Caffeinated Thoughts |
- Is Freedom of Religion Fading?
- Phoenix Father Begins Jail Sentence For Hosting A Bible Study In His Home
- Steve King: Iowans in the 4th District Have Rejected Obama’s Failed Agenda
- Fifty Shades of Grace
- The Education System’s Neglect of Boys
| Is Freedom of Religion Fading? Posted: 10 Jul 2012 10:00 PM PDT
Their leader, William Bradford, would become their first governor. Captain Miles Standish, the dashing British military officer would become the first commander of the Plymouth militia. William Brewster served as the colony's religious leader and became Governor Bradford's closest advisor. These three along with thirty-eight other leaders all signed what is known as the Mayflower Compact. Before John Alden became the first Pilgrim to set foot on Plymouth Rock the leaders wrote and signed this marvelous document which became their first covenant of government. As we read the opening words there can be no doubt as to the purpose of their voyage. "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subject of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and the advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant a colony in the northern parts of Virginia…." They came seeking religious freedom. They came for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. Over half of them died that first brutal winter but the survivors sowed the seeds of liberty in a land that would grow into a country that embraced their love of God and respected their right to express that love as they saw fit. From Plymouth Rock to Bunker Hill to Yorktown, religious freedom has always been one of our most cherished rights and one of our most staunchly defended principles. But today there is a new wind of secularism blowing that threatens to chill the passion Americans have for religious freedom. This week in Phoenix, Arizona Michael Salman began serving a sixty-day jail sentence for refusing to stop hosting a Bible study in his home. According to Todd Starnes of Fox News Salman is accused of running a church without the required permits. He was at home with his family in the summer of 2009 when close to a dozen police officers and city inspectors descended on his home, confining Salman and his family to the living room while they executed a search warrant allegedly finding 67 code violations. Salman was fined over twelve thousand dollars and sentenced to sixty days in jail. How could this happen in a country that began with people who were willing to die rather than endure religious persecution? In this weeks edition of The Weekly Standard Thomas F. Farr, Director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University's Berkley Center, has a column titled, "Religious Freedom Under the Gun." In it Farr writes, "We are today in the midst of a global crisis in religious liberty. In two exhaustive studies, the Pew Research Center recently concluded that 70 percent of the world's population lives in countries where religious freedom is severely restricted, by either governments or private actors." Farr goes on to reveal that of all the religious groups being persecuted, "Christians came out on top." And the religious persecution is by no means confined to Arab states where Christianity is outlawed. Farr points out that, "Social hostility in the United kingdom has increased so much that that country now stands with Iran and Saudi Arabia in the category of high social hospitality to religion. French government restrictions have increased, too, moving it ahead of Cuba in that category." Imagine…. England, the land of William Wilberforce and Charles Spurgeon is now operating with the same hostility toward Christianity that you would expect to find in radical parts of the Arab world. France, once our partner in securing liberty and originator of the Statue of Liberty that stands in New York harbor now has to look up to Cuba as an example of religious freedom. Since 2005 when Canada officially adopted gay marriage there have been "between 200 and 300 proceedings launched against defenders of marriage in courts, human rights commissions, and employment boards." Farr notes that here at home both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have started using the phrase "freedom of worship" instead of "freedom of religion." This shift in terminology may appear to be subtle but in truth is it sinister. It implies walling off religious points of view from the larger culture, confining religious expressions to the church house and banning them from the marketplace of ideas. In other words, Christians are welcome to believe what they will but they are warned not to will what they believe in the political arena. Especially when it comes to the defense of heterosexual marriage and the condemnation of homosexual pseudo marriage. The rise of the LGBT agenda and its acceptance in mainstream culture will not be fully achieved until the Church is either compromised or silenced. How ironic it would be if that happened in a country that began "for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian religion." Link to this post! |
| Phoenix Father Begins Jail Sentence For Hosting A Bible Study In His Home Posted: 10 Jul 2012 06:48 PM PDT According to News Times Phoenix, Micheal Salmon, who arrived at Maricopa County jail to self surrender and serve his sixty day sentence was sent home by jail officials back in mid-June. Today, July 10, 2012, Salmon began serving his sentence. Salmon was convicted of several fire and zoning code violations in conjunction with the Bible study he hosts at his home. In 2009, more than a dozen police officers raided Salmon’s home and the 2000 square foot building in his backyard, Fox News Radio reported in its coverage of the arrest. Micheal contends that his Bible study is not a church, nor is his building a commercial building; but just a regular meeting with friends to study the Bible, but City Code enforcement states that it is in fact a church and therefore in violation of sixty-seven codes. Some of the violations ranged from not having fire sprinklers, to exit lights above the doors or having handicap parking. In an earlier report, Salmon explained that his guest do not park on the street, they are friends who come to visit in his private home.
Tony Perkins of Family Research Council told Fox News Radio:
Salmon and his attorney plan to file a motion with the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals Court in hopes to quash the sentence, reports Ray Stern of the News Times. Salmon’s wife, in a video made in response to her husband’s arrest, pointed out that God is faithful and the Micheal will be sharing the Gospel to those in jail. She courageously thanked those who have reached out and who are praying for them as they stand for what the believe is their right as American’s, to worship God, with others, in the privacy of their own home. The video documenting the tearful good-bye can be found here. Link to this post! |
| Steve King: Iowans in the 4th District Have Rejected Obama’s Failed Agenda Posted: 10 Jul 2012 02:30 PM PDT
"President Obama's visit to Iowa, a state he carried handily in 2008, shows me he has realized his failed policies leading to unemployment above 8 percent for 41 straight months, massive debt nearing $16 trillionand tax hikes on Iowa families have led to voter's remorse. "While President Obama is traveling to Iowa to try to save his presidency and ObamaCare, I will vote tomorrow to repeal ObamaCare and its job-killing effects. My language for repealing ObamaCare passed the House last year and tomorrow I expect my repeal language to pass again. Christie Vilsack's unwillingness to vote for ObamaCare's repeal would lead to tax hikes, more than $1.5 trillion in government spending and put Americans' health care coverage in jeopardy. "Iowans in the new 4th Congressional District have rejected Obama's failed agenda. They deserve to know why Christie Vilsack, who has said she is running to help re-elect President Obama, has proposed raising Iowa families' taxes by an average of $2,491 per tax return and called a Balanced Budget Amendment to reign in Washington spending 'a gimmick'. She is running to advance policies that have led to record unemployment and debt. "America needs Governor Romney to lead our country. Governor Romney achieved significant success in the private sector, governed effectively, has balanced a budget and met payroll. Under President Romney we will restore our American Dream that has been eroding under President Obama." Link to this post! |
| Posted: 10 Jul 2012 02:25 PM PDT Yesterday, I posted an article on the newest phenomenon in the publishing world. Today I want to explore the reasons fueling the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, and examine why we as believers should be concerned with the foothold it occupies in the American psyche. BLACK AND WHITE AND GRAY AREAS Torture, rape, and romance. The problem for the believer is that nothing in his worldview has prepared him for this sort of engagement. His very innocence insulates him. The Shades of Grey lie outside the typical evangelical experience. I believe this is why so many Christians have remained silent on the matter—we simply don't know; or if we do know, we're not quite sure what to do about it. And sometimes, we want to keep it that way. There are things we don't want to know. There are people we don't want to know. I certainly do not purpose that you read the book; of course I don't. But there are things in our society that move to shape the culture and of these things, we must be aware. The force of the darkness bearing down on the landscape of our future, of our children's future, demands a response—a response Christians are uniquely fitted to give. However one might choose to view Grey, it must not be discounted as a passing fad. It must be understood that a problem exists and that Christian Grey, for whatever reason, answers a need that fits that problem. Indeed, until we grasp the urgency of the matter, we will never come to terms with its solution. Abuse is disgusting, the subject matter is perverse. And for the Christian, everything in his context tells him so. He cannot conceive that anyone would reasonably believe otherwise. In this respect he is "innocent as doves." But the rest of the mandate remains, we are to be "wise as serpents" (Matthew 10:16). CLASSIFYING GRAY There are three approaches Christians appear to take to the Grey phenomenon.
