Darfur

I haven't talked about it on this blog, but my other blog is a member of the Coalition for Darfur. In the Sudanese region of Darfur, the world is again faced with the specter of genocide in Africa, and as happened in Rwanda ten years ago, the world is paying little attention. Christianity Today has an editorial on Darfur.

In Sudan, a fragile peace is vanishing at the rate of more than 10,000 corpses per month. Murder, disease, and starvation in Sudan's western Darfur region have taken between 210,000 and 350,000 lives, according to a recent U.N. estimate.

Starting in 2003, Janjaweed Arabs, a Sudan-backed militia, have driven 2 million villagers from their homes in ethnic-cleansing attacks designed to suppress local rebels. Satellite imaging has documented hundreds of burned-out villages. In remote border camps, displaced families live under plastic sheeting with grossly inadequate food and water. They have just enough food to starve—slowly. Already 20 children a day may die in these camps, where 70 people sometimes share one pit latrine.

Eyewitness accounts detailing the militia attacks are horrifying. "They killed my 3-year-old son right in front of my eyes," one father from West Darfur said. Since last fall, women have reported more than 500 rapes. Three women said five militiamen beat and raped them last August. The women said, "After they abused us, they told us that now we would have Arab babies. And, if they would find any [more] women, they would rape them again to change the color of their children."

...

Western Christians can play a vital role in helping to stop violence and start peace on the ground throughout Sudan.

While the president, supported unanimously by both houses of Congress, has done the right thing in openly declaring the slaughter in Darfur genocide, much more needs to be done to raise awareness about the horrors taking place over there and to better support efforts at peacemaking. In addition to the politics, much aid will be needed for the victims. The coalition blog has links to relief organizations.

Justice Sunday

In my last few posts, I have been talking about the corruption that is creeping into so many facets of American evangelical Christianity because of wealth and politics. A demonstration of the corruption from politics could be found this past Sunday. The nation saw the "Justice Sunday, Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith" broadcast from Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky on Christian TV and radio. This was a political operation designed to get evangelical Christians to support a move by conservatives in the Senate to abolish the filibuster as a tactic against judicial nominees.

Now maybe you support this endeavor politically. I won't argue for or against it here. But what business does this political showboating have in a church? A church is for worshipping God and raising up men, women, and children in the Word of God. Politics have no business whatsoever inside the walls of the church! Our faith is not defined by our politics! When we mix politics and faith, we corrupt our faith! We inevitably make politics a part of the faith, redefining Christianity to be, not faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but faith in certain political views. Witness the bumper sticker I wrote about before that equated being a Christian with holding a certain political view on abortion. One's faith in Jesus is not defined by politics. Our faith is not to be filtered through our politics!

This church in Louisville, what are they saying to people in their city desperate to find God but who are perhaps Democrats? What is the church leadership saying to members who may not agree with the politics demonstrated in that broadcast. By associating their church with a certain political point of view, they are telling those inside and outside the church that those who disagree are not welcome. Is this really the message of the Gospel? You're not welcome unless you support the Christian right politically?

Paul wrote, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). In the context of the chapter, Paul is removing the distinctions among the believers within the Galatian church that brought division, emphasizing instead the union and equality of all believers. Politics are intrinsically divisive, and therefore has absolutely no business in the church, and absolutely no business being connected to worship. Pastors across the country must take the lead in keeping these forces of division out of the walls of their church. The pastor of my church did this last year during the election by forbidding members from discussing the different candidates while they were in the building.

I am not against politics, or Christian involvement in politics. My other blog is primarily political in nature (except during the NFL playoffs). But we must be ever vigilant that the division of politics be kept out of the church and away from our faith. Otherwise that faith will become corrupted and worthless.

Bible Translations

Just for kicks, I decided to check out the copyright statements on many of the major English translations of the Bible. Here are some interesting excerpts regarding how much a reader can legally quote from the Bible.

NIV:

The NIV text may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic or audio), up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, providing the verses do not amount to a complete book of the Bible nor do the verses quoted account for twenty-five percent (25%) or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted.

New American Standard:

The text of the New American Standard Bible® may be quoted and/or reprinted up to and inclusive of two hundred (200) verses without express written permission of The Lockman Foundation, providing the verses do not amount to a complete book of the Bible nor do the verses quoted account for more than 25% of the total work in which they are quoted.

English Standard Version:

Publication of any commentary or other Bible reference work produced for commercial sale that uses the English Standard Version must include written permission for use of the ESV text.

