Can You Defend Your Faith? Apologetics and Biblical Literacy

Here's a sobering headline over at The Christian Post (emphasis added):

Most Christians Cannot Explain Their Faith, Apologist Says

The faith of most Christians, even that of many pastors, will not stand up to intellectual scrutiny, according to renowned apologist Josh McDowell.

This is a concern because pastors’ inability to present biblical truth comprehensibly and relevantly has led to children from Christian families leaving the church, research has shown.

In the United States, the age at which nearly all such children leave church has decreased to 18 years.

Not even the children of many successful ministers are spared.

Over the past 17 years, McDowell, famous author of such books as "Evidence That Demands A Verdict" and "More Than A Carpenter",  asked over 4,000 pastors, church leaders and parents why they believe what they believe.  Sadly, only six people came close to giving a decent answer.  The story continues (emphasis added):

“If anything is based upon truth, it’s the Christian faith,” he said. “Christians who do not know why they have faith or believe have a very difficult time expressing themselves to others."

Ninety-five percent of Christians gave disappointing responses when asked why they believe Jesus is the Son of God.

Asked why the Bible is true and historically reliable, Christians replied that it was what they had been taught by their church or parents.

A common response that most Christians gave to both questions was that it is “what I believe.”

McDowell responded: “That’s voodoo thinking. Where did we ever get that crazy idea that something is true just because we believe it?

“If that is true, then there will never be heresy. Everybody would be right.”

On one occasion, 13 youth pastors at a large convention were unable to reasonably answer the apologist’s question.

Finally one young person stood up, walked toward him and told him he knew the answer. The young man promptly held up his Bible and said, “Because I believe it.”

And to McDowell’s dismay, all the youth pastors applauded him.

McDowell said, “Young man, do you know the difference between you, me and the majority of Christians in the world?

“To you, it is true because you believe it. For me, I believe it because it is true.”

Another response the apologist received was: Because I have faith.

He commented, “Where did we ever get the crazy idea that faith makes something true? That’s idiotic. That’s so unbiblical you can call it heresy.

“God doesn’t use faith to create truth. He uses truth through the Holy Spirit to create faith.”

Christians, the apologist stressed, are called to explain their faith when asked. They are set free by the faith in the truth, he expressed, referring to John 8:32.

Yet others say Christianity is true because Jesus changed their lives.

Even this will not stand up to intellectual scrutiny, McDowell argued.

“Lies change lives; cults change lives,” he said.

To make such an appeal is “not the essence of Christianity,” the author emphasized.

McDowell said: “We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our children, we owe it to our neighbors, we owe it to the lost, to tell them not just what we believe but why do we believe it.”

I, too, am concerned about some churches ditching the instruction of apologetics, church history, and Bible literacy in its youth and adult "education" programs.   I have had conversations with a pastor who was not interested in nor saw the need for teaching apologetics, and my concern about the spiritual health of that church grew when, for a time, there were no Bibles in the pews.

In my opinion, the Church, in its present romance with the small groups trend, focuses more on "feel good books" rather than meat-and-potatoes education.  Church members are being fed "cotton candy", lacking in serious spiritual nutrition.  

In an age of growing hostility towards Christians bolstered by a new generation of aggressive atheists and a culture of moral relativism, Christianity and the Church are losing their grip on mainstream culture.  I see it in the work place on a regular basis and experienced it in my recent return to graduate school.

Perhaps that is why the pastor and I disagreed about the need for Biblical literacy -- clergy, in some respects, circulate mostly in an insulated world of like-thinking Christians.  "Civilians", such as myself, are swimming in a strong current of doubt, atheism, multi-culturalism and multi-faithism where "there are no absolutes" and "all religions lead to the same destination" are the mantras of the day.  If you express your Christian beliefs, you are quickly met with eye-rolling, at best.  But, if you couch it in Oprah-style spiritualism, you are warmly embraced in a "let's hold hands and sing Kumbayah" feel good blanket.

So, now that I have the luxury of being on vacation, I pledge to include in my summer reading list several books on apologetics.  Besides the McDowell books mentioned above, another good read I started a while ago (and, as is typical, never finished) is "Busted: Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity" by Fred von Kamecke.  It does a good job of addressing the typical criticisms you hear lobbed at Christianity. 

I want to be able to give a rational and well-reasoned argument for what and why I believe.

¹⁵But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,"    [1 Peter 3:15]

Monkey Trap!

I am so bad about stewing over things ... holding on to those pesky irritations, conversations, wrongs, what have you. When I'm feeling all relaxed or just going about some normal routine, it seems as if my mind has to pull out something for me to ruminate over. Why do I do this?!?

I wonder how many other people also get wrapped up into this negativity. I liken it to the Tasmanian Devil character: my brain has to dredge up something, and I immediately commence spinning over it, getting myself worked up in a lather over something that really is unimportant. As if I don't have enough of other things to think about!

The other day I recalled a terrific story and have been using it to stop the Tasmanian spinning. It's the story of the monkey trap. Now, I've googled around looking for the story and have found different versions with different types of monkeys. So, I'm not sure exactly what type of monkey nor where this actually occurs (if it does), but the point of the story is what is important. I'll go with the version I found at the University of Texas' website where they have an informative post about the perils of perfectionism and rigidity. [Source]

The story goes that in South India, villagers use a special tactic for capturing small monkeys. The South Indians hollow out a gourd or coconut and place some rice inside of it. They leave a small hole in the gourd big enough that the monkey can put his hand through it. But, when the monkey grabs hold of the rice, his fist is too big to pull back through the hole.

Tempted by the rice and driven by hunger, the monkey will reach into the gourd, grab the rice, but suddenly finds he is trapped. He does not know that all he has to do is let go of the rice and he can pull his hand back out. Because he's hungry, however, he holds on to the rice and is unable to pull his fist out. He is trapped, thus making him an easy catch for villagers.

We humans are likewise easily distracted by possessions, ideas, and/or actions. We grab a hold of them and are trapped. However, we want the item so badly that we won't let go and remain trapped. We don't realize that if we let go, we are released from the hold of the trap.

So, lately I've taken to thinking of this story when I find myself doing my Tasmanian Devil spin about something. I just say to myself: "Monkey trap!" and pop my hand open as if I were letting go of that negative thought and releasing myself from its grip. It helps me to recognize that I was starting down that path of negative thinking, and of course that path is always about unimportant nonsense or situations over which I have no control. It does me no good whatsoever to allow my mind to become possessed by them and get myself upset.

