Religion | Ain't Complicated

Tired Of Questions

Mr. Obama is.

Democrat Barack Obama said he’s tired of questions about his religion.

Barack Obama yesterday lashed out at political enemies who are spreading false rumors that he’s a closet Muslim as he proclaimed, “I pray to Jesus every night.”

“I am a devout Christian,” he told voters in this key state.

“I pray to Jesus every night and try to go to church as much as I can.”

Tired of questions about your ~~faith~~ religion, eh?

In his shoes, I suppose I would be as well.

But when I saw that story, I thought of some verses (though they are about faith in and relationship with Jesus, not about religion).

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

In further looking, I found this verse:

“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25).

Somebody please pass the word along to Mr. Obama.

Thanks.

Sister-Wives

Here’s a good story for those who shun their denominational names in favor of “only” Christian. 😉

Polygamists hit the Web in search of ‘sister-wives’

Albert Morrison is a religious man. He prays, he reads the Bible and says he has a deep connection with Jesus. It is this devotion that helps explain why Albert and his wife, Sarah, are searching for a second wife.

“David, Abraham, Jacob, Solomon — they all had multiple wives,” he said, referring to the four of the Bible’s most revered prophets. “The Bible never banned polygamy, it glorified it.”

The Morrisons are part of a group of Evangelical Christian polygamists who believe that polygamy, the practice of taking more than one wife, is spiritually and even economically more favorable than monogamy.

I included the Christianity 101 category for this post because I wonder if any readers have any Bible passages that refute the above abomination.

(And what passage does that guy use to show the Bible “glorifying” polygamy?!)

Test Your Movies

The Motion Picture Production Code

A Code to Govern the Making of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures. Formulated and formally adopted by The Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. and The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc.

There’s some amazing stuff there.

Those of you that watch “family friendly” or Christian movies, would you have them to watch if the above code were still in force?

(No, it isn’t in force — it’s from 1930.)

Though I don’t watch movies, I’m guessing that even many Christian movies of today would fail the Code test.

So tell me — what has happened to Christianity?

As in the days of Noah, things will get worse — much worse.

Jordan Arrests Eight Evangelists

Eight people have been arrested in Jordan for propagating the Christian faith:

Jordanian security forces arrested eight people, mostly foreigners, after they were caught distributing missionary material to Bedouin families north and east of the Jordanian capital, Amman, the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported.

The authorities received information about the missionaries from local residents who said these foreigners were offering humanitarian assistance to poor Muslim families and distributing fliers promoting Christianity.

Sources said they were “enticing” impoverished youngsters by paying them money and calling on them to marry foreign girls.

I have curious questions about this:

What was the content of the flyers?
From what countries are they?
Why would they be doing such activity in a Muslim country?
What is their denominational affiliation?
Should handing out tracts be kept to relatively safe and friendly locales?
Will a letter-writing campaign be launched in their behalf?
Will the Jordanian government apologize for religious insensitivity?
Are lots of people praying for these evangelizers already?

I know, too many of those are unimportant questions but maybe they’ll make good Google bait.

And a concern (of sorts, anyway): What will become of those eight people?

May the Lord show His grace and strength and glory and love and wisdom through them. May they be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And may God not be ashamed to be called their God.

Kosovo’s Faultlines

So Kosovo is independent.

Now what?

And what is happening below the media’s radar?

Here is my question: What do readers need to know in order to understand the emotions that are currently being unleashed in Serbia and in Kosovo, especially in northern Kosovo?

[…]

Now, click here and tour some of the destruction in Kosovo. Yes, this is a one-sided, pro-Serbia site. But just think of this in terms of art and history â€” like the Bamiyan Buddhas. These holy places are also irreplaceable.

Again let me state that these Serbian church websites documenting the destruction tell only part of the hellish story that is post-war Kosovo and Serbia. Of course. But the destruction goes on and the churches and the monasteries cannot be replaced. That is part of the story.

Search the news reports in the next few days and look for the material on these treasures of art and faith. While many are celebrating, others are â€” sheltered in tiny enclaves protected by foreign troops â€” in mourning. Are there enougn troops to guard all the churches in northern Kosovo? Does anyone in Europe care? How about the United States? This is part of the Kosovo equation that should be included in balanced, accurate mainstream reporting.

This seems a good place to point you to something I wrote way back when: Kosovo and Serbia: A Case Study Regarding Christians in the Military.

Unforgivable?

This type of crime is particularly despicable and contemptible.

Soldier Accused of Raping Girl

Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday denounced the suspected rape of a 14-year-old girl by a U.S. Marine on the southern island of Okinawa, an episode with echoes of a 1995 case that jolted the U.S.-Japan alliance.

[…]

“It is unforgivable,” Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told a parliamentary panel in his first public comments on the latest incident on Okinawa, host to a huge U.S. military presence.

“It has happened over and over again in the past and I take it as a grave case.”

Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed anger over repeated incidents despite frequent promises by U.S. officials to prevent them.

That story reminds me of this event:

Soldiers Rape Girls

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East stated that 20,000 (and perhaps up to 80,000) women were raped, their ages ranging from infants to the elderly (as old as 80). […] According to some testimonies, other women were forced into military prostitution as comfort women.

Has Japan formally asked forgiveness for those World War II events (and many other cases of rape during that war)? It seems it has.

But any possible hypocrisy and double standard aside, and the affairs of nations aside, and the posturing of politicians aside, these stories remind me of what Jesus had to say on the subject of forgiveness.

In Luke 11:4 we have this: “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.”

And in Matthew 6:12,14,15 there’s this: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Then in Matthew 18 Jesus tells a story on the subject. Here are the concluding verses:

32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

So, now, which sin will I refuse to forgive?

For which offense or wrong will I continue to hold a grudge?

Who is currently on my No Forgiveness for These list?

Anglican Surrender

Archbishop backs sharia law for British Muslims

The Archbishop of Canterbury tonight prompted criticism from across the political spectrum after he backed the introduction of sharia law in Britain and argued that adopting some of its aspects seemed “unavoidable”.

Rowan Williams, the most senior figure in the Church of England, said that giving Islamic law official status in the UK would help achieve social cohesion because some Muslims did not relate to the British legal system.

[…]

Williams said introducing sharia law would mean Muslims would no longer have to choose between two systems.

“If what we want socially is a pattern of relations in which a plurality of diverse and overlapping affiliations work for a common good, and in which groups of serious and profound conviction are not systematically faced with the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty, it seems unavoidable.”

He compared the situation to faith schools, where “communal loyalties” were brought into direct contact with wider society, leading to mutual questioning and mutual influence towards change, without compromising the “distinctiveness of the essential elements of those communal loyalties”.

Earlier, in a BBC interview, he was more succinct. He said it was a “matter of fact” that sharia law was already being practised in Britain.

“It’s not as if we’re bringing in an alien and rival system; we already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land … There is a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with some kinds of aspects of other religious law.”

And here’s a little more via WND:

“There is a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law as we already do with aspects of others kinds of religious law,” Rowan continued.

“Nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that has sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states: the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women,” he said, according to a Times report.

“But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them,” he said.

Williams claimed Orthodox Jewish courts already are in operation in Britain, and the pro-life views of Catholics and other Christians are “accommodated within the law.”

However, Alistair McBay of the National Secular Society said Rowan’s comments “directly undermine” the concept of citizens being equal under the law.

“We have segregated schools, segregated scout groups and even segregated toilets for Muslims, and now the archbishop says we should have different laws. It’s madness,” he said.

Coming (relatively-) soon to a courtroom near you?