Monday, July 31, 2006
Apologies
I must apologize for any incovenience you
have experienced trying to access my website the past few days. As of this writing, it appears the problem has
been solved. We will see.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Pastor Unsettles Congregation
Photo by Bill Alkofer
One boomer generation leader I
admire is Gregory Boyd, left, senior pastor at Woodland Hills, a megachurch in St. Paul, Minnesota. I admire him
in part for his attempt to adapt the Christus Victor theory of the Atonement to 21st century realities. Christus
Victor is a modern label for the understanding of the Atonement that held sway during the first one thousand years
of Christian history. It has since fallen into disfavor in the West, though Eastern Orthodoxy holds
to it still. I don't agree with Boyd's adaptation of the theory but I respect his scholarship.
I respond also to his promotion of the
so-called Open View of God theology, a position he shares with fellow theologians Clark Pinnock and John Sanders.
If Open View is new to you, a good place to start is with The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional
Understanding of God, available from Amazon.com.
Again, I admire Boyd's effort
to exemplify Jesus' incarnational pattern by moving from the suburbs with his family and three other church families into
a predominantly black neighborhood in St. Paul -- this despite the fact that the Woodland Hills congregation is mostly white
and middle class. As a result, the church has added new African-American, Hispanic and Laotian Hmong members.
Finally, although I can't agree
with all of his arguments, I recommend his latest book: The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power
is Destroying the [US] Church. This book, and a series of recent sermons on "The Cross and the Sword," were enough
to cause 1,000 of his 5,000-member church to leave. The saga is reported on the front page of today's New York
Times today.
The New York Times article -- "Evangelical
Pastor Rattles Flock" -- is well worth reading. For a short while, I will place it at the bottom of the
navigation panel, above left: Gregory Boyd Article.
12:02 pm edt
Friday, July 28, 2006
Attitudes Affect Approaches
Recently I read an essay by Dr. Wilbur Stone of
Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, a couple of paragraphs of which express my feelings in this post-9/11 era perfectly:
"The attitude we take toward another people and
their religious faith will greatly enhance or impede our efforts to build meaningful relationships through which we might
then share Christ. If we view their religious faith and religious
practices as mere superstition or, worse, demonic or satanic, we [will likely] approach the followers of such faiths in a
condescending, confrontational, or combative way.
"On the other hand, if we embrace their religious
efforts as being an authentic attempt to encounter the divine, we can then build upon points of contact within [their religions]
to demonstrate how Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of their religious quest.
"Perhaps like the Apostle Peter, we need to learn
that God is aware of and respects every person who is genuinely seeking to relate to God (Acts 10:34-35)."
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Science and Faith
Cornielia Dean, a writer for the New York Times,
cites four books of interest to those of us who follow the science vs. faith discussions/disputes.
Francis S. Collins is the geneticist who led the
American government's successful effort to decipher the human genome. In his just published The Language
of God, Dr. Collins recounts his own journey from atheism to committed Christian faith.
Owen Gingerich, retired professor of astronomy at Harvard, tells how he is "personally
persuaded that a superintelligent Creator exists beyong and within the cosmos." His book is entitled God's
Universe.
Another Harvard professor, the biologist E. O. Wilson, shapes his new book, The
Creation, as a "Letter to a Southern Baptist Pastor." He believes science and religion can be unified
on the common ground of biological conservaton.
Finally, Joan Roughfarden's Evolution and the Christian Faith. She
is the child of missionaries and is currently an evolutionary biologist at Stanford. Interestingly, she is also a transgendered
person and consequently has some views at odds with conventional Darwinian thinking about sexual identity.
11:00 am edt
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Wannahave-more
Appropos of my blog of yeaterday, where I complained
about greed on the part of the wannahave-mores, particularly those in my own country. This morning's headlines confirm
that I am not totally off the mark.
After five years of working toward a new and juster
global trade agreement, the negotiations fell apart. The director general of the World Trade Organization suspended
the talks, saying that he no longer had hope of overcoming resistance in the USA to reducing government subsidies to farm
industries.
Notice I write farm industries, not farmers.
There are few traditional farmers left in the USA. The vast majority of our farms are owned by huge industrial combines.
Thus the opposition to the trade negotiations -- which the World Bank deems essential to alleviating human suffering -- is
being led by the very rich who want to increase their riches at the expense of poor people around the world.
How ironic! For these agri-industrialists
are generally members of the Republican party which prides itself on reducing subsidies and promoting competition and self-support
-- for everyone else, that is.
Jesus told this parable: The ground of a certain
rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops."