Maybe this might help you, too, when you find yourself all in a lather over something ridiculous, something that happened a long time ago, or over something you have no control. "Monkey trap!" Let it go.

Transport For Christ: Mobile Chapels Meet Truckers "at the Well"

I can only imagine how hard life is for over-the-road truckers -- and the temptations with which they are faced in a high-paced, high-stress, long and lonely life.  I found this article at The Christian Post describing the special niche -- or "body part of Christ", if you will -- that Transport for Christ (TFC) has.  They appear to have the polar opposite approach to ministry found in larger congregations, and yet perhaps more practical and down-to-basics. (Emphasis added.)

Truck Drivers Find God at Mobile Chapel

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Daniel Mullins walked awkwardly into the middle of Sunday service at the Wilco Travel Plaza mobile chapel, looking confused and worn out.

He wore a red and black, long-sleeved flannel shirt with a large rip in the back despite the 80 degree summer heat. His eyes were sunken in and his shoulders slumped as if beaten by the world.

“Something just brought me here, I don’t know why,” said Mullins, 47, a truck driver who made an unplanned visit to the Transport for Christ mobile chapel in Harrisburg, Pa., on Sunday.

After spending an hour talking to a chaplain, Mullins emerged from the back room of the 18-wheeler-truck-turned-mobile-chapel with a sheepish smile on his face.

“It was like a weight took off my shoulders,” he explained about his smile and straightened back.
Mullins is among the expected 60 to 70 truck drivers who come or rededicate their lives to Christ each year at the TFC mobile chapel in Harrisburg. There, truck drivers find refuge from loneliness and temptations in a chapel manned by chaplains 24 hours a day, seven days a week.


“We never lock our door, our lights are never off,” David Roberts, the main chaplain at the Wilco mobile chapel, said proudly.

There are 33 mobile chapels in the United States and Canada, four in Russia, and ones being set up in Zambia and Australia. The Harrisburg mobile chapel is the first permanent TFC site in the United States.

The Need
Roberts, who had served as a pastor to six churches prior to being a TFC chaplain, said in his best year as a pastor he led 20 people to Christ. But in his first week at TFC he was surprised that he led 14 truck drivers to Christ.

“To see drivers actually come in and say, ‘Could you tell me for sure how I could become a Christian?' I never heard that before," Roberts said. "It was one after another and I realized that it wasn’t us. It wasn’t the chaplains. The chaplains just have the greatest privilege in the world.”

Roberts said truck drivers are open to the Gospel because they have so much time to think. Drivers are “HALT,” the chaplain said, which stands for hungry, angry, lonely and tired.

“We have all the time to listen to them,” Roberts said. “We build relationships. Jesus Christ came to build relationships … he just had to go to the woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery, the demoniac, the blind man.”

TFC chaplains, said Roberts, do not talk down to the truck drivers.

“We identify with them. When they confess their sins, we confess our sins with them. When they pray for a wayward child, we pray for a wayward child.”

The chaplains shared stories of the people they have led to Christ, including a man who was a member of the Puerto Rican mafia. After the man rededicated his life to Christ, he turned himself and his truck filled with contrabands in to the police. The police allowed him to go free and he lived with Chaplain David Hershey and his family for six months. Other TFC chaplains and volunteers said they have brought home drug addicts and allowed them to live with their families in an effort to rehabilitate them and show them the love of Christ.

Lost Church
At a time when churches are criticized for focusing on bigger buildings and better programs instead of reaching the lost and hurt, the low-budget, no-frills TFC mobile chapels stand in sharp contrast.

Young megachurch pastor David Platt in his new book Radical fretted over how the American church culture defines success by “bigger crowds, bigger budgets, and bigger buildings,” which he says looks nothing like Jesus’ “minichurch” or the early church.

“I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical but that actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe,” Platt wrote.

Jerry Rankin, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board, has complained about how American Christians are neglecting God’s mission.

“Here the people of the world are swarming into our cities – the immigrants, Muslims, the South Asians, Hispanics – and what do our churches do?” Rankin said in a recent interview with The Christian Post. “They abandon where these people are and move out to the suburbs so they can continue to build their programs and fellowship among their own kind of people and neglect the lostness of the people of the world in their own city and neighborhood.”

TFC Chaplain Roberts agrees there is a growing problem with churches in North America, which he said has become a “business enterprise.”

“They say how many bodies can I get into this building, how many bucks can I get out of their pockets so I can put bricks up,” Roberts said. “I’m seeing churches split all over the place because of building this program and that program.”

While Roberts resisted comparing ministries, saying all have an important part in the body of Christ, he said emphatically that TFC chaplains have one shared passion.

“[I]t is to see drivers come to know Jesus Christ, not an organization,” said Roberts. “[O]ur part is a small part focusing where they are at and introducing them to our savior Jesus Christ.”

Jewish Conversion
Last January, Roberts introduced Phil Saunders, a Jewish truck driver, to Christ. The two recalled spending seven hours talking and reading the Bible before Saunders dedicated his life to following Jesus Christ ...

Saunders said his faith conversion has resulted in conflicts with his parents. He explained that Jews consider believing in Jesus Christ as one's savior a betrayal to Judaism. But he said he does not see a conflict between the two faiths but a completion.

“The final piece of the story, if you will, is that now you can suddenly see this is what the picture looks like,” he said passionately.

“Without that one piece called Jesus Christ you have no idea what you are looking at. It might have a name but you have no way of discerning whether it is true, whether it is a lie,” he said. “Even if it is true it is not a complete truth because something is missing.”

He added, “I never knew in my heart that hole here can only be filled with Jesus Christ.”

His wife, who is also Jewish, came to Christ two months after Phil accepted Jesus as his Lord ...

If you're interested in learning more, I found that TFC has a website.  Check out their website at transportforchrist.org.

The Window Through Which We Look.

 [Thanks, R, for this little gem!]

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.  The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean," she said.  "She doesn't know how to wash correctly.  Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly; I wonder who taught her."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life.

What we see when watching others depends on the window through which we look.

"Lord, help me to see others through Your eyes.  And, when I fail to do so, may there always be someone like the husband who clears my vision."

Life Is Like A Donkey in the Well

Great lesson of life ...

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a
well. The animal cried piteously for hours as
the farmer tried to figure out what to do. 

