Red Letter Religion And The Emerging Church

The church in America is constantly under attack often without and frequently within.
New ideologies and some so old the present generation thinks they are new constantly emerge causing rifts in churches.
One current issue relates to the inspiration of Scripture. Some persons believe the Bible is inspired in spots and they are inspired to pick the spots. Though a hot topic for some time it has a new twist which is an old ploy. It is knows as Red Letter Christians. Within the movement there is a broad spectrum of beliefs. Therefore, when what they believe is noted there are always those who do not believe some of the tenants who can say that is misrepresentation.
Some within the movement believe only the parts of the Bible printed in red are inspired or they are more inspired than other portions. This raises the question of divine inspiration.
A related issue is found in the Bible within the church at Corinth some said, “I am of Paul,” some “I am of Apollos,” and others, “I am of Christ.” The question posed “is Christ divided?”
The movement has some commendable characteristics. They believe Christians have drifted too far to the right politically and socially. However, if they believe the church has drifted too far right they need to exercise caution they don’t drift too far left. They espouse involvement in such social issues as global warming, homosexual rights, they oppose the build up of our military and pro-gun rights, and are critical of America for not contributing more to third world countries.
The name for the group came about when a secular Jewish Country/Western DJ in Nashville used it in an interview by responding to a guest saying, “So you’re one of those Red-Letter Christians – you know – who’s really into those verses in the New Testament that are in red letters!”
A separate but similar movement espousing some of the same positions is referred to as the Emerging Church. It is sometimes called the “Ancient-Future” church. This growing movement is a greater variant from traditional Christianity. It also has exceptions to any generalized summary of their beliefs. In general they believe in social activism rather than evangelism, a new form of monasticism, multiple interpretations of every Scripture, a new/old form of mysticism, and the disillusion of the organized church. This latter has led to the use of the Internet as a means of decentralized communication.
They espouse religious pluralism and renounce belief in eternal judgment and dispute fundamental doctrines such a the atonement, salvation by faith, hell, and God’s sovereignty.
They advocate commendable activities such as feeding the poor, visiting the sick and those in prison, and abolition of modern slavery.
The reason these two schools of thought are divisive within churches is that pastors who agree with either concept often do not openly admit their involvement and seek to slowly redirect the church. An even bigger challenge is the average church member is uninformed and/or ungrounded in what and why he or she believes and how to respond to the movements.
A third factor is most church members have confidence in the pastor and want to trust him. Therefore they are inclined to follow his beliefs.
Pastors should have the courage of their convictions and not be covert in their belief.

Islam In Iran

  When I write about Islam I have some misgivings. I know there are some peace loving ones who are not given to conflict. Then there are the legions who are true Jihadist like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. 
  President Barack Obama proposes to meet with President Ahmadinejad to talk about peace in the Middle East. It is unlikely they will meet and even talk but any such effort won’t work to achieve real peace. Why!
  The symptom of the problem is Ahmadinejad proposes the annihilation of Israel and the destruction of the great Satan, America. Ahmadinejad believes he has been chosen by God to facilitate an inevitable event.
   Members of his faith, Twelver Shi’as Muslims, believe the final of the Twelve Imams, Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Mahdi, is to be the ultimate savior of humankind.
  At the age of five it is said Mahdi led the prayer at his father’s funeral. Immediately Mahdi went into ghayb or occultation and was hidden by God not to have been seen since.
  As a devout Twelver Shi’a Ahmadinejad believes when world conditions are right Mahdi will reemerge and lead Muslims in world peace. The essential condition needed to set the stage for his return is for the world to fall into chaos and civil war. A blood bath such as no battle has ever produced is essential for the return of Mahdi. To that end he is committed even if it involves the death of many of his own people.
   Ahmadinejad believes he is the human instrument appointed by God to set the table for Mahdi’s return. That is, his life’s mission is to precipitate havoc, pandemonium, tumult, and bedlam.  Carnage and death to millions is his objective.
  For our president to sit down and talk with him about world peace would be to ask him to denounce his faith and renounce his life’s calling. It would mean asking him not to listen to what he believes to be the voice of his God and listen to the voice of our president. To him the voice of our president talking would   be like listening to the voice of Satan speaking. That is not going to happen.
  Iran recently launched a rocket carrying a satellite. In English the name of the rocker was “messenger” and the name of the satellite was “hope.” When he concluded his talk at the UN few knew what he meant by saying may Allah help me to fulfill my mission. His hope is the return of Mahdi. His mission is to welcome him back by global war. War is his hope. What we believe to be devilish, damnable, and diabolic he believes to be his divine calling.
  Israel and many Arab nations know and understand this. That is why they have such concern. Our former president took action in the Middle East with a noble intent only to find that those with whom he was dealing did not hold his values and standards. If President Obama insists on talking peace with Ahmadinejad it will show he doesn’t understand Ahmadinejad’s mission.
  The power brokers in the Gaza Strip are supportive of the jihad efforts of Ahmadinejad. That makes it equally difficult for Israel to talk peace with them. They believe a holy war with   Israel is a noble thing. Jihadist around the globe share the same goal, the annihilation of Israel and the destruction of the great Satan, America. They believe that is the means to the end of the return of Muhammad al-Mahdi.

