1.15.2014 CHRISTIANITY TODAY (CT)

because of TMI i keep to only two magazines, christianity today and world magazine.
until several months ago, world was my favorite and ct was almost at the point of being dropped.
not that i loved worldmag so much but more that ct was so poor.
in the last several months worldmag has fallen lower and lower,
while ct has absolutely soared. (i'm not given to this but i hope to tell ct...and may world, how i feel.)

i have become an growingly enthusiastic fan of ct.
every month is seems more important to read.
it draws, it seems in a very fruitfully intelligent way, from a wide variety of writers.
the pieces seem to answer, or at least deal with, more and more of the 'right' questions,
frequently bringing welcome light in an unsought for or unknown (to me) direction.
currently reading a book of impressions on martyn lloyd-jones,
i have been 'spoken to' on a deeper level about the need to not just read, but to think.
to him, books were only occasions to think 'christianly' about everything in the world.
his fingerprints, in that regard, are all over ct...may God grant it last...and (too much to ask?!) increase.

world, which deals with current events, sadly slanted in a political as opposed to ideological direction,
has limited firepower in the area of writing power.
(the main reason may be directly related to their good vision of developing and promoting
a christian presence in the newsprint and other related areas.)
but most discouraging is the sense of  a type of 'one slant', single type of mentality on/view of events.
one gets the sense that there is a kind of 'party line' that one must not dare depart too far from...
a seeming departure from the roots of liberal arts...questioning, questing toward truth with no qualifications.

i now find a growing number of things i'd like to share...so time permitting here is a sampling of this month's
christianity today: (i have 10 dogeared sections)

*in 'reply all'

while the mindfulness and gratitude practiced by lamppost farm
is light years ahead of today's standard agricultural practices,
the underlying assumption of the article is that animals were made for human consumption.
yet more and more christians are realizing that eating animals
was not part of God's original design for creation,
nor will it be a part of a kingdom in which
'they will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain'.
i hope CT will highlight some of the reasons that christians are turning back to plant based diets.
sarah withrow king
deputy director, the sider center on ministry and public policy
king of prussia, penna.

whenever somebody claims, 'this (activity) is more spiritual than that one',
i need to give due diligence to determine whether i should adjust
my own spiritual life to encompass the claimed benefit
or if the claim is really, 'i like my secular tradition more than your secular tradition'.
i think you chicken farm article falls into the later category.

christians derive substantial spiritual (as well as financial) benefit from factory farms and processed food,
because those scorned links in the food chain have
freed up millions of people from the drudge of growing and preparing their own food,
so that they can do other things to create wealth
and therefore help others.
i buy TVdinners or canned soup for about $1 each,
and heat them for five minutes in a microwave.
as a computer programmer who works on bible translation software,
i can earn 500 (?!) times the cost of that meal in the time it would
take me to prepare it from local fresh produce.
that doesn't seem like a good investment of the talent God entrusted to me.
tom pittman, bolivar, missouri

in response to the interview with candy gunther brown about her book 'the healing gods,
having grown up in the new age movement,
i'm pretty aware of pantheistic religious influences in many alternative therapies
and absolutely reject them.
however, as someone formerly in the medical field,
i also recognized that there is some scientific basis for many of these practices.
how much each practitioner of alternative treatments adheres to eastern  religious influences
and calls upon spiritual forces varies widely and should be identified prior to treatment.
denise plicht, ct online comment


* a chart detailing same sex marriage laws for 12 states (of the 16 where same sex marriage is legal)
shows the variety of these laws in a helpful way.
delaware exempts clergy from officiating a same sex wedding
maryland and rhode island add to the above
-exempts religious nonprofits from providing wedding services
-protects objectors from private suits and government penalties
-exempts religious marriage counseling, courses or retreats
-exempts insurance coverage by fraternal organizations
-allows adoption/foster agencies to maintain existing placement policies.
along with commentary including,
'if you can't beat them, amend them.
(note: we are not in a theocracy. we fail to see the ongoing
stream of conscious/unconscious sins that would damn us to eternal hell apart from the mercy/grace
of God in Christ Jesus upon those who come to Him as sinners.)
...'law professor thomas b says,
'too many fols see this as an all or nothing matter.
if religious liberty is tied to defeating (SSM) altogether, religious liberty is going to lose'.


*how churches attract millennials (aged 18-34)
'the latest Faith communities today report found that only 16% of 11,000 religious congregations have
'significant' young adult participation (20% + of congregation)
beyond electric guitars and projectors, three of the strongest correlating factors are
1. men..are twice as likely to become involved if women make up 25% or less
2.instability..rapid growth/decline (10% in 10 years) more than 2 times as likely to draw millenials.
3. multiple pastors..twice as likely (as opposed to single pastor)

*interview on p65 on evangelicals foreign policy mission...
the real damage comes when evangelicals speak out without adequate competence and knowledge...

realists tend to emphasize the importance of strong nation states.
without strong nation states, it's very hard to secure human rights.
sophisticated realists would say,
'we need strong states that are also morally good'. (note: yes!)