Then he said, "This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus
grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and
be merry."'
But God said to him, "You fool!"
Monday, July 24, 2006
Getting to the Root
In my previous blog (below) I questioned leadership that tries to solve problems by dealing
with symptoms rather than root causes. My reference was to the current strife in Lebanon. But the criticism extends
to the ineptness with which American political leaders fight the global "war on terror." Sooner, not later, we will find that the war on
terror, as defined by our leaders, will have to be fought on many different fronts: not only in the Middle East, but in Asia,
Africa, Latin America, even Europe and the USA.
No imperial power such as the USA -- not even
the Roman Empire in its heydey -- is capable of conquering an enemy who surrounds it on every side and within, and
assumes an endless variety of forms. When one terrorist group is defeated, another promptly springs up in its place.
Why? Whether in Japan, Italy, Angola, Colombia,
Indonesia -- or a dozen other areas of the world -- all such groups have this in common: they are have-nots and wannabees
in a world dominated by the haves and wannahave-mores.
The root problem, therefore, is global injustice,
or perceived injustice. This is what our leaders should be working toward alleviating. Especially those who profess
the Christian faith.
Instead, efforts to create social justice are
left up to private individuals such as Bono or Bill Gates, while our politicians concentrate on maintaining, at whatever cost,
the self-interest of the USA.
American globalization, even under the guise
of free trade and exporting democracy, has served only to create a wider gap between the haves and the have nots of our
global community.
There will be no lasting peace in our world
-- and no real security for Americans -- until those who live on the underside of history are given their rightful seat at
the table.
As Jesus
insisted, "He who would save his life will lose it."
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Hard Truth
(NYTimes photo)
72 more innocent civilians, many of them children,
were buried yesterday in Tyre, Lebanon, the home town of my longtime friend Dr. Bisharah Libbous -- "collateral damage" of
Israeli bomb attacks against Hizbullah.
American policy makers support Israel in its offensive,
naively believing the defeat of Hizbullah is a necessary condition for peace. Such thinking is so misguided, it would
be ridiculous if it were not so deadly.
Hizbullah is likely to be weakened, temporarily,
by the current Israeli action, but it is not likely to be defeated. But even if Hizbullah is defeated, a new resistance
movement will spring up within weeks, supported with money and arms by Syria and Iran and possibly the new government
in Iraq.
For there will be no lasting peace in the
area as long as Israel occupies the West Bank and continues to expand Jewish settlements there.
This is not an anti-Semitic observation, just
a simple statement of truth which American policy makers, who have not yet figured out how to conduct a global war on
terror, cannot seem to grasp.
11:33 am edt
Friday, July 21, 2006
The Invisibles
Some
of you will recall that thirty years ago I served for some time as general secretary of the World Evangelical Fellowship,
now called the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA). Geoff Tunnicliffe, a Canadian, currently holds the equivalent post
of international director.
WEA's mission is to foster Christian unity worldwide
and to be a global voice for evangelicals. Today WEA represents more than 420 million Christians through its seven regional
and 127 national alliances (in my day the corresponding figure was 300 million Christians in about 60 national fellowships).
Geoff has just returned from a visit to the Middle
East. He admits the situation there is complicated and confusing. But this, he maintains, should not deter
us from supporting our sisters and brothers who are living out their faith in the midst of very trying and often tense circumstances.
Such circumstances are clearly evident in Lebanon
today, an Arab country which has a sizeable Christian population, including both Arab and Armenian evangelicals.
But the Christian media in America is so intent on generating support for Israel that these Christians are virtually invisible.
Dr. Martin Accad, grandson of a cherished friend
of mine, who is dean of a seminary in Beirut, has posted a blog on Christianity Today Magazine's web site, in a valiant attempt
to bring to light the suffering of these Arab Christians. His blog is entitled Evangelical Blindness on Lebanon.
You can read it, and related articles, at www.christianitytoday.com
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Volunteer Opportunities
If you have any young friends who are looking
for a great way to invest their lives for a year, consider Mission Year, the urban mission program founded by Bret Campolo,
son of the well-known Tony Campolo. Mission Year has powerfully relevant programs in Philadelphia, Atlanta,
Chicago and Oakland. See their web site, http://www.missionyear.org or contact them at info@missionyear.org
Other inner city, one-year programs are available with the Presbyterian Young Adult Volunteers.
or with the Mennonite Volunteer Service,
or the Lutheran Volunteer Corps,
or the Jesuit Volunteer Corps,
Monday, July 17, 2006
Close to Home
Priscilla Bouware is a grandmotherly African-American lady who takes care of the Infants at
our Loving Care Center. We call her "Nana."