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the
well needed to be covered up anyway;
it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and
help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began
to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the
donkey realized what was happening and cried
horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he
quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally
looked down the well. He was astonished at what
he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his
back, the donkey was doing something amazing.
He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel
dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it
off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey
stepped up over the edge of the well and
happily trotted off! 

*****

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds
of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well
is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of
our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out
of the deepest wells just by not stopping,
never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up. 

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

• Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.

• Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.

• Live simply and appreciate what you have. 

• Give more.

• Expect less 

NOW ....... Enough of that crap.

The donkey later cam back and bit the farmer who had  tried to bury him. 

The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

MORAL FROM TODAY'S LESSON:
When you do something wrong, and try to cover
your ass, it always comes back to bite you.

The Carpenter

My life has been rather hectic lately as my home goes through many much needed renovations: wood floors, paint, siding, windows, fixing a leaky roof and a leaking basement ... lots of things.  The wood floors, though, have been the most exciting!  They are now covered in a lovely bamboo flooring that turned out to be far more beautiful than anticipated.  As the carpenter Joe worked, I couldn't help but reflect on The Carpenter ...

The house was a mile marker: the start of a new venture in my life.  I had gotten divorced the year before I bought the house and was proud to be "making it on my own."  The house was physical proof that I was moving on, leaving a bad marriage behind me, starting anew.  But, during the past years as I struggled to pay for graduate school, I had let things go around the house.  Now, my home was in need of major changes.

In preparation for the carpenter, I had a lot of basement and closet junk to rummage through and throw out.  I had rented a dumpster into which many of my old things went, along with construction-related refuse.  There was one evening that I found myself in tears, as I relived some old memories and made some self-discoveries.  "This is going to be more than just a house renovation," I thought.

In preparation for The Carpenter, we likewise must go through an inventory process: taking account of what we have done, tossing out what clutters our lives and obscures our vision, and keeping those things that are of true help.   We need to reflect on where we have been -- where we have come from, what we have done and accomplished in our lives, and where are next steps will lead us.  Of course, we must be mindful of what true value is and not substitute what is truly important for what only momentarily entertains and distracts us from the real journey before us.

My neighbor the carpenter appears bright and early at my door, greeting me with a big smile and an energy of excitement for a new job.  He meticulously carries in the various tools he will need for the job, placing them strategically about the house and even putting a power saw out on the back deck. 

First, there is the removal of the old carpet: a nasty, dusty job.  I'm so glad to be rid of the 15-year-old berber, having had it installed when I first bought the house.  Then, there was the pounding down of loose nails and the laying down of roofing tar paper all over the floors.  It was a dusty, dirty, noisy environment with all my appliances piled in the middle of the living room.  But, knowing nothing about carpentry and hardwood floors, I found it interesting.

One evening, I watched as Joe the carpenter and his assistant struggled to keep the flooring in straight lines as the wood went down the hall into a guest room.  It turns out that the original carpenter of the house had done a lousy job.  Rooms were not square due to an apparent slap dash job to get the house up and on the market as quickly as possible.  The new carpenter used a red chalk line to help see what I would call "true straight" in spite of the crooked walls deceptively indicating otherwise.  Kneeling closely to the floor with his tools, he would pull and let snap the chalk line,  leaving a bright red line that seemed to glow against the background of the black tar paper.  This was his guide as he finished the stretch of flooring out to the end of the guest room wall.

It made me think of The Carpenter: the color of the red chalk calling to mind the red color of Christ's blood as He hung on the Cross as a sacrifice for our sins -- for my sins.  We humans are incapable of keeping the Law, running crooked against its true and straight lines.  It was in kneeling down close to the red line that Joe could better make out the direction he was to follow.  We, likewise, must kneel down and follow closely, ignoring lines poorly laid down by others and, instead, seek true direction that will lead us to walk in straight lines with God.

And, yet, despite our best efforts, our lives become a crooked mess.  Looking at the sharp red chalk line against the black tar paper, I envisioned Christ's blood dripping down his arms as He hung on the Cross.  We cannot keep the Law and are, therefore, condemned by it.  But, because of Christ's Great Sacrifice, the true, straight line of God's law gives way to drops snaking down and around our imperfections, swirling around our failings, covering over our sins and bringing us back into alignment with God.

How wonderful to ponder that God chose to send His son to earth in human form to be adopted by a carpenter -- Joseph -- who passed on the trade to the Son.  Carpenters create, refine, repair, reshape, strengthen -- and, yes, sometimes tear down and start anew.  It is a skill of creation and recreation, repairing and renewing.  How appropriate for Jesus, our Redeemer.

^"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"  (2 Cor. 5:17 NIV)

I reflect on the glaring mistakes made during the construction of my house -- glaring to Joe, but not to me with my untrained eyes.  I think about my "mistakes" and "shoddy construction" -- some glaringly obvious to me, some embarrassingly glaring to others, and some to which I am sadly (mercifully?) oblivious.  Oblivious, that is, until pointed out to me by an Expert.  And I give thanks that His blood covers over and fills in my transgressions ... my sins.

Preaching God's Word without a Tongue

What an amazing story I read today by Tim Townsend in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  How inspiring that a man could continue on in his ministry despite such hardship.  It truly makes me think of St. Paul and all his trials while spreading The Word. ...  (emphasis added) ...

St. Charles preacher with no tongue speaks wisdom

The Rev. Scott Schmieding sat in an examination room at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston where a surgeon had just examined a malignant tumor in the
center of his tongue.

The tumor was spreading rapidly, the doctor told him. Surgeons would have to remove most, if not all, of the preacher's tongue, and he might never be able to swallow on his own. His speech would likely be unintelligible.

In that moment, Schmieding was not afraid of death or the physical ordeal that he faced. He knew heaven awaited him if he were to die. But he wondered about his calling if he survived. How could he spread the word of God if he couldn't speak?

"I was most fearful that I would never again be able to verbally communicate with my family," Schmieding recalled.

Sitting in the examination room about 13 years ago, he asked God to either make
him whole or take him to heaven. Ultimately, God would do neither.

Schmieding survived the cancer, but he lost his entire tongue. In the years
that followed, he retrained himself to speak using a special retainer and a muscle from his abdomen that surgeons transplanted into his mouth.

On Sunday, Christians around the world celebrate the feast of Pentecost, the
official end of the Easter season commemorating a dramatic scene in Scripture when the Holy Spirit empowers Jesus' disciples to begin spreading the Gospel: "Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability."