*(i am more often than not, deeply blessed and challenged by the 'testimony' section on the last 2 pages)
this one by nabeel qureshi.
(brought up in a devout family where his father and grandfather were muslim evangelists (never knew
there were such!)
...as a freshman at old dominion university in virginia, i was befriended by a sophomore, david wood.
soon after he extended a helping hand, i found him reading a bible.
incredulous that someone as clearly intelligent as he would actually read christians' sacred text,
i launched a barrage of apologetic attacks,
form questioning the reliability of chripture to denying jesus' crucifixion to, of course
challenging the trinity and the deity of Christ.

david didn't react like other christians i had challenged.
he did not waver in his witness, nor did he waver in his friendship with me.
far from it-he became even more engaged, answering the questions he could respond to,
investigating the questions he couldn't respond to and spending time with me through it all.

even though he was a christian, his zeal for God was something i understood and respected.
we quickly became best friends, signing up for events together,
going to classes together and studying for exams together.
all the while we argued about the historical foundations of christianity.
some classes we signed up for just to argue some more.

after three years of investigating the origins of christianity,
i concluded that the case for christianity was strong
-that the bible could be trusted and that Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead, and claimed to be God.

then david challenged me to study islam as critically as i had studied christianity.
...when i finally read the sources, i found that muhammad was not the man i had thought.
violence and sensuality dripped from the pages of his earliest biographies,
the life stories of the man i revered as the holiest in history.

shocked by what i learned, i began to lean on the quran as my defense.
but when i turned an eye there, that foundation crumbled just as quickly.
...overwhelmed and confused by the weakness of the islamic case, i began seeking allah for help.
or was He Jesus?
...the way that muslims expect to hear from God is through dreams and visions.
..in the summer after graduating from old dominion,
i began imploring God daily.
'tell me who you are!
if you are Allah, show me how to believe in you.
if you are Jesus, tell me!
whoever you are, i will follow you, no matter the cost.

by the end of my first year in medical school, God had given me a vision and three dreams,
the second of which was the most powerful.
in it i was standing at the threshold of a strikingly narrow door,
watching people take their seats at a wedding feast.
i desperately wanted to get in, but i was not able to enter,
because i had yet to accept my friend david's invitation to the wedding.
when i awoke, i knew what God was telling me,
but i sought further verification.
it was then that i found the parable of the narrow door, in luke 13.22-30.
God was showing me where i stood.

but i still couldn't walk through the door.
how could i betray my family after all they had done for me?
by becoming a christian, not only would i lose all connection with the muslim community around me,
my family would lose their honor as well.
my decision would not only destroy me,
it would also destroy my family, the ones who loved me most and sacrificed so much for me.

i began mourning the impact of the decision i knew i had to make.
on the first day of my second year of medical school,
it became too much to bear.
yearning for comfort, i decided to skip school;/
returning to my apartment, i place the quran and the bible in front of me.
i turned to the quran, but there was no comfort there.
for the first time, the book seemed utterly irrelevant to my suffering.
irrelevant to my life.
if felt like a dead book.

with nowhere left top go, i opened up the new testament and started reading.
very quickly, i came to the passage that said,

'blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted'.

electric, the words leapt off the page and jump started my heart.
i could not put the bible down.
i began reading fervently, reaching matthew 10.37.
which taught me that i must love God more than my mother and father.

'but Jesus, i said, accepting You would be like dying.
i will have to give up everything'.

the next verse spoke to me, saying, 'he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me
Jesus was being very blunt: for muslims, following the gospel is more than a call to prayer.
it is a call to die.

i knelt at the foot of my bed and gave up my life.
a few days later, the two people i loved most in this world were shattered by my betrayal.
to this day my family is broken by the decision i made
and it is excruciating every time i see the cost i had to pay.

but Jesus is the God of reversal and redemption.
he redeemed sinners to life by His death
and He redeemed a symbol of execution by repurposing it for salvation.
He redeemed my suffering by making me rely upon Him for my every moment,
bending
it was there in my pain that i knew him intimately.
He reached me through investigations, dreams and visions
and called me to prayer in my suffering.
it was there that i found Jesus.
to follow Him is worth giving up everything.
(note: oh Lord You Are Beautiful...i am blessed and challenged and encouraged by this brother...)

*there was also an excellent 'best books of the year in 10 categories' section from which i had to write down a number of titles that seemed very helpful...