She was shot this weekend as she sat on her front porch on Governer Street here in Paterson.
Actually, she was shot in the lower back as she tried to flee into her house. She's at St. Joseph's Hospital now and
is in stable condition. Her prognosis is very positive.
Nana was shot by a former corrections officer who worked at the County Juvenile Detention
Center some years back. This was when my wife, Georgia, serving as County Freeholder, was sucessful in structuring a
new educational curriculum for the teenage detainees. She knew the shooter well and believed him to be mentally impaired.
Readers of My Blog will recall that a few weeks ago I described here the effort our local church
has been making to get the guns off Paterson streets.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Good News
Bob Vidano and the team of American college students visiting Lebanon (see
yesterday's blog) are safely out of danger. They crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border in two taxis a mere two minutes
before the border was officially closed. The Shalhoubs and other Nav team members living in Lebanon also report that
they are safe.
World Mission Associates philosophy statement: God in His providence placed ordinary people like you and me all over the world
in order to accomplish His purpose. Our Christian responsibility is to find each other and encourage each other to become
all that He wants us to be.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Beirut
For those of you who watch TV, the National Geographic
channel has a well-done one-hour piece on the Book of Revelation, Sunday, July 16, at 9 PM Eastern and Pacific times, and
8 PM Central (and, I assume, Mountain) times.
But
what really troubles me today is the renewed violence in Beirut. Thirty years ago, at the beginning of the Lebanese
Civil War, which lasted fifteen years, my own office in the Holiday Inn building in Beirut was blasted to smithereens by artillery
from one of the warring factions. I still have some rocket and shell casings I collected from the rubble.
My special concern today is for my Navigator friends
in Beirut. The new Nav leader for the Middle East, Kamel Shalhoub, and his wife, Badia, live in Beirut. The previous
leader, Bob Vidano, is currently in Beirut with a team of seven or eight American college students. As Nate Mirza reminded
me, their parents must be "going crazy" with anxiety. With huge craters in each of its runways, the airport is non-functional,
the seaports are blockaded, and the main road to Damascus is closed down. For the moment there is no way out of Lebanon.
But the latest word is that all our Nav friends
are safe and that there is a stong likelihood that the American college team will be able to get to Amman, Jordan, perhaps
as soon as today.
Friday, July 14, 2006
77th
I am one of those fortunate seniors who has a
lovely granddaughter, Gillian (a.k.a. Canary) who shares my birthday. So Happy
Birthday, Canary!
Today is my 77th birthday. As the man said,
"If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."
And as I mentioned in the previous blog,
Georgia and I celebrated by driving down to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to visit Glenn Schwartz, founder of World Mission Associates,
and take a tour of WMA's new World Mission Resource Center. It's a beautiful building, well equipped with a library
and replete with technology. We were blessed to be able to donate some of my books to the library.
The distance between Paterson and Lancaster is
not all that great, but there was road construction everywhere and the traffic was heavy. So the trip took all
day. We have just arrived back home -- and if I can get this typed into My Blog within the next few minutes, before
midnight, and if my website host's server cooperates, this will be posted on my birthday.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Favored Reading
The International Bulletin of Mission Research
continues to be among my most favored reading, and has been now for forty years. The current issue has three articles
of great interest to me.
One is about the use of foreign money in the churches
and mission societies of India. There is a strand of thinking in modern missions that holds that foreign money promotes
dependency and is detrimental to both church and mission. The author of this article, however, after interviewing 66
leaders representing fifty Indian mission societies, concludes that the fear of dependency is overrated.
This article interests me because this Friday
(my birthday) Georgia and I will be driving down to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to visit Glenn and Verna Schwartz -- Glenn being
the founder of World Mission Associates and a fervent warrior against the use of foreign money by indigenous churches
and missions. I look forward to hearing his "take" on this article.
Another rich article is about Timothy I of Baghdad.
Timothy was the Catholicos (head) of the East Syrian Church (more commonly known as Nestorians) at the end of the 8th century
and the beginning of the 9th -- that is, during the time when this church was the most widely spread Christian church in the
world, with congregations ranging all the way from Cyprus in the Mediterranean to the interior of China -- and at a moment
in history when the Muslim empire was also at its height and Baghdad was its capital.
The third article I want to mention is one entitled
"My Pilgrimage in Mission" by Roger Greenway. Greenway was either born in Paterson or grew up in Paterson (where his
father was a Christian Reformed Church pastory) -- I forget which. Roger is a noted missionary, missiologist and administrator.
