The Catholic Church and Western Civilization

by Thomas E. Woods, The Free Lance-Star:

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TOPEKA, Kan. — About the least fashionable thing one can do these days is utter a kind word about the Catholic Church. The idea that the church has been an obstacle to human progress has been elevated to the level of something everybody thinks he knows. But to the contrary, it is to the Catholic Church more than to any other institution that we owe so many of the treasures of Western civilization. Knowingly or not, scholars operated for two centuries under an Enlightenment prejudice that assumes all progress to come from religious skeptics, and that whatever the church touches is backward, superstitious, even barbaric.

Since the mid-20th century, this unscholarly prejudice has thankfully begun to melt away, and professors of a variety of religious backgrounds, or none at all, increasingly acknowledge the church's contributions.

Nowhere has the revision of what we thought we knew been more dramatic than in the study of the history of science. We all remember what we learned in fourth grade: While scientists were bravely trying to uncover truths about the universe and improve our quality of life, stupid churchmen who hated reason and simply wanted the faithful to shut up and obey placed a ceaseless stream of obstacles in their path.

That was where the conventional wisdom stood just over a century ago, with the publication of Andrew Dickson White's book, "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom," in 1896. And that's where most Americans (and Europeans, for that matter) believe it still stands.

But there is scarcely a historian of science in America who would endorse this comic-book version of events today. To the contrary, modern historians of science freely acknowledge the church's contributions — both theoretical and material — to the Scientific Revolution. It was the church's worldview that insisted the universe was orderly and operated according to certain fixed laws. Only buoyed with that confidence would it have made sense to bother investigating the physical world in the first place, or even to develop the scientific method (which can work only in an orderly world). It's likewise a little tricky to claim the church has been an implacable foe of the sciences when so many priests were accomplished scientists.

Continue Reading -->

New York City Is Not the Only Town That Drops Things on New Year's Eve

We all know that New York City drops its famous time-ball every New Year's Eve. It has done so since 1907. But there are other towns that will be dropping a various assortment of objects tonight at midnight:

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>Raleigh, NC-- a 900 pound brass acorn

>Ocean City, MD-- a beach ball

>Eastport, ME-- a sardine

>Fayetteville, AR-- a hog

>Dillsburg, PA-- an 8 foot pickle

>Marion, OH-- a ball of popcorn

>Lebanon, PA-- a 100 pound stick of Lebanon Bologna

>Fredericksburg, VA-- An illuminated pear

>Bartlesville, OK-- an olive

>Plymouth, WI-- an 80 pound decorated cheese wedge

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There are many more. Check out some of them here.

The Methodist Blogs Weekly Links of Note

This week's (or so) noteworthy posts from the Methoblogosphere:

Pam Garrud: Thank You for Calling

Dan Dick: Whadjagit?

Mike Lindstrom:  The Other Side of Christmas

Mitchell Lewis: Bibliolatry and Ego-olatry

Henry Neufeld: A Note to Politicians This Election Season

Sally Coleman: to expect the unexpected...

Guy Kent: New Year's Resolutions I Intend to Keep

Lorna Koskela: Thoughts on New Year's Eve

12 Things Never to Do Again

Rev. James Martin, S.J. knows things at 50 years of age he wished he had understood at 25:

Last year I listed 12 things I knew at age 50 that I wish I had known at 25. Now I'm a year older. And if I'm not wiser, at least I'm a bit more experienced. So here are 12 really stupid things I've done that I never want to do again. Maybe you've done some of them, too. But I'll bet we'd both be happier if we didn't...

You can read Rev. Martin's wisdom here.

Religion in 2012: To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before

Bill Tammeus offers his bold predictions for 2012 in the National Catholic Reporter:

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•As a promotional tool, the United Methodist Church will ask Garrison Keillor to quit making fun of Lutherans and start making fun of Methodists.

•To investigate what all of its previously appointed committees have been doing in recent years, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will appoint a committee.

•British Bishop N.T. Wright, showing signs of slowing down, will publish only 46 new books in 2012 (Note: Wright is no longer a bishop).

•By the end of the year, there will be a 2 percentage point rise in the number Americans who think that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.

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You can read the rest of Tammeus' predictions here.

HT to my pastoral colleague Becki Bowan Verbridge

In Memoriam 2011 (Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly)

Watch In Memoriam 2011 on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

The Church Is Always One Generation From Extinction

by Michael Gryboski of The Christian Post

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As many churches look for ways to grow and maintain their congregations, one author argues that an important and often overlooked component is children.

...not giving good attention to children's ministry can be fatal for a congregation, citing the experience of friend and colleague Tony Campolo. Campolo, a professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University, decided one day to visit his childhood church only to find it had closed down. With the permission of the former elders, Campolo got access to the church documents and decided to look at the records for the year when as a kid he decided to give his life to Christ.

