Wittenberg Gate

The UCC Ad

The United Church of Christ, disappointed that her, "ad of inclusiveness," could not air on television as widely as she had desired, has made the ad available to you on the web, as you can see by the advertisement flashing on my left sidebar. So go ahead, view the ad and then come back here and share your thoughts.

What disappoints me about this ad is that the UCC, in what she says is an attempt to welcome people to her churches, finds it necessary to unfairly portray other churches. Churches that acknowledge that the Bible includes homosexual behavior among the many sexual sins, are portrayed as having bouncers at the door, turning peaceful people away from the worship service based on appearance--including not only people who arrive with someone of the same sex, but also non-whites. If this was really happening across America I would agree with the criticism. But it isn't. The UCC has constructed a straw man.

I would prefer that the UCC either invite people to church in a positive ad and leave it at that, (as the Methodists have done), or engage in meaningful and respectful debate with churches with whom she disagrees. This ad is meant, it seems to me, to make others churches look mean. But by issuing what appears to be an ad hominum attack, she comes off looking pretty mean herself.

So there is my opinion, what's yours?

Euthanasia: Not Our Burden to Bear

Our faithful canine friend was in obvious pain. He was an old dog, some sort of mongrel with perhaps Akita and Lab in his background. A gentle giant, Gunther had been hauling his 120 pounds around on three legs for years because of an injury to his knee, which in spite of the best veterinary medicine available, had never properly healed. Now we were taking him to the vet, knowing it might be the last time. The diagnosis was swift. He had bone cancer in the injured leg, and other cancers, too. He would only last a few days. He would spend them in agonizing pain. It was clear that the right thing to do was to euthanize the dog. I sat on the floor with his head in my lap and said good-bye as the vet administered a lethal dose of anesthesia.

A few months later Grandmother lay dying. Her aged body had been ravaged by years of diabetes, heart disease and strokes. Now, even feeding her had become impossible, as her veins would no longer hold up to an I.V. and her digestive system was not functioning. As she suffered, in and out of consciousness, I held her hand and prayed with her, and prayed that the Lord would see fit to take her soon.

Those who favor euthanasia might argue that an overdose of morphine would have been appropriate for my grandmother. After all, was her suffering not more important than that of a dog? What value was left in her living? Even she wanted out at this point.

Very often the issue of euthanasia, like abortion, is cast in the light of the worth of life. What worth is there in living a pain-filled, unconscious, or comatose life? Sometimes we even go so far as to question the worth of a life that is physically or mentally handicapped or simply unwanted by others. Of course the question of worth is answered by the Christian in terms of the image of God which all people bear--even the sick, the handicapped and the unwanted. There is worth in the eyes of God, even when we mortals cannot see it.

As important as the issue of worth is, though, I believe there is another important consideration that is often ignored.

Laying Down Our Weapons

Culture, says George Grant, is religion externalized. When you think about it, this definition makes a lot of sense. As we live our lives, we make hundreds of choices a day. How will I spend the next few moments, the next week, the next year? What music will I listen to? How will I decorate and arrange my home? What bumper sticker will I paste on my car? How will I vote? The answers say volumes about my core values and beliefs.

Our actions actually say more about our core beliefs than do our words. I can say the Bible is the standard of belief and practice in my life, but if I go from Sunday to Sunday without opening it, my practice contradicts my words. Perhaps I should say I would like it to be true that the Bible is the standard for my life. Perhaps I should say I would like you to think this about me. It is our actions, then, that form the building blocks of our culture, rather than our spoken creeds.

No culture is monolithic. It is an amalgam of millions of people interacting with one another as they live out their core beliefs in the decisions they make. Some societies are more free than others and allow a wide variety of individual expressions. Others through force or social pressure impose severe restrictions of self-expression by limiting choices that do not support the core beliefs of those in power. But even in relatively free societies, there is an inevitable tension as a multitude of worldviews interact and collide.

There are some, it seems, who label any core beliefs that involve a personal force, such as the Bible's YHWH or Islam's Allah, as religious beliefs, and those that involve an impersonal force, such as materialism's Chance, as secular. The claim is then made that while secular core beliefs (their core beliefs) are acceptable anywhere, the expression of religious core beliefs must be restricted to designated areas where they are less likely to interact with or impose upon others.

This assignation of religious core values to a second-class status is not surprising by those who espouse a materialistic or other god-free value system. It is simply an attempt to apply social pressure to restrict unwanted cultural competition and give more power to their worldview. What is surprising to me is how many theistic people accept the restriction! What is the qualitative difference, after all, between a statement that says Chance governs the fate of men and a statement that assigns this governance to Providence? Both are core beliefs. Neither is scientific. Neither is provable through observation, experimentation or reason.

In this, I believe one of the strengths of the Biblical worldview is being corrupted and turned on us as a weapon. The Bible endorses the idea of freedom of conscience. No human government is authorized by God to judge the thoughts and beliefs of other men. Revelation 19 gives us an image of a conquering Christ. The weapon He wields is a sword, but He does not carry that sword in His hand, He holds it in His mouth. It is the sword of His Word. The Great Commission (Matthew 28) gives the soldiers of the cross our marching orders. We are not told to wrestle power from the godless nations by physical strength, we are told to make disciples. In other words, we are told to teach. Says Paul, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God..." (2 Corinthians 10: 4,5) We are not called upon to impose by force, we are called upon to convince.