Our Emerging Muslim World

Starting with the Muslim — Arab Wars in 634 AD and continuing into the late 1800s Muslim armies engaged in an unimaginable conquest. They swept across north Africa, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. Their armies advanced into eastern Europe as far as Austria. Islam exploded from the Arabian Peninsular as far east as northwest India and west across northern Africa to the Pyrenees in Spain and engulfed much of eastern Europe. They controlled a land mass larger than any current nation other than Russia. Their Barbary pirates controlled the seas. They were intent on world dominance in order to convert the world to Islam.
Not all modern day Muslims share their desire but many do. Past ambitions were curtailed but, perhaps only delayed.
The following insights give an indication of how the demographic shift is changing our world. It is a profile of the world our children and grandchildren will inherit.
Statistical studies show a fertility rate of 2.11 per family is essential for a culture to sustain itself. Historically it is shown that if the rate drops below 1.9 that nation will fail. If it drops below 1.3 it is impossible to recover. Consider these current rates in Europe. France the rate is 1.8, England 1.6, Greece 1.3, Italy 1.2, and Spain 1.1. The rate in the 31 nations constituting the European Union is 1.38.
However, the population rate is not declining in Europe. It is growing because of Islamic immigration. In France where the rate is 1.8 among the French it is 8.1 among Muslims in that country. By 2027, one in five people in France will be Muslim. At the current rate in 39 years France will be a Muslim country.
In the Netherlands 25 percent of the population is Muslim. 50 percent of newborns are Muslim.
In Russia there are 23,000,000 Muslims. Shortly 40 percent of the Russian Army will be Muslim.
The German government was the first to speak publicly of this dramatic change. They estimate by 2025, Germany will be a Muslim state.
The 52,000,000 Muslims in Europe are expected to double in 24 years. Since 1990, approximately 90 percent of the growth has been Muslim. By 2050, Europe will be a Muslim state.
In Canada the fertility rate is 1.6. Between 2001 and 2006, the population of Canada increased by 1.6 million. Of these immigrants 1.2 were Muslim. The Muslim faith is the fastest growing religion in Canada.
In America the fertility rate is 1.6. If the Latin population is included the rate is 2.2. In 1970, there were 100,000 Muslims in America. Today there are 9,000,000.
At a recent meeting in Chicago of 24 Muslim nations they stated that at the present rate it is estimated there will be 50,000,000 Muslims in America in 30 years.
These figures show a demographic change but do not indicate what cultural change this will mean. Laws, institutions, and governments in general change when there is such a population and polity change. The ideological deviation will be a seismic shift in society.
Could it be that those of us in churches and synagogues are good timing ourselves to death and singing praise courses while not trying to change our culture or at least preserve it? Are our schools so involved quibbling over the form of reporting they fail to teach what is worth reporting? If this well goes dry we will dramatically miss the water.