Campolo read the record and saw that the writer had talked of it being a rough year for the congregation, as they had only three conversions and these three were "just children."

"A church begins to die when they say 'they are just children,"' said Stafford.

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You can read the entire post, Compassion CEO: Church Is Always One Generation From Going Extinct," here.

End of the Year Shameless Self Promotion

If you managed to get a Kindle for Christmas, I want to take this opportunity to inform you that three of my books are now available on Kindle and at some really good prices as well. Here are the links:

All Is Not As It Seems: Random Reflections, on Faith, Ethics, and Politics

The Character of Our Discontent: Old Testament Portraits for Contemporary Times

The Politics of Witness: The Character of the Church in the World

Here ends my post on shameless self-promotion.

Ten Books I Plan to Read in 2012

Yesterday I posted ten books that I read in 2011. Today I am listing ten books I plan to read in 2012. They are presented in alphabetical order by author:

Kevin Belmonte, Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life and Impact of G.K. Chesterton

David P. Goldman, How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam Is Dying Too)

John Gribbin, Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique

Stanley Hauerwas, War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity

Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited

John Polkinghorne (editor), The Trinity and an Entangled World: Relationality in Physical Science and Theology

Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past

Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens: A Life

Miroslav Volf, Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good

N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters

Are New Year's Resolutions Worth It?

Erik Marshall raises the question:

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...I have found that it's never pointless to hope for the better. Sure, we'll mess up. But the only sure-fire plan to keep making the same errors is to not care or not push ourselves to correct our weaknesses. Why not make goals? Why not hope for the better? How is the future ever not bright?

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Check out Erik's entire post, "Are New Year's Resolutions Pointless?" here.

On Speaking the Truth to Those You Love

From my favorite book by Reinhold Niebuhr, Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic:

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I am not surprised that most prophets are itinerants. Critics of the church think we preachers are afraid to tell the truth because we are economically dependent upon the people of our church, There is something in that, but it does not quite get to the root of the matter. I certainly could easily enough get more money than I am securing now, and yet I catch myself weighing my words and gauging their possible effect upon this and that person. I think the real clue to the tameness of a preacher is the difficulty one finds in telling unpleasant truths to people whom one has learned to love.

To speak the truth in love is a difficult, and sometimes an almost impossible, achievement. If you speak the truth unqualifiedly, that is usually because your ire has been aroused or because you have no personal attachment to the object of your strictures. Once personal contact is established you are very prone to temper your wind to the shorn sheep. It is certainly difficult to be human and honest at the same time. I'm not surprised that most budding prophets are tamed in time to become harmless parish priests.

My Recommended Books for 2012

If you are a reader and looking for some good books to delve into in 2012, here are ten recommendations. I read these books (among others) in 2011, though not all were published in 2011. I list them in alphabetical order by author:

Bob Farr, Renovate or Die: Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission

Seyoon Kim, Christ and Caesar: The Gospel and the Roman Empire in the Writings of Paul and Luke

Peter J. Leithart, Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

John R. Levison, Priscilla Pope Levenson (editors), Return to Babel: Global Perspectives on the Bible

Alister McGrath, Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth

John Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

M. Douglas Meeks (editor), Our Calling to Fulfill: Wesleyan Views of the Church in Mission

James L. Papandrea, The Wedding of the Lamb: A Historical Approach to the Book of Revelation

Bruce Weber, As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires

Joseph Wheelan, Jefferson's Vendetta: The Pursuit of Aaron Burr and the Judiciary

The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse (and the Elephant in the World's Living Room)...

...population decline

From the Preface, How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too), by David P. Goldman. Quoted in the Asia Times Online.

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Population decline is the elephant in the world's living room. As a matter of arithmetic, we know that the social life of most developed countries will break down within two generations. Two out of three Italians and three of four Japanese will be elderly dependents by 2050. [1] If present fertility rates hold, the number of Germans will fall by 98% over the next two centuries. No pension and health care system can support such an inverted population pyramid. Nor is the problem limited to the industrial nations. Fertility is falling at even faster rates - indeed, at rates never before registered anywhere - in the Muslim world. The world's population will fall by as much as a fifth between the middle and the end of the 21st century, by far the worst decline in human history.

The world faces a danger more terrible than the worst Green imaginings. The European environmentalist who wants to shrink the world's population to reduce carbon emissions will spend her declining years in misery, for there will not be enough Europeans alive a generation from now to pay for her pension and medical care. [2] For the first time in world history, the birth rate of the whole developed world is well below replacement, and a significant part of it has passed the demographic point of no return.