New King James:

The text of the New King James Version® (NKJV®) may be quoted or reprinted without prior written permission with the following qualifications:

1. Up to and including 1,000 verses may be quoted in printed form as long as the verses quoted amount to less than 50% of a complete book of the Bible and make up less than 50% of the total work in which they are quoted;
2. all NKJV quotations must conform accurately to the NKJV text.

Hmm. Isn't the Bible the Word of God? Isn't this what we're told constantly? Yes, I'm pretty sure that's right. God's Word. Then how do these publishers have the audacity to place a copyright statement of any kind on their texts? Not only do they have a copyright statement, which controls who can reprint the texts, they have the absolute gall to place restrictions on how much someone can quote from it! Appalling! "Yes, read the Bible, be saved and all that, but don't quote it too much unless you are paying us a fee for the right! And make sure you credit the source of your quotations. No, I mean us, not God." These companies should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Don't even get me started on the idea of selling God's Word for profit, like a radio or a CD.

I recently wrote that the evangelical community "ha[s] been corrupted by wealth." If even the Bible is little more than a product to be marketed and sold for profit, I think the case is pretty much proved.

The Evangelical Scandal

Christianity Today has published a very interesting and challenging interview with Ron Sider, who says the evangelical "movement is riddled with hypocrisy, and that it's time for serious change." The first part deals with how the evangelical community is, in many ways, indistinguishable from the world. I could quote any number of paragraphs, but any one demonstrates his point:

Take the issue of racism. A Gallup study discovered that when they asked the question, "Do you object if a black neighbor moves in next door?" the least prejudiced were Catholics and non-evangelicals. The next group, in terms of prejudice, was mainline Protestants. Evangelicals and Southern Baptists were the worst.

He touches on statistics about sexual immorality, sex abuse, divorce, materialism, and others.

Dick Staub, commenting on the big business that evangelical Christianity has become, describes the problems in the church by writing,

Evangelicals, unencumbered by a radical gospel about sacrifically serving and loving others, [have] replaced it with a gospel of personal, familial and professional success.

How do we turn the ship around?

We need to rethink our theology. We need to ask, "Are we really biblical?" Cheap grace is right at the core of the problem. Cheap grace results when we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins only; when we limit salvation to personal fire insurance against hell; when we misunderstand persons as primarily souls; when we at best grasp only half of what the Bible says about sin; when we embrace the individualism and materialism and relativism of our current culture. We also lack a biblical understanding and practice of the church.

I have long believed that there are serious problems in the evangelical community. We have been corrupted by wealth and political power. I could go on and on with examples, but will save that for another post. I believe it is time for a revival within the evangelical community.

Papal History

Bob Waters gives a lengthy and detailed account of the history of the papacy and the dubious claim that Peter was the first pope, and that the earliest "popes" were actually popes, as we understand them, at all.

The papacy did not spring full-grown from Matthew 16. It evolved and developed- and it is very far from being self-evident that the "popes" of the first century and a half were popes at all in any sense we would recognize today- that is, unless we have an ecclesiastical axe to grind!

It has always seemed to me that Peter was primarily an evangelist, whereas the office of pope is more of an admistrative, pastoral office. Peter wasn't even the head pastor, to use modern designations, of the Jerusalem church! James was. So it seems strange to peg Peter as the undisputed, authoritative leader of the early church.

The Evangelical Pope?

The Boston Globe has a very interesting article on the role of John Paul II in transforming evangelical Christian attitudes toward the Catholic church.

Nevertheless, while no one would mistake John Paul II for an evangelical, he was responsible for a great deal of the normalization of relations that has occurred between the two Christian communities. Evangelicals greatly respected his resistance to Communist tyranny and his efforts on behalf of a ''culture of life.'' They could appreciate the Christ-centered elements of his personal piety, as illustrated by words he prepared for a homily the first Sunday after Easter: ''Lord, who with your death and Resurrection revealed the love of the Father, we believe in you and with faith we repeat to you today: Jesus, I trust in you, have pity on us and on the entire world.''' Evangelicals who have taken time to read the ''Catholic Catechism,'' which the pope shepherded into print, have found a bracing statement of orthodox Christian faith, though of course in a distinctly Catholic dress. Those who have read even some of the pope's many encyclicals recognized one of the 20th century's most astute Christian intellects at work.

I know from personal experience that there is still considerable resistance in the evangelical world to the Catholic church. But part of the late pope's legacy will be a closing of the gap between the two worlds.