For that reference to "speaking in tongues," Schmieding comes equipped with a joke: "I definitely know a person can be filled with the spirit and yet not be
able to speak in tongues, since I don't have one," he said.

Two months ago, Schmieding took on a new ministry, as the congregation at Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Charles welcomed the preacher from Baton Rouge, La.

Though his speech is difficult to follow at times, the church believed Schmieding was the best qualified to lead its flock. The awkwardness of his speech has, in fact, brought more power to his words, parishioners say.

Jana Leppien, who was on the Immanuel selection committee, recalled how one person put it best: "If someone is willing to work that hard to speak, after going through what he went through, I'm going to work twice as hard to listen."

These days, Leppien said, the church is pretty quiet with Schmieding around. "People are listening more. His message is phenomenal."

LONG REHABILITATION

Schmieding left his hometown of Beatrice, Neb., to attend a Lutheran college, where he studied vocal music, then moved to St. Louis to attend Concordia Seminary. He was 27 in 1992 when he was ordained and called to Trinity Lutheran Church in Baton Rouge as associate pastor. His daughter was born there in 1995.

Schmieding had never smoked or chewed tobacco and he had no family history of
cancer. But in 1997, he noticed a sore in the back of his tongue. In an 11-hour
operation, surgeons in Houston sliced open Schmieding's neck from ear to ear and removed his tongue through his throat. Then, they reconstructed the cavity in his mouth with a muscle from his abdomen. Schmieding likes to tell people his former six-pack abs are now only a five-pack.

During his rehabilitation, he suffered from blisters in his mouth from intense
radiation, making his speech therapy sessions agony. He calls it "the most painful part of the entire ordeal."

For eight months, he had to breathe through a hole in his neck, and he ate through a feeding tube. Doctors told Schmieding they feared he would choke to death if he tried to swallow food, and that the feeding tube might be permanent.

The loss of his tongue meant Schmieding permanently lost almost all of his sense of taste. Radiation treatments to his head eliminated the ability to produce saliva. When he did learn to swallow, it was with the help of gravity to push both solids and liquids — with a quick toss of the head backwards — to the back of his throat.

He had to learn how to replace the sounds of consonants in his speech — making the "T" sound, for instance, by shooting air at his retainer, which acts like a megaphone and replicates the traditional sound of the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth.

Having survived surgery and radiation, Schmieding was determined to return to parish life. His first public act as a pastor after his ordeal was to give a sermon at his former church in Baton Rouge and celebrate the baptism of his newborn son.

Despite his zeal, Schmieding did have some misgivings. He confided to his speech therapist: What if parishioners could only understand half of what he said during a sermon?

Her reply? "Isn't that true with most pastors?" he recalled, laughing Schmieding says now that he never asked why he was struck with tongue cancer, but for what purpose. In the 13 years since his diagnosis, he said, he found the answer.

"I have become an expert at adversity," he said, noting that he also lived
through five major hurricanes in Louisiana. "I know what people are feeling when they face trials and tragedy."

Schmieding said he believes strongly in Paul's words in his letter to the Romans that "we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us."

That sense of hope and triumph over adversity has made Schmieding a sought-after public speaker on integrating what he calls "the faith factor" into the healing process to doctors' groups, hospitals and cancer survivor
groups.
...

He consistently relies on one of his favorite verses, from Paul's second letter
to the Corinthians, which has a particular relevance to his own life. In the verse, Paul recounts God's words to him: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."

Schmieding believes strongly that he's been able to reach more people without a
tongue than he would have had he not had cancer.

"The history of the Bible is the story of God using imperfect people for his
perfect purposes," he said. "I'm just one in a very long line of imperfect
people being used by God."

Modern Day Superstition

Isn't it amazing how superstitious people remain today?  I'm not just referring to astrology, tarot cards or Ouija boards.  Those, indeed, are popular among the New Agers and those who enjoy dabbling in occult practice.  But, I'm surprised at people of faith who, although don't participate in the aforementioned activities, cling to such superstitious things as e-mails and St. Joseph statues.

We've all received those annoying e-mails that threaten us with impending doom if we don't promptly forward said threat to at least 10 of our closest friends within 5 minutes of opening said e-mail.  Now, why on earth would I want to threaten my friends?  And, how sad that I would do so just to save my own hide!

Perhaps even more annoying are those e-mails that challenge me to PROVE that I love Jesus by forwarding the goofy e-mail to my friends .... who are mostly Christians in the first place.  And I always thought guilt-tripping your friends wasn't a very nice thing to do.

Do you know what I do when I receive these e-mails?  I promptly delete them!  I say "HAH! to your superstition!"

My next pet peeve of superstition is those who believe burying a statue of St. Joseph in their yard will help them sell their house, either faster or in a deadlocked housing market.  It seems both the home buyer and the real estate agent can do this nifty little trick.   I noticed one website was selling the St. Joseph "kits" at a reduced rate .... I guess having pity on all those folks caught up in the housing market fiasco.  Nice of them.

Why St. Joseph, I wondered?  He's the patron saint of workers, as well as having been deemed by Pope Pius IX in 1870 to be the patron saint and protector of the Catholic Church.  Why would he be helpful in selling real estate?

These modern day "incantations" and "magic charms" drive me nuts, especially when they are practiced by God-fearing individuals who should not be believing in such mumbo jumbo.  Of course, the "proof" always come when you're told about Aunt So-And-So who 'did just that and, BAM!, the next day her house sold!"  I roll my eyes and want to blurt out "yeah, but it would have probably sold the next day anyway!  Not exactly beyond-the-shadow-of-a-doubt proof, my friend."

Speaking of "mumbo jumbo", I got to wondering where that expression comes from.  It went to Merriam-Webster.com and found the following:

Main Entry: mum·bo jum·bo

Pronunciation: \ˌməm-bō-ˈjəm-(ˌ)bō\

Function: noun

Etymology: Mumbo Jumbo, a masked figure among Mandingo peoples of western Africa

Date: 1738

1 : an object of superstitious homage and fear
2 a : a complicated often ritualistic observance with elaborate trappings b : complicated activity or language usually intended to obscure and confuse
3 : unnecessarily involved and incomprehensible language : gibberish
4 : language, behavior, or beliefs based on superstition

Interesting: "an object of superstitious homage and fear" ... "ritualistic observance" ...