*in the book review section, a selection from dallas willard's 'living in Christ's presence
...'blessing is the projection of good into the life of another:
it isn't just words.
it's the actual putting forth of your will for the good of another person.
it always involves God,
because when you will the good of another person,
you realize only God is capable of bringing that.
so we naturally say, 'God bless you'.

* also 'why we're losing the war on poverty', an interview with gary haugen involved with the international
justice mission concerning his book, 'the locust effect' , p56

-what is the locust effect and how does it affect poor people?

picture a poor farmer trying to scrapew his way out of poverty.
just whenh the crops have started to show promise, the locusts descent and devour all of that hard work.
that's the locust effect-the way violence impacts the poor in the devfeloping world.
the traditional things we do to assist the poor to get out of poverty don't stop the violence.
the (book) tells the story of the hidden plague of violence.

-your book stresses the rule of law and law enforcement.
we know churches don't have police powers or the power to prosecute,
so what can religious leaders (PEOPLE!) do?

i hope christians will recover their role in building
COMMUNITIES WHERE THE POOR ARE PROTECTED from violence.
christians played a wonderful role in sounding the alarm on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
they became world leaders, confronting it and engaging it...
christians provide moral authority for ensuring that justice systems don't just serve a political faction
or moneyed interests
or are used for extortion or corrupt purposes.
you can find again and again where christian leaders loed that fight 100-150 years ago.

-you say violence against the poor has been invisible. how?
when people think of poverty, they tell you what they see:
the shacks, the dirty water, the hungry families.
those are all the visuals that immediately come to mind.

what they don't see are the
assaults,
the slap across the face,
the rape,
the torture by police and
the extortion.
it's intentionally hidden by the perpetrator.
the victimes are scared and ashamed and its difficult for them to speak.
people don't talk about the things they don't have solutions for.
people working in the development field and in poverty fighting or public health
don't often come from law enforcement.

-what can the average christian do about violence agaist the poor thousands of miles away?
it begins by asking, 'what about the violence in this (note: ie. MY) COMMUNITY?
(note:THEN the next and the next....)
it's the same thing as the AIDS epidemic.
there's tremendous shame around it.
people do not want to talk about it.
the world health organization ways that GENDER VIOLENCE
(accounts) for MORE DEATH AND DISABILITY for women and girls between 14 and 44
THAN CAR ACCIDENTS, MALARIA AND WAR COMBINED.

ask about the violence against women and girls.
OBSERVE WHETHER PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE POLICE
AS PEOPLE YOU RUN TO OR RUN FROM when you are in trouble.
peoplle who work intimately with the poor frequently are quite familiar with violence,
but they don't know what to do, so they don't readily talk about it.

there is a solution for violence:
the basic service the rest of us rely on every day,
law enforcement.

-some christians fear that church bsed justice advocacy will eventually displace formation and discipleship
as the church's core mission.

almost none of those christians would ever live THAT WAY
ktoward the people dearest to them, their own family.
what if the only thing you did was (tell) your children about the christian faith
and (you) never showed them love?
that's just not the way christian parents act.
in fact, they know that if they preach to their kids but don't actually love them,
that none of that preaching is going to convey the truth.

these tired, false dichotomies are from another era when the gospel was divided between word and deed.
historically, the people of God, when they (are) obeying Christ, are used (by) God to bring ujustice to people.

i'm on the side of hope.
ive seen it with my own eyes and i've seen it profoundly in history.

who are the american church's ideal partners for fighting violence?

the ideal partner is the body of Christ around the world.
westerners are not going to parachute in and save the day.
this is a fundamental struggle for justice that's going to have to be owned by the local community.

another partner will be governmental authorities within that community, within that country.
this recovers christian interaction with government.
romans 13 says the authorities are actually ministers of God in order to do justice in the community.
christians in other eras shaped the way the government went about seeking justice and peace in the community.
(note: how did they 'shape'?
LEARNING  (themselves) TO DO GOOD
SEEKING JUSTICE
REPROVING THE RUTHLESS
DEFENDING (vindicate..ie. clear of accusation, innuendo etc.) THE ORPHAN..and any other who cannot
defend themselves)
PLEADING FOR THE WIDOW ISAIAH 1.17
as well as
LOVING THEIR ENEMIES
DOING GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATED THEM
BLESSING THOSE WHO CURSE THEM
PRAYING FOR THOSE WHO SPITEFULLY ABUSE THEM
NOT JUDGING (ie. that's-you are-bad)
NOT CONDEMNING (ie. i will never help you or seek your good for you are too wicked!)
PARDONING (so the prayer 'forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors' can be prayed
with the joyful assurance of immediate and complete forgiveness of our own-many we cannot see-sins.
GIVING (GOOD MEASURE, PRESSED DOWN, SHAKEN TOGETHER, RUNNING OVER
to their worst enemy on down...Luke 6.27-8;36-8