Economics And Taxes

Any person who as a child had a little red wagon knows the thrill of riding in it compared to the burden of pulling it fully loaded. Things get complicated when there are more people riding in the wagon than there are pulling it.
The same is true in economics. When there are more people dependent on government than are providing for it a burden is imposed on the providers.
In America we are about there. Under new tax proposals 9% of the population will pay 74% of the taxes while 50% of the population pays no income tax. History reveals this has happened before with dire circumstances.
Pithy comments often communicate great truths. Consider:
“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” George Bernard Shaw
“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself by the handle.” Winston Churchill
“Government is the great fiction, through which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else.” Frederic Bastiat French Economist (1801-1850)
“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it is free!”  P. J. O’Rourke
Further proof that the principle of taking from the rich and giving to the poor is not new. It comes from Voltaire in 1764: “In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.”
Bronze this quote from Thomas Jefferson and put it on the mantel of your mind: “The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
This by Benjamin Franklin deserves to be enshrined in our memory hall of fame: “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
Against that backdrop interpret this by James Bovard, Civil Libertarian: “Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.”
A collection of quotes without one by Ronald Reagan would be incomplete. “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
Economist Milton Friedman confirms this in his quote: “We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidized nonwork.”
Comfort and caution are found in these words by Abraham Lincoln: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
One thing greatly needed in order to preserve our republic form of government and economic free enterprise system is a better informed electorate.
We have in place in America a system that can afford such education. It is the public school system. Educators are objects of my esteem. I appeal to them don’t quibble over what type reporting system to use while failing to educate youth in the virtues that made America not perfect but the greatest nation on earth. Don’t dwell on our imperfections but the principles on which our country was founded and has been enabled to survive.

History Lesson On Economics

One of my most stimulating times in school was when I took four history courses the same term. It is not to be commended. Fitting the right characters with their contemporaries in the right era can get confusing. The study of history is to be commended.
Noah Webster, known as the “Father of American Scholarship and Education,”(1788) said, “Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”
One reason our nation is in the vortex of a destructive milieu is we are being lead by members who for all practical purposes opted out of the study of history.
Harry Truman said the only new thing in the world is the history you don’t know.
Lord Bolingbroke, an 18th century political philosopher, noted that history is philosophy taught by examples. Every historical event was the outgrowth of a philosophy. By studying the events of an era the philosophy that fostered can be known. The outcome of the period reveals whether a good or and unproductive philosophy gave rise to it.
America is now embracing a basic philosophy that has been tried by a number of societies. History records the result of our current political philosophy. We are now taking baby steps tracking the former Soviet Union called Communism. We are not there but we are flirting with a precursor called socialism.
Many older members of our society lived through World War II, the Cold War and other major wars. In keeping with the statement by Bolingbroke we saw the result of the philosophies that gave rise to those totalitarian states. Their failure shouts loud and clear that the philosophy creating such governments doesn’t work.
It is amazing to listen to some leaders of congress in interviews evidence they have no sense of history as they espouse flawed philosophy that has inevitably led to failure. They evidently don’t know the lessons made graphic by history. Or, if they know them they opt to try to defy them.
We have a president enjoying a 65% popularity rating who gives evidence of little or no history of the virtues that created the greatest nation on earth. Are there errors in the fabric of our history? Lamentably there are tragic ones. Let’s acknowledge this and get over self-flagellation in order to distill from our own history the philosophy of government that gave us the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
One brief history lesson form John Marshall (1819), “An unlimited power to tax involves, a power to destroy;   because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” History reveals it has been tried and found wanting.
Daniel Boorstin, a historian and Librarian of Congress, postulated that trying to plan for the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers.