graphic detail of the deportations from Germany. On Monday, November 7, he took a loaded pistol to the German embassy where, “in the name of 12,000 persecuted Jews,” he shot Ernst vom Rath, fatally wounding him.
Not wanting to miss a golden opportunity to further their warped agenda, during the night and morning of November 9 and 10, 1938 (seventy years ago today), Nazi goons all over Germany set fire to more than 200 Jewish synagogues and smashed the windows of 7,500 of Jewish owned stores and businesses. One writer called it,
the crowning moment in the wild domestic terror that Germans perpetrated upon Jews.
In villages, towns and cities across Germany, Jewish residents were awakened to the sounds of shattering glass and beaten flesh. Around 100 were killed and some 30,000 taken to concentration camps. A picture from the day shows German citizens lining a street while Nazi policemen march Jewish men toward a transport to Dachau. A Bible twisting sign held in the crowd reads, “Exodus of the Jews.”
It bears remembering that Hitler did not come into power by a coup, but by the will of the people of Germany. Runaway inflation, national shame and the loathed Treaty of Versailles primed the country to listen to the pseudo psychological babblings of the mustachioed madman. The primary motivation that prepared ordinary Germans to accept the leadership of a man who was obviously either crazy, demon possessed or both was not reason; what Hitler believed did not make sense and was against any real science. It was not based on history; Jews had been in Germany, and Europe, for generations. It was not based on parasitism; Jews contributed greatly to the German economy, being hardworking business people.
It was based on fear. German nationalistic pride was in shambles. The German economy was suffering from runaway inflation. The German military forces were supposed to be severely curtailed and military aircraft non-existent. The German people lived in fear of the future and into the leadership void stepped Adolph Hitler, who was welcomed with open arms and admired with open hearts.
About a month ago, we had the opportunity to go to a nearby town and hear a presentation by Holocaust survivor, Eugen Shoenfeld, retired professor from Georgia State University and author of My Reconstructed Life. He recounted his story from the age of 17 when he boarded a crowded train car with scores of other Jews where they rode four days with virtually no food and only a bucket for a toilet. Upon finally arriving at the destination, they began disembarking into two lines at the heads of which stood a man in a leather jacket who was motioning some people to the right and others to the left.
The place was Auschwitz.
The man was Dr. Joseph Mengele.
Many of Schoenfeld’s family were unwittingly condemned on the spot, while he and other family members joined the hundreds of Jews already in laborious, sickening captivity. Schoenfeld lived until he and the remaining survivors were liberated by American soldiers. The irony of being freed by American Lt. Schwartz was not lost on the young man.
Following the story of his life, the retired professor reminded us of the emotion that drove virtually an entire country to support Hitler: fear. He reminded us that fear causes otherwise rational people to do completely irrational things. At that moment in our country, we were just in the beginning of the economic meltdown from the mortgage crisis. Wall Street was in a panic and it seemed that decision after decision was being made as a result of fear, whether a hastily conceived bailout or 401(k) owners selling out stocks and moving into cash. Fear is not a link to wisdom or patience.
Fear, no matter what the “boogie man” behind it, causes people to willingly, and often eagerly, sell their future for a “mess of pottage.” It happens over and over again in our world. Fear of one government causes submission to a war lord. Fear of liberalism causes conservatives to make bad decisions. Fear of another terrorist attack, well, interpret events as you will. Fear war and you vote for Barack Obama. Fear Barack Obama and you vote for anyone else. Regardless of who is president, we can never allow fear to lead us to willingly give up our basic rights. Once given, they are rarely returned. Just ask the Germans. Wearing the cloak of fear, the Reichstag gave unfettered authority to Hitler, making themselves puppets in his dictatorship.
Leadership is forged in time of crisis to be sure, but the hammer of the molding is never fear. Life leadership has to be from faith, wisdom and boldness, never from fear, uncertainty and weakness. If there are any citizens that live free from fear and exhibit the patience to evaluate circumstances based on the truths of God, it ought to be His people. Let it be so.