But Islamic society is even more fragile. As Muslim fertility shrinks at a rate demographers have never seen before, it is converging on Europe's catastrophically low fertility as if in time-lapse photography. The average 30-year-old Iranian woman comes from a family of six children, but she will bear only one or two children during her lifetime. Turkey and Algeria are just behind Iran on the way down, and most of the other Muslim countries are catching up quickly. By the middle of this century, the belt of Muslim countries from Morocco to Iran will become as gray as depopulating Europe. The Islamic world will have the same proportion of dependent elderly as the industrial countries - but one-tenth the productivity. A time bomb that cannot be defused is ticking in the Muslim world.

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You can read Goldman's entire preface, to his new book here.

HT: Craig L. Adams

Two Excellent Reads on Critical Christian Issues

Two new booklets in the Areopagus Critical Christian Issues Series (of which I am a co-editor) are now available for pre-order from the publisher:

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Benjamin J. Baxter, In the Original Text It Says: Word-Study Fallacies and How to Avoid Them.

When you hear the words "in the original text it says" or "in the original text this means," it's time to be wary. Those words often provide the introduction to misleading information. But how can the hearer discern just what is correct and what is misleading? How can pastors avoid giving their congregations misleading information?

"In the Original Text It Says" takes a look at word-study fallacies and how you can avoid them. Author Ben Baxter gives an introduction to word meaning and how word meaning differs between languages. He then examines a series of fallacies, errors that people make in assigning meaning to words in the original languages of the Bible.

The book is scheduled to be published on January 9th.

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Ant Greenham, The Questioning God: An Inquiry for Muslims, Jews, and Christians.

A questioning approach lies at the heart of our relationship with God. That's how God engages us. In fact, questioning (or free inquiry), is central to our being human. Yet the major monotheistic religions vary markedly on this matter. In The Questioning God, Dr. Greenham examines the three major monotheistic religions, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, to see how they relate to questioning, including questions that God asks us and the questions that we ask about God. His goal is to develop a biblical theology of questioning, avoiding a loss of direction and focus that results from selective questioning, and also a loss of humanity that results from bypassing our questions through an inappropriate submission.

The examination is wide ranging, including chapters on questioning in Islam, Judaism, mainline and evangelical Christianity, along with an examination of the consequences of a non-questioning culture. He ends the book with a proposal for a biblical theology and a look at the practical implications–just what it means to pursue a questioning culture.

This book is scheduled to be released January 23rd.

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Articulate Preaching: It Ain't No Option

"It's not what was said, it was how it was said."

At one time or another every one of us has said this. We hear someone express an idea or criticize someone, and we don't necessarily disagree, but we wish it would have been said more tactfully or more clearly. It is also true that, at some point in our lives, all of us could have expressed something better.

There is no substitute for substantive content in preaching, and there is also no alternative to good articulation while preaching. The most profound ideas will be lost in the midst of bad grammar and poorly expressed words, phrases and awkward repetition. Moreover, the good preacher will have mastered the art of voice inflection, tempo and rhythm in pronunciation, and a sensitivity to know when to pause in silence.

Good articulation involves the following:

We Are the Xmas Borg: You Will Be Assimilated

While I quibble somewhat with some of Weiss' claims in this post, I am in fundamental agreement with him. The War on Christmas was fought many many years ago by Christians, and the majority decided in favor of a cultural holiday almost completely devoid of Christian theological moorings. If Christ is not in the celebration of Christmas, Christians are primarily to blame.

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Jeffrey Weiss, RealClearReligion

...those of us who are not Christian marvel at the annual claims of a "War on Christmas." From our seat, the actual war is the battle by Christmas against any other religion's tradition. I defy Bill O'Reilly and his compadres to locate the smallest corner of our nation immune from the months-long drumbeat of Christmas stuff. For us, the holiday seems closer to Star Trek's Borg Collective ("Resistance is futile!") than anything I can find in the Christian scriptures.

To be Jewish (or Hindu, Bahai or Brama Kumari) in America requires some effort to wall out the overwhelming pressure of our national majority faith.

On the other hand, and the religionists won't like to admit it, so much of Christmas in America has nothing to do with Christ or Jesus. If there was a war, it was waged long ago amongst Christians. And the majority of them decided they also wanted a cultural holiday that distilled an essence from Christmas and left most of the God stuff behind.

To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo?

I must confess that I am not a big fan of tattoos. I have no profound theological or biblical reasons why people shouldn't get them, I just personally don't find them attractive. I also don't understand why people feel the need to get a permanent one etched into their bodies when one can get a temporary tattoo for that big night on the town. Indeed, a temporary one will allow for some variety. If you get bored with the crossed swords on your bulging bicep, you can change to a heart with mom printed in the middle.

In any case, here is an article from Sports Illustrated on "Fans and their Sports Tattoos." If nothing else, many of the pictures of tattooed sports fanatics on the website should get people to think twice before they get one, or at the very least, help them to reconsider what they get and perhaps "downsize" a little.

