Grace, Fear and Our “Rights” Guest Post by Brian Hirschy
September 10, 2010 by cloften
Filed under Family and Parenting
As Americans, we are seriously bent on “our rights.” Having rights, and furthermore actually valuing those rights, has undoubtedly made America into a great nation of freedom. I am very thankful for my constitutional rights. That being said, in America, does this Pastor have the right to burn the Koran – Absolutely. No doubt about it. As a Christian, however, he certainly does NOT. Christian requirements are different, are they not?
Fear is a tricky thing. Fear comes when we aren’t confident in the Lords promises or our true identity in Him – when we aren’t focused on him. Fear is what is happening in New York right now, sparked by what we believe our ‘rights’ to be. Fear is what is happening in Florida right now. The belief that we must to strike back at radical muslims is only derivative of a lack of understanding of God’s sovereignty and a denial that His promises are true. Everyone in the world paint themselves as tolerant people, but how many of us get on an airplane and see an arabic looking person and the thought runs through our mind, ‘Oh crap! It’s a terrorist” or at least watch the person carefully.
It’s easy to strip the humanity from a group of people we have never met. Heck, it’s easy to strip humanity from those you even LOVE. For example, I know their are eskimos somewhere in Alaska, but until I mean one, they will remain what I saw in a book in the 3rd grade. Like I’ve mentioned on my blog, my neighbors are muslim, I have many friends who are Muslim, the guy whose giving me a ride to the airport on Wednesday is a Muslim who knows I’m a Christian and gosh darn it, he still likes me!
This Pastor has stated, verbally, that he is standing up against the ‘radical sect of Islam’ stating that we will no longer bow our knees to them and no longer live in fear. What?! Where’s THAT in the Bible?? How easy is it to insert “We will NO LONGER turn the other cheek! We will no longer bow one on knee!” Seriously, what does the Word say about this? In NO uncertain terms it says this: love them, pray for them, turn the other cheek, give them your tunic (Luke 6). If this pastor hears God’s voice, like Luke says true believers do, he is a SLAVE to these things. Slave = no rights. As an America, I deeply defend his right to do such a thing, as a Christian I strongly state that the Word says he does not.
Like has mentioned several times before, we by now means can expect people to react Godly who are not redeemed – this includes Americans and Muslim nations alike. We cannot expect non-believers to react with grace because it ONLY comes from the Father. Whether the burning happens or not, grace MUST abound and we must ask God to give us the ability to show that grace to both Radical Muslims as well as a man that is set on burning something he fears.
The events that are happening in America right now truly truly tear my heart to pieces. I’ve watched hateful things be spewed all over the place, and more often than not come out of the mouths of Christians. We are allowed to understand what peoples believes are we should not be fearful of them as well.
Even if EVERY SINGLE muslim was an extremist, the Word of God is clear that we are to still not retaliate, still love them, still bless them.
It’s Not Against the Law to Be Stupid. Should It Be?
September 9, 2010 by cloften
Filed under Family and Parenting
I’ve discovered something. If I put the word stupid in the title of a blog post, it gets more hits, especially if the implications are that Christians are doing something stupid. People like that. I will let you decide for yourself why that it is. Nonirregardless, I like to give the people what they want.
I was blogging earlier in the week about the 1st Church of the Doofus in Florida that is planning a Quran burning on Saturday. Read that rant here. The rant was mostly about the undue, overhyped media attention to this group (which apparently I am not helping by blogging about it twice. I’m literally inciting dozens) and hate as a evangelistic strategy.
However, talking about this quickly turns to the question of religious liberty. Is what this group doing protected free speech and the free exercise of the freedom of religion? As with most political and/or spiritual matters, this is not as easy a point as we would like to make it. If you think about it (”Wait! What? Think about it. I’m more inclined to have emotive knee-jerk reactions to things. If you are going to ask me to think deeply, I’m out.” No problem, I’m sure there are plenty of cable news shows on right now where at least 3 people are shouting at each other.), there is a slippery slope but it slopes both directions.
Clearly not all religious acts are protected. The attacks on 9/11 that Pastor Mustachio are “commemorating” are an example of that. To them that was a deeply religious act that they committed. So at least one principle that restricts freedom is if it does someone else physical harm. Well, it is not hard to imagine that the net result of this act in Florida will result in great physical harm to many people. Is the threat of a violent retaliation to soldiers, missionaries and relief workers around the world enough? Is their “right” to burn these books worth the deaths of some soldiers that signed up to serve in order to protect those rights?