If we say that Grey is an intellectual choice and therefore a private concern—a fantasy and nothing more—we deny the holistic nature of man. Indeed, "our imaginations come from somewhere. Our imaginations may be internal in some ways, but they are influenced by external forces." Such an individualistic approach "typically [reverts] to the most superficial kind of liberal individualism that shuts off people from others, ignores the predictable harms… and ignores the way in which we all collectively construct the culture in which we live."[1] If we grant Grey a primarily moral meaning, we run the double (and perhaps more likely) risk of self-congratulatory goodness (Luke 18:10-14). Though perhaps less obvious, it is nonetheless culpable. This view says, "The danger shall not come near me. I won't read it. Simply ignore it and let it run its course." But just as with the former view, it's not enough. It's not enough to keep a distance. It's not enough to tug at the robes of religion or of reasonable law and hurry by the other side (Luke 10:31-37). In short, it's not enough to be right. We are called to do justice, it's true; but we are also called to love mercy. To walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8), "for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior". (Titus 3:3–6, ESV) THE CASE FOR GREY In the end, I am not sure that either the psychological or the ethical course would make much difference. The Grey series is built on emotion. Raw and simple. And “… egoistic passions, when once let loose, are not easily brought again into subjection to the needs of society.”[2] But feelings do not emerge from a vacuum; they occur within a context, the framing network of a worldview already in place. One's reaction to a story, a song, even a fine piece of art, is largely determined by the context that has shaped his understanding. All his past experiences and history come to the fore, defining, comparing, helping him to perceive. Therefore literature and its variant forms become the stage upon which human emotions are acted, conveyed, and/or understood. Suppose I told you of a man who was asked to slaughter his own countrymen. Suppose I told you that the man looked at those he was to execute—whole families of fathers, mothers, infants, lovers—and willingly took up the implements of their death. Suppose I told you that he didn't hesitate or even shed a tear. Suppose I qualified the account by saying that, apart from this one aberration, the man was essentially a good fellow, a hard worker and well-liked by his friends. Would you believe me? Now, how would it change the story if I told you that the one who issued the request held the man's family hostage? What if you knew that a refusal from him would ensure the worst kind of suffering for his family? What if I told you that he would be forced to watch every tear, hear every plea—all the while helpless to rescue or comfort? How might your understanding change to know that he was given a choice: his wife, his children or the others? It’s a twist that touches the heart and blurs the moral line. A connective point of understanding is reached. Parents comprehend the tale with a vision toward the faces of their children. Husbands see their wives and wives see their husbands. Suddenly the way forward is not so clear cut. Whatever one may think about the man and his decision, the heart is engaged as we ask the question—what would I do if given the same choice? In the same way, Fifty Shades of Grey mak “He’s not a hero, he’s a man with serious, deep emotional flaws, and he’s dragging me into the dark. Can I not guide him into the light?” If we approach the subject with a worldview that says that true love redeems past pain, Grey fits nicely. It's a process Ernest Becker called, "The Romantic Solution." THE ROMANTIC SOLUTION Becker (a non-believer, I might add) postulated that modern man, having denied the sufficiency of the living God, "edged himself into an impossible situation. He still needed to feel heroic, to know that his life mattered in the scheme of things; he still had to be specially 'good' for something truly special… If he no longer had God, how was he to do this? One of the first ways that occurred to him… was the "romantic solution"[3] "In case we are inclined to forget how deified the romantic love object is, the popular songs continually remind us. … These songs reflect the hunger for real experience, a serious emotional yearning on the part of the creature. The point is that if the love object is divine perfection, then one's own self is elevated by joining one's destiny to it. One has the highest measure for one's ideal-striving; all of one's inner conflicts and contradictions, the many aspects of guilt—all these one can try to purge in a perfect consummation… In one word, the love object is God. As a Hindu song puts it: "My lover is like God; if he accepts me my existence is utilized." No wonder Rank could conclude that the love relationship of modern man is a religious problem."[4] After all, said Becker, "If you don't have a God in heaven, an invisible dimension that justifies the visible one, then you take what is nearest at hand and work out your problems on that."[5] SHADES OF REDEMPTION Ultimately, it would appear that Fifty Shades is about redemption. Instead of an intellectual issue or an ethical concern, Shades reveals the gaping wound of a human soul. This is the point at which, I believe, readers connect. According to the book, Christian Grey suffered some form of childhood abuse. It is this abuse, we are led to understand, buried deep within his psyche, which causes him to exact such a toll from Ana. He has been hurt. Badly. He has been shamed and battered and inwardly bruised. He is, as Grey's publisher observed, "a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control."