There have been times in the history of the Church when this has been forgotten, and we have set aside our spiritual weapons and picked up the weapons of the world in order to win 'converts.' It is important to remember that this problem is always solved by reformation within the Church as God leads His children back to His Word. The problem, though, was not that we were seeking domination by our worldview (as every worldview does). The problem was how we went about it.

Today, however, we are at risk of setting aside our spiritual weapons and giving up the fight altogether. We accept pronouncements that our religion does not belong in polite conversation, in the sciences, in the public eye, in the schools, in the arts, or in the government. We yield those areas to the god of Chance. Because we do not want to impose our religion, we give up  all efforts to accomplish the task of convincing, discipling and taking dominion that God has given us to do. That, I believe, is one of the important struggles within the Church today. We must find that place of balance in which we refrain from attempts to force others to believe, and yet boldly build a culture that reflects the blessings of God's Word, His Law and His Gospel.

Remembering Tabitha Faith

We went to the funeral home today. Dear friends are moving away under very difficult circumstances, and one of the things that must be left behind is the grave of their second child. Tabitha died a few years ago, after spending her entire life on earth cradled in the womb of her mother. In the confusion, the expense and the rush of those days, the marking of the grave had never happened. So, the, "To Do" list for this move includes the business of making sure there is a fitting memorial to this precious child while she rests until the day when her body will rise again, perfect, healthy and new.

Tabitha's father is away at the new location, so today another friend and I went with Tabitha's mother to the funeral home. We chose the stone, and what it would say. We didn't speak of it, but we were remembering those days when Tabitha was in our lives. How sonograms and tests gradually revealed her severe handicaps. How we prayed at first that she was healthy, then prayed that she would be healed, then prayed that her condition would be survivable, then prayed that she might be at least born alive so we could see and hold a living child, if only for a little while. God gently answered, "No."

If Science Is Your Lover

If science is your lover,
You will often weep.
He is heartless, cold, and changeable;
He makes vows he will not keep.

And if you two should marry,
A widow's veil you'll wear,
For one day you'll wake to find him gone,
And a stranger will be there.

What Christ Came to Do: Conquer Death

(This is part 5 of a series of Advent posts on what Christ came to do.)

As the death toll climbs from the Asian tsunami disaster, it is approaching the average daily world-wide death toll.

Using the figures published by the CIA, found here,  for world population and the annual death rate, I calculated that approximately 56.5 million people die every year, 4.7 million every month, and almost 155 thousand every day. The figures are staggering. Every minute 108 people meet the Maker in whose image they were made.

Day in and day out we go on with our lives hardly noticing the death and destruction all around us. Then something like this happens and we pause and take notice. Even if the one-day death toll from the tsunami should reach 150 thousand, as many suggest it will, it will still be only a blip on the statistical screen of the march of death. But we are not talking about numbers here. We are talking about people. Individual people with hopes and dreams, with other people who loved them, each with a unique blend of talents, desires, and personality.

Christians know that all this death entered the world because of the sin of one man and yet through one Man death is overcome.

Happy Holy Days

Does it strike anyone else (besides me) just a little bit humorous that in the world's zeal to secularize the Advent of our Lord, they replace, "Merry Christmas," with the supposedly non-religious, "Happy Holy-days?" You just gotta love it.

Stem Cell Research

bLogicus  has posted a number of links to information on stem cell research, and reports of positive results from stem cell therapy for a variety of conditions, including spinal cord injury and leukemia. Since none of these positive results were gained from embryonic stems cells, but from adult stem cells and stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood, why all the fuss about restricting embryonic stem cell research? Non-embryonic research has had fewer problems and far more positive results--and no one is harmed in the harvesting of the cells.

Words Mean Things

Have you noticed our declining respect for words and what they really mean? It used to be that a dictionary was an authoritative source of information on how words should be used. Modern dictionaries (last 35 years or so) seek merely to reflect how words are used—even if that use is, (Dare I say it?), wrong. (I recommend adding a pre-1965 dictionary to your used bookstore search list. Every home should have one.)

The ability to shift the meaning of words can be a powerful rhetorical tool, especially when you are bringing your argument to the muddle-headed masses. Let’s take abortion, for example. Some say it is about “reproductive choice.” But, obviously, the reproduction has already happened. Our culture does not argue that prohibiting the murder of one’s mother is somehow limiting someone’s “choices.” The argument over abortion is not about choices; it is about whether or not the abortion of an unborn person is murder. It is about whether or not that life ought to be recognized as a person and protected under the law. That is where the real disagreement lies. But to allow the debate to take place on that level is to allow the consideration of the possibility that abortion is murder, and rather than risk losing that argument, those who favor abortion would prefer to divert it altogether. It is easier just to silence the debate by making anyone who raises it look like an oppressive, woman-hating, enemy of freedom.

This tendency to shift the meanings of words is especially dangerous in regards to reading the Scriptures and older works, such as America’s founding documents.