What are your thoughts on tattoos? All views are welcome.

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HT: Scot McKnight

Living in the Time Between the Times

I find the week between Christmas and New Year's to be an interesting time of the year for me. The mad rush and hubbub to prepare for the celebration of December 25th basically comes to a halt. I do not participate in the insane nonsense of rushing to the stores on December 26th for the purpose of standing in long lines to return the gifts I received. I have the same revulsion to December 26th as I do the day after Thanksgiving. And our New Year's celebration is usually very low key. I don't understand the value of the practice of bringing in another twelve month cycle with inebriation and embarrassing behavior. In this week I will attend to my responsibilities after the Christmas holiday, but things still are not back to "normal" for me. This is one week when the church will have no committee meetings, nothing of critical importance will take place unless, of course, it is an emergency. This is a week that just feels different.

But even though my welcoming of the new year is quite tame, I do have a sense of anticipation for what is to come, just as I am thankful for having journeyed through another year. We have finished with one major celebration and we now look to another one; and this week is a time to look back and to strain forward to see over the horizon of what is to come. It is a week that feels like a time of transition for me-- looking in one direction and then another. Christmas and New Year's are the bookends that frame the shelf of events that will take place this week.

A Bit of Christmas Nostalgia...

...for some of us anyway.

Have a Merry Christmas!

A Prayer for Christmas Day

Loving Father, Help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Ever Wonder Why You Never Hear About the Fourth Wise Man?

HT: James McGrath

For Your Enjoyment on This Christmas Eve

The Charismatics Are Coming!

Brittany Smith reports that more than 1 in four Christians are charismatic or Pentecostal (there is a difference) and the movement is growing.

The portion of the post that caused me to chuckle:

Interestingly, in the United States, the Hartford director pointed out that the Pentecostal and charismatic movement is spreading among middle class Americans – a phenomenon that has puzzled many academics.

Well, this academic is not puzzled. Any Christian movement that reflects vitality and hope and a cause will attract people, charismatic or otherwise.

This Mainline (non-Pentecostal, but Charismatic) Methodist prays that the movement will spread. More Christians from any tradition is something to embrace.

Divine Surprises!

God has a habit of showing up in the most unexpected places:

Are We Alone in the Universe?...

...Astrophysicist, John Gribbin thinks it is likely and puts forth his argument in his new book, Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique. From Publishers Weekly:

"The Milky Way contains a few hundred billion stars, but almost certainly contains only one intelligent civilization," says astrophysicist and veteran popular science writer Gribbin (The Theory of Everything). In an infinite universe, on the other hand, anything is possible, but we can only explore such questions closer to home. Gribbin makes a thoroughly lucid and convincing case. Recent astronomical observations have shown that exoplanets—worlds orbiting other stars—are more common than we expected, but Earth-like worlds are rare. And even planets in a "habitable zone" of both a galaxy and an individual star need water and the right organic compounds to engender and sustain carbon-based life. "Life got a grip on Earth with almost indecent haste," but it took Earth's metallic core and a near-twin Moon to stabilize Earth's tilt and steer off dangerous radiation; equally advantageous to Earth, Jupiter's mass pulls in most of the comets and asteroids that might otherwise smash into us. Gribbin lays out the details one by one, building a concise case that :[w]e are alone, and we had better get used to the idea.

Some will no doubt disagree, but Gribbin's insights add to the discussion. I have ordered my copy of Alone in the Universe and look forward to reading it.

God Has Shown Up in Mary's Belly

Once again, Stanley Hauerwas puts things in perspective:

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There is something right, as well as ironic, about the diminishment of our existence in a world in which we have made our human existence more important than the existence of God. That is why it is surely the case that the only interesting atheism left is not the denial of God, but rather the denial by some of the significance of our existence as a human species.

The question, therefore, is not does God exist, but do we. For whatever it means for us to exist, we do so as creatures created, as the universe has been created, to glorify God.

Holiness and godliness are the characteristics of a people who have faced God and by doing so have refused the nihilism that threatens all our lives in this time called modernity. For we have seen the face of God in Jesus Christ giving us confidence that time is not a tale told by an idiot, but time names God's patience to give us time to participate in God's very life. We are not abandoned. The heavens do declare the glory of God.

Christian humanism is not based on the presumption that our humanity is self-justifying. Rather Christians are humanists because God showed up in Mary's belly.

We are not an evolutionary accident. We are not bubbles on the foam that coats a stormy sea. We are God's chosen people. We have been given good work to do in a time when many no longer think there is good work. What an extraordinary claim. What extraordinary good news.

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You can read Stanley's entire sermon, "Facing God in the Face of Nothingness," here.

What Does It Mean to Be Wesleyan?