[6] It is not the psychology of Grey that is at fault: indeed, the bulk of his appeal lies in the way of his pain and thwarted circumstance. Rather, the problem with Grey is the way in which he sought redemption. Having dispensed with God, Grey became an end unto himself; truth was what he imagined, duty what he might command. This certainly softens the case for Grey in that we at least have a context for his actions. Still, he is without excuse. No amount of suffering can justify the affliction of an innocent. Indeed, Indeed, Grey's cruel treatment of Ana reveals him to be of the predatory nature that propagates abuse rather than overcomes; the type that forms the catalyst for untold cycles of brutality. A man might tyrannize his home or his nation but the fact remains; he is a tyrant still. TRANSLATING THE GREY So why should we concern ourselves with Shades of Grey? We must care because the matter of Christian Grey has altered the perception of cruelty, stranding abuse in the no-man’s land of preference rather than principle. We must care because Shades of Grey distorts the imagery of the Cross; because it is diametrically opposed to the Gospel message that "the strong are bound to protect and save the weak because God wills it so". We must care because “only in the Gospel "can we hope to keep self-sacrifice, and love, and heroism, and all the things that make us glad to live and not afraid to die."[7] We must care because the Cross pierces the shadowlands with a variegated grace—the rainbow of the promise that God Himself would provide the way out of evil (Genesis 9:16; Revelation 4:3) We must care because of the coming generation; because the littlest reasons are some of the most profound. We must care because books like Grey send a message to men, telling them that Victoria’s Secret is the enjoyment of pain. We must care because Grey teaches girls to expect pain—and not protection—from men; that Jesus, God incarnate, is therefore not to be trusted. We must care because books like Grey amount to emotional pornography for women, enslaving them in a visionary world of un-reality. We must care because for many, Grey is the reality. Every day, every hour, real women and real children live out this kind of torture. They don't like it; they endure it. They don't feel cherished or loved or affirmed; they are regarded as a commodity. (For more information see Wellspring International, a ministry of Ravi Zacharias Ministries, International.) We must care because there are Anastasias all around. The girl in the check-out line. The woman in the sports car. The tired mother wrangling a troop of kids. You wouldn't know it to look at them, but they are Anastasias. In my work at our local pregnancy resource center, I’ve seen the Anastasia Steeles, beautiful young women beaten and worn and afraid. I’ve sat beside them as when they were scared to answer the phone yet too terrified to ignore it. I've taken the phone from trembling fingers and lips that plead, "Tell him you're my friend… that we're visiting… anything… just don't tell him where I am." I've weighed my words carefully, knowing that if I faltered, my conversation would later be read in the bruises on their bodies. And I've knelt beside angry five-year-olds who threaten to "kill Daddy if he hurts my Mama again." No, the Christian Greys of the world are not romantic; they are not sexy. They are evil. We must care because Anastasias are all around us. Hiding their bruises, hiding their scares. Anastasias are all around. FIFTY SHADES OF GRACE In the end, Grey wants redemption. From the abuse of the past, from the pain of the present, for the hope of a future that is free of both. Grey wants redemption. But then, so do we all. And our God is compassionate. The hand that stretched out to write in the sand (John 8:1-10)also stretched out to receive the nails. The arms that enfolded the sinner embraced the Cross. Let us therefore walk wisely before these issues of sin and death and a most holy redemption. Those of us who've been known amazing grace must run to those caught up in shades of grey. (Matthew 4:16) Tomorrow I plan to finish up with a look at how believers can engage a culture that consume Fifty Shades. [1] Robert Jensen, "Just a Prude? Feminism, Pornography, and Men’s Responsibility", http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/mcelroy_17_4.html (accessed July 10, 2012). [2] Russell, Bertrand (2007-03-30). History of Western Philosophy (Routledge Classics) (p. 684). POCKET BOOKS. Kindle Edition. [3] Becker, Ernest (2007-11-01). The Denial of Death (Kindle Locations 2987-2992). Simon & Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition. [4] Ibid. [7] Caplan, Bruce M. (2011-12-20). The Sinking of the Titanic (Kindle Locations 2019-2021). Seattle Miracle Press. Kindle Edition.  Link to this post! |
| The Education System’s Neglect of Boys Posted: 10 Jul 2012 05:30 AM PDT
Brooks writes:
There is a huge problem going on in our culture and it is acutely present in our schools. I like to call it the "wussification of boys." There is an unwritten rule in our culture today that boys would be ok if only they'd act more like girls. Be nice, quiet, sit still, and don't be messy! Boys are different. Because they are active it doesn't mean they have ADHD. Not to mention much of what has been labeled "ADHD" can be attributed to diet and lifestyle. When we let kids watch hours of television and play hours of video games should we really be shocked when they struggle with a short attention span? Probably not, but I digress. Brooks goes on:
Scores for boys are plummeting. We seriously have a crisis on our hands. As college admission standards in many schools are changing in order to allow more men in. The answer Brooks writes:
Spot on David Brooks. Link to this post! |
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