Some people might easily confuse "faith" with "superstition."  To me, superstition involves a person implementing an object or ritual in order to control or manipulate God or one's situation.  For example, if I pray the right prayer the right number of times, if I rub prayer beads or a rabbit's foot while praying or wishing, I can manipulate God or manipulate the "powers of the universe."   (Just to be clear, I do not believe that prayer beads are bad.  Interestingly, the world's three monotheistic religions all use prayer beads.  I believe they are to be used to help us focus on "the task at hand", helping to calm our minds as we roll each bead around with our finger tips as we contemplate needs, sins, praise, thanksgiving.  It is not the beads themselves that foment change, but rather they help quiet our minds.)

Faith, on the other hand, involves a relationship with God.  We pray for others or for ourselves so that we build up one another.  I am praying for Christine, Meg and Bob -- not because I believe I can manipulate God into doing my bidding on their behalf, but because it helps me to think beyond myself, to bond in community with other believers ("communion of the saints"), and to encourage those who are suffering.  My prayers are heard by God, but the final outcome is up to Him and is not dependent on how I pray, what tools I use, or if I hop around on one foot while saying a magical incantation.

Ahhhh, those lovely e-mails.  Luckily, someone came up with an ingenuous way to reply to those "friends" who would wish us ill for not forwarding the same malarkey on:

PLEASE PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR MONITOR 

AND REPEAT THESE WORDS WITH ME:

1) I will NOT get bad luck, lose my friends, or lose my mailing list if I DON'T forward an email!

2) I will NOT hear any music or see a taco dog, if I do forward an e-mail.

3) Bill Gates is NOT going to send me money, Victoria's Secret doesn't know anything about a gift certificate they're supposed to send me.

4) Ford will NOT give me a 50% discount even if I forward my e-mail to more than 50 people!

5) I will NEVER receive gift certificates, coupons, or freebies from Coca-Cola, Cracker Barrel, Old Navy, OutBack SteakHouse or anyone else if I send an e-mail to 10 people.

6) I will NEVER see a pop-up window if I forward an e-mail..NEVER-NEVER!!

7) There is NO SUCH THING as an e-mail tracking program, and I am not gullible enough to think that someone will send me $100 for forwarding an e-mail to 10 or more people!

8) There is NO kid with cancer through the Make-a-Wish program in England collecting anything! He did when he was 7 or 8 years old. He is now cancer-free and 35 years old and DOESN'T WANT ANYMORE POST CARDS or GET-WELL CARDS.

9) The government does not have a bill in Congress called 601B (or whatever they named it this week) that if passed, will enable them to charge us 5 cents for every e-mail we send.

10) There will be NO cool dancing, singing, waving, colorful flowers, characters, or program that I will receive immediately after I forward an e-mail. NONE, ZIP, ZERO, NADA!!

11) The American Red Cross will NOT donate 50 cents to a certain individual dying of some never-heard-of disease for every e-mail address I send this to. The American Red Cross RECEIVES donations.

12) And finally, I WILL NOT let others guilt me into sending things by telling me I am not their friend or that I don't believe in Jesus Christ. If God wants to send me a message, I believe the bushes in my yard will burn before He picks up a PC to pass it on! And my friends already know that I love them - whether or not I respond to or forward an email.

Now, repeat this to yourself until you have it memorized, and send it along to at least 5 of your friends before the next full moon or you will surely be constipated for the next three months and all of your hair will fall out.

Oh, and you will have really good luck if you send me $20.

Hee, hee!  :)

Creed of the Modern Thinker

I posted this a while ago on my political/culture blog (Hummers & Cigarettes) and happened to run across it again the other day ... while listening to good ol' Ravi.  Turner's words are alarmingly so true!
_________________________________________

In the mornings as I prepare for my work day, most times I listen to various Christian podcasts that inform, educate and uplift me. It helps me to focus on things that really matter rather than allowing myself to start obsessing about things that are bothering me. (I call it my "Tasmanian Devil routine" when I start ruminating and fretting too much about piddly things. "Stop spinning! You're corkscrewing yourself into the ground!")

One of my favorite podcasters is Ravi Zacharias of RZIM Ministries, a brilliant Christian apologist who was born and raised in India and the Hindu religion. (You can download his podcasts from iTunes.) The other morning he offered a wonderful quote from an English journalist, Steve Turner. Turner's insights into today's society and its wriggling away from notions of right, wrong, and truth are spot on. The ideas he lists are very much like what I hear quite frequently ... especially in the PC world of education.

Creed of the Modern Thinker
Steve Turner

Here is the creed for the modern thinker:

We believe in Marx, Freud and Darwin.

We believe that everything is okay as long as you don’t hurt anyone, to the best of your definition of hurt and to the best of your definition of knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during and after marriage.

We believe in the therapy of sin; we believe that adultery is fun; we believe that sodomy is okay; we believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything is getting better despite evidence to the contrary. The evidence must be investigated and you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there is something in horoscopes, UFO’s and bent spoons. Jesus was a good man just like Buddha, Mohammad and ourselves. He was a good moral teacher although we think basically that his good morals were really bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same; at least the ones we read were. They all believe in love and goodness, they only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes nothing, because when you ask the dead what happens, they say nothing. If death is not the end, and if the dead have lied then it’s compulsory heaven for all except perhaps Hitler, Stalin and Kahn.

We believe in Masters and Johnson - what’s selected is average, what’s average is normal and what’s normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament. We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed. American’s should beat their guns into tractors and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good, it’s only his behaviour that lets him down. This is the fault of society, society is the fault of conditions and conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him and reality will adapt accordingly. The universe will readjust; history will alter. We believe there is no absolute truth, except the truth that there is no absolute truth. We believe in the rejection of creeds and the flowering of individual thought.

If Chance be the Father of all flesh, disaster is His rainbow in the sky. And when you hear “State of Emergency”, “Sniper Kills Ten”, “Troops on Rampage”, “Youths Go Looting”, “Bomb Blasts School”, it is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

Atheists Lose Again in Court: 'God' in Presidential Inauguration A-OK

Hope still remains for America, people!  Michael Newdow, known for his challenges to "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, has lost out on deleting the mention of God from the President's Oath of Office, as well as his attempts to remove the ceremony's invocation and benediction.  This report from Nathan Black of The Christian Post (emphasis added):

Atheists Lose Suit Against 'God' in Presidential Oath

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged prayers and religious elements in presidential inaugurations, including President Obama's in 2009.