Somewhere in one of his books, Methodist theologian, Stanley Hauerwas writes that when one is a Methodist, one's theological background is quite doubtful. There is some truth to that. While we Methodists have more than our fair share of excellent theologians, such helpful theological reflection has not seemed to trickle, let alone permeate, to the pastoral and lay leadership in our churches. The answer I usually hear from my colleagues as to what it means to be Wesleyan is a response that always includes the word "inclusive." And while it cannot be doubted that the Wesley brothers understood God's grace as being generously inclusive, it is my view that simply to equate Wesleyanism with inclusivism fails to get to the heart of what it means to be Wesleyan; for popular Methodist understandings of what it means to be inclusive are less Wesleyan and more a product of 20th and 21st century pop culture in which inclusivism is defined in ways that are too broad and too shallow.

So then, what does it mean to be Wesleyan? The question assumes, of course, that there is something distinctive about being a Wesleyan. Of course, we have much in common with other Christian traditions-- Wesley agreed quite often with Martin Luther and John Calvin et al. So in answering the question of being Wesleyan we are not interested in what we have in common with other Christian traditions, though we must affirm that we hold much in common with the church universal. If we did not, it would raise the serious question as to whether the Wesleyan tradition is Christian.

So, again, what does it mean to be Wesleyan? What is distinctive about the daughters and sons of John and Charles Wesley?

NO Frankincense to Offer Have I...

... that is, if things keep going the way they are.

The biblical Christmas story of the three kings may need a rewriting, or at least a tweak to one of the gifts — frankincense. Production of the fragrant resin, which is used in perfume and incense, could decline by half over the next 15 years, a new study finds.

Check it out here.

Wednesdays With Wright: The Book of Acts, 3

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Previous Posts:

Wednesdays With Wright: The Book of Acts, 1

Wednesdays With Wright: The Book of Acts, 2

The God of Christmas Is an Embarrassment

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly. The God of Christmas is an embarrassment. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has no self-respect. The God who comes to us in Jesus Christ is unconcerned about his reputation.

Christmas is proof that God will stoop as low as is necessary... and I mean really low... to get what God wants. In Jesus Christ, God has come into the muck and the mire of the human situation to roll around in the dirt with us humans in order to rescue us from the muck and the mire. Instead of coming into this world in the royal garb worn only in a palace, this God chooses to be born to nobody peasants in a nowhere backwater town. The announcement of his birth is made to lowly, smelly shepherds, and the star appears to some far off pagans... magi... who were astrologers, horoscope readers, no less.

As an adult this Jesus, God in the flesh, chooses freely to party with tax collectors and sinners-- the persons who the respectable people wouldn't be caught dead associating with. Jesus seems to have cared less about the loss of his good name by associating with the wrong people. And not only that, he said some real nasty things to the respectable people, the religious leaders. The names he called the clergy-- hypocrites-- and telling them that the prostitutes would get into God's kingdom before they would. What nerve! This self-proclaimed rabbi refuses to pay his dues by going through the "accredited" educational channels so that he might be recognized by the people who matter. The people whom the world deems insignificant are the ones who appear to be most important to this Jesus, this God in the flesh, who apparently thinks too highly of the flesh he has embodied.

Truth Dazzles Gradually

"Indeed the journey of being Christian never ends."

When God Wears a Leisure Suit

From Jonathan Kay, The National Post

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"The God that failed" was what Arthur Koestler and other ex-Marxists famously called Soviet communism after they renounced it in the 1940s. For North Koreans, Kim Jong-Il has become the God who died.

Officially, religion is alien to North Korea's Juche ideology (an eccentric offshoot of Marxism that was created by Kim’s father, Kim Il-sung). But in practice, Juche is itself a sort of quasi-religion that demands unwavering loyalty to the totalitarian North Korean one-party state.

Kim Il-sung knew that the only way to legitimize his repressive, impoverished regime was to insulate subjects from the outside world (the dials on North Korean radios are soldered so as to lock them in permanently to the state propaganda network) and to turn himself into an ersatz deity. Over 500 statues of Kim Il-sung dot the North Korean landscape, and a revisionist history of his days as an anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter have been embellished to the point that they seem like something out of a 1980s-era Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

Kim Jong-Il took this personality cult further. North Koreans tell visiting journalists that a new star appeared in the sky on the day of the man's birth, that he is an internationally celebrated film director, and that he scored a hole-in-one on his first ever golf outing.

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You can read the entire post on the personality cult of the late Kim Jong-Il, here.

Joy and Laughter

Isaiah 9:1-7

The prophet Isaiah envisions a time when sorrow will turn to joy for God's people. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light! Isaiah reminds the people that their darkness, their suffering, has come upon them for two reasons-- some suffering has come upon them through no fault of their own-- they are just victims of circumstances. Other trials and difficulties, however, are the result of their own wrong doing, of choosing their own way in life rather than God's way. But God does not intend to leave them in their misery. In the worst areas of darkness for Israel in that day, the land in the north by the Sea of Galilee, God promises that light will indeed shine. God will bring joy out of despair.