His "pilgrimage" is fascinating -- but "My Pilgrimage in Mission" is a regular feature of the Bulletin and I find all the
mini-autobiographies fascinating.
Sunday, July 9, 2006
Donkey's View
The first is Sandy Fairservice's web site, which
always carries a variety of news and other features. Sandy is a New Zealand journalist with a special interest in creationism.
The second is his personal blog, which is considerably more sophisticated than my own.
12:50 pm edt
Saturday, July 8, 2006
Interested in Disciplemaking?
Ron and Joyce York with colleague Bob Boardman
My friend Ron York, a long-time missionary in Asia, has been writing
and publishing a series of leaflets on the general subject of disciple-
making. To date they include Disciple Maker; Disciple Maker
and Prayer; Disciple Maker...Fisher of Men; and Disciple Maker - Shepherd/Equipper.
These leaflets are finding a wide reception in
such varied places as Africa, China, the Ukraine and Australasia, as well as among Hispanics in the USA. If
you are interested, you may want to contact Ron at ron-y@usamedia.tv You can also reach him at P.
O. Box 664, Osburn, ID 83849.
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Terrorist
Terrorist is the title of John Updike's
latest novel. It is set in my town, Paterson, New Jersey (though in the novel it is called New Prospect). Some
of the 9/11 hijackers were based in Paterson, where they could blend in with the sizeable Arab enclave in Paterson's
south side.
This is not the first novel Updike (left) has
set in Paterson. In the Beauty of the Lilies, his sweeping novel of four 20th century generations,
also begins in Paterson. Updike's portrayal of Paterson is not flattering but reasonably accurate -- after all, no one
matches Updike's exceptional powers of observation.
In some ways Terrorist is terrific.
With a believable protagonist (Ahmad Mulloy, son of an Egyptian father and a Irish-American mother), a gritty urban setting,
and the narrative speed of a thriller, a lot of readers, as one reviewer noted, will be kept awake all night turning pages.
On the down side, the plot of Terrorist
is replete with unlikely coincidences. And Updike doesn't give Ahmad the steely savagery we have come to expect of suicide
bombers. Even so, I recommend the book.
8:49 pm edt
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Patriotism
The Fourth of July, Independence Day. In
historical terms, the acts of violence that created the United States resulted in one of the most remarkable societies ever known.
Immigrants to this country exult in the new freedom experienced. Its wealth and power are unmatched. I doubt
very much that I would trade my American citizenship for that of any other nation, unless the Lord directed me to do
so.
Patriotism -- love of one's native land -- is
a virtue. Among other things, it allows us who are by nature self-centered to transcend our narrow family circle
and participate in the larger community -- even sacrifice ourselves for it, as so many young men are doing today. Rising
above selfishness is a good thing. So why do I find myself reluctant to join in the patriotic celebrations occuring
all over this country today?
I think it must be because I inwardly rebel at
the way patriotism so easily shades into crude jingoism, the attitude that the USA is incomparably superior in every
way to every other nation. I've lived too many years in other parts of the world to believe that for a minute! It is
true that my missionary experiences have made me feel a citizen of the world. And those same missionary experiences
have inculcated a passion for all the world's peoples, especially those that are oppressed and dispossessed.
There is anothr reason. Along with the blessings
our country affords its citizens are countless acts of beligerancy toward others -- economic, political and cultural.
We seem incapable of understanding why others distrust us, fear us, even hate us. Our inability to see ourselves as
others see us troubles me greatly. So I find myself in a somewhat sombre mood today.
12:32 pm edt
Monday, July 3, 2006
An African Perspective
There is an insightful interview in the
current issue of Christianity Today with David "Zac" Niringiye (left), the Anglican assistant Bishop of Kampala, Uganda.
One of the gravest threats to the North American church, he says, is the deception
of power, of being at the center of the things. Those at the center tend to think, "The future belongs to us.
We are the shapers of tomorrow. The execution of mission is on our terms because we are powerful, we have resources,
we are established."
But as Niringiye, a protege of the evangelical statesman John Stott, sees it, God
very often is working most powerfully far from the center. Jesus' ministry was centered in Galilee, a marginal area
of Jewish life. The original missionary thrust dd not begin in Jerusalem but in Antioch, on the periphery. The
future takes shape on the underside of history.
This is a message I first heard and tried to appropriate years ago from the Asian
theologian, Kosuke Koyama,and the Latin American Orlando Costas. New York City is our power center; Paterson is
peripheral. But for more than 20 years now we have seen God powerfully at work in our midst.
6:13 pm edt