The claims made by atheists regarding the 2009 inaugural ceremony are moot, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia concluded, and the plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the 2013 and 2017 inaugurations.

The plaintiffs were led by atheist Michael Newdow who tried to keep the "so help me God" phrase along with the invocation and benediction prayers (led by Revs. Rick Warren and Joseph Lowery) out of Obama's inaugural ceremony.

Newdow, who lost similar challenges twice before, filed suit before the 2009 inauguration. A federal district court, however, rejected the complaint days before the ceremony, ruling that plaintiffs lacked standing. Newdow appealed.

They argued that the religious elements were violations of the First and Fifth Amendments, and in particular the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

References to "God' by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., and the invitation of ministers to pray "might have misled the uninformed to think the imprimatur of the state had been placed on the invocation of the Almighty and contributed to a social stigma against them as atheists," the atheists maintained.
D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown said Friday it was too late to act on Obama's inauguration.

"Whether the 2009 ceremony’s incorporation of the religious oath and prayers was constitutional may be an important question to plaintiffs, but it is not a live controversy that can avail itself of the judicial powers of the federal courts," Brown wrote in the opinion.

"It is therefore moot."

The judges also ruled against the atheists' attempt to block prayer and religious elements from being included in future presidential inauguration ceremonies.

It is really up to the President or the President-elect to choose what to include in an inaugural ceremony, and any other participants, such as the chief justice or clergymen, are "powerless" in that respect, Brown wrote.

Thus, issuing an injunction to prevent the defendants – including the Chief Justice Roberts, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and the Presidential Inaugural Committee – from implementing the future President's inaugural plan would be "folly," Brown noted.

The plaintiffs conceded that the President cannot be denied the prerogative of making a religious reference because doing so would abrogate his First Amendment rights.

"For sure, if it were otherwise, George Washington could not have begun the tradition by appending 'So help me God' to his own oath; Lincoln could not have offered a war-weary nation 'malice toward none' and 'charity for all [] with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right'; Kennedy could not have told us 'that here on earth God’s work' must be our own," Brown wrote.

In a concurring opinion, Judge Brett Kavanaugh said the words "so help me God" in the presidential oath are not proselytizing or otherwise exploitative and use of the phrase is deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition.

Prayers, Kavanaugh added, are also deeply rooted in American history and tradition and the ones said at the 2009 inauguration were also not proselytizing. Though the prayers contained a reference to Jesus, the Establishment Clause does not ban any and all sectarian references in prayers at public ceremonies, he wrote. Moreover, the sectarian references in the 2009 inaugural prayers were limited in number.

Though in agreement with the judgment, Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion that the plaintiffs did have standing to raise an Establishment Clause challenge to the religious elements in presidential inauguration ceremonies. But he rejected the plaintiffs' claims on the merits, concluding that the longstanding practices do not violate the Establishment Clause as it has been interpreted by the Supreme Court in previous cases.

Going Orange: Churches Band Together to Combat "Surrogate Faith"

I came across this article about an interesting movement among some churches working to fight "surrogate faith" with the hopes of preventing youth and young adults from abandoning their faith.  Check this out from Audrey Barrick of The Christian Post (emphasis added):

Thousands Think Orange, Fight 'Surrogate Faith'

Thousands of churches and families are beginning to think orange.

In other words, they're strategically and intentionally combining their efforts and synchronizing their influences to make the most impact on kids and teenagers.

At a time when an estimated two-thirds or more of the younger generation is walking from the Christian faith after high school, churches (yellow for light) and families (red for heart) are realizing the need to become true partners.

Some 4,000 people attended The Orange Conference, April 28-30, in Duluth, Ga., to learn the Orange essentials and be equipped with the tools necessary to better influence the next generation.

Todd Clark, founding pastor of Discovery Church in Simi Valley, Calif., contends the Orange philosophy combats what he calls "surrogate faith."

Just as a surrogate mother carries a child that is not her own but for someone else, there are many Christians who are carrying a faith that is not their own, Clark explained at The Orange Conference on Friday.

"Everything they know about God comes from their favorite author, or their pastor and they never spend any time directly with God so it all comes to them in a surrogate way," he said.

So when such a believer falls, their faith crashes, he noted.


Surrogate faith not only applies to youths but it also applies to parents.

A lot of times, parents want to drop off their kids at church and essentially not participate in their spiritual lives.

"They (parents) want us to do baptism to them (children) and not with them; they want us to basically program out the child's life to where the church is responsible for their faith rather than the parent and that way the parent never has to go to God. They can get everything through their favorite book," Clark lamented.

But in a church that thinks Orange, families are challenged to be more proactive both in their children's lives and in their own faith.

"I think that Orange irritates parents a lot of times," said Clark, "because of the word 'partnership.'"
At Discovery Church, parents are asked to be involved in the faith of their child by growing their own faith. The Simi Valley church equips parents with tools to help lead their kids to know the Lord.

"I love just setting those parents up to be the heroes because the parents are the ones who are going to be there forever," said Clark, who noted that many parents don't feel they have the knowledge or Bible education to lead their children spiritually.

"We're giving them the tools behind the scenes and your daughter [or son] can look at you as a spiritual leader."

"Orange" was introduced by Reggie Joiner, who formerly led the family ministries at North Point Community Church. He argues that when the influences of the church and the home are combined, a greater impact can be made than either of the influence would make individually.

Thinking Orange, however, does not merely mean to work concurrently and effectively in order to accomplish more. Already, churches are full of programs that inspire families and many homes are also serving as positive spiritual environments.

But they have to be in sync, Joiner contends.

"Working on the same thing at the same time is not as effective as working on the same thing at the same time with the same strategy," he says in Think Orange: Imagine the Impact When Church and Family Collide.

"The church and family are at a pivotal time, and there is incredible opportunity for us to redefine how we do ministry," Joiner stresses. "The bottom line is that we as church leaders are called to influence parents to become active partners in the process of their children's spiritual formation. Something needs to shift in our churches so we begin to see what happens in the home is just as important as what happens in the church."