November 4, 2008
November 3, 2008
October 15, 2008
Following Jesus out of the American civil religion
During this election season, missional pastors will spend much time debating in their own minds how to address the issue of faithfulness to Christ in a time that every third evangelical is doing all but endorsing a straight Republican ticket. Missional pastors, striving to look beyond John McCain or Barack Obama to larger kingdom issues, face potential hostility from members of the congregation who need to be affirmed in their conviction that the voting is always a clear cut issue, that there is always a candidate that more reflects righteousness–righteousness which is determined by a voter guide.
In addition, missional pastors face the challenge of what some have termed “the American civil religion.” Historian Henry Steele centers the bulls-eye with his definition:
A secular faith in American herself, in democracy, equality and freedom which were equated with America in the American mission and the American destiny.
The obfuscation of this civil religion with a thoroughly biblical faith has created a dangerous syncretism in which the “blessing of God on America” is often sought more than the blessing of God on His churches.
Erwin Lutzer, a transplanted Canadian who pastors the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, has released a new book called, Is God on America’s Side? Under a sub-section entitled “The Church’s Diminished Influence,” he makes these observations [underline is original emphasis, bold mine]
I think there is reason to believe that we as members of the evangelical church are experiencing judgment. One sign of this is that the church has increased visibility but diminishing influence. The so-called Religious Right had great plans to reverse the moral trends of our nation. We are told that we have helped elect presidents and have impacted public policy and even the selection of judges. But by identifying these gains as those won by the “Religious Right,” namely, Christians who are in cahoots with a particular party, we have made this nation believe that the church is a political base rather than the dispenser of the gospel…We have cheapened Christ before a watching world.
[…]
The scenario of various religious leaders endorsing one political candidate or another is truly deserving of tears. Some Christian leaders have formed coalitions to “take America back.” The want to “put God back” into our political, legal, and educational institutions. If they have enough numbers and voting power, they think that the hands of the clock can be reversed…In identifying ourselves with a political party and battling for civil religion, we have lost our identification with Jesus Christ.
[…]
An example of civil religion is the recent so-called Christmas wars. If we insist that store clerks must say “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holiday,” what have we really gained? Are the people who are asked to acknowledge the Christmas holiday any closer to faith in Christ or are they simply irritated that they have to conform to our beliefs? And and if we win legislation mandating that the Ten Commandments be displayed in courthouses and classrooms, are we thereby bringing our culture closer to faith in Christ, or antagonizing everyone around us?
Certainly I believe we should keep the phrase “Under God” in the pledge of allegiance, but if it were removed, would the church be weaker? Christ and Caesar have always been in conflict, but I think it is time to affirm that Christ can do well with or without Caesar’s cooperation.
[…]
We want a civil religion because we fear that we might lose our creature comforts if our nation is in decline. I fear that one reason why we are so anxious that the economy remain strong is not so much because we want to use our funds to support the spread of the gospel, but because we all enjoy the American way of life. And we believe that a strong America always translates into a strong church. Perhaps yes, but then again, perhaps no.
[…]
To put this clearly: For some Christians, lower taxes, a strong national defense, and lobbying to “keep Christ in Christmas” are more pressing issues than whether their neighbors and friends will spent eternity with God or be lost forever…I’m convinced that many Christians who are angry today would be pacified if only we could return this country to the 1950’s when there were no drugs, pornography was sold on the black market, and movies, for the most part, portrayed family values. They would be satisfied with this change even if no one were converted to Christ in the process! They would be content if Christ were accepted as lawgiver to restore order to society, even if he were not accepted as Savior to rescue society.
October 1, 2008
We Are Not As Dumb As Washington Thinks We Are
Like we don’t get it.
Tonight Senator Kit Bond on Fox News “Nightly Scoreboard” gave as his examples of the “credit market being locked up” the fact that the states of Maine and Missouri could not sell bonds to build highways. Is he serious? We need for congress to pass a $700B package so that a couple of states can repave some roads and build a few more? These cannot wait a couple of years? Please.