But how will God accomplish this great feat? Through the birth of a child! Out of the disaster God will bring forth a victory through this birth. But who is this child? We can almost imagine Isaiah asking God what the things he has been inspired to say mean. We are told that the Messiah will come as a child. He will come as one unexpected and he will crush evil in unexpected ways, ways not used by the world to combat evil. Isaiah and his original hearers may have been confused in trying to understand who the Messiah was to be and how he was to accomplish his work. But Isaiah was attempting to understand God's words seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus. We who stand on the other side of that birth understand these words clearly. In Jesus, Isaiah's prophecy has come into focus.

Jesus is the one of whom Isaiah speaks. He is the one who shines the light of God bringing joy out of despair. The good news is that Jesus is God with us. And the God who is with us is here to turn our darkness into light and our despair into joy. And if the God of the Bible in all of his love and compassion is truly with us, that is good news for all of eternity! The worst that can happen to us cannot compare with the best that God has already accomplished for us in Jesus Christ!

Top Ten Physics Breakthroughs of 2011

I love physics. I have read just enough in the field to make it sound like I know what I'm talking about. In any case, Physics World has chosen its top ten discoveries of 2011.

Check it out here.

Merry Snowpocalypse...

...for all the fans of Calvin & Hobbes.

Peace In Spite of It All

Luke 2:8-20

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was filled with sorrow at the tragic death of his wife in a fire in 1861. The Civil War broke out that same year, and it seemed this was an additional punishment. Two years later, Longfellow was again saddened to hear that his own son had been seriously wounded as a Lieutenant in the Union Army of the Potomac. Sitting down to his desk that following Christmas Day, he heard the church bells ringing and ringing. It was in that setting he wrote:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day,

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.

And in despair I bowed my head,

There is no peace on earth I said.

For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep,

God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail

With peace on earth, good will to men

One wonders if the shepherds watching their flocks felt the same way as Longfellow when he wrote that second verse of his song. They had grown up hearing of God's promise to send a Messiah to deliver his people and bring peace. But it sure seemed as if there was no peace on earth in first-century Judea. Yes, there was the "peace" of Rome, but that "peace" came at the expensive price of freedom. Peace without freedom is not shalom; it is law and order kept in brutal ways.

A Prayer for the Fourth Sunday in Advent

Eternal God, who by the birth of your beloved Son Jesus Christ did give yourself to humanity: Grant that, being born in our hearts, he may save us from all our sins, and restore within us the image and likeness of our Creator, to whom be everlasting praise and glory. Amen.

-Book of Worship (UMC)

The Methodist Blogs Weekly Links of Note

This week's noteworthy posts from the Methoblogosphere:

Lorna Koskela: dark, dismal

Bishop Robert Schnase: A Single Line

Neki Soriano: Mary and Elizabeth

Katie M. Ladd: Our Struggles are (Sadly) Not New

Dave Nichols: Mother of God

Russ Ham: Christmas Stockings: The Human Condition

Dan Dick: The Nice Curse

Henry Neufeld: Of Virgin Births and Whales' Bellies

The Christmas Can-Can

I love these guys!

Thomas Jefferson's Bible Revisited

"How would you feel about taking a razor blade to a Bible? Thomas Jefferson, apparently, didn’t have any qualms about it."
.

Check it out here.

Facing Death While Living Life: Some Thoughts on the Life and Death of Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens died yesterday from complications of esophageal cancer. In some ways Hitchens and I are far apart. He was an atheist; I am a Christian. Nevertheless, I appreciated his incredible intellect, his total commitment to his convictions, and how he pushed me to reflect upon my Christian faith. In some way, Christopher Hitchens has made me a better Christian. If he knew that he was an individual who strengthened my faith, he might be disappointed, though I guess he likely would tell me that if my Christianity was bolstered because of him, I hadn't done a very good job of reading him.

I have read just about every editorial Hitchens wrote. I have not read any of his books, but I am thinking of reading his memoir, Hitch 22. While there are plenty of individuals with superior intellect, there are not too many whose powers of reasoning surpass the superior. Hitchens was one of those persons.

As impressed as I have been with Christopher Hitchens the intellectual, there is something about him that I have admired even more-- that he faced his death in the same way as he lived life. In the past year and half following his cancer diagnosis, Hitchen reflected on life and on death in the kind of personal way that only one facing his own death could do. His words were classic Hitchens-- eloquent, thought-provoking, and written from the perspective of his own clear convictions. And while he said in an interview that it was OK for believers to pray for him if that brought them comfort, he went to his grave with his atheism intact, a disappointment for those of us who believe, but not surprising to those who knew him. Hitchens faced death as he lived.