I am typically conflicted internally about such things. My default political position is pretty libertarian when it comes to such. On the other hand, that is balanced by a desire that there really should be laws against stupidity (Did I ever tell you that my chemistry teacher my senior year called my friends and me “intellectual snobs?”). I think such anti-stupid laws would help traffic flows and patterns tremendously. However, other than me, whom would I trust to be the arbiter of such laws? Whom would you trust? Do you trust the government to make those determinations? Or are you more comfortable with unfettered freedom?
Let’s say it a different way, would you be willing to give up some of your freedom in order to potentially spare the lives of innocent people in Muslim countries around the world? Would you trade some of it in order for the name of Jesus to not receive the huge “black eye” that it is going to get? Or do you believe that that would move the gov’t one step closer to banning the teaching what you believe if some panel declares what you say to be “intolerant” or “incendiary?” I would suggest that the path to the answer is not an easy one. What say you?
(Read I Corinthians 6, Colossians 2, Galatians 2, I Corinthians 8, if you are interested in reading some passages that talk about our individual freedom and liberty that we have and how to be cautious with it)
Stupidity, Hate and Giving Church a Bad Rep
September 7, 2010 by cloften
Filed under Family and Parenting
I’m back here at the old computer on a Tuesday morning (feels like a Monday) after a long weekend. We made a whirlwind trip back to Cabot to pick up some stuff from the house. Haven’t been on the computer all weekend, shocking I know.
So, I’m catching up on the old news cycle to see what I’ve missed. Apparently, I have been way out of the loop on something. There is a “church” that is planning on burning the Quran on Saturday to commemorate (?), honor (?), remember (?) 9/11. This apparently was announced in July, but just made my radar screen because General Petraeus is warning that it is not a good idea (you think?) and could endanger the troops.
There are so many rants to be had here, I don’t know where to begin or how to get them all in effectively apart from a 3000 word post that only my mom would read. How about we take some of them popcorn style?
NEWS: Church of 50 people plans to burn Quran. IN OTHER NEWS: 4 teenagers from Southeast Arkansas plan to tip over cows after talking older brother into buying them cheap beer at convenience store.
This is not intended to be a knock at small churches. More than half of the churches in America are less than 100 people. Many people find and worship God there every week. On the other hand, since when do the actions of 50 people become worldwide headlines? Groups of 50 people do stupid things all the time. Can we just agree that we give the lunatic fringe in our society way too much publicity? I understand outrage. I’m outraged by this. But what do you think would happen if we just ignored publicity-starved, attention-hungry stupid people? (That wasn’t popcorn style. My bad.)
“The goal of these and other protests are to give Muslims an opportunity to convert, he (Pastor Terry Jones) said.”
Really? Really? That’s the goal. Imagine that committee meeting. “Guys, what can we do to help Muslims see that they need Jesus?” “Hmmmm…” “How about we take the book they take to be most holy, collect a whole bunch of them, and burn them?” “Yeah, then they’ll see that true forgiveness is found in Jesus.” “Ok, is it going to be a potluck?”
Now this won’t come as a surprise to most of you, but I am neither a universalist or a pluralist. (Universalist–believes that ultimately everyone is or will be in good standing before God. Pluralist–believes that there are multiple paths to God.) As such, I believe that everyone needs the forgiveness that is offered through Jesus and his sacrifice. I understand that is controversial in many circles. It is that belief combined with a love for people that compels me to be a pastor and to tell people about having a relationship with God.
What compels the burning of the Quran? Does that Pastor’s heart break when he thinks of people separated from God? Or does it make him angry that people follow another religion? Why would it make him angry? Does he think he is better than them? If Ephesians 2:8-10 is true (hint: I believe it is), then there is nothing special about him that made him worthy of a relationship with God. There is certainly nothing particularly great in the mind of God that he was born in America that makes him more worthy than another.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with the basic premise that all people need Jesus, I would like to think that we could all agree that the best way to communicate that message is with love, compassion and grace. The same love, compassion, and grace that Jesus modeled when he was here and the same that he showed those that follow him today.
We certainly don’t want to show hatred and contempt to 1 billion Muslims because of the acts of violent extremism that some of their followers showed us any more than we want them to do the same because 50 people in Florida had a bad idea.
Thanks for indulging that. I feel better now. Anyone want to go cow tipping?