Dave Ramsey, on the same show, said that there are three tiers of credit: The top tier is the major players, LIBOR and such, which have slowed considerably. The second tier is the average Joe with excellent credit, who wants a mortgage or a car. That money is available. I should know: I bought a used car in July with no problem and while in a bank yesterday the offer of a home equity loan at prime+0% was still in full swing. The last tier was the poor credit folks that were involved in the sub-prime crisis to begin with. That market, of course, is gone. The reality is that there is credit, not a “seize up” like is talked about by every talking head.
The government has already approved $29B for Bear Stearns, $85B for AIG, and $200B for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, none of which has solved the problem. Washington, which gets virtually nothing right, now wants to print up more cash to make the American citizen the biggest owner of bad mortgages in the world. In addition to the aforementioned $300+B, the Federal Reserve has released, just this week, more than $600B of cash into the system. The taking over of Fannie and Freddie added $5T to your balance sheet and mine, or subtracted from, as the case may be. We are smelling the Fed’s printing presses burn up printing all the money being injected into the system which, as smart people know, causes inflation. Inflation is a hidden tax that affects everyone by reducing the buying power of your dollar and the value of your dollars in your savings account and 401(k) or 403(b).
The fear of the market has already been exposed. Mad Money’s Jim Cramer believes that “no bailout” will bring the DOW down to 8,800 or so. My retirement has already taken a hit in the order of 20%. The market wants money and probably will not be satisfied with less that a few more hundred billion put into the system. I’m patient enough to wait (but I have learned a little about how to plan when I’m sixty). Of course, the market is due for a correction. The DOW components might get shuffled around a little, but there will be new stars that shine in the shakeout. If Warren Buffet can find deals, so can we. Or we can buy Berkshire Hathaway-B shares and make money with him ;^)
If credit tightens for Main Street, as Princeton’s Paul Krugman said on MSNBC, then that means credit card interest rates could go up and credit limits could go down. And this is bad how? The fact that Americans are too far in debt is standard fare for the business pages. A lid on credit is just what some Americans need. If, as Donald Trump has mused, the price of oil will fall up to 70% with a large stock market correction, then we will all have saved enough money on gas to offset some of the credit we were having to use. If, that is, we can get the oil companies to acknowledge that the price of oil has indeed fallen and quit making up excuses to keep prices high.
The bad bill that was surprisingly defeated in the house of representatives has taken on a new life and new form in the senate. As is usually the case, add-ons now include energy tax breaks, movie tax credits, wooden arrows for children and mining subsidies or credits. Some think those add-ons will not be approved, but that the original bill will be passed. We’ll see.
My point is this: Those of us who are paying attention know that doing nothing is probably going to bring some rough times. We believe that we are ready to endure it. We know that both Washington and Wall Street are thoroughly screwed up and delaying the needed fix is not the answer. There is nothing to gain by continuing to buoy bad business decisions. The reality is that not passing the bill is not the same as “doing nothing.” Not passing the bill is saying that the market can work it out, though some will fail. Socialism is not the way to go. We can exercise patience.
If Americans are anything, they are these two things: creative and resilient. We are resilient enough to endure and creative enough to overcome it.
September 30, 2008
Thoughts on “Pulpit Freedom Sunday”
In his thought provoking book, Exiles, Michael Frost writes concerning the demise of Christendom in the West,
Although the Christendom story no longer defines Western culture in general, it remains the primary definer of the church’s self-understanding in almost every Western nation, including, and perhaps especially, the United States. (emphasis added)
From the misguided efforts of the two Southern Baptist “Justice Sundays” to influence the nominations of supreme court justices, to the feeling that churches ought to get a discount at the local hardware store, to “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” the cries for the return of Christendom resound throughout evangelical life. For anyone alive today in the United State who was born before the 1970’s, the most thorough indoctrination that we have imbibed is not fundamentalism, but Christendom. We have imbibed it because it was all we had to drink. Indeed, until the last couple of decades it would have been as impossible for American Christians to imagine life without our worldview as predominant as it would have been for a 14th century farmer imagining that the pope was not involved in politics.