Birth Order and Personality

Of late I have become interested in how birth order affects the interactions between human beings. Of course, one's place in the birth order "pecking order" does not account fully for an individual's personality, but it does explain many things as we interact with one another. As a pastor, I have found it helpful to know a person's birth order as I work in ministry with her or him (not that I am always asking).

Here's a list from Parenthood.com of birth order characteristics. Does your birth order explain much about your personality or are there other factors that have pushed you outside the "birth order box"?

A Great Deal on Books!

Energion Publications is now offering a special deal on currently published volumes in the Participatory Bible Study Series. It's a great series that combines academic study with devotional reflection. I am currently working on the volume on Colossians and Philemon. In addition, Energion has other special Christmas packages available.

Check it out. It's good stuff!

Must One Believe in the Virgin Birth to Be a Christian?

Here on this blog we do not avoid controversial issues. Why? Because vigorous and respectful debate is a lot of fun, and since as Christians we are interested in the truth, we are not afraid to engage the controversies.

Al Mohler, who is also unafraid to wade into controversy, writes an article today arguing that "All those who find salvation will be saved by the atoning work of Jesus the Christ — the virgin-born Savior. Anything less than this is just not Christianity, whatever it may call itself. A true Christian will not deny the Virgin Birth."

Mohler invokes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who in an older editorial, suggests that belief in the virgin birth demonstrates that conservative Christians are less intellectual. Of course, such an assertion is nonsense. Whether or not one believes that God (if one believes in God) can accomplish the miraculous has nothing to do with intellectual sophistication, but is instead based on one's worldview and philosophical assumptions. I have to confess that this is a hot button issue of mine. It is nothing short of arrogant to suggest that a "conservative" or "liberal" point of view is less intelligent because it is nothing other than saying, "Smart people will believe the way I do." The truth of a point of view, or its lack thereof, should be based on the substance of the position itself and not written off because it is "liberal" or "conservative."

So, in this post I have no interest in entertaining Kristof's sophistry, but I am interested in what you, my intelligent readers, think of Mohler's argument that a true Christian will not deny the virgin birth. Do you agree? If so, why? If not, why not?

As always, all points of view are welcome, expressed passionately and civilly, and with no name-calling.

Please read Mohler's entire article before responding.

OK... let's have a good discussion.

(Update: Henry Neufeld picks up on my post and writes the following: Allan also stomps on one annoying tendency, the way in which some liberals tend to pounce on conservatives as less intellectual because of their beliefs. If one accepts miracles, one is less sophisticated. But I think it is only fair to point out the opposite fault in Mohler's article, the tendency to regard liberals as less devout because of the things they don't believe in. This is a conservative's way of belittling an opponent, just as "intellectually unsophisticated" is the liberal's approach. I must, however, point out that neither side is above using the other's ammunition, and that both sides have those who avoid either fault. Good point, Henry.)

Wednesdays With Wright: The Book of Acts, 2

Childless at Christmas

My friend and colleague at Ashland Theological Seminary, John Byron has written a must read post today on the difficulties couples without children face during the Christmas season. John writes,

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But in the midst of the celebration there are those who find Advent and Christmas a struggle. It is a painful reminder that for them the manger in their own home is empty. It is empty not because they are not religious. Not because they refuse to participate, but because they are unable to fill that manger. They are among the six million couples a year that learn that they are unable to have children. And the irony of the season is not lost on them. As the church celebrates God’s gift to the world, a baby, they are keenly aware that there is a level at which they cannot participate in the Advent celebration. The coming of the Messiah is somehow dulled by their realization that God’s gift seems to have skipped over them. There is a feeling of disconnect for them as they hear the promises of Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:29-33 read in church, all of which speak of a child, of joy, of great things to come. And yet, the childless couple is unable to identify. Add to this the overwhelming focus on children at Christmas (a good thing), and the season is more crushing than uplifting.

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You can read John's entire post, "When the Manger Is Empty: Childless at Christmas," here.

A Tale of Two Kings

Matthew 2:1-18

When his subjects referred to Herod as "the Great," it certainly was not a commentary on his moral character and integrity. Herod was a skilled politician and an eloquent diplomat. At the same time, he was insanely jealous of his position and power. He stopped at nothing to retain his authority; he tolerated no rivals. Immediately after his accession to the throne, he had the entire Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling council) put to death. He purged the Pharasaic party of anyone who did not approve of his reign. During one purging Herod crucified as many as five thousand Pharisees outside the walls of Jerusalem. One ancient source observed that it was common to pass dozens of crosses alongside the road as one entered Jerusalem.