Having been in youth ministry many years, there were times when my fellow youth leaders and I felt like parents sent their kids to camp hoping we could someone give their kids the faith that they themselves lacked.  It seems that, just as with school and sports, parents today believe they can just drop off their kids and let someone else do "the work."  Here, the parents rely on the church to instill faith in their children, overlooking the pivotal role they play in their kids' lives.  Parents cannot expect schools and churches to "fix" their kids.  They need to be the leaders and model what faith is .... maybe growing in faith alongside their children, if need be.

Atheism: Philospher Explores Causes

With atheists having lately taken on a more "in- your- face" tactic with people of faith, it seems that Atheism has launched an all-out assault on religion.  Last month I shared an article about radical atheist author Christopher Hitchens and his Christian brother Peter.  I thought of him as I stumbled upon this article about James S. Spiegel, a Christian philosopher, who explores the causes of atheism.

From The Christian Post (emphasis added) --

Christian Philosopher Explores Causes of Atheism

James S. Spiegel has an uncomfortable thesis to propose.

He contends: Religious skepticism is, at bottom, a moral problem.

A professor of philosophy and religion at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., Spiegel has written a 130-page book, The Making of an Atheist, in response to the New Atheists. But unlike the numerous responses that have emerged from Christian apologists, Spiegel's book focuses on the moral-psychological roots of atheism.

While atheists insist that their foundational reason for rejecting God is the problem of evil or the scientific irrelevance of the supernatural, the Christian philosopher says the argument is "only a ruse" or "a conceptual smoke screen to mask the real issue – personal rebellion."
...

"The rejection of God is a matter of will, not of intellect," he asserts.

"Atheism is not the result of objective assessment of evidence, but of stubborn disobedience; it does not arise from the careful application of reason but from willful rebellion. Atheism is the suppression of truth by wickedness, the cognitive consequence of immorality.

"In short, it is sin that is the mother or unbelief."

God has made His existence plain from creation – from the unimaginable vastness of the universe to the complex micro-universe of individual cells, Spiegel notes. Human consciousness, moral truths, miraculous occurrences and fulfilled biblical prophecies are also evidence of the reality of God.

But atheists reject that, or as Spiegel put it, "miss the divine import of any one of these aspects of God's creation" and to do so is "to flout reason itself."

This suggests that other factors give rise to the denial of God, he notes. In other words, something other than the quest for truth drives the atheist.

Drawing from Scripture, Spiegel says the atheist's problem is rebellion against the plain truth of God, as clearly revealed in nature. The rebellion is prompted by immorality, and immoral behavior or sin corrupts cognition.

The author explained to EPS, "There is a phenomenon that I call 'paradigm-induced blindness,' where a person's false worldview prevents them from seeing truths which would otherwise be obvious. Additionally, a person's sinful indulgences have a way of deadening their natural awareness of God or, as John Calvin calls it, the sensus divinitatis. And the more this innate sense of the divine is squelched, the more resistant a person will be to evidence for God."

Spiegel, who converted to Christianity in 1980, has witnessed the pattern among several of his friends. Their path from Christianity to atheism involved: moral slippage (such as infidelity, resentment or unforgiveness); followed by withdrawal from contact with fellow believers; followed by growing doubts about their faith, accompanied by continued indulgence in the respective sin; and culminating in a conscious rejection of God.

Examining the psychology of atheism, Spiegel cites Paul C. Vitz who revealed a link between atheism and fatherlessness.

"Human beings were made in God's image, and the father-child relationship mirrors that of humans as God's 'offspring,'" Spiegel states. "We unconsciously (and often consciously, depending on one's worldview) conceive of God after the pattern of our earthly father."

"However, when one's earthly father is defective, whether because of death, abandonment, or abuse, this necessarily impacts one's thinking about God."

Some of the atheists whose fathers died include David Hume and Friedrich Nietzsche. Those with abusive or weak fathers include Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire and Sigmund Freud. Among the New Atheists, Daniel Dennett's father died when Dennett was five years old and Christopher Hitchens' father appears to have been very distant. Hitchens had confessed that he doesn't remember "a thing about him."

As for Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, there is very little information available regarding their relationships with their fathers.

"It appears that the psychological fallout from a defective father must be combined with rebellion – a persistent immoral response of some sort, such as resentment, hatred, vanity, unforgiveness, or abject pride. And when that rebellion is deep or protracted enough, atheism results," Spiegel explains.

In essence, "atheists ultimately choose not to believe in God," the author maintains, and "this choice does not occur in a psychological vacuum."
...

The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief was released in February.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: New Bio Reveals U.S. Influence

Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- one of my heroes.  He was a German pastor during World War II who joined The Confessing Church, an opposition group against the Nazis and their take-over of the nation and Church.  Imagine some of the pastors conspiring to assassinate Hitler!  I bet those were some pretty heady theological and ethical debates!

This from Lauren Green of FoxNews (emphasis added):

New Bio of Executed WWII Pastor/Spy Reveals U.S. Influence

On April 9, 1945, 65 years ago today, just a few weeks before an allied offensive brought Germany to its knees and ended World War II in Europe, a young, mild-mannered Lutheran theologian was hanged by the Nazis in Flossenburg Concentration Camp.

His crime ... conspiring to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theological genius of the 20th century, is now emerging as a war hero, martyr and spy.

"What is so amazing about the story of Bonhoeffer is that he puts a completely different spin for us as Americans on World War II," says Eric Metaxas, author of "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" (Thomas Nelson, 2010), the first biography in 40 years of this influential Christian. The book is being released on Friday, the anniversary of Bonhoeffer's execution.

"Christians all over the world have read his books," Metaxas says, "but very few people know the full story of his involvement in a plot to kill the head of the German state."

Bonhoeffer is revealed in the book as one of the few German Christians who refused to appease Hitler and his perverted interpretation of Christianity. Bonhoeffer's staunch resistance to the Third Reich and his push for civil disobedience cost him his life.

His enriched faith, however, was born in America in 1930, when spent a year at Union Theological Seminary. But the most profound American influence was at New York's Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. There he heard the powerful preaching of civil rights pioneer Dr. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., and the deeply emotional music of what he called "negro sprituals."

Bonhoeffer became a passionate parishioner and Sunday school teacher at the Harlem church.

"The experience he had in Harlem deepened his faith in such a way that when he came back to Germany, he felt called by God," Metaxas says. "It wasn't just theology in his head. He felt called by God to obey God. For him that meant very clearly to stand up for the Jews."

Perhaps one other experience in America cemented his "stand for the Jews."