From the turbulence of the 1960’s in America with free love, free drugs, radical music, the Vietnam war’s impact on society and other culture shaking changes (most neatly bound together at Woodstock) through the fall of modernity near the end of the 20th century, to the rise of postmodern thought, Christendom in the U. S. teetered, tottered and then collapsed. That collapse has reverberated through evangelicalism though many evangelicals didn’t feel it as a collapse; it was only felt as varying salvos in the various skirmishes in the culture wars.
Organizations like the Moral Majority came into existence ostensibly to “return America to God,” never successfully defining what that meant and whether it was even possible. Prayer for “revival in America” was, for many, little more than a cry for Christendom’s return…the Christendom where we were revered, taken seriously, respected, influential in communities and had prayer in schools. The Christendom where “One nation under God” was believed, even if not biblically supported.
In an article on Fox News, Erik Stanley, Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona anti-ACLU legal consortium, regarding “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” had this to say:
Pastors have a right to speak about Biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment. No one should be able to use the government to intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights.
Fair enough. Now if Mr. Stanley could be so kind as to show us where the Bible says “Vote for John McCain” or “Vote for Barack Obama” then we can get on down the road. Of course, as we all know, there is no “biblical truth” having to do with the public endorsement of a candidate in a church. Which “constitutional right,” exactly, has been given up? Were they preaching on the blood atonement? Against hatred of our brothers in Christ? Were they preaching against injustice? Doing an exegesis of 1 Corinthians 13 when IRS agents burst through the door waving tax-exempt revocation paperwork? Of course not.
The simple fact is that these thirty-three pastors, representing maybe a 100th of a percent of America’s pastors were doing absolutely nothing that the Bible requires pastors to do. I’m not saying that they did not feel very compelled to do it. One pastor, however, left little doubt as to why he participated: “Well I’m doing what I’m doing because I’m angry, I’m mad.” And there it is. Why in the world would a pastor get mad because he cannot say, “I endorse John McCain for President” in the course of a Sunday morning message? Churches can hold voter drives, pass out voter information, take people to the polls to vote and serve as voting precincts (ours does). After the service, any pastor can tell any member of his congregation, or all of them, “I intend to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain (or Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin or *snicker* Cynthia McKinney) and encourage you do to the same” without violating any IRS regulation. One Georgia pastor had also been very involved in the big save the 10 Commandments drive related to Judge Roy Moore’s Alabama efforts a few years back. All this, to me, smacks of a desire to return to Christendom, which, for most of us is a return to that with which we are comfortable.
The truth is that for many American Christians our issue is lack of comfort at not being the top dog religion anymore. We don’t know how to respond to tolerance and pluralism and we fear that which we do not understand. I recently read a person who said that America should hold Christian values since the majority are Christians. (Besides the issue that this is probably not accurate, if that is prevailing opinion then we really have not argument against sharia law.) A dufus Georgia lawmaker recently said that the majority should rule in a certain legal quandry. So much for the republic and the rule of law. This is all a clamoring for Christendom.
Churches have spent so much time trying to reinstate Christendom that they have missed the opportunity to reach those who have gown up apart from Christendom or, indeed, grew up in post-Christendom. The strategies needed to reach those born into Christendom are radically different than those born into a time the the Christian worldview no longer dominates. I shudder to think how much energy has been spent in “evangelizing” people who are at a completely different starting place with no frame of reference for our Admit, Believe, Confess, 3-steps-to-salvation presentation leaving us shaking our heads at their “lack of faith.”
Here is my take on our current situation: There is going to be no third Great Awakening in the United States. Christendom has fallen and it can’t get up and, frankly, Christians should be standing on it to keep it down. The church has always done better on the fringe and the fringe is where we are headed. Local churches have a great opportunity to minister in the vacuum left behind by the collapse of Christendom–an opportunity to big to miss.
September 25, 2008
Ten Reasons To Oppose a Wall Street Bailout
This list is part of an article written by J. Boyd Page, and Atlanta attorney specializing in investment and securities litigation. It appeared in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
1. The $700 bill Wall Street bailout is merely a “drop in the bucket.” It will not correct Wall Street’s problems.
2. The bailout plan smacks of cronyism.
3. Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke do not understand the problems confronting the American economy and are not qualified “to be king.”