Any sort of suspicion, whether well-founded or not, was sufficient cause for Herod to resort to bloody deeds. Caesar Augustus said it was better to be Herod's pig than his son; for the former would likely live longer. So hated and feared was Herod by his people that he knew they would rejoice at his death. Therefore, just before his death, Herod ordered that when he died, the heads of prominent families should be executed in order that there would be mourning throughout the land. Fortunately, the order was never obeyed.

This context makes it is easy to understand why a rumor of a rival king of the Jews was bound to roust Herod's worst fears. There was no room for another king in Herod's world; yet another king does indeed enter. Matthew chapter two presents to us a tale of two kings and the conflict between them. There is Herod, the jealous tyrant, the active participant in the story, and there is also the infant king, helpless and defenseless, passive and dependent.

The Hunt for the Elusive "God Particle" Continues...

...though the searched has narrowed... seemingly. "God particle" sounds so much more interesting than "Higgs boson."

The Warning Passages in Hebrews

Scot McKnight gives his take on these controversial passages:

Both Calvinists and Arminians agree on this point: each person needs to persevere. The oddest thing has happened in American Evangelicalism: it has taught, whether aloud or not, the idea of "once saved, always saved" as if perseverance were not needed.

In other words, it has taught that if a person has crossed the threshold by "receiving Christ" but then decides to abandon living for Christ, that person is eternally secure. This is rubbish theology. Perseverance is an indicator of what faith is all about: a relationship that continues, that is marked by steady love. No one equates marriage with a wedding day statement of intent, and no one should equate faithfulness with a decision.

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You can read Scot's entire post, here.

On Why Moving to the Left or the Right is Irrelevant for Christians

Timothy Dalrymple has written a thoughtful post as a response to another thoughtful post by Scot McKnight that concerns whether or not moving to the right or left (theologically, morally, or politically) is always either right or wrong. Both posts are worth a read, but what they highlight once again for me is the irrelevance of the categories of right or left for the Christian; and when we continue to utilize them, especially in reference to God's kingdom, we will by necessity distort that kingdom allowing modern categories to control the kingdom narrative. Now, I know I have won few converts on this, but I will continue to beat the drum nonetheless.

Let me give just two examples of why the right/left spectrum is irrelevant:

Bishop John Shelby Spong, mentioned by Dalryple, is said to be left in his theological views. For example, he rejects the bodily resurrection of Jesus in favor for a more "spiritual" understanding. But if left is supposed to be "progressive" (and I debate that), then Spong's perspective is hardly left. A rudimentary knowledge of early church history will reveal that Spong's view of Jesus' resurrection was around early on. There is nothing new and certainly there is nothing progressive, here.

Pastors Double-Dog Dare the IRS... Will it soon be a Triple-Dog Dare?

From Christianity Today:
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When Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, endorsed presidential candidate Rick Perry on his church's website in October, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State promptly asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for an investigation.

Since passage of the Johnson Amendment in 1954, churches "may not participate in, or intervene in … any political campaign," according to the IRS.

Churches that don't comply could lose their tax-exempt status.

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I have to confess, I have a difficult time getting worked up over this one, and I have little interest or sympathy with both sides wondering why they even bother.

Where Two or Three are Gathered in My Name, I Will Be With Them... Except on Christmas Sunday

I have had conversations with a few pastors in the recent weeks who basically admitted that since worship attendance on Christmas Day and New Year's Day will likely be sparse, they are simply going to recycle old sermons and preach them.

Seriously? Do they have so little regard for their calling that they are going to use reduced numbers for worship as an excuse to be lazy? Do they have so little regard for the faithful who will show up on Christmas Day and New Year's Sunday that they have decided that these folks are not worthy to hear a fresh word from the Lord, but must listen instead to a stale sermon?

I confess that I am like most pastors who like big crowds in church; and sometimes, if I am not careful, I can place too much emphasis on the numbers in drawing conclusions as to the workings of God. I do indeed believe that numbers tell us something, but of course, numbers are relative to the context, and the measurements of a vital church congregation involve more than numbers. But I find it quite disturbing that some of my colleagues in pastoral ministry have decided to give up on worship on Christmas Day and New Year's Day because a high percentage of the members and constituents will likely stay home. I am not sure which is worse: just canceling worship on Christmas Day or treating the day's worship as a waste of time because the "audience" is not large enough?

I will be doing my usual sermon preparation for Christmas Day and New Year's Sunday. Indeed, I just might work a little harder because the folks who will be there on those two days will indeed attend because they really want to be there. Perhaps, I will work a little harder for them. (How to reuse previous sermon material is another post for another time.)

Jesus told his first disciples that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there in their midst (Matthew 18:20). While some pastors seem to think it is a waste of their time to prepare a sermon for "the two or three" gathered on Christmas Sunday, Jesus apparently is prepared to "waste" his Christmas Day with the "two or three." I hope he is ready to hear a stale sermon.