On Bonhoeffer's first and only Easter in the United States, he tried to attend services at one of New York's famous churches. But he couldn't get in; they were so packed, you needed tickets to attend. Wanting to be in a house of worship on Easter Sunday, Bonhoeffer went instead to a synagogue, where he heard the charismatic Rabbi Stephen Wise. Bonhoeffer wrote to his grandmother …

"He delivered an enormously effective sermon on corruption in New York and challenged the Jews, who make up a third of the city, to build from this city the City of God, to which the Messiah would then truly be able to come."

In 1914, Wise co-founded the NAACP, and he was instrumental in the creation of the World Jewish Congress. A synagogue in New York City bears his name.

Wise's grandson, also named Stephen, now in his 80s, has been spearheading an effort to get Bonhoeffer's name listed with Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, in Israel, as one of the "Righteous Gentiles" of the Holocaust.

What Bonhoeffer came away with from his New York experience was a willingness to stand by the true faith. He wrote to Rabbi Wise, telling him what the Nazis were doing to the Jews, and how the "religious" people were complacent.

"There were many German churchgoers, whether they were Christians or not I don't know, but they went to church and somehow they made peace with the Nazis," Metaxas says. "They thought there was nothing wrong. Bonhoeffer had such a devoted faith he knew without any question that the Nazis were anti-Christian and they were evil, and if he didn't stand against them he would have to answer to God." Bonhoeffer believed he was called by God to help those who wanted to assassinate Hitler.

"Bonhoeffer was not a pacifist," Metaxas says. "And that will be news to a lot of people who think of Bonhoeffer as their hero, as some kind of pacifist."

He was willing to be involved in a plot to kill Hitler. "He wasn't helpful as a gunman; he was helpful with contacts all around Europe," Metaxas says. "He had the ability because he had ecumenical church contacts to work as a double agent, and that is what he was, he was a double agent."

The plot was discovered, and Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943.

Two years later, as the Battle of Berlin raged, it was clear that the Third Reich would be defeated. But Hitler wanted his enemies dead, including Bonhoeffer.

On April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer was hanged. Three weeks later, Hitler committed suicide.

On May 1, German forces in Italy surrendered. The next day, German forces in Berlin surrendered. On May 7, 1945, the unconditional surrender of all German forces was signed. The war in Europe was over.

What was left in its wake was the murder of 6 million Jews and a legacy that has tarnished the Christian faith in Europe.

But the legacy that Bonhoeffer leaves future generations is of the untold dangers of idolizing politicians as messianic figures. Not just in the 1930s and '40s, but today as well.

"It's a deep temptation within us," says Metaxas. "We need to guard against it and we need to know that it can lead to our ruin. Germany was led over the cliff, and there were many good people who were totally deluded."

Bonhoeffer, says Metaxas, was a prophet. He was a voice crying in the wilderness. He was God's voice at a time when almost no one was speaking out against the evil of the Nazis.

Lord, I pray that, should I ever face such evil, I might have that same deep devoted faith to do the right thing.

 

Russian Soccer Fans Cheer Christ's Resurrection at Easter Day Match

The Gospel is surely making its way throughout the world and even (re)-infiltrating former Communist strongholds.  First, there was the post I made last month about China's demand being so great for the Bible that printers cannot keep up.  Now, there's this great YouTube clip of Russian soccer fans at an Easter Day match:
\

From Interfax --

Fans greet each other on Easter at soccer match in Moscow

Moscow, April 5, Interfax - Fans greeted each other on Easter at a Sunday evening soccer match at Moscow Lokomotiv stadium.

At the beginning of the second half of the match thousands of fans of Dynamo team started chanting "Christ is Risen!", an Interfax correspondent reports.

Thousands of fans of Lokomotiv teeam on the opposite side of the stadium responded by chanting "Truly He is Risen!"

The exchange took place several times.

The correspondent who has attended soccer matches for almost 50 years says it was the occurrence of this kind in the history of Russian soccer.

[I'm not sure if that last line should read "the first occurrence of its kind."]  

TOMS': Going Shoeless To Raise Awareness

What a cool thing people are doing today around the country ... from The Christian Post (emphasis added):

Tens of Thousands Go Shoeless for a Day

Students, celebrities, churches and entire communities are kicking off their shoes and going barefoot Thursday to raise awareness about the many children who grow up without a pair.

Thu, Apr. 08, 2010 Posted: 09:55 AM EDT

---

Students, celebrities, churches and entire communities are kicking off their shoes and going barefoot Thursday to raise awareness about the many children who grow up without a pair.

"Walking to my car barefoot on the very cold concrete ... Show support, go barefoot today!" said one participant on TOMS' Twitter page.

Tens of thousands of people around the world have signed up to join TOMS' One Day Without Shoes and experience firsthand what going soleless feels like and how impactful a simple pair really is.

"Most people don't realize the amount of people in the world that don't have shoes," said Jamieson Cox, who organized an afternoon march at Penn State University, according to The Daily Collegian. "For people to just see us and start walking with us is our ultimate goal."

Though many are aware of the lack of food, water and shelter that plagues millions, people often overlook the feet, TOMS says.

"Food, shelter, AND shoes facilitate life’s fundamentals," says a statement by TOMS. "Imagine a life without shoes; constantly aware of the ground in front of you, suffering regular cuts and scrapes, tending to infection after each walk, and enduring not only terrain, but heat and cold."

A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Along with the risk of sickness, a shoeless life could mean a lost opportunity to receive an education. Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform.

There are more than 1,300 events listed for Thursday's One Day Without Shoes, many of which include barefoot walks on public streets and college campuses.

Celebrities including the Jonas Brothers, Kristen Bell, Jordin Sparks and Heather Graham have hopped on board.

High schoolers in the Washington, D.C., area are not allowed to go shoeless due to sanitation issues but students will still be participating by wearing shirts or buttons to promote the event. And on Friday, D.C. students will march on the National Mall barefoot after school.

Others who aren't able to go without shoes are participating virtually with their Facebook and Twitter avatars or simply by spreading the word on their social networking pages.

TOMS is asking participants to go either the whole day or just a few minutes without shoes.

The Venice, Calif.-based company was founded in 2006 on the simple premise that with every pair of shoes that is purchased, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. Since its founding, TOMS has provided over 600,000 shoes to children around the world.

TOMS has also made a commitment through the Clinton Global Initiative to give 100,000 pairs of shoes to children in Haiti, where a million were left homeless after January's 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter