Crocker Chronicle

Why Single Women Need To Wait For The Right Man

2012-01-28T19:31:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: de.laina

Here are some challenging thoughts from Ruthie Dean urging single women to wait on the right mate by being the right mate:

"As women, I believe we in part perpetuate the man-boy problem by failing to hold the highest standards for ourselves, standards God desires for us. I recently heard a friend complaining that she couldn’t get Phillip* to call her. Two minutes later, she responded to his text, “Wanna watch a movie at my house?” in the affirmative. I’ve seen it too many times—brilliant, accomplished, God-fearing women making excuses for the players and the deadbeats and the guy who aren’t interested in anything more than sex. A lot of us have been there. We’re strong. We aren’t settling. And then we lose sight of what’s important and start “hanging out with” that guy. If a man can’t call to ask you on a date, he’s certainly not going to man-up and put a ring on your finger.

The arguably most dangerous way women are contributing to the man-boy problem is in regards to sex. Oftentimes, women, including Christians, go further physically than they want to, hoping that their prowess will help them ‘catch a man’ when in fact, the opposite happens. Sex gives men the benefits without the promise of commitment and fidelity. Sure, there won’t be as many guys lining up to date you, but marriage will be a different story. Keeping the highest sexual purity standards will ensure he isn’t dating you just because he likes seeing you naked—and keep his intentions honorable.

Another way women perpetuate the problem comes with the well-at-least-he’s-better-than _____ game. My hairdresser told me yesterday she had a hard time ending a relationship with a non-Christian, because the last Christian she dated had sent her pornographic text messages. Infuriating! However, standards should not be created based on the worst examples but instead on what God deems right.

Many women also fall prey to the lie that dating or hanging out with “that guy” does not hold future implications. I found this especially true in college when friends (and myself, ahem) would date Mr. Text or Mr. I Don’t Believe in Organized Religion believing we could end the relationships as soon as someone better came along. However many of my friends are still entangled with or damaged by these men—especially in cases where sex was involved. By dating or playing around with the wrong men, we are essentially displaying mistrust in God’s plan and harming ourselves when the right man comes along. Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church, challenges singles: “Become the right person the right person is looking for.” A woman who dates placeholder men is most likely not who “Mr. Right” is looking for."

To read the rest of the article "Real Women Don't Text Back" please click here.

What Latinos Can Teach the Rest of Us About Culture & Race

2012-01-23T20:23:00.003-05:00

Photo Credit: Lafayette College

When it comes to the topics of race, culture and ethnicity, few of us make much of a distinction between these complicated and often misunderstood words. Though commonly used interchangeably, their actual definitions may lead us to believe this subject is much more nuanced than what initially meets the eye.

It may be helpful to share how I view these categories in the simplest way I know how. According to my understanding, I view them in the following manner:

Race - deals with shared physical characteristics
Culture - deals with shared values and behavior
Ethnicity - deals with shared culture and, oftentimes, shared race (although this is not always the case)

For a growing number of Latino Americans, their ethnic identity is defined much more by shared cultural values rather than common racial characteristics.

The New York Times reports:

"This argument over identity has gained momentum with the growth of the Latino population, which in 2010 stood at more than 50 million. Census Bureau officials have acknowledged that the questionnaire has a problem, and say they are wrestling with how to get more Latinos to pick a race. In 2010, they tested different wording in questions and last year they held focus groups, with a report on the research scheduled to be released by this summer.

Some experts say officials are right to go back to the drawing table. “Whenever you have people who can’t find themselves in the question, it’s a bad question,” said Mary C. Waters, a sociology professor at Harvard who specializes in the challenges of measuring race and ethnicity.

The problem is more than academic — the census data on race serves many purposes, including determining the makeup of voting districts, and monitoring discriminatory practices in hiring and racial disparities in education and health. When respondents do not choose a race, the Census Bureau assigns them one, based on factors like the racial makeup of their neighborhood, inevitably leading to a less accurate count.

Latinos, who make up close to 20 percent of the American population, generally hold a fundamentally different view of race. Many Latinos say they are too racially mixed to settle on one of the government-sanctioned standard races — white, black, American Indian, Alaska native, native Hawaiian, and a collection of Asian and Pacific Island backgrounds.

Some regard white or black as separate demographic groups from Latino. Still others say Latinos are already the equivalent of another race in this country, defined by a shared set of challenges.

“The issues within the Latino community — language, immigration status — do not take into account race,” said Peter L. Cedeño, 43, a lawyer and native New Yorker born to Dominican immigrants. “We share the same hurdles.”

At a time when many multiracial Americans are proudly asserting their mixed-race identity, many Latinos, an overwhelmingly blended population with Indian, European, African and other roots, are sidestepping or ignoring questions of race."

In a country like the United States where the race and ethnicity of people has often been a determining factor in the type of life they would enjoy, I'm grateful that an increasing number of individuals are refusing to be placed in the boxes that those who have gone before us have put them in.

To read the complete New York Times article entitled please click here.

(You may also want to check out a previous post of mine which addresses this topic, "Why Latino is Not a Race.")

John Piper on Heaven Without Christ

2012-01-19T11:58:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: giopuo

What is your motivation for wanting to go to heaven? John Piper addresses this question in his book, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself:

"The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?"

"...Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel."

Getting to heaven and finding that Jesus will not be there would be like a groom entering his wedding ceremony and learning his bride will never show up. A man does not go to his wedding primarily to see his friends and family; he goes there to begin the rest of his life with the one he cherishes more than anyone else. There are many reasons that I look forward to eternity but my heart aches for heaven more than anything else because I will get to see Jesus.

Slavery & Christian Heroes of the Faith

2012-01-13T12:39:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: WELS.net

In a recent blog post, Trevin Wax tackles a difficult question for the modern Christian -- How do we respond to the great heroes of our faith that openly subscribed to racial prejudices and may have even owned slaves themselves?

Due to the uncomfortable nature of this topic, most of us choose to ignore the question. We would rather act like we don't know that Jonathan Edwards, the great Puritan preacher, owned slaves or that Martin Luther, the courageous instigator of the Christian Reformation, is widely known to have been anti-Semitic?

So how do we wrestle through the reality that some of those that are generally regarded for their deep understanding of the gospel failed so miserably to live out this understanding as it pertained to their fellow man?

Wax offers this:

"The one thing we cannot do is to explain away our theological forebears’ attitudes and actions by appealing to the historical context of their time. It’s true we must take into consideration their context in order to understand them and refrain from unnecessary vilification. But we must make sure that as we point out the general social ethics of the day we do not diminish the sinfulness of their practice. Otherwise, we run the risk of elevating right doctrine over right practice in a way that departs from the teaching of the apostles.

Attitudes and actions matter. When Paul confronted Peter for separating himself from the Gentiles, he wasn’t worried that Peter had abandoned justification as a doctrine. Paul called him out because Peter was denying the truth by his practice. In other words, we cannot paper over the sinful actions of our forefathers by appealing to the soundness of their doctrinal beliefs. And let’s be clear. Racial and ethnic superiority is antithetical to the doctrine upon which the church of Jesus Christ stands or falls.

...Slavery is a great evil, but even slavery cannot stand in the way of the grace and glory of the gospel. And just as we learn from the blind spots of the generations who have gone before us, we trust that the blood of Christ will cover our own blind spots. That’s why the more we walk with God, the more we cry like David: "Cleanse me from my hidden faults.""

The men and women that went before us were fallible human beings, just as we are today. Because they "missed it" in such an important area does not negate the truth of the message they preached, even if they failed to always live it out in their own lives. These men were influenced by the culture they lived in...and we are influenced by ours. It's a reminder that just because a popular preacher advocates something, it doesn't always mean it lines up with what Scripture teaches. We should always compare what we're being taught to what the Bible actually says.

Just as we are horrified to learn that Bible-believing Christians participated in the slave trade, future generations will be shocked to learn of issues that we tolerated (e.g. abortion). If history has taught us anything, it is not that people are inherently good and that the gospel is not needed but it has shown us that we are wicked and in desperate need of a Savior. Fortunately for us, that Savior is not found among sinful Christian leaders but He stands at the right hand of the Father pleading on our behalf.

To read the rest of Trevin's well-written post please click here.

A Primer For Politicians: The Facts About Poverty & Race

2012-01-11T19:21:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: tizzie

"Stereotype: A fixed, commonly held notion or image of a person or group, based on an oversimplification of some observed or imagined trait of behavior or appearance." (From Media Awareness Network)

Those of us in the U.S. are in the midst of another presidential election and the issue of race is figuring prominently into the national conversation once again. When discussing the issue of race, there are a number of misconceptions that politicians often contribute to by reinforcing stereotypes that are based in perception...but not reality.

For example, take recent comments made by Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. When commenting about the state of the welfare system in the United States, Santorum is quoted as saying this:

"I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money."

Newt Gingrich, when commenting on the realities of poverty in America's inner cities, says this:

"Look,” Gingrich said, “at a time when you have up to 43% black teenage unemployment, you have entire communities that are devastated, you have neighborhoods where nobody has worked and nobody has any habit of work, I’d be delighted to — that’s why I want to challenge Obama to 7 three hour debates — I’d be delighted to have a conversation about our current approach to children.

“Young children who are poor ought to learn how to go to work,” he continued. “What I’ve said is, for example, it would be great if inner city schools and poor neighborhood schools actually hired the children to do things. Some of the things they could do is work in the library, work in the front office. Some of them frankly, could be janitorial."

It can be agreed that poverty is a problem that needs tangible and long-term solutions. But one of the misconceptions that politicians like those quoted above have, along with many of us, is that poverty is a black issue. For many people, when the topic of conversation turns to poor people or the subject of welfare, there is a stereotype in many peoples' minds that poor=black. It is simply not true.

Here are the facts: According to The Root.com, the numbers from the 2010 census tell us that 31 million of the 46 million people living in poverty are white. Although the stereotype that many of us may assume to be true is that the bulk of those who are living in poverty are black, just a little over two out of every ten Americans living in poverty are African American. And poor white people don't just live in rural areas -- nearly half of the urban poor are those that look like me.

Furthermore, many people of all races who fall below the poverty line are employed or actively seeking work in this troubled economy. These individuals, considered the "working poor", comprise nearly 60% of all those who are considered poor. So any person who says that everyone who grows up below the poverty line doesn't know what an honest day's work looks like simply does not know the realities on this matter. In fact, some of those who we define as poor are some of the hardest working people that any of us will ever meet.

My concerns here in raising this issue are not that there are politicians who desire to see those in poverty elevate themselves into a higher economic class. Nor do my hesitations come from a place of not wanting economically disadvantaged individuals to earn a living for themselves. I think it is good and right that those in poverty seek employment, if at all possible. My trouble is with the condescending tone that accompanies these pronouncements, as well as the perpetuation of the stereotype that poor=black.

From personal experience, I know that this myth that all (or at least most) black people come from poverty or grew up in the inner-city is well-ingrained in the psyche of many of us. For example, I've spent much of my adult life ministering to African American college students. Although some of the students I've worked with have come from less than ideal family situations and grew up in economically distressed neighborhoods, many of them grew up in stable, two-parent homes in nice communities.

But time and time again I've had people assume that my ministry focus is in "the hood" after they've learned I work with African Americans. I say I minister to African American college students...and their mind immediately shifts to an "urban community" with "disadvantaged youth." Yes, I've spent some time ministering in poor communities in urban areas but most of my work with students has been spent on college campuses in college towns.

My desire is that the leaders at the highest level of our country would at least know the facts when it comes to addressing complicated challenges like systemic poverty in distressed communities across our country. People from all ethnic groups face economic challenges. It is not just a black problem. It is an issue for all of us. If political leaders are sincere in wanting to solve problems like cyclical poverty, my suggestions is that they spend some time in disadvantaged communities -- whether that's in the barrios of Los Angeles, the streets of Harlem or the hills of Appalachia.

The Importance Of Character Over Reputation

2012-01-04T16:06:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: tartanpodcast

Do you find yourself giving more thought to what others think about you or more thought to developing your own character? Donald Miller, an author who I respect for his honesty and vulnerability, offers a challenging perspective on why our character should matter more to us than our reputation.

Miller has this to say:

"So, what would it look like for us to have great character in 2012 and stop working on our reputation? Who really cares what people think?

I learned this lesson several years ago. I ran into a person who worked endlessly on their reputation but had terrible character. When their character was revealed (which happens in intimacy) they were a complete let down. The truth is, they wouldn’t have been a let down at all if they would have been themselves.

People don’t judge who we are, they judge who we’ve led them to believe we are. The more time and effort we put into making ourselves look great, the longer and harder the fall when the truth comes out. And eventually the truth comes out.

What I took from that relationship was difficult, but it’s something we have to face in our early twenties, usually, and that’s there’s a difference between our reputation and our character. Since then, I’ve decided not to work very hard on my reputation. Or at least I hope that’s true. I air most of my dirty laundry, so nobody will judge me. People only judge those who claim to be better than others, more holy, more righteous more moral. When I’m ethical, I just look good. When somebody who works on their reputation isn’t ethical, they find themselves in social court. Working on our reputation is just a dumb move."

To read more of Miller's thoughts on this important topic please read the complete post here.

The War on Christmas & Consumerism In the Name of Christ

2011-12-19T18:44:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: violscraper

Syke Jethani, an editor for Christianity Today, offers an intriguing perspective on what has become known as "The War on Christmas." In a recent post, Jethani writes of the historical view that American Christians have taken of the modern holiday of Christmas and how our materialistic culture has influenced our celebration of the birth of Christ.

He says:

"It amazes me that in less than a century Christians have gone from opposing over-consumption at Christmas to demanding it be done in Christ’s name alone. The explanation may be in the numbers. Two-thirds of the U.S. economy is based on consumer spending, and 50-75 percent of most retailers annual profits are generated during December. This means the weeks before Christmas are the high holy days of consumerism. If Christians engaged the Advent season as they did in generations past, by modeling moderation and self-denial or by ignoring the holiday altogether, it would likely destroy (what remains of) the economy.

To ensure economic survival consumers are stirred into a buying frenzy every winter with the goal of making this year’s shopping season more prosperous than the previous. Santa Claus has been the mascot of this manipulation since the early 20th Century, but if more Consumer Christians have their way the season of shopping would be inaugurated by the appearance of Jesus Christ at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade instead."

As a Christian who can be influenced by the culture I live in as much as anyone else, I hope that I can remain true to my celebration of the birth of Jesus without being unduly sucked into the consumerism that so invades one of my faith's most precious holy-days. I'm not so concerned about whether a retailer that is more interested in my money than in the birth of Jesus wishes me a hearty "Merry Christmas" or not. I'm much more concerned about whether my heart rejoices in the birth of the Christ child more than in temporal presents under my tree.

To read Skye Jethani's complete post please click here.

Why Christian Growth Is About More Than A "Personal Relationship With God"

2011-12-15T18:55:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: emdot

Richard Beck at Experimental Theology offers some challenging thoughts in a post he entitles "The Bait and Switch of Contemporary Christianity." Beck argues that focusing on our personal relationship with God while neglecting how we treat other people is a trap for the modern Christian.

A highlight:

"The point is that one can fill a life full of spiritual activities without ever, actually, trying to become a more decent human being. Much of this activity can actually distract one from becoming a more decent human being. In fact, some of these activities make you worse, interpersonally speaking. Many churches are jerk factories.

Take, for example, how Christians tip and behave in restaurants. If you have ever worked in the restaurant industry you know the reputation of the Sunday morning lunch crowd. Millions of Christians go to lunch after church on Sundays and their behavior is abysmal. The single most damaging phenomenon to the witness of Christianity in America today is the collective behavior of the Sunday morning lunch crowd. Never has a more well-dressed, entitled, dismissive, haughty or cheap collection of Christians been seen on the face of the earth.

I exaggerate of course. But I hope you see my point. Rather than pouring our efforts into two hours of worship, bible study and Christian fellowship on Sunday why don't we just take a moment and a few extra bucks to act like a decent human being when we go to lunch afterwards? Just think about it. What if the entire restaurant industry actually began to look forward to working Sunday lunch? If they said amongst themselves, "I love the church crowd. They are kind, patient and very generous. It's my favorite part of the week waiting on Christians." How might such a change affect the way the world sees us? Think about it. Just being a decent human being for one hour each Sunday and the world sees us in a whole new way.

But it's not going to happen. Because behavior at lunch isn't considered to be "working on your relationship with God." Behavior at lunch isn't spiritual. Going to church, well, that is working on your relationship with God. But, as we all know, any jerk can sit in a pew. But you can't be a jerk if you take the time to treat your waitress as if she were your friend, daughter or mother."

Seeking to grow in our walk with God through personal Bible study, prayer, church attendance and worship are all good and necessary things. But if I don't become a more loving person towards others in that process, then my relationship with God might not be as strong as I think it is. The basic message of Christianity is quite simple, actually -- Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. The two really do go together.

To read Beck's complete post please click here.

(h/t to Matt Mikalatos for the link.)

Why Hollywood Is Not The Place To Learn About Native Americans

2011-12-13T16:54:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: Paco Lyptic

Whenever I talk with others about doing cross-cultural ministry, one of the points that I emphasize time and time again is that building deep friendships with those from different cultural backgrounds than our own is the most effective way to learn about another culture.

As a missionary that has served in cross-cultural environments for most of my adult life, I view myself as a lifelong learner of people. In addition to building solid friendships with those from ethnic backgrounds different than my own, I am also intentional about pursuing resources that can help me learn from the experiences and the stories of members of the ethnic communities that I am learning about.

The types of resources that I often pursue are books, subscribing to blogs, digesting any newspaper or online articles that I can that speak to race and culture, watching films & documentaries and being exposed to music that is popular to specific ethnic communities. Even though many of these resources can be helpful, they can, at times, miss the mark. So is the case with the traditional portrayals of Native Americans in Hollywood movies.

Reel Injun, a riveting documentary that examines how First Nations peoples have been depicted throughout the history of Hollywood, sheds light on the failure of filmmakers to offer an accurate picture of those the movies commonly refer to as "Indians." Documentarian Neil Diamond (no, not the singer...this one, a member of the Cree tribe) interviews such notables as Clint Eastwood, Adam Beach and Russell Means in order to uncover the unfair stereotypes that have typically accompanied the over 4,000 Hollywood produced films that have attempted to tell the Native American story. Most movies featuring a Native storyline have been written by non-Native people, often featuring white actors who wore makeup and outfits to appear as Indians. It might be funny if it wasn't so sad.

What is sad is that for many Americans, the primary source for information about Native Americans is Hollywood films. So when the bulk of these movies lean towards negative stereotypical portrayals and inaccurate historical re-enactments, most Americans simply do not have a fair view of First Nations peoples. It is why personal friendships are so important. If all I knew about Native Americans is what I saw in the movies, I would have no other option than to subscribe to cliched stereotypes and outdated depictions.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

One of the most telling stories that Reel Injun tells is of Iron Eyes Cody, an American actor that was featured in a number of films throughout the 20th Century. If you're of my generation or older, however, you'll most likely remember Cody as the Native American who sheds a single tear over the increase in littering during the "Keep America Beautiful" ad campaign that ran during the 1970's. I remember this iconic image years later even though I was just a young boy when these commercials aired.

But in recent years, it was discovered that Cody, who passed away in 1999, was not even Native American. Though he had claimed to be of Cherokee-Cree descent, Cody was actually of Italian heritage. Cody lived nearly his whole life pretending to be someone he was not. It does not mean that his efforts to help the causes of indigenous people were insincere or unappreciated. It just means that the image that he gave of himself was not truthful. Sadly, the picture we have been given of Native Americans by Hollywood has also not been truthful.

Unfortunately, this has often been the case not only with Native Americans, but also with those of other ethnic minorities communities when it comes to how these people groups have been represented by Hollywood. Often relying on caricatures and majority culture perceptions, we simply can't trust most Hollywood films to give complete and fair representations of traditionally marginalized ethnic groups.

If you want to utilize film to learn about a particular ethnic group, please seek to watch movies that were made by and star actors that are actually from that community. But even better than that is to seek to build friendships with members of that group. I've found that it is fundamentally impossible to subscribe to sweeping generalizations about a group of people when I've actually gotten to know people from that community. When you've sat with people, spent time with their families in their homes and listened to their stories, you can't help but grow in your appreciation and love for them.

All people, no matter what their ethnicity, are made in the image of God and are, therefore, image bearers of God. We get a small glimpse into what God is like when we look into the soul of another human being and appreciate them as another image bearer of our Creator. This is a simple reminder of the words of Jesus that we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

If you would like to view the documentary Reel Injun and you are a Netflix member, the movie is currently available for live streaming here.

A Prayer From St. Francis of Assisi

2011-12-11T18:47:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: dawnzy58

A Prayer from St. Francis of Assisi:

"Lord, make us instruments of Thy peace: Where there is hatred, let us sow love;Where there is injury, pardon;Where there is discord, union;Where there is doubt, faith;Where there is despair, hope;Where there is darkness, light;Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek To be consoled, as to console;To be understood, as to understand;To be loved, as to love;For it is in giving that we receive;It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;And it is in dying that we are born To Eternal Life. Amen."

(h/t to Josh Bales for leading us in this prayer this morning at Lake Baldwin Church.)

Is It Harder For Asian Americans To Get Into College?

2011-12-08T16:37:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: UBC Library

According to a recent Associated Press article, an increasing number of Asian Americans feel that their ethnicity may be working against them when it comes to getting accepted into their college of choice.

Although many of us in the majority culture might think being an ethnic minority makes it easier for someone to get into college, that may not be the case as often as we think.

From the USA Today:

"For years, many Asian-Americans have been convinced that it's harder for them to gain admission to the nation's top colleges.Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges' admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission. Critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination.

The way it works, the critics believe, is that Asian-Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other ultra-achieving Asians who are stereotyped as boring academic robots.Now, an unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications.For those with only one Asian parent, whose names don't give away their heritage, that decision can be relatively easy. Harder are the questions that it raises: What's behind the admissions difficulties? What, exactly, is an Asian-American — and is being one a choice?

The article continues...

Asian students have higher average SAT scores than any other group, including whites. A study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade examined applicants to top colleges from 1997, when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it's 2400). Espenshade found that Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100.Top schools that don't ask about race in admissions process have very high percentages of Asian students.

The California Institute of Technology, a private school that chooses not to consider race, is about one-third Asian. (Thirteen percent of California residents have Asian heritage.) The University of California-Berkeley, which is forbidden by state law to consider race in admissions, is more than 40 percent Asian — up from about 20 percent before the law was passed."

The ramifications of our country's checkered history as it pertains to race continues to affect us deeply today. To assume that hard working and high achieving individuals will always be given a fair shot regardless of their ethnicity might be a little naive...even in 2011.

To read the complete article please click here.

Why Biblical Submission Might Not Mean What You Think It Does

2011-12-06T17:00:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Daniel Andre

There are many positive ways in which the Bible can be read. It can used to comfort, to encourage, to challenge, to direct, to instruct, to guide, to teach, to discipline and to train. Unfortunately, there are other ways that the Holy Scriptures has been twisted and distorted to demean others, to subjugate others and to hate others.

One of these areas in which the Bible has been misused is the topic of biblical submission. This subject relates specifically to how men and women are to relate to each other in marriage, church leadership and society at large. There are a variety of perspectives on this matter but, in general, there are two specific camps when it comes to the area of submission.

Complementarianism is the belief that God created men and women distinct from one another with differing, yet complementing, roles. For example, the man is the head of the household and the role of a pastor is reserved exclusively for men. Those that hold to this view will typically hold to more traditional roles between men and women when it comes to vocations and service in their local church.

Egalitarianism is the view that any roles both within the home and within the Church are not limited by one's gender. This would mean that a woman could be the final decision maker in a marriage relationship and that woman could hold any leadership role within the Church that she is gifted for. Egalitarians typically advocate women stepping into positions traditionally held by men if they feel they are called by God.

The proponents of both of these positions use the Scriptures to back up their views and both believe that their view is correct. My point in this post is not to argue for either position but to offer a different slant on what biblical submission truly means. Russell Moore explains in a recent post why he feels that even if one subscribes to a complementarian position in marriage it doesn't mean that women are to submit to all men everywhere.

Dr. Moore says this:

"Too often in our culture, women and girls are pressured to submit to men, as a category. This is the reason so many women, even feminist women, are consumed with what men, in general, think of them. This is the reason a woman’s value in our society, too often, is defined in terms of sexual attractiveness and availability. Is it any wonder that so many of our girls and women are destroyed by a predatory patriarchy that demeans the dignity and glory of what it means to be a woman?

Submitting to men in general renders it impossible to submit to one’s “own husband.” Submission to one’s husband means faithfulness to him, and to him alone, which means saying “no” to other suitors.

Submission to a right authority always means a corresponding refusal to submit to a false authority. Eve’s submission to the Serpent’s word meant she refused to submit to God’s. On the other hand, Mary’s submission to God’s word about the child within her meant she refused to submit to Herod’s. God repeatedly charges his Bride, the people of Israel, with a refusal to submit to him because they have submitted to the advances of other lovers. The freedom of the gospel means, the apostle tells us, that we “do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).

Despite the promise of female empowerment in the present age, the sexual revolution has given us the reverse. Is it really an advance for women that the average high-school male has seen images of women sexually exploited and humiliated on the Internet? Is it really empowerment to have more and more women economically at the mercy of men who freely abandon them and their children, often with little legal recourse?Is this really a “pro-woman” culture when restaurant chains enable men to pay to ogle women in tight T-shirts while they gobble down chicken wings? How likely is it that a woman with the attractiveness of Henry Kissinger will obtain power or celebrity status in American culture? What about the girl in your community pressured to perform oral sex on a boyfriend, what is this but a patriarchy brutal enough for a Bronze Age warlord?

In the church it is little better. Too many of our girls and young women are tyrannized by the expectation to look a certain way, to weigh a certain amount, in order to gain the attention of “guys."

Biblical submission, when properly understood, doesn't mean that men are rulers over women. Too many men treat women as second class citizens or "less than" in the eyes of God because they are of a different gender. A wife who graciously submits to her husband is to be loved by her husband just as Jesus loved His followers, even to the point of death. A man that seeks to abuse submission to his own advantage simply does not understand the gospel of Jesus. Pastors on ego trips that play the submission card whenever someone disagrees with them probably need to find a new line of work.

One passage that is often quoted in this discussion is Ephesians 5:22: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord." However, it is rare that the verse right before it is also included -- "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Ephesians 5:22 specifically speaks to husbands and wives; Ephesians 5:21 speaks to all of us.

To read Russell Moore's complete post please click here.

What's Really Behind The Tebow Bashing?

2011-12-03T16:59:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall

I am not really a Florida Gators fan nor a Denver Broncos fan but I have been following the strange twists and turns of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow's journey in the NFL. Tebow, who had arguably one of the most accomplished and recognized college football careers in my lifetime while winning the Heisman trophy and two national championships, was predicted by many football experts to be an utter failure in the NFL.

It was said that Tebow's style of play, his unorthodox throwing motion and the previous lack of success of many QB's coming out of a pro style offense in college would mean that Tebow had no chance of a productive NFL career. The Broncos surprised most football observers by taking him with the 25th pick in the 2010 draft and some commentators scratched their heads in what they felt was a wasted pick by Denver.

Fast-forwarding late into the 2011 season, Tebow still has much to improve in his game (as most young quarterbacks do), but his team is consistently winning games and looking towards a potential spot in the playoffs. In a league where winning is supposedly all that matters, I've been surprised by the consistent negativity that has been directed towards Tebow.

Larry Taunton has written a splendid piece in the USA Today that, in my opinion, hits the nail on the head as it pertains to Tebow. Taunton says this about the Tebow detractors:

"Now 5-1 as a starter, Tebow's critics are indignant that the Gainesville upstart didn't pack his cleats and go home the moment they declared him inadequate. The simple fact is, they want him to fail. And now, after so much ink and vitriol predicting just that, they need him to fail.So what gives? Why does even Tebow's own coaching staff and management offer so little public support?

Jake Plummer, the latest to take pot shots at the embattled Denver quarterback, might have been speaking for anti-Tebowites everywhere when he said in an interview on a Phoenix radio station that he would like Tebow more if he would "shut up" about his faith in Jesus Christ.And with that little comment, the cat, as they say, was out of the bag.Plummer said what the commentators wouldn't say. Their dislike for Tim Tebow is not, as they would have us believe, about his throwing motion or his completion percentage; it's all about his open professions of faith and his goody-two shoes image.

When it comes right down to it, we don't want heroes who are truly good. We want them to fail the occasional drug test or start a bar fight from time to time. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Tebow, however, doesn't make us feel better about ourselves. People like him make us feel a little convicted about the things we say and do. So we find a reason to dislike them. Or, when Tebow says that glory goes to God and the credit for a victory goes to his teammates, coaches, and family, we are suspicious. An increasingly jaded culture, we don't believe that anyone can say such things and really mean them."

As a fellow evangelical, I can't help but feel that at least some of the animosity that is directed towards Tim Tebow has to do with the openness with which he talks about his faith. It seems to me that Taunton is onto something here. The amount of criticism that Tebow has received is simply not commensurate with the winning ways of his team. There has to be something else beyond just football to cause so many "experts" to be so fixated on Tebow and I think Taunton has it pegged.

When it comes down to it, Tim Tebow is a winner, is well-liked by his teammates and is someone, from all appearances, that lives a life that is consistent with the beliefs he professes. From my perspective, I wish more professional athletes were like Tim Tebow and I find myself rooting him on as the season progresses and frustrated analysts seek to find new ways to justify their negative views towards him. Tim Tebow is far from perfect but I hope he finds years of success in the NFL.

To read Larry Taunton's complete article please click here.

Thanksgiving and the Detroit Lions

2011-11-23T09:35:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: guyfromlargo

Due to the losing ways of the Detroit Lions in recent years, there has been a growing outcry about why the Lions are featured each Thanksgiving Day in a nationally televised game. Of course, the Lions have turned things around this year and are one of the NFL's better teams as they enter into tomorrow's match-up against the undefeated Green Bay Packers.

If you're wondering why the Lions play on Thanksgiving, here's a little history from the Lions' website:

"The [Thanksgiving Day] game was the brainchild of G.A. Richards, the first owner of the Detroit Lions. Richards had purchased the team in 1934 and moved the club from Portsmouth, Ohio to the Motor City. The Lions were the new kids in town and had taken a backseat to the baseball Tigers. Despite the fact the Lions had lost only one game prior to Thanksgiving in 1934, the season’s largest crowd had been just 15,000.The opponent that day in 1934 was the undefeated, defending World Champion Chicago Bears of George Halas. The game would determine the champion of the Western Division. Richards had convinced the NBC Radio Network to carry the game coast-to-coast (94 stations) and, additionally, an estimated 26,000 fans jammed into the University of Detroit Stadium while thousands more disappointed fans were turned away.Despite two Ace Gutowsky touchdowns, the Bears won the inaugural game, 19-16, but a classic was born. Since 1934, 69 games have been played with the Lions holding a series record of 33-34-2 (.493). And each game, in its own way, continues to bring back memories of Thanksgiving, not only to Lions' fans, but to football fans across the nation."

In addition, the Dallas Cowboys have also been featured on Thanksgiving since 1966 and, in recent years, the NFL has added a third game in the evening. The last time the Lions won on Thanksgiving was in 2003 against the Packers.

While time with family, giving thanks for God's blessing and enjoying a large feast are probably the highest priorities for most Americans on Thanksgiving, watching NFL football is another Thanksgiving tradition that many of us look forward to each year.

Combating Latina Negative Stereotypes on Television

2011-11-22T17:36:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: roniweb

Although Hispanics and Latinos now make up over 16% of the U.S. population, they remain woefully underrepresented on our country's most popular television shows. Hiispanics, especially when it comes to Latinas, featured on prime-time shows often fit narrow, stereotypical roles.

Melissa Castillo-Garsow addresses this issue:

"A 2008 study published in Human Communication Research found that Latinos continue to be hugely underrepresented on primetime television - at they time, they were 3.9% of the television population and 12.5% of the U.S.population. Latina characters were generally more likely to have the following traits than white or African-American characters: “addictively romantic”, “sensual”, “sexual” and “exotically dangerous.”

These researchers also found that in comparison to characters of other races, Latinas were the “laziest”, “least intelligent” and most “verbally aggressive.”

But what really bothers me about the roles of Adrian on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” Alice on “Hellcats” and Santana on “Glee,” is that these are shows marketed towards young audiences – teens and younger – who are still forming their impressions of the world. It makes me wonder who is watching, taking in and possibly acting on these stereotypes.

Worst of all, Adrian, Alice and Santana are not stupid, or lazy, either. They are actually the cream of the crop – talented girls who excel at school, art or sports, representing real possibilities at diversifying the portrayals of Latina women in the media. Even so, they are still the sluts, still the manipulative characters that antagonize the likeable white character."

Castillo-Garsow points to America Ferrara's role in the ABC series, Ugly Betty, as an example of a stereotype breaking role for a young Latina. Ugly Betty, which left the air last year, helped to present a more complete and accurate portrayal of a Hispanic woman without overly sexualizing her or placing her in a domestic help role.

While it can be argued that some of these same stereotypes can be applied to white television characters, there is a plethora of personalities and characteristics, both positive and negative, that make up the complexity of majority culture television roles. The same can't necessarily be said for people of color. Television still has a ways to go in accurately representing the diversity that is in our country without playing to cliche and inherited stereotypes.

To read Ms. Castillo-Garsow's complete article on CNN.com please click here.

How Are Broken People Different Than Proud People?

2011-11-20T19:59:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: ashley rose,

There are few books that I have found as personally convicting as Nancy Leigh DeMoss's book, Brokenness: The Heart God Revives. DeMoss goes into great detail about what makes a person's heart proud and how brokenness before God and others is a necessary reality in order to truly experience personal revival.

DeMoss recounts the story of the revival that happened among Campus Crusade staff out during our staff training in Colorado during the summer of 1995. I didn't join the staff of Campus Crusade until a few months after this happened so I wasn't there, but DeMoss shares about how God met all those present in a deep way. Sincere awakening happened among those present as many people confessed and repented of their sins against God and others.

Contrary to what some may think, those of us in vocational Christian ministries such as pastors and missionaries struggle with all the sins everybody else does and our lives are not perfect. We need the same Savior, Jesus, that everyone does and we, too, need to experience the gospel on a daily basis. DeMoss provides a list of the different characteristics of "Proud People vs. Broken People." There are over thirty areas on the list so I won't list them all, but here is a sampling:

Proud people focus on the failures of others; broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.
Proud people have a critical, fault-finding spirit and look at everyone else's faults with a microscope, but their own with a telescople; broken people are compassionate and can forgive much because they know how much they have been forgiven.
Proud people are self-righteous and look down on others; broken people esteem all others better than themselves.
Proud people have to prove that they are right; broken people are willing to yield the right to be right.
Proud people desire to be served; broken people are motivated to serve others.
Proud people desire self-advancement; broken people desire to promote others.
Proud people have a drive to be recognized and appreciated; broken people have a sense of their own unworthiness and are thrilled that God would use them at all.
Proud people feel confident in how much they know; broken people are humbled by how very much they have to learn.
Proud people are concerned about the consequences of their sin; broken people are grieved over the cause, the root of their sin.
Proud people compare themselves with others and feel worthy of honor; broken people compare themselves to the holiness of God and feel a desperate need for His mercy.
Proud people don't think they need revival, but that everyone else does; broken people continually sense their need for a fresh encounter with God and for a fresh filling of His Holy Spirit.

I don't know about you, but after reading this list, I'm confronted with the fact of how filled with pride I can be. I frequently blame others instead of accepting my own wrongs. I want to be served instead of serving others. I desire to be recognized above others. I justify my own sin while wanting the sins of others to be exposed. I can assume myself better than others but utterly fail the test when compared with God's standard. We all need to pray more consistently that God would root out the pride and sin in our hearts and replace it with brokenness, humility and grace.

To order your own copy of this book you can find it here.

The Danger of Becoming an Internet Busy-Body

2011-11-17T11:17:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Internet Society

If you spend a similar amount of time online as I do, you are also at risk of becoming an "Internet Busy-Body." What is that you ask? Trisha Wilkerson writes about this type of person as one who spends an inordinate amount of time online with no real purpose -- just surfing the web, bumping around from site-to-site, wasting time by ingesting massive amounts of trivial news and random updates that don't necessarily serve any real purpose.

Wilkerson says this:

"When was the last time you found yourself going around from house to house being idle? Or, perhaps calling or texting too many friends in one day? Does boredom lure you in to busy-bodying? What do you gain by knowing more stuff? When does being curious distract your heart away from what God wants you to focus on?

The sin of the busy-body is often when desires are disappointed and we either demand or settle for the pleasure of knowing others’ business. Instead of being connected relationally to God and people, we slip into false intimacy and gather knowledge that doesn't grow us, but instead wastes time. Like greed or lust, busy-bodying is a thirst for more. We are saying to God that he doesn’t satisfy our hearts."

This is a helpful reminder that although this is much that is positive about our ability to connect with another and learn new information on the Internet, there is also the temptation to flutter away significant amounts of time each week by wasting time online. We can all-too-easily trade the realities of our seemingly boring and mundane lives for the salacious and exciting news of celebrities and others we don't know.

While there is certainly a place for entertainment and recreation, we should be concerned if we find ourselves spending more time living vicariously through the lives of others online than we do seeking to become better people ourselves who are growing closer to God and who connect in healthy relationships with others in real life.

To read Trisha Wilkerson's complete post please click here.

Sinclair Ferguson on The Holiness of God

2011-11-15T10:48:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Andre Maceira

From Sinclair B. Ferguson's, A Heart for God:

"What does the Holiness of God mean? It is this: His holiness is an attribute of God that encompasses all of his other attributes. It is His "God-ness." When we speak of God's holiness we are speaking of His purity, power, perfection, all-sufficiency, eternality, immutability, transcendence, omnipresence, omniscience, righteousness, wisdom, goodness, mercy, sovereignty, faithfulness, love. It is God's holiness that makes Him separate, sacred and above all other things. Nothing can be compared to Him. God's holiness means He is separate from sin. But holiness in God also means wholeness. God's holiness is His "God-ness." It is His being God in all that it means for Him to be God. To meet God in His holiness, therefore, is to be altogether overwhelmed by the discovery that He is God and not man."

(h/t to Derrick Grow for the quote)

Chevy Chase on the Downside of Fame

2011-11-11T15:19:00.001-05:00

Photo Credit: Alan Light

I am currently reading Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller's book, Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, a book of interviews with those associated with the show during its nearly forty years of existence.

I came across the following quote from Chevy Chase, a breakout star from SNL's inaugural season who went onto become one of the biggest comedic movie stars of the 1980's. Having personally gone from obscurity to fame seemingly overnight when SNL became a breakout hit in 1975, Chase says this about fame:

"I think if there is one perception that the public feels about people who become famous, it's that it is a great, wonderful, marvelous, magical thing. And that's true up to a point. But in fact it's also a very, very frightening thing, because it's one of the most stressful things. There's a certain amount of post-traumatic stress involved in being regular guy and then suddenly an extremely famous one.

By and large, people who are looking for some sort of immediate gratification to being with, some validation of what their identity is, who they are, some acceptability. They're not novelists who are waiting after ten years to see how they did. They want it right away. They're children, basically. And in all children there's this reservoir of self-doubt and guilt and sense of low self-esteem, I think. And so one lives with this kind of dualism, this disparity between the marvelous magic of becoming accepted by so many so fast and, at the same time, a lingering sense that one doesn't deserve it and sooner or later will be found out."

Fame is fleeting for most who find it and most people will never achieve the kind of recognition that television and film stars find. But true satisfaction and meaning is not found in the applause we get simply for making people laugh or by being really good at pretending to be someone we're not. We can take comfort in knowing that there is a God who knows everything about us and still offers a love to us that is not based on our performance. To find out more about this God, please click here.

Tim Keller on Marriage

2011-11-10T12:38:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: 19melissa68

Our society is currently grappling with the meaning of the institution of marriage. We're told that one out of every two marriages fail. We celebrate reality television unions based more on celebrity than that of commitment. And here in 2011, we find that even the very definition of marriage is being re-examined.

So what is the purpose of marriage? Dr. Tim Keller, an author and pastor in New York City, sheds some light on this subject in his new book, The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God. In a recent television interview, Keller expounds on his belief on the institution of marriage. You can watch the video here.
Dr. Keller offers a counter cultural definition of why marriage exists. It is much more than emotional love, although it certainly includes that. At its heart, marriage is complete commitment to another person and with that commitment comes a freedom to be completely oneself with another. It is a beautiful illustration of God's commitment to those that He is in covenant relationship with and we humans get the opportunity to get a small taste of God's view of us through our experience of the marriage covenant. It is love in its purest form.

World Missions & Western Guilt

2011-11-09T13:11:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit:
royalconstanstine society

We missionaries from the West often get a bad rap in the increasingly secularized culture in which we live. Because of shameful aspects of our past such as the Crusades, Western colonialism and the African slave trade which some missionaries contributed to, those of us that travel to other cultures to tell people about Jesus can find ourselves apologizing for the calling we feel that God has given to us.

In our efforts to be culturally sensitive, we may shy away from the verbal proclamation of the gospel message of Jesus and instead focus on humanitarian aspects of mission such as provide food, housing and clean water for those in need. While these things are good and appropriate for missionaries to participate in, our guilt over past atrocities committed in the name of Jesus may cause a hesitation in identifying ourselves as Christians who believe the message we have is needed by all. Western guilt can drive much of what exists in Christian missions today but it doesn't have to be that way.

In a recent article for Christianity Today, Bishop Hwa Yung challenges Western missionaries to not be driven by unhealthy guilt but to be compelled by the gospel of Christ. A highlight:

"We've witnessed many conquests and imperial expansions throughout world history. Many of these were done in the name of religion. But I am not aware of a society that has self-critically developed a guilt complex as deep and extensive over past mistakes as today's West. One can easily name a number of non-Western societies and nations that have practiced territorial expansions and various oppressions in the name of religion or national interests. In which of these do we find serious wrestling with guilt? I am not saying those from other cultural and religious traditions aren't able to develop guilt complexes. I am saying that, outside Western culture shaped by a Christian history, I do not see evidence of such a complex on a similar scale.

The point is this: The very fact of Western guilt may be one of the supreme evidences for the enduring validity of the gospel in the post-Christian West. For it shows that the gospel has the power to shape the conscience of a culture, even when its propositional claims have been forgotten or largely rejected by that culture. Seemingly, despite being abandoned by many Westerners, the gospel continues to simmer in an unquenchable manner in a society that once acknowledged Christ.

What do we conclude from this? That yes, Western guilt should lead to repentance for presumptuous, insensitive, ethnocentric, and triumphalistic missions. The wrong conclusion, however, is to suggest that we must forgo Western missions because such missions have lost integrity. The very guilt that troubles the Western conscience over past failures points to the moral power and enduring validity of the gospel. Without this burden of guilt, which the Spirit imparts, this world would be far more cruel, heartless, unjust, and oppressive than it is. Only when our hearts and our cultures have responded to the call of Christ and experienced the work of the Spirit can such a conscience develop on the sort of scale that we find in the West. Thus, the Western guilt complex properly understood is also a profound call to humble confidence and boldness in mission."

For sincere missionaries not seeking to convert others to their own culture but to simply introduce them to a God that makes Himself known in all cultures, Yung's words are a comfort. Many missionaries have confused their calling and attempted to force new believers to adopt the culture of the missionary. A good missionary knows that the gospel of Jesus does not exist in just any one culture or people group but it has the power to flourish and prosper within any culture on the planet.

Though the gospel message should never change, how it gets expressed and how it gets delivered should always adapt to the culture in which it is being lived out. It is possible to celebrate and appreciate my own culture while, at the same time, celebrate and appreciate the culture of others. The God of the Bible is not limited to any one culture but He expresses Himself in all cultures. I need not be ashamed of my culture nor should I presume it upon others. As a missionary, my calling is to introduce others to the Jesus of the Bible and to step aside so that that same Jesus can make Himself known within that individual's life and the culture in which they live. There is no need to feel guilty when that is my motive.

To read the complete Christianity Today article please click here.

John Piper: A Recovering Racist Changed By The Gospel

2011-11-07T11:51:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: Micah_68

Dr. John Piper is a renowned pastor, author and speaker that is considered by many to be among the country's top Christian leaders. But in a newly released book, Piper confesses to the racism that infiltrated his heart while growing up in a segregated South in the midst of the American Civil Rights movement.

In Bloodlines: Race, Cross and the Christian, tackles a topic head-on that few of his peers in conservative, evangelical circles are willing to address -- racism. Piper adeptly uses the Holy Scriptures to argue that not only is the Christian God opposed to the racism that has so tainted our land but that He cares deeply for people of all cultures. By courageously sharing his own journey on this road, Piper demonstrates that the gospel of Jesus can transform hearts in deep and undeniable ways.

While I am quite supportive of this book and would encourage you to read it, I do have one glaring concern with the potential for how it is being received within certain corners of evangelical and, more particularly, Reformed Christian circles...

On one hand, I am unbelievably encouraged that a white Christian leader of Piper's stature has chosen to write so explicitly about a topic that so many of us white American Christians would wish to simply go away. On the other hand, I am troubled that a number of people seem to be promoting this book as the first effort that a Christian has ever made to address Christianity, the Bible and racism.

Though Piper's work is theologically rich and plentifully backed up by Scripture, his is not the first to do so. There are a number of solid Christian leaders that have written on the same subject over the years but have essentially been ignored or dismissed by some of the same types of people that are champions of Piper's book because they don't subscribe to the same systems of theology or have a different cultural background.

I am excited about the potential that Bloodlines has to influence a generation of Christians that love John Piper but don't expose themselves to many writers of color or those outside of their narrowly defined theological bubbles. These individuals may be led to consider issues that they never have before and for that I am grateful. Racism has affected our lives as American and as individuals in ways that few other sins have.

Brave Christians need to be willing to look within our own hearts to recognize the sin that lurks within and be obedient to God to address this first in ourselves and then in the society around us. I agree with Piper that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that is the antidote to the disease of racism. It's just unfortunate that so many Christians feel like we're not infected.

To read Dr. Tim Keller's introduction to Bloodlines please click here.

For a moving video in which John Piper shares about his journey with racism please watch this video below.

Bloodlines Documentary with John Piper from Crossway on Vimeo.

Making A Positive Impact Through Coaching Youth Sports

2011-11-04T17:43:00.000-04:00

My football team from last year

Upon graduation from high school and entering college in the fall of 1991, there were two things I wanted to do with my life career-wise. I wanted to be an elementary school teacher and a coach. I enjoyed the satisfaction that came with teaching children and having enjoyed participating in multiple sports throughout my childhood and youth, I particularly enjoyed the combination of teaching and athletics that coaching brings.

I had the chance to coach junior high school football and basketball while in college and looked forward to the opportunity to potentially coach as a profession. But God had other plans for me and led me into Christian ministry with college students. The chance to coach athletics didn't really present itself for a number of years after college but I was able to get back into the game several years ago due to my son's participation in a league near our home.

I have found coaching flag football and basketball in an Upward league especially rewarding. Upward is a Christian-based sports league that teaches children the importance of sportsmanship, teamwork and positive attitude. It also places competition in its proper perspective by limiting the amount of practice time that each team has and ensures that each child gets an equal amount of playing time. It's been a joy coaching in a league that recognizes that athletic competition can be fun without having a win-at-all-costs attitude.

The New York Times recently wrote of the difference that positive coaching can make in the lives of youngsters. David Bornstein writes:

"Coaches can be enormously influential in the lives of children. If you ask a random group of adults to recall something of significance that happened in their fourth or fifth grade classroom, many will draw a blank. But ask about a sports memory from childhood and you’re likely to hear about a game winning hit, or a dropped pass, that, decades later, can still elicit emotion. The meaning that coaches or parents help young people derive from such moments can shape their lives.

But today’s youth coaches often struggle to provide sound, evidence-based, and age-appropriate guidance to players. Part of the problem is that of the 2.5 million American adults who serve as volunteer coaches for youth sports less than 10 percent receive any formal training. Most become coaches because their kid is on the team ― and they basically improvise. I did this in soccer and, through my over-eagerness, almost destroyed my then-6-year-old son’s delight for the game.

But a bigger problem is that youth sports has come to emulate the win-at-all-costs ethos of professional sports. While youth and professional sports look alike, adults often forget that they are fundamentally different enterprises. Professional sports is an entertainment business. Youth sports is supposed to be about education and human development.

That’s why it is so disturbing that, over the past two decades, researchers have found that poor sportsmanship and acts of aggression have become common in youth sports settings. Cheating has also become more accepted. Coaches give their stars the most play. Parents and fans boo opponents or harangue officials (mimicking professional events). They put pressure on children to perform well, with hopes for scholarships or fulfilling their own childhood dreams. Probably the most serious indictment of the system is that the vast majority of youths ― some 70 to 80 percent ― drop out of sports shortly after middle school. For many, sports become too competitive and selective. In short, they stop being fun."

Sports can teach kids a number of important life lessons and they can be a tremendous way to teach kids how to be humble winners and gracious losers. But they don't need over-competitive adults spoiling the fun. Parents and coaches have the opportunity to provide a memorable, fun experience for kids through participation in athletics. But they can also take something that used to be fun for a child and ruin it through too high of expectations and not letting kids be kids.

While growing up, I had the privilege to play for many very good coaches and a few bad ones. I seek to model the things I learned from my good coaches and do the opposite of those who had a skewed perspective on what is most important in life. Simply put, the number one goal for someone who is coaching youth sports is to provide their players with a fun experience. Kids have fun by improving as a player, by coming together as a team, by doing things they didn't think they were capable of and by just getting to play a sport they love. I'm grateful that, hopefully, I help kids get to enjoy sports the way I did as a kid.

To read the complete New York Times article please click here.

(h/t to Linda Perukel for the link.)

Halloween Fun 2011

2011-11-01T11:00:00.000-04:00

The Avengers - Thor, Captain America & the Incredible Hulk

My little pop star

One proud dad

Our pumpkin creations:
Detroit Tigers, Cookie Monster, Owl and Christian fish & Cross

One Christian's Response to Halloween

2011-10-29T08:08:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: -Snugg-

Looking back on my childhood of the 70's and 80's, I seem to remember that nearly everyone, Christian or non, participated in Halloween. When I was a kid, the only family I remember that didn't recognize Halloween was a very strict Catholic family that lived across the street from us. We as kids thought it rather odd that they didn't give out candy and we especially enjoyed knocking on their door all night knowing that, though the lights were off, they were home.

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend within communities of faith to not have anything to do with Halloween or to offer an alternative party on church property. I do respect Christian families and churches that choose not to participate in Halloween at all but I do wonder if there is a different perspective on it. Here's a thought provoking article that I read a number of years ago in CCM Magazine by a favorite writer of mine, John Fischer:

What will you do this Halloween? Fearing the worst on an evening many Christians believe celebrates the wiles of the devil, some will choose to have no part in the traditional neighborhood trick or-treating that accompanies the 31st of October formerly known as All Hallow’s Eve.

This boycott of neighborhood dress-up and doorbell ringing is relatively new on the Christian scene, at least in my experience. As a child in an evangelical Christian home, I was right in there with all the other gremlins and witches on our block trying to scare as many Snickers bars as I could out of our neighbors’ stashes and into my bulging pillow case. And you can be sure that every home on my block was always duly prepared to be scared by us.

The anti-Halloween movement among Christians didn’t catch my attention until after my own kids had outgrown this annual neighborhood siege. So you can imagine the shock and surprise on the face of the pastor’s wife who came up to me after a talk on Christian worldview I gave last November and wanted to know what I did with my children on Halloween. When I told her I helped them into their costumes, put on a monkey mask, turned up “Ghostbusters” on the stereo, and hit the streets with the express purpose of scaring all the neighborhood ghosts and goblins before they scared me, her face turned white. Apparently what was okay for my parents in 1958 and me and my wife in 1988 was no longer acceptable Christian behavior in 1998.

The more acceptable Christian thing to do on Halloween now is to close up the house and have an alternative party for our kids at church. This is usually around a harvest or a biblical character theme--no ghosts or goblins allowed. Though I understand how this safer alternative came to be, I wonder whether a blanket boycott is the only way to handle this controversial holiday. Is this just one more time when we Christians isolate ourselves from culture for religious reasons apparent only to us? Have we really thought through what our dark houses are saying to the rest of the block? While we’re off having our alternative party, I can hear the neighborhood kids shuffling by our house, saying, “Don’t go there, they don’t give anything.” Is this what we want to be known for in the community--a dark house on the one night you can be guaranteed neighbors will visit?

My kids are older now but when they were little, Halloween in the Massachusetts town they grew up in was nothing short of an informal neighborhood progressive party. I’d start out with my immediate neighbor and his kids and then run into other parents standing outside other houses. Soon we were a small crowd making our way up and down the street while tired little feet slogged through the fallen leaves of October. By the time the kids had filled their bags, I had been in and out of a number of homes, met people I never knew, started some relationships and renewed others. Meanwhile my wife was home dumping huge handfuls of candy into open bags, raving over costumes, inviting kids to come back and visit whenever they wanted, and entertaining other parents that I missed. It was a major community event and opened many doors for fruitful relationships we were able to continue the rest of the year.

Not to diminish the reality of spiritual warfare--something to be taken seriously by all believers--but the last day of October is not a spiritual battle any more than any other day. If Satan comes out on Halloween, he doesn’t go back into hiding the next morning. Whether the origins of Halloween are pagan or otherwise, what we have today is a culture-wide event that glorifies pretending more than the underworld. It’s actually one holiday that adults haven’t taken over--the one time kids get to “be” whatever they want to be. Our participation--or lack thereof--in such a popular, cultural event is only indicative of our ability to have a good time with silliness, not a measure of our standing in a fight between good and evil. If Satan wins anything on this day, he may win more through the darkened homes of Christians than anything else.

The truth is, Christians never have anything to fear--on this night or any other--or God is not God and His promises are not true. What we should be concerned about is a retreat from our homes, when, more than any other time, it’s important to be there with our lights on and a bowl full of treats near the door. If there is a darkness on Halloween night, I, for one, am going to at least make sure that it will not be on my block, at my house."

My family does choose to take part in the fun and celebration of Halloween. We do not glorify the darkness and death that some choose to emphasize during this season but we do try to take this small window of opportunity to engage with our neighbors and the culture at large. However you decide to handle Halloween this year, I hope you have a great time with family and friends.

For an interesting slant on some of the Christians origins of what we now know as Halloween, check this out.

Halloween, Culture & Bad Costume Ideas

2011-10-26T14:14:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: &y

From CNN.com:

"Thinking about donning a kimono to dress like a geisha for Halloween, or a Mexican mariachi suit?

Students from Ohio University have a message for you: "We're a culture, not a costume."

With ethnic and racial stereotypes becoming increasingly popular Halloween costume themes, members of the school's Students Teaching About Racism in Society are launching a campaign to make revelers think twice before reducing a culture to a caricature, the group's president said.

Posters from the campaign are expected to go up on the Athens, Ohio, campus Wednesday. Meanwhile, the images are making the rounds online, raising debate over whether it's ever OK for people to paint their faces black, impersonate a racial stereotype for fun, and where to drawn the line.

It's a seasonal point of controversy, but even after widely publicized controversies such as the "Ghetto Fab" wig at Kohl's and Target's illegal alien jumpsuit, costumes of stereotypes abound. On Google's shopping section, several pages of Mexican costume ideas are available, from gauchos and "Mexican donkey costumes" to sexy serapes and tequila shooter girls.

The ad campaign from Ohio University show students holding photos of different racial and ethnic stereotypes in costume: an Hispanic guy with a picture of the Mexican donkey costume, an Asian girl with an image of a Geisha, a Muslim student with a photo of a white guy wearing a traditional ghutra and iqal over his head, bombs strapped to his chest.

"During Halloween, we see offensive costumes. We don't like it, we don't appreciate it. We wanted to do a campaign about it saying, 'Hey, think about this. It's offensive,'" said senior Sarah Williams, president of STARS.

"The best way to get rid of stereotypes and racism is to have a discussion and raise awareness, which is what we want to do with this campaign," said Williams, who is black and plans on dressing as singer Janelle Monae for Halloween.

The most obvious offense occurs when someone who's not black decides to go blackface, because of the historical context, she said. But the message applies to all races and stereotypes -- and not just during Halloween.

The dean of students fully supported the campaign, calling it a "clean, succinct" way of delivering an important message.

"We've always tried to get a handle on what it means to be thoughtful and appropriate when it comes to talking to students about choosing costumes and making the best decisions for celebrating Halloween," Ryan Lombardi said.

"I think it's a clean way of raising awareness of how the costumes you choose might be offensive. In many cases, students aren't doing it maliciously, but they might not realize the consequences of their actions on others."

If you're thinking about dressing up as someone from another culture for Halloween, please reconsider. It may not be as funny as you think.

To read the complete CNN.com article please click here.

Leadership, Humility & Sins of Omission

2011-10-20T12:08:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: The_Warfield

From Patrick Lencioni:

"See, in most organizations, the biggest problems arise not because leaders are actively promoting the wrong behavior, but rather because they’re passively doing so by allowing people to get away with this behavior without impunity.

The most common reason that leaders commit sins of omission is simply because they just don’t feel comfortable confronting people about what they are or are not doing. Instead, they look the other way and hope that the problem goes away. And so, when they see that the problem has spread throughout their organization, they really have no one to blame but themselves. This is a moment of great humility. And a moment of truth.

Great leaders, like great parents, will grit their teeth and accept the painful reality that they are almost always the reason that something is awry in their organizations. They’ll accept the pain of being humbled and set themselves on a course of correction. In the end, their egos may be temporarily bruised but the organizations they lead will improve. Poor leaders, on the other hand, will try to protect their egos by continuing to blame others. Ultimately, their organizations will suffer, and their egos will get much bigger bruises, the kind that last a long time."

To read the complete article please click here.

(h/t to Greg Hersey for the link)

Michael Vick: Can He Ever Be Forgiven?

2011-10-16T20:10:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: warpafx

ESPN: The Magazine took an interesting approach with its NFL preview issue this year by centering the magazine around the resurgence of Michael Vick, his impact on the NFL and our society. Several articles explored Vick's upbringing, his influence on the game of football and his involvement in dog fighting and his subsequent time in prison.

One article, "The Dog in the Room: A lot of people will never forgive Michael Vick. A lot of people wonder why, too." by David Fleming, particularly interested me as it examined our culture's view of pets, especially dogs, and why Vick is so vilified in some pockets of our society.

Fleming writes:

"In the fight for sole possession of the moral high ground, the fierceness of Vick's supporters and foes often leads to a complete dismissal of the opposition's valid points. For some African-Americans, a suspicion that somewhere along the way this increased devotion to animals directly correlates to a decreased respect for humans has hardened into excusing Vick of any wrongdoing altogether. There are cries of racism when perhaps speciesism may be more accurate. At the same time, animal rights activists can seem to be indulging their misanthropic side. Pets are easy to love -- humans, not so much.

This blurring of boundaries between the welfare of humans and animals is at the heart of Vick's pariah status. In this country, almost 40 million dog owners consider their pets to be a part of the family. A 2001 survey of pet owners revealed that 83 percent referred to themselves as their animals' "mommy" or "daddy." That's one reason that when Vick pleaded guilty to managing a dogfighting ring, people responded as if he had serially murdered children. "Vick should never ever, be publicly supported again -- ever," said Simon Cowell of American Idol fame. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a public letter to the NFL titled "Is Michael Vick a Clinically Diagnosable Psychopath?" White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle admitted in an interview with mlb.com to openly rooting for Vick to get hurt. "Some things are considered sacred in our culture, and they tend to cluster around the defense of the innocent such as animals and children," says veterinarian and USA Today columnist Patty Khuly. "There are a lot of pitfalls in directly comparing animals and babies, but the need to defend them comes from the same place."

In December of last year, just as Vick was making a run for MVP (he lost to Tom Brady), pundit Tucker Carlson appeared on Fox News and declared that the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year "should have been executed" for his crimes. The outrageous statement was denounced so quickly (even by Carlson) that it denied us the chance to examine the hypocrisy and moral paradoxes behind Carlson's -- and our own -- viewpoints on animal cruelty. For starters: Did Carlson also believe his stepmom should be put to death? She is, after all, the heir of Carl A. Swanson, founder of Swanson frozen foods -- a company that in its heyday slaughtered hundreds of millions of chickens. "People should look at what they're eating and what they're spending their dollars on and what kind of animal abuse they themselves are supporting," says Singer. "And if they haven't taken a good look at that, I don't think they have much right to criticize Vick."

The same night Carlson went after Vick, the TV was awash with Old Spice deodorant commercials starring Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. "Women want me, men want to be me," said Lewis. Surreal, considering that less than 10 years ago the pitchman stood in an Atlanta courtroom and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a double stabbing murder following Super Bowl XXXIV. The reason Vick's crimes continue to stay in the spotlight while Lewis' history or Ben Roethlisberger's alleged acts of sexual misconduct don't is that there are at least 40 times as many animal lovers as there are NFL season-ticket holders. And their pets have become the antidotes to something Mother Teresa described as the most terrible poverty of human existence: loneliness. "I don't know if dogs are sacred. But so many people have these personal relationships with them," says Singer. "They are very loyal animals, very uncritical animals. Because of that people can't imagine doing to them the kinds of things that Vick did."

Vick's case has raised all sorts of issues about which animals should be protected and which shouldn't. For example, would we feel the same about him if he had done the things he did to chickens or cows? Some people have questioned whether a person like Vick can be truly rehabilitated. Can he?

Since I'm a firm believer that those that have done horrible things to people can be forgiven then I have to believe that Michael Vick can be forgiven. He has admitted what he did was wrong. He has done his time. He's seeking to help educate others of the horrors of animal cruelty. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and trust that his remorse is sincere. What Vick did was inexcusable but I wonder why some of us are more troubled by what he did than the crimes that are committed towards our fellow humans that don't affect us as deeply. It's something to think about it...

To read the complete ESPN article please click here.

Money Can't Buy You Love

2011-10-13T22:30:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: brandon king

"I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too/
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you/
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love" ~ The Beatles

Can money buy you love? Apparently not. Money may enable you to get more stuff but it won't necessarily help your relationship. From USA Today:

"Researchers have found that focusing on money and possessions can take a toll on couples' happiness and stability.

In conducting the study, investigators from Brigham Young University analyzed relationship evaluations completed by more than 1,700 married couples across the United States. The participants were asked how much value they placed on "having money and lots of things."

The study, published in the Oct. 13 issue of the Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, found that couples who believe that money is not important scored up to 15 percent higher on marriage stability and other measures of relationship quality than materialistic couples.

"Couples where both spouses are materialistic were worse off on nearly every measure we looked at," lead author, Jason Carroll, a BYU professor of family life, said in a university news release. "There is a pervasive pattern in the data of eroding communication, poor conflict resolution and low responsiveness to each other."

To read the complete article please click here.

Can Reading The Bible Reguarly Make You More Liberal?

2011-10-12T16:12:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit: knowhimonline

"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." ~ Hebrews 4:12

According to recent research, regularly reading of the Bible can influence how one views certain subjects like how the government should respond to criminals, caring for the poor and being good stewards of the environment.

Christianity Today weighs in:

"Frequent Bible reading has some predictable effects on the reader. It increases opposition to abortion as well as homosexual marriage and unions. It boosts a belief that science helps reveal God's glory. It diminishes hopes that science will eventually solve humanity's problems. But unlike some other religious practices, reading the Bible more often has some liberalizing effects—or at least makes the reader more prone to agree with liberals on certain issues. This is true even when accounting for factors such as political beliefs, education level, income level, gender, race, and religious measures (like which religious tradition one affiliates with, and one's views of biblical literalism)."

Personally, I see these findings as fascinating when considering my own spiritual journey. As a church-going young person that rarely (if ever) read the Bible myself, I held quite rigid political views. After coming into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as a sophomore in college, I began to read the Bible regularly for the first time in my life.

Over time, my personal Bible reading went from "regular" to daily. I've read through the complete Bible a dozen times in my adult life and, over the years, my political persuasions have become much more liberal in nature than what they were previously. I do not hold a liberal stance on all matters (for example, I am conservative as they come on abortion) but am much more left-leaning on a variety of issues than my more conservative, evangelical friends.

For example, I once did an in-depth study of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and focused on three specific areas: 1) How did Jesus view money?; 2) How did Jesus view the poor; and 3) How did Jesus view the religious leaders of his time? I came away from this personal study with a much different view on each of those areas than I initially carried with me. Why is that?

CT's Aaron B. Franzen offers a compelling reason:

"The discussion becomes even more interesting when we consider who is most likely to read the Bible frequently. It's evangelicals and biblical literalists, those who tend to be more conservative on these topics. In other words, those who read the Bible most often are more conservative, but the more they read the Bible, the more likely it is that their views will change, at least on these topics.

Why does this happen? One possible explanation is that readers tend to have expectations of a text prior to reading it. Given the Bible's prominence in our society, it's little wonder that many people think they know what's in it before they open it up. But once they start reading it on their own, they are bound to be surprised by something, and this surprising new content is then integrated and grafted on to the familiar. Beliefs do change with the addition of new information.

But it doesn't have to be unfamiliar content to surprise the reader. It just has to be personally relevant. Frequent Bible readers may have different views of biblical authority, but they tend to read it devotionally, looking for ways in which Scripture is speaking directly to them. They will read until struck by something that sticks out in the text. Even if the reader thinks the Bible has some error or needs a lot of interpretation, this thunderbolt moment can take on tremendous personal significance.

But frequent Bible readers don't just see the Bible as personal. They also see it as authoritative, written by an author who had a specific context and intent, and they want to conform to its message. After all, why read the Bible with no desire to embrace what it teaches?

In short, sometimes reading the Bible can change views and attitudes because readers are surprised by what's in it. Other times, it's just a matter of discipleship."

When I look at my own life, I found that the more I studied the Bible personally and didn't just listen to others talk about it, I discovered much in there that surprised me. Many of my assumptions and personal biases were challenged and, as a result, I have become a much different person with a different view on the world. The point here is not that everyone that understands the Bible well will naturally become more politically liberal. It could be that a person that initially falls more liberal on the politically spectrum might become more conservative after engrossing themselves in the Bible.

There are those that also read the Bible every day and come to much different conclusions than I do politically. It is not always how we view certain policies that is paramount, but the manner in which we express our opinions and disagreements that indicate whether the Bible has taken root in our heart. Because even if I'm right about a certain topic but others experience me as a prideful, arrogant jerk, then I haven't quite yet understood the message of the Holy Scriptures.

In my opinion, there are some things that conservatives get right and some things that liberals get right. But neither have the corner on truth. If I want to get timeless truth, I need go no further than my Bible. Politicians and political pundits may have good insights, but they can never speak for God in ways that God does not speak for Himself. If you have not read the Bible much on your own, I encourage you to do so. It will provide direction for your life and lead you to the one that is the Way, the Truth and the Life -- Jesus Christ.

Walking Into The Future

2011-10-11T22:20:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: _guu_

From Phil Cooke:

"So many people are locked into old ways of thinking, tired methods, and useless techniques, that it’s almost impossible to get them to see the possibilities of the new. I’m often brought into an organization facing serious challenges, only to be limited by their frustrating desire to continue old ways of thinking. The truth is, if the old way of thinking worked, why would they need me? And yet they persist in doing the same thing(s) in the same way(s) but wanting different results.

It’s ultimately about insecurity, and I could write an entire book on that issue alone. I’ve discovered that when faced with the possibility of change or a new way of doing things, people react in two different ways. Secure people react with excitement and anticipation. But insecure people react with fear and hesitation. Insecure people are the ones who drag their feet, “forget” to do things they’ve been asked to do, subvert meetings, and figure out a million other ways to sabotage the process.

Perhaps you were told that you’d never make it, you don’t have what it takes, or you’d never amount to anything. Whoever told you that had no idea of all your capabilities, because no one can know the full potential or the full range of possibilities in another human being, and no one can tell for certain where your limits are or how far you can reach."

To read the complete post please click here.

Detroit's Sports Teams Bring Healing

2011-10-07T19:10:00.002-04:00

My family at Comerica Park, 2011
Photo Credit: Sandy Gresko

Detroit's sports teams are on a roll. The Tigers just advanced to the American League Championship Series. The Lions are 4-0 and preparing for a rare Monday Night Football appearance. The Michigan Wolverines are 5-0 and looking like they are ready to restore the program to its former glory. It's a good time to be a sports fan from Michigan.

So even as our teams are succeeding, the thoughts of Michiganders near and far never stray for too long from the challenges faced by our beloved Motown.

Detroit writer and radio host Pat Caputo writes of the ability of the city's sports teams to bring healing. From CNN.com:

"History has shown that when the city's sports teams start doing well, it's a sign of healing in Detroit. In 1968, when the Tigers won the World Series, it brought a racially divided region together after race riots. In 1984, the local economy rebounded from the recession at the same time the Tigers again won the World Series.

What makes 2011 different? The Tigers' magical summer is being followed by a surprisingly solid performance from the usually underperforming Lions, behind a triple threat of quarterback Matthew Stafford, wide receiver Calvin Johnson and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.

It's not just that the Lions are winning but how they're doing it. They were down 20 points against the Minnesota Vikings on the road September 25 and then, the following Sunday, down 24 points against the Cowboys on the road.

The Lions won both games, representing the city's come-from-behind spirit and fight to win in the midst of adversity.

This tenacity is not lost on [Jim] Schwartz, the [Lions'] coach, who has seen the Lions at their worst and now their best.

"When I became the Lions coach, it didn't take me long to understand what the team means to the people here," Schwartz said. "No matter how bad it has been, they have never stopped caring. They are vocal but never apathetic. It's like a lawn that has been dormant. It just takes one good watering, and it's back."

Eminem's tag line in January's Chrysler ad -- "that's who we are. That's our story" -- sums up the motivation for these teams who know that the wins are helping Detroit's image and giving residents a sense of hope and pride that's been missing.

It seems that Detroit is back -- for now."

To read Caputo's full article please click here.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Civil Rights Pioneer, Passes Away

2011-10-06T15:02:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: waynetaylor

The death of Apple, Inc. visionary Steve Jobs has dominated the news cycle over the past day but another great influencer of American society has also passed away. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a contemporary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and an icon of the American Civil Rights movement, entered into eternity yesterday at the age of 89.

Although not nearly as widely known by most Americans as Dr. King, Rev. Shuttlesworth was a key figure in helping to secure basic rights for African Americans during the civil rights struggle of the second half of the 20th century.

CNN.com tells some of his story:

"When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against segregated busing in Montgomery, Alabama, Shuttlesworth rallied the membership of a group he established in May 1956 -- the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights -- to challenge the practice of segregated busing in Birmingham.

Shuttlesworth also helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, with King and other civil rights leaders.

Shuttlesworth's efforts weren't without a price: his home was bombed on Christmas Day in 1956, but he and his family were not injured.

He was, however, hurt in 1957 when he was beaten with chains and whips as he sought to integrate an all-white public school.

That same year, Shuttlesworth helped King organize the SCLC, serving as the organization's first secretary from 1958 to 1970. He later served briefly as its president in 2004.

In 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Shuttlesworth a Presidential Citizens Medal -- the nation's second-highest civilian award -- for his leadership in the "non-violent civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, leading efforts to integrate Birmingham, Alabama's schools, buses and recreational facilities" and helping found the SCLC.

Shuttlesworth also protested segregated lunch counters and helped lead sit-ins at the eateries in 1960.

He participated in organizing the Freedom Rides against segregated interstate buses in the South when he joined forces with the Congress On Racial Equality.

In 1963, he was injured again when a fire hose was turned on him during a protest against segregation in Birmingham. The blast of water, directed against demonstrators by order of Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor, slammed Shuttlesworth against a wall. He was hospitalized but recovered.

He was also a principal in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, which he helped organize."

To read Rev. Shuttlesworth's obituary on Cincinnati.com please click here.

Hank Williams, Jr. & Playing The Hitler Card

2011-10-04T18:28:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: jcrawford3505

Hank Williams, Jr. is a country music singer that is perhaps best known to my generation for the "Monday Night Football" intro that he's been doing for the past two decades. But Williams has now become known to millions more for his recent comments about President Barack Obama.

While being interviewed on Fox News recently, Williams made a comparison between President Obama and Adolf Hitler. When asked by the interviewer to clarify his remarks, Williams held firm in what he said.

CNN.com gives the background:

"This week, in an appearance on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" on Monday morning, Williams referred to a June golf game with Obama and House Speaker John Boehner on the same team, against Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, as "one of the biggest political mistakes ever."

Asked what he didn't like about it, Williams said, "Come on, come on. That'd be like (Adolf) Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu. Okay. Not hardly."

When one of the Fox News interviewers later pointed out that Williams invoked "one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe ... the president," Williams responded: "That is true, but I'm telling you like it is, you know. That just wasn't a good thing. It just didn't fly. So anyway, like Fred Thompson said, you don't want to ask me a question because I'm going to give you too straight of an answer. So talk about something else."

After his remarks became a hot topic, ESPN decided to pull Hank, Jr.'s MNF intro this week. He then issued the following statements on his website:

"Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme – but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me - how ludicrous that pairing was. They’re polar opposites and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President. Every time the media brings up the tea party it’s painted as racist and extremists – but there’s never a backlash – no outrage to those comparisons… Working class people are hurting – and it doesn’t seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job – it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change.”

“I have always been very passionate about Politics and Sports and this time it got the Best or Worst of me. The thought of the Leaders of both Parties Jukin and High Fiven on a Golf course, while so many Families are Struggling to get by simply made me Boil over and make a Dumb statement and I am very Sorry if it Offended anyone. I would like to Thank all my supporters. This was Not written by some Publicist.”

In his attempt at a mea culpa, Williams commits the classic error that so many of us are guilty of these days. It is the "non-apology" apology. The reason why we are apologizing in the first place is because we hurt or offended others. But the language that Williams uses of "I am very sorry if it offended anyone" simply isn't sincere. If Williams said what is truly in his heart, then he should stick to his convictions and deal with the consquences. If he feels like his statements don't accurately reflect his true sentiments, then he should offer a more sincere clarification and apology.

Based on his "non-apology" apology, it appears that Williams meant exactly what he said in his original comments and I doubt he's sorry at all. Because we live in the United States of America, he has the freedom to say what he'd like. But the rest of us also have the freedom to call him on it when he makes a ridiculous comparison of a democratically elected president to an evil dictator that was directly responsible for the loss of millions of lives.

Part of Williams' political frustrations is that members of the Tea Party, who he sympathizes with, are often unjustly characterized as extremist or racist and there is no resulting media outcry. And he may have a point there. But if he doesn't want to be painted as an extremist, why would he make an absurd comparison between President Obama and Hitler? Standing up for hard-working Americans is noble but Hitler analogies are just a bad idea.

What Is Sin?

2011-10-03T20:00:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

From R.C. Sproul:

"The question, “What is sin?” is raised in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The answer provided to this catechetical question is simply this: “Sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.”

Let us examine some of the elements of this catechetical response. In the first instance, sin is identified as some kind of want or lack. In the middle ages, Christian theologians tried to define evil or sin in terms of privation (privatio) or negation (negatio). In these terms, evil or sin was defined by its lack of conformity to goodness. The negative terminology associated with sin may be seen in biblical words such as disobedience, godlessness, or immorality. In all of these terms, we see the negative being stressed. Further illustrations would include words such as dishonor, antichrist, and others.

However, to gain a complete view of sin, we have to see that it involves more than a negation of the good, or more than a simple lack of virtue. We may be inclined to think that sin, if defined exclusively in negative terms, is merely an illusion. But the ravages of sin point dramatically to the reality of its power, which reality can never be explained away by appeals to illusion. The reformers added to the idea of privatio the notion of actuality or activity, so that evil is therefore seen in the phrase, “privatio actuosa.” This stresses the active character of sin. In the catechism, sin is defined not only as a want of conformity but an act of transgression, an action that involves an overstepping or violation of a standard."

To read the complete post entitled, "Sin Is Cosmic Treason", please click here.

Helping More Hispanics Receive A College Degree

2011-10-01T17:38:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: wyoguard

From The Orlando Sentinel:

"Although recent reports show that more Hispanics are going to college, they're the least likely demographic group to graduate.

With President Barack Obama having set a goal of leading the world in college graduation by 2020, educators have focused on Hispanics — the nation's fastest-growing student demographic group — as a way to make progress.

Nationwide, about 19 percent of Hispanics ages 25-34 had earned an associate degree or higher as of 2009, compared to 49 percent of white students and 29 percent of black students, according to the College Board.

Florida is generally seen as a national leader in college completion among Hispanics. Almost 29 percent of Florida Hispanics ages 25-34 had at least a two-year degree in 2009.

At this morning's gathering of education leaders, the College Board released a report offering 10 recommendations for how the country can help more Hispanics graduate.

Many of the ideas, however, are ones that have been discussed for years: improving guidance counseling in the middle schools and high schools, simplifying the college admissions process and offering more need-based financial aid."

To read the complete Sentinel article please click here.

Why Good People Need To Combat Racism

2011-09-28T22:23:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: miss_millions

Chris Lahr recounts a telling personal experience on how he encountered prejudice on a simple trip to pick up a few postal packages:

"The sign on the front desk said that the proper I.D. was required. I showed the attendee my driver’s license and they proceeded to the warehouse in hunt for our packages. While we waited to the side, the next person in line (a young white man) handed his I.D. to the employee and stated that he was in the process of getting a new I.D. with his new address on it. The worker shrugged her shoulders and went on the hunt for his package.

Soon after our packages arrived, the third person in line (an African American man) showed his I.D. to a worker. The worker stated to the African American gentleman that she could not get his package because the address on his I.D. did not match the address on the package! Initially I did not know what was going because I was glued to the coverage of the Katrina tragedy on the TV behind the desk.

But as soon as the customer started showing a little anger, everyone took notice. In the midst of taking our packages to the van, things got heated between the customer and the worker; security was called. It should be noted that the African American man was able to describe exactly what was in the package (by the way, I had no idea what was in my packages), yet they still said that he would have to go home and get other proof of identification (which meant he would have to take public transportation to the other side of Philadelphia to get it).

It wasn’t until I began to reflect on the situation that I realized what had happened… The white man behind me and I had no problem getting our packages even though our addresses did not match the address on the box!! Yet the African American gentleman was forced to take public transportation back across town to find another form of I.D. There I was walking along in la la land, oblivious to the struggles of another human being. Did I stop and say something? Did I offer the man a ride across town? No, but I did get my packages.

So what can brown do for you, as the UPS slogan states? Well if you have white skin and the wrong I.D. they will be very accommodating, but if your skin is brown you better have the proper I.D. or you will need to take an extra trip across town. Looking back at this situation I see that I failed through my silence. I have played the scenario in my mind many times over since then and I can only hope that next time, I will move beyond silence to action. So what, if I’m a nice person or “I’m not the one who denied the man his package,” I was silent and I benefited from a system of advantage based on race. If we want to see real change in our society, the silence of the good people must stop."

To read Lahr's complete post please click here.

Lecrae: I Am Second

2011-09-27T11:14:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Andrea Kirkley

Lecrae Moore is now a best-selling rap artist but that hasn't always been the case. As a child growing up in Texas, his heroes were those that lived the "Thug Life." But as a college student, he was invited to a gathering sponsored by our ministry, The Impact Conference, and his life was forever changed.

Check out this video in which Lecrae tells his story and the difference that Jesus Christ has made in his life.

Lecrae so beautifully displays why I do what I do. I believe that God can take anybody, no matter how messed up or sinful they may be, and dramatically change their life. He did it in my life, He did it in Lecrae's... and He can do it in yours. Few of us will become music artists, professional athletes or politicians but every life matters to God. My life matters and so does yours. Make your life count for eternity.

To see more "I Am Second" videos and hear about the difference that Christ has made in the lives of other public figures, please click here.

California Couple Fined For Home Bible Study Group

2011-09-26T20:42:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: jamelah

From Christianity Today:

"Chuck and Stephanie Fromm, who have been hosting Bible studies and other gatherings in their home since 1994, were cited for violating a municipal code which requires a conditional use permit (CUP) for religious, fraternal, or nonprofit organizations that meet in residential areas. The Fromms were fined twice for a total of $300. When they appealed to the city, they were informed that the violations would be upheld and that any future meetings without a CUP would face a fine of $500 each.

The code in question prohibits such groups of three or more people meeting without a CUP, said Chuck Fromm, who is the former president of Maranatha! Music and co-founder and editor of Worship Leader magazine.

"The law says any nonprofit or fraternal organization," he said. "If I'm having five guys over to watch Sunday football every week, that's a regular meeting of three or more people that would require a [CUP]. Now, have they cited anybody for that? No, they're citing a religious meeting."

The Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), who is now representing the Fromms, plans to fight to have the city apologize to the Fromms and refund their money, PJI president Brad Dacus said. The organization also hopes to have the policy revised.

"No family in America should ever have to worry about a local government fining them simply for meeting with their friends and family in their own home to read the Bible or pray together," Dacus said. "The city is demanding that this family has to pay money to the city in order not even to have a Bible study, but in order just to seek permission from the city to be able to have a Bible study. That is totalitarian, it is a clear breach of fundamental civil liberties, and we at [PJI] intend to halt it in its tracks."

To read the complete CT article please click here.

Why Your Calling From God Matters

2011-09-24T18:11:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit: reegmo

From Ruth Haley Barton on "calling":

"In our day it may seem almost archaic to talk about the idea of calling. Tilden Edwards wisely observes, "Calling is a much abused word today. In the church it can be little more than a pious euphemism for doing what we feel like doing. Such abuse is brought to celebration in the secular culture, when doing what we feel like doing, attained by any way we feel like doing it, seems often to be what lies behind 'career development.'

However, the biblical idea of calling is not easily dismissed. Its meaning is richly layered. In its simplest and most straightforward meaning, the verb to call refers to the capacity living creatures have to call out to one another, to stay connected, to communicate something of importance. Even at this most basic level the dynamic of calling is profound, because it reminds us that calling is first of all highly relational: it has to do with one being (God) reaching out and establishing connection with another (us). It is an interpersonal connection and communication that is initiated by God and thus demands our attention and our response even as a basic courtesy.

In the Old Testament, the idea of calling goes beyond this most basic meaning to include the idea of naming something into being. In his book The Call, Os Guinness writes, "Such decisive, creative naming is a form of making...Calling is not only a matter of being and doing what we are but also of becoming what we are not yet but are called by God to be."

In the New Testament, the idea of calling is almost synonymous with salvation and the life of faith itself. We are saved from being who we are not and called to be who we are. God calls us first and foremost to belong to him, but our secondary calling is to answer God's personal address to us. It is to say yes to his summons to serve him in a particular way to a particular point in history. To say yes to our calling is one more step in the journey of faith which involves a glad, joyful self-surrender. It is living in the awareness that the most wonderful thing in the world is to be completely given over to a loving God."

Have you said "yes" to God's call on your life?

(Quote taken from Ruth Haley Barton's book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry)

The Death Penalty: Is It Just?

2011-09-23T09:42:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit: buschap

Did you know that although African Americans make up approximately half of all homicides victims in this country, only 15% of those who receive the death penalty received their penalty after being accused of killing a black person? On the other hand, over 3/4 of those executed in death penalty cases received their punishment as a result of killing a white person. Why the discrepancy?

The recent execution of Troy Davis, an African American who was convicted of killing a police officer over twenty years ago, has shed light once again on the apparent inequities of our criminal justice system, especially as it pertains to the death penalty. For many in the African American community, the case of Davis, whom many believe to be wrongly convicted, demonstrates that our courts place a higher value on the life of white people more so than black people. I do not know if Troy Davis was innocent or if he deserved to die. But there is enough evidence concerning how the death penalty is applied to cause us to consider our stance on this important issue. Joel Dreyfuss comments:

"Our uneasiness about fairness in America helps explain why Troy Davis became such an obsession in the African-American community, to the bewilderment, if not outright annoyance, of some of our nonblack neighbors. As the hours ticked down, it seemed that all of black America was glued to their televisions, computers, mobile phones and iPads, as if watching a perverse 2011 version of a Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling bout.

But in this case we were not waiting for our black champion to knock out the German and prove our worth to America. We wanted reassurance that the fundamental precept of reasonable doubt would apply to Troy Davis, a black man, and, by extension, to the rest of us.

Yes, black America still lives on the brink of fear. For all the progress we have made, dues we have paid, degrees we have acquired and presidencies we have won, we can all recite the story of the father, son, daughter or niece who has gone from citizen to suspect in an instant -- the son frisked, the cousin shoved against the car, the uncle badly beaten -- and, more often than should be, the nephew convicted of a crime he didn't commit or, worse, shot dead by the police.

Most Americans long ago grew bored with the statistics verifying that African Americans are more likely than whites to encounter the power of the state and to be more severely treated -- in arrests, in charges, in sentencing or, yes, the death penalty. As Sherrilyn Ifill points out in her column for The Root, the racial disparities in imposing the death penalty were proved long ago, but the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1986 that the race gap was not unconstitutional. If you are far more likely to be condemned to death for killing a white man, how can there not be a constitutional issue?

It is now clear to us that the election of Barack Obama has not miraculously transformed the standing of African Americans. For those of us who have long believed that race was far more important as a signal of political status than as a genetic marker, Troy Davis reminds us that there are American citizens -- and then there are African-American citizens."

On a personal level, I do not believe the death penalty is inherently unethical when dealing with the punishment of those that have taken the life of another (Genesis 9:6). But as has been proven time and again within the American justice system, the death penalty, as it is carried out within the United States, is inherently biased when consideration is given to the ethnicity of victims, the race of their accused killers and the financial resources that the accused have at their disposal.

Along with the increased use of DNA evidence in criminal cases, there have been multiple examples of those on death row who were let go because they had been wrongly convicted. Unless we have a system that fairly treats both victims and the accused fairly, regardless of race or class, then I will continue to remain opposed to the use of lethal punishment for those accused of the crime of murder. Allowing the guilty to go free is wrong but so is killing innocent people because they happen to have brown skin or don't have enough money to properly defend themselves in court.

To read the complete article by Joel Dreyfuss on TheRoot.com please click here.

Marriages Between African Americans & Whites Increase

2011-09-20T18:59:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit: Jelle Druyts

From USA Today:

"Black-white marriages are on the rise, a sign that those racial barriers are slowly eroding, but they still lag far behind the rate of mixed-race marriages between whites and other minorities.

"It does suggest that the social distance between the two groups has narrowed," says Zhenchao Qian, a sociology professor at Ohio State University and lead author of a new study on interracial marriages. "The racial boundary is blurred, but it is still there."

The study also found that the share of Hispanic newlyweds who married non-Hispanic whites grew slightly since 1980, but at a slower rate this decade than in previous years.

The share of Asians who married whites dropped. One explanation: Immigration has broadened the pool of potential spouses of the same race and ethnicity. "If the immigration population had not increased, we would have seen more interracial marriages," Qian says.

The study, published in the October edition of the Journal of Marriage and Family, finds that in 2008, 10.7% of blacks who married in the past year married whites, compared with 3% in 1980.

Blacks who have completed higher levels of education are more likely to marry whites because they have a greater chance of interacting with them in school, the workplace and neighborhoods where they live — a fact that has been true for other groups for a while but not for blacks, Qian says.

"This doesn't imply that we've moved into a post-racial society," says Daniel Lichter, director of the Cornell Population Center and study co-author. "Even though there's been a rapid increase (in black-white unions), it's still very low."

Almost 34% of Asians who were recently wed in 2008 married whites, and 28% of Hispanics married whites who are not Hispanic.

"Blacks are still the least assimilated," says Roderick Harrison, a demographer at Howard University and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. "It does suggest that the divide in this country remains between blacks and everybody else."

To read the complete article please click here.

Are Big Families More Fun?

2011-09-19T21:19:00.000-04:00

My brood of six

It used to be that larger families were the norm. My father's family had six boys. My mom's had three boys and two girls. My wife's mother's family had ten children. But the average family today has 2.1 children.

Families like mine that have more than the national average can seem like a bit of an oddity. On numerous occasions when out in public, we've gotten comments like, "Are those all yours?" or "I don't now how you do it." Which I find kinda funny, 'cause it's not like we're the Duggars or something. Yes, we're outnumbered but that's why God created zone defenses.

The Orlando Sentinel recently examined the pros and cons of big families:

"At a time when our fascination with big families is at a peak and, perhaps not coincidentally, family size is at one of its lowest points — women are having, on average, 2.1 kids — we asked an expert and two large-family moms to help us separate myth from reality: What are the pluses of big families? The minuses? What's the bottom line?

Large families are very diverse, but some frequently mentioned pluses include built-in playmates for your kids, more chances for kids to interact with children of different ages and, well, call it the Pitt factor: fun, joy, general merriment.

On the minus side are fewer resources — whether time or money — per child, less alone time for parents and more noise.

Mary Ostyn, the mother of 10 kids, six adopted, and the author of "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family" (Gibbs Smith), says she sometimes wishes she had the time and money to enroll her kids in more extracurricular activities.

"None of our kids are going to be world-class gymnasts, but they're going to know how to work hard, to help out, to share and to take care of people younger than themselves," she says. "It comes down to this awesome community that a large family is: For their whole lives, they're going to have this group of people that really understands them."

Psychologists have always assumed that siblings are good for you, because they provide so much support, says Joe Rodgers, a professor of psychology at the University of Oklahoma. But are two, three or four siblings better — or worse — than one?

"The answer is fairly controversial — and fascinating as well," Rodgers says.

On one side are researchers who believe parental resources such as time and money are split among offspring, with children in bigger families getting smaller pieces of the pie.

On the other side are researchers such as Rodgers, who say that's an overly simplistic way of looking at family dynamics; often parents are very good at engaging more than one kid at a time.

"There are all sorts of things, from mealtimes, to vacations, to carpooling, where parents are not dividing up the resources among children, but rather multiplying those resources across children," says Rodgers."

When my wife and I first talked about the number of children we'd like to have, we decided that two, or possibly three would be good. God has blessed us with four. And we wouldn't want it any or way. But that is not to say that smaller families cannot also be great experiences for children. For example, my wife was an only child and I think she turned out alright.

God leads families in different ways. For some, it's not in God's plans for them to have any children. For others, He may want them to have ten children. However big or small each family ends up being, it's important to be grateful for what God has given us and to demonstrate that gratefulness through lives of obedience to Him.

It is true that our children may not get a whole lot when it comes in the way of material things. As missionaries on a meager salary, our children understand that they are simply not going to be able to have all the things that their friends have. But we hope that we love them well enough that when they look back on their childhood that they will remember a loving family and not dwell on the temporal stuff they didn't get.

For me, I've come to realize the blessing that children are and I'm thankful that the Lord has entrusted us with four of them. Having a bigger family means less time for self and more sacrifice. In order to make our family work, we have to often put the needs of others above our own and learn how to love unconditionally and forgive quickly. There are many challenges we face but as I often tell our kids, life before them was quieter, cleaner...and not nearly as fun.

To read the complete Sentinel article please click here.

Pat Robertson, Marriage, Divorce & The Gospel

2011-09-16T11:37:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: mags20_eb

While on a short-term mission project to Virginia Beach a number of years ago, my wife and I got to know a woman that had what is probably one of the most stressful jobs in America. She was the spokesperson for Pat Robertson. Upon learning what she did for living, I commented that there was probably never a dull moment for her. Her response? "You don't know the half of it."

I'm not sure if our friend is still in that job but Robertson is still making comments that keep his aides on their toes. On a recent episode of his show "The 700 Club," Robertson surprised many when answering a viewer's question about whether it was morally justifiable for a person to divorce a spouse that is stricken with Alzheimer's disease. He said this:

"That is a terribly hard thing," Robertson said. "I hate Alzheimer's. It is one of the most awful things because here is a loved one—this is the woman or man that you have loved for 20, 30, 40 years. And suddenly that person is gone. They're gone. They are gone. So, what he says basically is correct. But I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something he should divorce her and start all over again. But to make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her."

Co-host Terry Meeuwsen asked Pat, "But isn't that the vow that we take when we marry someone? That it’s For better or for worse. For richer or poorer?"

Robertson said that the viewer's friend could obey this vow of "death till you part" because the disease was a "kind of death." Robertson said he would understand if someone started another relationship out of a need for companionship.

Robertson gave the example of a friend who faithfully visited his wife every day even though she could not remember his visits to illustrate the difficulty of caring for someone with the disease."

Needless to say, Robertson's response is disappointing. Unfortunately, I've come to expect him to make public proclamations about sensitive topics from time-to-time that are hurtful and not grounded in Scripture. Russell Moore offers a response in a manner much better than I ever could. Moore comments:

"Marriage, the Scripture tells us, is an icon of something deeper, more ancient, more mysterious. The marriage union is a sign, the Apostle Paul announces, of the mystery of Christ and his church (Eph. 5). The husband, then, is to love his wife “as Christ loved the church” (Eph. 5:25). This love is defined not as the hormonal surge of romance but as a self-sacrificial crucifixion of self. The husband pictures Christ when he loves his wife by giving himself up for her.

At the arrest of Christ, his Bride, the church, forgot who she was, and denied who he was. He didn’t divorce her. He didn’t leave.

The Bride of Christ fled his side, and went back to their old ways of life. When Jesus came to them after the resurrection, the church was about the very thing they were doing when Jesus found them in the first place: out on the boats with their nets. Jesus didn’t leave. He stood by his words, stood by his Bride, even to the Place of the Skull, and beyond.

A woman or a man with Alzheimer’s can’t do anything for you. There’s no romance, no sex, no partnership, not even companionship. That’s just the point. Because marriage is a Christ/church icon, a man loves his wife as his own flesh. He cannot sever her off from him simply because she isn’t “useful” anymore.

...It’s easy to teach couples to put the “spark” back in their marriages, to put the “sizzle” back in their sex lives. You can still worship the self and want all that. But that’s not what love is. Love is fidelity with a cross on your back. Love is drowning in your own blood. Love is screaming, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”

Sadly, many of our neighbors assume that when they hear the parade of cartoon characters we allow to speak for us, that they are hearing the gospel. They assume that when they see the giggling evangelist on the television screen, that they see Jesus. They assume that when they see the stadium political rallies to “take back America for Christ,” that they see Jesus. But Jesus isn’t there.

Jesus tells us he is present in the weak, the vulnerable, the useless. He is there in the least of these (Matt. 25:31-46). Somewhere out there right now, a man is wiping the drool from an 85 year-old woman who flinches because she think he’s a stranger. No television cameras are around. No politicians are seeking a meeting with them.

But the gospel is there. Jesus is there."

For a more appropriate Christian response on how to respond to a spouse with Alzheimer's, look to the example of Robertson McQuilkin. Randy Alcorn tells the story of how this Bible college president resigned his post in order to care for his Alzheimer's ridden wife, Muriel. McQuilkin's posture to his sick wife was not one of abandonment, but to stay and care for her. His attitude demonstrates what marriage is truly about:

"I never think about “what if.” I don’t think “what if” is in God’s vocabulary. So I don’t even think about what I might be doing instead of changing her diaper or what I might be doing instead of spending two hours feeding her. It’s the grace of God, I’m sure."

Marriage paints the picture of how God feels about us. He is committed to us for good or for bad, in richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. He will always remain faithful to us no matter what condition we find ourselves in. I'm grateful to have a God that doesn't divorce me in the times I don't have much to offer.

To read Russell Moore's complete post please click here and to read Randy Alcorn's full post please click here.

Why Discipleship & Mission Must Go Together

2011-09-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: openg

Mike Breen explores why Christian mission must be accompanied by deep discipleship:

"...it has to be said: God did not design us to do Kingdom mission outside of the scope of intentional, biblical discipleship and if we don’t see that, we’re fooling ourselves. Mission is under the umbrella of discipleship as it is one of the many things that Jesus taught his disciples to do well. But it wasn’t done in a vacuum outside of knowing God and being shaped by that relationship, where a constant refinement of their character was happening alongside of their continued skill development (which included mission).

The truth about discipleship is that it’s never hip and it’s never in style…it’s the call to come and die; a “long obedience in the same direction.” While the “missional” conversation is imbued with the energy and vitality that comes with kingdom work, it seems to be missing some of the hallmark reality that those of us who have lived it over time have come to expect: Mission is messy. It’s humbling. There’s often no glory in it. It’s for the long haul. And it’s completely unsustainable without discipleship.

This is the crux of it: The reason the missional movement may fail is because most people/communities in the Western church are pretty bad at making disciples. Without a plan for making disciples (and a plan that works), any missional thing you launch will be completely unsustainable. Think about it this way: Sending people out to do mission is to send them out to a war zone. Discipleship is not only the boot camp to train them for the front lines, but the hospital when they get wounded and the off-duty time they need to rest and recuperate. When we don’t disciple people the way Jesus and the New Testament talked about, we are sending them out without armor, weapons or training. This is mass carnage waiting to happen. How can we be surprised that people burn out, quit and never want to return to the missional life (or the church)? How can we not expect people will feel used and abused?"

To read Breen's complete post please click here.

(h/t to Bryan Loritts via Eric Mason for the link.)

Which U.S. Colleges Have The Largest Enrollments?

2011-09-14T16:54:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: kevinbondelli

According to an analysis of the U.S. Education Department Data by The Chronicle of Higher Education, the following four-year college campuses have the largest enrollments in the United States:

1. Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)
2. Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
3. University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL)
4. University of Minnesota (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN)
5. University of Texas (Austin, TX)
6. University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)
7. Texas A&M University (College Station, TX)
8. Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI)
9. University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
10. Penn State University (University Park, PA)
11. University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, IL)
12. New York University (New York, NY)
13. Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)
14. University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)
15. University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI)

For more detailed information about today's college students visit The Chronicle of Higher Education website here.

2011 Demographics for U.S. College Students

2011-09-13T14:10:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit: Bard College at Simon's Rock

According to recent statistics, the nation's college students are growing in number and continue to become more diverse. Taken from the most recent edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac and using statistics from the 2009 school year, the following numbers contain some interesting facts concerning the current make-up of college students in the United States:

*There are over 20.5 million college students in the U.S. today.

* Of those 20.5 million students, over 38% are American ethnic minorities and international students studying in the U.S.

* Within the state of California alone, there are nearly 2.8 million students (an amazing 13% of the country's total). Of these students, nearly 1.7 million are American ethnic minorities or international students.

*Texas has nearly 1.5 million students in the state, including nearly half a million Hispanics and almost 200,000 African American students.

* Close to 1.3 million students attend college in the state of New York (primarily due to New York City). Over half a million of them are American ethnic minorities or international students.

* The number of Native American students is over 200,000.

* Asian Americans now number 1.3 million students.

* African Americans continue to be the largest ethnic minority represented on our campuses at nearly 3 million.

* Hispanics/Latinos are the fastest growing demographic and now total over to 2.5 million students.

* There are over 800,000 international students currently studying in the U.S.

* Students of European descent are still in the overall majority with 12.7 million.

What does this all mean? The college campuses of the United States are becoming more diverse, the coasts are rapidly growing and our cities are home to many of the nation's students. In order to reach these students, campus ministries like those that I work with need to adopt new approaches that will effectively reach students of color, those that speak a primary language other than English and those in our major cities. The world is here. How will we respond?

The Gospel and 9/11

2011-09-11T19:24:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Beverly & Pack

In recognition of the tenth anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11/01, Russell Moore offers a perspective on how we can find the gospel in the midst of the horrific events that occurred that day.

Moore says:

"The full force of the trauma from events like September 11 doesn't come from contemplating the violence done to strangers or even "the nation." Only when we envision ourselves and our loved ones on the scene, as children transplant themselves into nightmare stories, does the severity hit home. We imagine hearing those jihadists screaming prayers as the plane plummets from the sky, or being trapped in a smoke-filled stairwell, or leaping from a window in terror. The phenomenon here is precisely what causes us to flinch when we see blood on the pavement after a car accident. We are reminded of what scares us, of what could happen to us, too.

And so it is with the gospel. The story of Jesus records a persistent strain of denial in the life of Simon Peter. Virtually every time Jesus speaks of his impending execution, Peter insists that such trauma will never happen on his watch (Matt. 16:22; John 13:37). Of course, this not only suggests Peter's empathy with his teacher. It also demonstrates the apostle's refusal to face up to his fear that he might be tempted to protect his own skin.

Though he doesn't unveil it all at once, Jesus refuses to shield Peter from the awful truth. In one of the Bible's most pitiful narratives (John 13:36-38), Peter ostentatiously promises to protect the Messiah from harm. "I will lay down my life for you," he blusters.

Jesus responds: "Really? You're going to fight for me? Before the rooster crows, you will deny you even know me—not once but three times."

Jesus revisits the trauma on Peter. When the rooster crows, Jesus happens to be passing by, and he looks at his friend, prompting Peter to cry bitterly (Luke 22:60-62). Even in the famous restoration of Peter, after Jesus' resurrection, Jesus seems eager to remind Peter of his previous denial. He questions his disciple's love three times. He meets with him around a charcoal fire (John 21:9), precisely the setting of the denial itself (John 18:18).

Then Jesus presses the trauma further. What Peter fears most—the shame and torture of crucifixion—is exactly what Jesus assures him will happen. He will stretch out his hands and be led where he doesn't want to go (John 21:18). Peter will have the kingdom he so longs for—with all of its glory and peace—but his immediate future is skull-shaped."

To read the rest of his article entitled, "The Gospel at Ground Zero" please click here.

How Steve Jobs Influenced Our Culture

2011-09-09T17:45:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit: acaben

Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, Inc., surprised industry insiders when he resigned last month as Apple's CEO. His departure has led many to reflect on the influence that his innovations like the iPod and iPad have had on our culture and the role that Jobs has played in changing the manner in which we live.

USA Today comments:

"Steve Jobs' decision to step down as Apple's CEO has spurred a wave of tributes that border on eulogy. But maybe such a dramatic reaction is understandable considering that what Jobs created with Apple wasn't simply technological change, but often a cultural revolution.

"The difference between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, two giant innovators, is that Jobs had an aesthetic sense with which he created objects of desire," says Paul Saffo, a longtime Silicon Valley technology forecaster. "Whether it was the first Macintosh or the latest iPad, every Apple hit promised, and delivered, a life-changing experience."

What makes Jobs even more remarkable is that he used his fiery, uncompromising vision to revolutionize not just tech toys, but also the way we assess animation, advertising and even the in-store experience.

"You'd have to go back to the 1940s and Walt Disney to find a CEO who's had as big an impact on culture as Jobs," says Peter Sealey, former chief marketing officer of Columbia Pictures and an adviser to tech firms. "Maybe it's a stretch to compare him with (Leonardo) Da Vinci, but he was just that good."

Quite simply, Steve Jobs dreamed of a future in which technology played a role that none of could have imagined. How we use our phones, how we obtain and listen to music, the role that computers play in our lives and how we gather and share information has all been formed by Steve Jobs. His influence cannot be underestimated. His creativity demonstrated what is possible when people invent new ways of doing things in order to bring a different reality into view. He didn't just change technology...he changed how we live.

To read the complete USA Today article please click here.

How Many People Make Up The Average U.S. Church?

2011-09-08T20:14:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: J. Stephen Conn

When it comes to the size of churches within the United States, most attention is placed on mega-churches (typically defined as congregations of over 2,000 members). But for the average American church-goer, it is probably assumed that their faith community is much smaller compared to other churches. However, this might not always be the case.

From GetReligion.org:

"The median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings, according to the National Congregations Study. Notice that researchers measured the median church size — the point at which half the churches are smaller and half the churches are larger — rather than the average (186 attenders reported by the USCLS survey), which is larger due to the influence of very large churches.

But while the United States has a large number of very small churches, most people attend larger churches. The National Congregations Study estimated that the smaller churches draw only 11 percent of those who attend worship. Meanwhile, 50 percent of churchgoers attended the largest 10% of congregations (350 regular participants and up).

Want to know more? Check the websites for the National Congregations Study at http://www.soc.duke.edu/natcong. The US Congregational Life Survey (USCLS) website has statistics about congregations by religious traditions at http://www.uscongregations.org"

Of American Protestant churches, there are 177,000 churches comprised of less than 100 members. There are 40 churches of over 10,000 members. Most Protestant church-goers (approximately 25 million Americans according to this research) attend churches made up of between 100 and 500 members

To read the complete Get Religion post please click here.

When Worship Makes An Idol

2011-09-07T16:55:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: o!d

From Ronnie Martin:

"The sticky, tricky question is this: What happens when the worship leader is the one being worshiped? It’s a valid question when you consider the influential position that many celebrity worship stars are in when their job consists of providing hit songs to churches around the world for mass consumption. When you add in the fact that many church buildings are designed to rival concert hall settings, complete with a dizzying array of sound, screens, lights, fog, and conceptual stage props, it’s easy to understand why a modern worship leader may start relishing his time in the spotlight.

Not surprisingly, the Bible warns us against things like arrogance (Rom. 12:3) and selfish ambition (James 3:16), both of which can result from the many embellishments available to promote worship services in the 21st century. Instead, we are admonished to encourage and build one another up (1 Thes. 5:11) through the message of Christ “dwelling richly among us” (Col. 3:16). Worship is always going to be as good or bad as the person or object it’s worshiping, but the direction of true worship should always start and end with the gospel. While churches continue to battle incessantly over the direction of the sound, style, instruments, clothing, hymns, and volume, the REAL conversation that needs to happen is whether the message of God’s Word is being communicated to the people of God to sing praises to God in spirit and in truth. When we get that right, the details will follow more naturally, because nobody’s going to be that concerned with whether Johnny’s wearing skinny jeans, has a faux hawk, or plays a Telecaster. We’ll always be directionally challenged when we’re not looking directly at Christ."

To read the complete article entitled "Where Rock Stars Go To Die" by Ted Kluck and Ronnie Martin please click here.

(h/t to Justin Taylor)

The Victorious River

2011-09-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: mikecogh

From Oswald Chamber's classic devotional, My Utmost For His Highest:

"A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ— not emotion nor experience— nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source."

When Leaders Lose Their Soul

2011-09-05T20:09:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Entrer dans le reve

From Ruth Haley Barton's book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry:

"These days (and maybe every day) there is real tension between what the human soul needs in order to be truly well and what life in leadership encourages and even requires. There is the tension between being and doing, community and cause, truth-telling and putting the right spin on things. There is the tension between the time it takes to love people and the need for expediency. There is the tension between the need for measurable goals and the difficulty of measuring that which is ultimately immeasurable by anyone but God himself.

There is the tension between the need for organizational hierarchy with all the power dynamics this creates and the mutuality and interdependence of life in community to which we as Christians are called. There is the tension between knowing how to "work the system" and entering into trustworthy relationships characterized by trust and a commitment to one another's well-being. There is the tension between the need for an easy discipleship process through which we can efficiently herd lots of people and the patient, plodding and ultimately mysterious nature of the spiritual transformation process. And then there is the challenge of knowing how to speak of these things in fruitful ways in the very inside places of power without becoming polarized in our relationships with one another.

...The temptation to compromise basic Christian values -- love, community, truth-telling, confession and reconciliation, silent listening and waiting on God for discernment -- for the sake of expedience is very great. In a high performance culture (both secular and religious), holding to deep spiritual values in the face of the pressure to perform -- whether performance is measured by numbers, new buildings or the latest innovation -- is one of the greatest challenges of spiritual leadership."

He's A God Of Second Chances

2011-09-02T18:19:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: SamPac

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." ~ Jesus

Did you know that you are never beyond the reach of God's love? No matter what you've done or how you've messed up, I believe my God to be the God of second chances.

The video here illustrates this point. Carlos Whittaker, who is a worship leader and well-known blogger, was recently recording a music video for his song, God of Second Chances. While recording the video, a homeless man named Danny sat down beside him and joined the song. I'll let you watch the rest.

God hasn't given up on you, so don't you ever give up on Him.

(h/t to John Hursh for the link)

Christians & A Possible Woman President

2011-08-31T10:17:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Russell Moore comments on how Christians might view the possibility of a woman president:

"In 2008, Christians were faced with the real prospect of a woman president (Hillary Clinton) or vice president (Sarah Palin). Some (though very few) complementarian Christians wondered whether this could be right, while critics of traditionalist interpretations wondered how consistent it was for Christians to elect a woman to national office when they wouldn’t vote for her to serve as pastor of a local church.

...Unfortunately, American evangelicals have too often longed for a secular authority to serve as a spiritual leader, and political professionals have been all too willing to exploit this by teaching candidates to parrot evangelical-sounding phrases and “testimonies.” In such cases, political leaders become totem-like for evangelicals. An attack on a candidate who identifies with “us” is an attack on “us” or, worse, on Jesus. That’s unhealthy, regardless of whether the politician is male or female.

In the case of evangelical over-identification with political partisanship, though, there can be a subtle shifting in what it means to define a woman’s life, or a man’s, as a “success.” There is quite a bit of inconsistency in evangelical complementarians talking about a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Pet. 3) while cheering Ann Coulter’s latest sarcastic barbs.

I’m not all that worried about the gender of our political candidates, precisely because, relatively speaking, the political arena just isn’t all that important when compared to the church. What is important is the way our political passions often shift the way we view the mission of the church, and even what we expect in our homes."

To read Dr. Moore's complete post please click here.

How Children Can Thrive In Public Schools

2011-08-30T11:35:00.000-04:00

Christian parents have a variety of options these days for educating their children. From homeschooling to private schools to charter schools to public schools, I am of the persuasion that there is no "one size fits all" approach to schooling options for Christian parents. We must each seek the Lord on what would be the best approach for our family and trust Him with how He leads us.

For our family, my wife and I have chosen to send our children to public schools. We have been pleased with their teachers, the education they have received and the environment in which they are able to receive their formal education. We know that for some families public schools may not be the best choice but for ours we believe it is.

Tim Challies has written a wonderful review of a new book, Going Public: Your Child Can Thrive in Public School by David & Kelli Pritchard with Dean Merrill. The purpose of the book is to help guide parents that have children in public schools on how to make their children's experience the best possible. Challies says this:

"What the Pritchards do is simple: they allow us into their home and family, telling us why they made the decision to public school and then showing us how they have gone about it. It’s not like they public school out of ignorance. To the contrary, they do what they do out of conviction that this is the way they can best raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. That word “fear” is important to them. Following Proverbs, they say that the fear of the Lord “is the foundation on which all learning, all knowledge-gathering, all schooling should be built.” To do that, they focus on instructing their children from their earliest days in loving the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength; on learning unconditional obedience to their parents; and on attaining self-control. With these values being instilled in their children, they are ready to guide them through their education.

The most valuable lesson of all, at least in my view, is that public schooling is a family affair. The decision to place children in the public education system is a decision to have the whole family involved in this system. They say, “We should not think in terms of sending our child off by himself to ‘the mission field.’ We go there together. This is a family expedition. When we show up each August to enroll our kids for another school year, we are enrolling our family into the life of this institution. This is a joint venture.” This means that mom and dad are involved not just with the children, but with the school and teachers and leaders.

A second valuable lesson is that is the lesson that all parents are homeschoolers. The Pritchards make it clear that public schooling still calls for the parents to teach their children and to be involved in all that they learn. No good parent can abdicate all of the children’s education to other people.

There are many other lessons, of course. Some of them are broad in application while others are more specific. What I appreciate, though, is that all have come out of the testing ground of their own family. Through it all the Pritchards show their unshakeable belief in the sovereignty of God, their trust in his promises and their heartfelt desire to honor him in all things."

Having our children involved in the public school system can be a wonderful opportunity for Christian parents and families. But so, too, can other schooling options. Raising children in today's society is no easy task but I believe we can trust God to care for children no matter where they receive their formal education.

To read the complete post by Tim Challies please click here.

Embracing Change Or Defending The Status Quo?

2011-08-29T07:20:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: ginnerobot

Change is inevitable but that doesn't make it any easier when we are going through it. The organization that I worked for is in the process of a major change as we will be changing our name in early 2012. Though we feel like this change is needed in order to be more effective in our mission, there has been a vocal minority that has wanted to stick with the status quo.

Whether what we are doing is working or not is irrelevant to those that are fiercely committed to maintaining the status quo. They like things they way they are and want them to stay that way forever. But change sometimes is necessary and can be life-giving. There is typically a sense of loss that we experience when going through a major change but we still need to go through it in order to experience a better reality on the other side.

Seth Godin offers some pointed questions in considering if we might be a person that is too committed to the status quo:

Consider the cost of switching before you consider the benefits?
Highlight the pain to a few instead of the benefits for the many?
Exaggerate how good things are now in order to reduce your fear of change?
Undercut the credibility, authority or experience of people behind the change?
Grab onto the rare thing that could go wrong instead of amplifying the likely thing that will go right?
Focus on short-term costs instead of long-term benefits, because the short-term is more vivid for you?
Fight to retain benefits and status earned only through tenure and longevity?
Embrace an instinct to accept consistent ongoing costs instead of swallowing a one-time expense?
Slow implementation and decision making down instead of speeding it up?
Embrace sunk costs?
Imagine that your competition is going to be as afraid of change as you are? Even the competition that hasn't entered the market yet and has nothing to lose...
Emphasize emergency preparation and the expense of a chronic and degenerative condition?

Is there a change that you need to make in order to be more like the person that God wants you to be? Is there something you need to do differently in an area of your leadership that will help you better realize the dreams God has placed on your heart? Change for the sake of change is not necessarily the answer. But change in order to bring a better tomorrow is something to embrace.

College Students & Binge Drinking: A Deadly Combination

2011-08-27T20:09:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Tristen.Pelton

For many young people, alcohol use and college life go together like peanut butter and jelly. But for an increasing number of students, what may feel like innocent fun for the purpose of socializing can lead to unintended consequences.

A freshmen student at the University of Central Florida (UCF) near my home in Orlando passed away this weekend after spending at least part of the evening drinking at a fraternity party. Authorities do not yet know if alcohol was a contributing factor in the death of 18-year-old Ann Hefferin, but her death points the spotlight on a major area of concern for our nation's college campuses.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

"Like many college campuses, UCF tries to prevent alcohol abuse through a variety of alcohol-education programs. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education recognized UCF's programs as a national model, university officials said.

All freshmen are required to complete a two-hour, online course that covers alcohol-related topics such as how to call for help if a friend appears drunk and how to refuse a drink. The college's Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Programming office also gives regular presentations in classes, student organization meetings and residence halls.

The first week of school is the time of the riskiest drinking, said Scott T. Walters, professor of behavioral sciences at University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health. Walters co-authored a recent study that found incoming college freshmen to be at the highest risk for excessive drinking.

The study, published this month in Addictive Behaviors, surveyed 76,882 students from more than 258 colleges, for the eight weeks prior to college starting and five weeks after. The summer before college, kids' drinking increases some, and students tend not to be as careful about their drinking. But the turning point was the first week of school, which Walters called "gap week."

"The real kicker were the number of youths who answered yes to questions regarding intent to get drunk," said Walters, author of "Talking to College Students About Alcohol." "Many more answered yes to questions about whether they planned to drink shots, play drinking games, or intentionally get drunk." Drinking tends to taper after the first few weeks.

He cites a new freedom and minimal supervision as factors in binge drinking, particularly in the early weeks. "Parents are gone; courses have no demands. Kids are at loose ends, and they fall through the cracks. They are trying to socialize and make friends and think alcohol will help," he said.

What would help, he says, is a better hand-off. "Parents should stay around. There should be more supervision, or maybe schools should make academic requirements happen up front, instead of having a blow-off week." He also encourages parents to stay in touch with their students, especially at first. "Get to know your student's friends, space and schedule."

Drinking during adolescence has been on the rise in the United States for years, said Mark Goldman, professor of psychology at University of South Florida. "Fifty percent of young people have had their first drink before their 15th birthday. What happens in college happens against a background of a high level of drinking that's been going on anyway," Goldman said.

For college students seeking to fit into a new environment, impressing others through one's drinking prowess can seem like a wise thing to do. But binge drinking and constant partying will never completely satisfy those looking for belonging and acceptance. If you find that you are often getting drunk but still remaining thirsty, please read this article from EveryStudent.com on how to "Quench Your Real Thirst."

To read the complete article about the tragic death of Ann Hefferin please click here.

To learn more about the number of people that are affected by the consequences of excessive alcohol use by college students please click here.

Number of Hispanic College Students Jumps 24% since '09

2011-08-25T17:07:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: cityyear

From the Orlando Sentinel:

"The number of young Hispanics attending two- and four-year colleges has reached an all-time high of 1.8 million, with Latino enrollment increasing 24 percent between 2009 and 2010, a study released today by the Pew Hispanic Center showed.

As a result, Hispanics outnumbered young blacks on campuses for the first time, although African-American enrollment has posted steady gains for several years now.

The tremendous growth in the Hispanic population is only one reason behind the gain, according to the study, which was based on census data. The Hispanic college-age population — defined in the study as those between 18 and 24 — grew in the same period by 7 percent, yet college enrollment grew much faster.

Researchers found that the sluggish economy has served as an incentive for young Hispanics to attend college because there are so few job options for them after high school.

Another contributing factor, the study pointed out, is that the high school graduation rate for Latinos has improved, climbing during the same period from 70 percent to 73 percent.

At 16 percent of the total U.S. population, Hispanics are the nation's biggest minority group, according to census data."

To read the complete article please click here.

More Americans Leaving The Church, Study Says

2011-08-24T20:47:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: eye2eye

From NewsOne.com:

"Despite the prominence of religious believers in politics and culture, America has shrinking congregations, growing dissatisfaction with religious leaders and more people who do not think about faith, according to a new study by a Duke University expert.

In “American Religion: Contemporary Trends,” author Mark Chaves argues that over the last generation or so, religious belief in the U.S. has experienced a “softening” that effects everything from whether people go to worship services regularly to whom they marry. Far more people are willing to say they don’t belong to any religious tradition today than in the past, and signs of religious vitality may be camouflaging stagnation or decline.

“Reasonable people can disagree over whether the big picture story is one of essential stability or whether it’s one of slow decline,” said Chaves. “Unambiguously, though, there’s no increase.”

Chaves, who directs the National Congregations Study, used data from that research and from four decades’ worth of General Social Survey results to draw what he aims to be an overview of contemporary American religion. The study will be published this week.

Today, as many as 20 percent of all Americans say they don’t belong to any religious group, Chaves found, compared with around 3 percent in the 1950s. Yet, those people aren’t necessarily atheists, agnostics or others. Instead, about 92 percent of Americans still profess belief in God, they just don’t use religion as part of their identity.

“It used to be that even the most marginally active people wouldn’t say they have no religion, they’d say `I’m Catholic’ or `I’m Baptist’ or `I’m Methodist’ or whatever,” Chaves said. “That’s not the case today.”

Even signs of robust religious faith may not be what they appear, Chaves found. The strength of religious conservatives in politics, for example, has coincided with a growing disillusionment about faith’s role in the public square. Chaves found that between 1991 and 2008, the percentage of Americans who strongly agreed that religious leaders should stay out of politics rose from 20 percent to 44 percent.

At the same time, those who remain devout have become more conservative. In the mid-1970s, knowing that someone attended church regularly wouldn’t reveal much about their political leanings; today, regular churchgoers are far more likely to be Republicans than Democrats.

“It’s not random who’s leaving churches,” said Bradley Wright, a University of Connecticut sociologist who studies American Christianity and wrote the 2010 book “Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been Told.”

“As Christians affiliated more through the Republican Party, liberal, marginal churchgoers became offended and left,” she said.

The notion of decline misses important developments like the enthusiastic devotion of Christian immigrants, argues Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

“Much of our immigration is coming from countries where Christianity is blossoming,” he said. “I think God’s doing some great things in African-American churches and among Hispanic immigrants.”

Anderson thinks the change is better described as a shift than a decline, as people become more willing to leave the denominations or faiths in which they were raised and look elsewhere for spiritual nourishment.

Wright also believes that a decline might be overstating the case, and says polarization is a better description. He recently plotted survey data over the last 25 years recording what Americans say about the importance of religion in their lives. Those who say it’s extremely important have grown slightly, along with those who say it’s not at all important. But the number of people who said it was “somewhat” important dropped from 36 percent to 22 percent in about 20 years.

“Forty or 50 years ago, it was almost a form of deviance not to be religious,” he said. “When you take away that external form of motivation, people either drop away or they find their own kind of motivation.”

To read the complete article please click here.

What Is True For The Class Of 2015?

2011-08-23T22:26:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: StudyGroupAlex

Each year around this time Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2015, represents those students who were born in 1993. You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.

The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.

There have always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.

As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.

Amazon has never been just a river in South America.

Refer to LBJ, and they might assume you're talking about LeBron James.

O.J. Simpson has always been looking for the killers of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

We have never asked, and they have never had to tell.

John Wayne Bobbitt has always slept with one eye open.

“Yadda, yadda, yadda” has always come in handy to make long stories short.

Jimmy Carter has always been a smiling elderly man who shows up on TV to promote fair elections and disaster relief.

Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!

Their older siblings have told them about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers.

Music has always been available via free downloads.

They pressured their parents to take them to Taco Bell or Burger King to get free pogs.

No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Day.

Charter schools have always been an alternative.

They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.

Frasier, Sam, Woody and Rebecca have never Cheerfully frequented a bar in Boston during primetime.

Major League Baseball has never had fewer than three divisions and never lacked a wild card entry in the playoffs.

They won’t go near a retailer that lacks a website.

“PC” has come to mean Personal Computer, not Political Correctness.

The world that today's college freshman has grown up in is not the same world that the freshmen of 10, 20 or 50 years ago experienced. These things must be kept in mind in order to effectively reach out to this generation of up-and-coming leaders.

How One Church Is Blessing Their City

2011-08-23T10:45:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: nmiller1996

"But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." ~ Jeremiah 29:7

If your church had to close its doors, would anyone outside of your congregation notice? So much of our church activity can be focused on our own needs in order to be a blessing to our own families and friends but a church with God's heart for all people will seek to be a blessing to their community and world. One church in northeastern Ohio is doing just that.

S.P.A.N. Ministries, based in Tallmadge, Ohio, recently sought to bless the community in which the church resides. S.P.A.N., which stands for Shepherd's Pasture for All Nations, is led by and comprised of a number of women and men who were involved with our Impact chapter at Kent State University. TallmadgeExpress.com tells their story:

"After an Aug. 14 service at the Northeast Avenue church, about 80 members of the SPAN congregation went to Little Caesar's on Tallmadge Circle and packed the pizza shop for about an hour.

"It was great," said Little Caesar's Co-owner Jason Zieman. "It was probably the busiest we've been on a Sunday afternoon in quite some time."

Zieman said he and other workers came in that day just to handle the rush. At one time, a line of customers stretched out the door.

[Kurran] Bishop said he was pleased with the movement's maiden run.

"It was a pretty good turnout for being our first go at it," he said. "That was just our trial run, so we hope to make it bigger."

Bishop said he got the idea for the program from an Akron church whose congregation visited a local grocery store with the goal of clearing the shelves.

"So we thought, 'What can we do to kind of bless businesses in the area on a smaller scale?'" he said. "We wanted to help out business that could use a little bit of a jolt."

Bishop has decided to target smaller local restaurants, which he feels would likely benefit the most from a modest-sized group.

The bigger picture of the "Blessing in the City" movement, he said, is to convey the church cares by giving back to the city.

"We can't just stay inside the four walls of the church to do that," he said. "We have to get out in the community and do these things."

When a church seeks to be a blessing to the community around them its members become tangible demonstrations of God's love to those who are hurting and in need. I'm proud of the way that S.P.A.N. is living this out.

To read the complete article on S.P.A.N.'s "Blessing in the City" movement please click here.

Brennan Manning On Devotion To God

2011-08-22T22:56:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Xesc

From Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel:

"For those who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God, it requires enormous trust and reckless, raging confidence to accept that the love of Jesus Christ knows no shadow of alteration or change. When Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened," He assumed we would grow weary, discouraged, and disheartened along the way. These words are a touching testimony to the genuine humanness of Jesus. He had no romantic notion of the cost of discipleship. He knew that following Him was as unsentimental as duty, as demanding as love."

The Church's Dirty Little Secret: Christians & Porn

2011-08-21T17:28:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Ayelie

From CNN.com:

"He is a good Christian, Michael is telling his two therapists. He goes to church most Sundays. He’s a devoted husband and father of two daughters.

“But when I would leave on business trips,” he says, “I knew I was going to get to be someone else. Prostitutes, porn - I took anything I wanted.”

Sitting on a comfortable, worn couch, Michael glances out the window and sees a reflection of himself set against the parking lot of this suburban Atlanta office building. He fidgets, runs his fingers over his closely cropped blond hair and straightens his green tennis polo. He clears his throat.

Above his head hangs a poster covered in words describing feelings - angry, anxious, sad. On it is a big yellow cross. Therapists Richard Blankenship and Mark Richardson wear solemn but empathetic expressions. Certified counselors and Christian ministers, they tell him they know how to listen and nod for him to continue.

“I’ve had a record of purity since March when I confessed to my wife,” says Michael, whose name has been changed by CNN.com to protect his privacy. “No porn, no masturbation.”

“Awesome,” Richardson says, leaning forward in his chair. “God knows you’re trying.”

This is Michael’s second week at “Faithful and True – Atlanta” a 16-week counseling program that, like dozens of others like it around the country, combines traditional psychotherapy with the Bible in an attempt to treat addictive behavior.

Blankenship, a devout Christian who once struggled with sexual abuse, says his own ordeal has helped him to treat and “graduate” nearly 500 Christian men and women with similar addictions in the last five years. He says he has helped people achieve what he calls “sobriety,” which means resisting porn and lustful thoughts.

Though controversial in secular circles, much of the evangelical Christian world has been cheering this relatively new kind of therapy. Many believers, including many Christian leaders, consider it a powerful tool for fighting what they say is one of the modern church’s biggest problems: porn addiction."

To read the complete article please click here.

My All-Time Michigan Wolverine Football Team

2011-08-20T07:20:00.000-04:00

I'm a big fan of all-time lists and a big fan of the Michigan Wolverines, so I figured I would collect my suggestions of an all-time greatest Wolverine football team. In attempting to select a team such as this, there will inevitably be a number of deserving players who don't make the cut. Also, keep in mind that I didn't take into account success in the NFL (hence, no Tom Brady), but only rewarded accomplishments while in college, including placement on All-American teams, other post-season honors, recognition as a team captain and overall productivity.

I realize I'm a bit biased towards players that I've watched (1980's - present) but I think this is a fairly good team based on the research I've done. To help demonstrate how I determined this team's roster, I've listed each individual's accomplishments that led them to be selected on the team.

[Note: List was last updated before the 2011 season.]

THE FIRST TEAM

Offense
Quarterback – Bennie Friedman (2x All-American in '25 & '26, Big Ten MVP)

Running Backs -
Tom Harmon (Heisman & Big Ten MVP in '40, 2x All-American in '39 & '40),
Willie Heston (2x All-American in 1903 & 1904, 72 TD's)

Wide Receivers –
Anthony Carter (3x All-American in '80-'82, Big Ten MVP, 161 Rec., 3076 Rec. Yds., 40 TD's),
Desmond Howard (Heisman, All-American, & Big Ten MVP in '91, 2146 Rec Yards, 35 TD's)

Tight End – Bennie Oosterbaan (3x All-American in '25-'27)

Center – Charles Bernard (2x All-American in '32 & '33)

Tackles –
Jake Long (2x All-American, Big Ten Off. Lineman of Year in '06 & '07),
Greg Skrepenak (2x All-American in '90 & '91, Big Ten Off. Lineman of Year in '91)

Guards –
Albert Benbrook (2x All-American in 1909 & 1910),
Steve Hutchinson (2x All-American in '99 & '00, Big Ten Off. Lineman of Year in '00, 4x All-Big Ten 1st Team)

Defense

Ends –
LaMarr Woodley (All-American, Lombardi Winner in '06, 24 Sacks),
Brandon Graham (All-American & Big Ten MVP in '09, 29.5 Sacks)

Tackles –
Mark Messner (All-American in '87 & '88, 36 Sacks),
Chris Hutchinson (All-American & Big Ten Def. Lineman of Year in '92, 24 Sacks)

Linebackers –
Ron Simpkins (All-American in '79, 516 Tackles),
Erick Anderson (All-American & Big Ten Def. MVP in '91, 428 Tackles, 60 Sacks)
Jarrett Irons (All-American in '96, 2x Team Captain, 453 Tackles, 66 Sacks)

Cornerbacks –
Charles Woodson (Heisman in '97, 2x All-American & Big Ten Def. MVP in '96 & '97, 18 INT's)
Marlin Jackson (All-American in '02 & '04, 9 INT's, 195 Tackles)

Safeties –
Tripp Welbourne (2x All-American in '89 & '90, 9 INT's, 238 Tackles),
Tom Curtis (All-American in '69, 25 INT's)

Special Teams

Placekicker - Remy Hamilton (All-American in '94, 63 FG's, 280 Pts.)
Punter - Monte Robbins (43.1 Yds/Punt, Longest Punt of 82 Yards)
Returnman - Steve Breaston (24.6 Yds/KR, 12.6 Yds/PR, 5 Return TD's)

Coach
Bo Schembechler (194 Wins, 13 Big Ten Titles, 6x Big Ten Coach of Year)

THE SECOND TEAM

Offense

Quarterback - Rick Leach (All-American in '78, 3x All-Big Ten in '76-'78, 82 Total TD's)

Running Backs –
Tyrone Wheatley (3x All-Big Ten in '92'-94, Big Ten MVP in '92, 4287 Rushing Yds, 54 Total TD's),
Mike Hart (3x All-Big Ten in '04, '06, '07, 5040 Rushing Yds, 43 Total TD's)

Wide Receivers –
Braylon Edwards (All-American & Big Ten MVP in '04, 252 Rec., 3541 Rec. Yds, 39 TD's),
Amani Toomer (2x All-Big Ten in '94 & '95, 143 Rec., 2657 Rec Yds, 18 TD's)

Tight End – Ron Kramer (All-American in '55 & '56, 880 Yds., 8 TD's)

Center – Germany Schulz (All-American in 1907)

Tackles –
Dan Dierdorf (All-American in '70, 2x All-Big Ten in '69 & '70),
Jumbo Elliott (2x All-American in '86 & '87)

Guards –
Mark Donahue (2x All-American in '76 & '77),
Reggie McKenzie (All-American in '71)

Defense

Ends –
Curtis Greer (All-American in '79, 2x All-Big Ten in '78 & '79, 313 Tackles) ,
Mike Mallory (2x All-Big Ten in '84 & '85, 321 Tackles)

Tackles –
Mike Hammerstein (All-American in '85, 161 Tackles, 16 Sacks),
Rob Renes (All-American in '99, 151 Tackles, 5 Sacks)

Linebackers –
Sam Sword (All-Big Ten in '97, 370 Tackles, 5 Sacks),
Larry Foote (All-American & Big Ten Def. MVP in '01, 212 Tackles, 11 Sacks)
Steve Morrison (All-Big Ten in '94, 315 Tackles)

Cornerbacks –
Leon Hall (All-American in '06, 12 INT's),
Ty Law (All-American in '94, 2x All-Big Ten in '93 & '94, 8 INT's)

Safeties –
Dave Brown (2x All-American in '73 & '74, 212 Tackles, 9 INT's),
Brad Cochran (All-American in '85, 189 Tackles, 12 INT's)

Special Teams

Placekicker - Garrett Rivas (All-Big Ten in '06, 64 FG's, 354 Pts.)
Punter - Zoltan Mesko (2x All-Big Ten in '08 & '09, 42.5 Yds/Punt, Long Punt of 68 Yds)
Returnman - Derrick Alexander (All-American in '92, 23.4 Yds/KR, 12.7 Yds/PR, 4 Ret. TD's)

Coach
Fielding Yost (6 National Championships, 10 Big Ten Titles, 165 Wins)

You can check out Motown Sports Revival for a list from several years ago of the 100 greatest Michigan players ever and look at a listing of Michigan's All-Americans here.

Here is another site that lists a number of top Michigan players over the years at each position.

Changing The World...One Cookie At A Time

2011-08-19T15:12:00.001-04:00

Photo Credit & Cake Creation: Lori Crocker

Our good friends, Jane & John Hursh, are making a difference in the world through a creative way to bless those in need. The Hursh's are taking Jane's love and talent for baking and turning that into a way to help others. Their business, jane's short & sweet, gives all of its profits to improving the lives of others in some of the most difficult places of our world.

Jane shares:

"The irony is not lost on us that it is with sweet products that we are turning around bitter circumstances. With your purchases of jane's, you are joining us as we come alongside local and international organizations to bring tangible and life-transforming hope where there is human trafficking, abuse, lack of educational opportunities and non-existent medical care."

To purchase your order of Jane's shortbread, biscotti or granola, please visit her website here. Trust me...they are delicious.

To get an insider's perspective on jane's short & sweet, check out this recent television interview:

Find more inspiring video, audio, and images at Growing Bolder.

Are Black Colleges Racist?

2011-08-18T11:14:00.001-04:00

Photo Credit: Roundup Russy

In this era of increasing ethnic diversity within the United States, there are some that question whether Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU's) are still needed. To be more direct, some detractors of HBCU's question whether they are actually racist in nature. They argue, for example, how would it be received if there were colleges that identified themselves as "White Colleges & Universities?"

I've argued before here about why I feel there continues to be a need for HBCU's for those that choose to pursue higher education in that setting. I've also provided some facts here about HBCU's that might be of interest to you.

Because I've written at length about this before, I won't go into the reasons about my thinking on the place of HBCU's within modern America but it is interesting to note that many feel that HBCU's are somehow more exclusive to non-blacks than major state schools are to people of color. Having had the privilege of visiting a number of the country's top HBCU's, I know from firsthand experience that though in the minority, I have always been welcomed and treated with courtesy and respect during my time on HBCU campuses.

The Wall Street Journal has written a good article detailing the efforts of HBCU's to recruit non-black students. Nsenga Burton, of TheRoot.com, comments:

"Some black colleges are stepping up recruiting at mostly white or Hispanic high schools and community colleges. Delaware State University is bringing 100 Chinese students to its Dover campus this fall for cultural and language training. Other colleges are showcasing unique programs. Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens promotes its chorale, which backed Queen Latifah in the 2010 Super Bowl, for example.

Even top-ranked black schools such as Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Spelman College in Atlanta, are recruiting more aggressively in the face of intensifying competition for top African-American students.

About 82% of students at the nation's 105 black colleges are African-American, a percentage that has been fairly constant over the past 30 years, according to a data analysis for this column by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, a New York nonprofit. Increases in Hispanic and Asian students have offset declines in whites, partly because of cuts in federal- and state-scholarship programs that encouraged white students to attend historically black colleges, says the fund's president, Johnny C. Taylor Jr. He predicts growth in white, Hispanic and Asian enrollment, as black colleges cast a wider net.

We're glad the Wall Street Journal has discovered what is commonly known on HBCU campuses, there is racial, religious, gender and cultural diversity on them. Recruiting outside of your core group makes sense especially since Blacks have many more options than before. Further with the elimination of affirmative-action programs and massive cuts in funding at mainstream universities, it stands to reason that more whites and Hispanics would be seeking education elsewhere. Yes, affirmative-action helped white students too. Some graduate and professional programs at HBCUs have been extremely diverse for decades now. It's no surprise that colleges and universities that have always valued diverse populations would reach out to non-black populations in the interest of continuing this tradition and survival."

Even though our nation's college campuses are becoming more ethnically diverse each year, American ethnic minority students are still outnumbered by white students at most of our nation's top schools. Yes, African Americans still comprise the majority of students at HBCU's, but the efforts of HBCU's to recruit and include students of other ethnicities is similar to the efforts of most major state schools to include students of color. Because of their history, HBCU's are readily identified as institutions primarily created for African Americans students but this designation makes them no more exclusive than any other state college where whites are the overwhelming majority.

What A Coffee Purchase Teaches Us About Humility & Leadership

2011-08-17T14:15:00.001-04:00

Photo Credit: Center for American Progress

It is doubtful that Ambassador Gary Locke, U.S. Ambassador to China, anticipated the news that would be generated by his purchase of an airport Starbucks coffee but it has caught the attention of those he serves.

Locke, the first Chinese American governor in U.S. history when he held that office for the state of Washington from 1997-2005, caught the media's attention when he was recently photographed at the Seattle-Tacoma airport carrying his own backpack and attempting to purchase a coffee through the use of a coupon. You can see the photo here.

For those of us that are Americans, we may not understand what the fuss is all about but for the citizens of China, the country that he relates to as a representative of the United States, it has caused a stir. Look at what Chen Weihua, a writer for the China Daily, has to say on the matter:

"To many Americans, there was probably nothing unusual about this. But to most Chinese people, the scene was so unusual it almost defied belief.

How could someone who holds the rank of an ambassador to a big country not have someone to carry his luggage, and not use a chauffeured limousine. In China even a township chief, which is not really that high up in the hierarchy, will have a chauffeur and a secretary to carry his bag.

Watching this episode, many Chinese people might start to wonder if the people at the US embassy in Beijing in charge of arranging Locke's reception would keep their jobs.

I am sure they did given another photo of Locke that was circulated by netizens [active members of online communities]. It features Locke, with the same backpack he was carrying at the airport, apparently trying to buy a cup of Starbucks coffee with a coupon at the Seattle airport. When the coupon wasn't accepted, he paid with his credit card.

"Why was there no one to buy a coffee for the boss?" many Chinese netizens asked."

Ambassador Locke demonstrates an important lesson for us in humility and in leadership. When appointed to a position of public service, the expectation is that we would serve our constituents. All too often, however, the roles get reversed and those of us in leadership positions ask others to serve us.

As great as the example that Ambassador Locke has shown us, Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of what it means to be a servant leader. From John 13:

"It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. ..."You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

There are many ways that a leader can be described but one of the best ways is as one who serves others.

The Both/And Qualities Of Christianity

2011-08-16T06:59:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Salvatore lovene

From Carolyn Arends:

"A lifetime of evangelical thinking has primed me for either/or questions,breeding a deep distrust of both/and propositions. After all, one of the distinguishing features of Christianity is its insistence that there is one way to God. A wariness of pluralistic worldviews is completely warranted. But if I'm not careful, that insistence can mutate into creating artificial schisms that fly in the face of a God who desires to make us whole in radical ways.

When we fall for false dualities, we end up arguing over whether the gospel is concerned with ministering to the poor or proclaiming the Word. We believe our theology must emphasize either a free gift of grace or a call to holy living. In a myriad of areas, we polarize, dichotomize, and greatly minimize the life God has for us.

...Most of us would like our faith to reduce tension. But, according to Jesus (who told us to be anxious for nothing but always alert, to be last in order to be first, to be weak to be strong, and to lose our lives to find them), tension is required."

To read the complete post please click here.

Should We Use Native American Sports Mascots?

2011-08-15T13:10:00.003-04:00

Photo Credit: BGSU86

I want you to take a good look at the image to the left. What comes to your mind when you look at that? If you're from Cleveland, it may remind you of a baseball team that you follow. But if you are of Native American descent, this image likely doesn't bring up pleasant feelings.

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about the use of Native images in American sports, whether at the professional, collegiate, high school or other levels. If you're like most people, you probably haven't given much thought to it. You've grown up in a society that generally accepts the use of the term Redskins for an NFL team and Atlanta Brave fans doing the "tomahawk chop" at games. So is the move to ban Native American sports mascots just another attempt at political correctness or is it something more than that?

One university, the University of North Dakota, looks to be currently in the final stages of a process to change their name. CNN.com reports:

"The University of North Dakota is one step closer to retiring its nickname and mascot, but changing the school's 90-year-old Native American moniker -- the Fighting Sioux -- has not been without complications.

The school faces a Monday deadline to comply with the NCAA's policy on mascots "deemed hostile or abusive toward Native Americans."

School officials were in the process of coming up with a new name and mascot this year until North Dakota legislators passed a law ordering them to stop, according to UND spokesman Peter Johnson.

The rock and the hard place the school finds itself between marks the last gasp of a decades-long fight not just in North Dakota, but in all of college sports -- the climax (or nadir, depending on some people's perspective) of a nostalgia-imbued resistance to political correctness on the playing field."

I am generally opposed to the use of Native images and mascots for sports teams. These names and images have typically been born out of the tragic history of this nation and continue to perpetuate stereotypes and remind the First Nations people of this land of their mistreatment over the centuries. The argument is often made that the use of these names and images honor the original inhabitants of what is now known as the United States. Sadly, when white people put on "war paint", wear ceremonial headdresses, and do chants at sporting events without any knowledge or appreciation of the culture that these things come from, it comes off as much more of a mocking of that culture than anything honorable.

Although I do believe that in rare cases this is possible (I'll get to that in a minute), there are likely other ways that would serve to honor American Indians more than the caricatures that are often connected to our sports teams. Barbara Munson, of the Oneida Nation, offers some other suggestions:

Indian people do not pay tribute to one another by the use of logos, portraits or statues.

The following are some ways that we exhibit honor:

1. In most cultures to receive an eagle feather is a great honor, and often such a feather also carries great responsibility.

2. An honor song at a Pow-Wow or other ceremony is a way of honoring a person or a group.

3. We honor our elders and leaders by asking them to share knowledge and experience with us or to lead us in prayer. We defer to elders. They go first in many ways in our cultures.

4. We honor our young by not doing things to them that would keep them from becoming who and what they are intended to be.

5. We honor one another by listening and not interrupting.

6. We honor those we love by giving them our time and attention.

7. Sometimes we honor people through gentle joking.

8. We honor others by giving to them freely what they need or what belongs to them already because they love it more or could use it better than we do.

I understand that sports hold a special place in American culture. We are committed to our teams and our loyalty runs deep. We have years worth of paraphernalia connected to our teams and are hesitant to make changes to the names and images of the teams we love. Having grown up in the state of Michigan, I am well familiar with the influence that Native culture has had on current American society. The use of Native names is very common within the state and my college alma mater, Central Michigan University, is known as the Chippewas, a Native tribe that is one of the largest First Nations people groups within North America.

But I am supportive of the use of the Chippewas moniker for CMU. Does this make me a hypocrite? Well, not necessarily. Although I am generally in disagreement of the use of Native names and images in connection with sports teams, CMU is a bit of a unique situation. When I was a student there in the early nineties the university was in the midst of a major review of whether they would keep the Chippewa name or not. It was during a time when other major schools nearby (e.g. Miami (Ohio), Eastern Michigan, etc.) were changing their names and it appeared that Central would follow suit.

But at the end of this review it was decided to keep the name. Why? Because in this case, there is a Chippewa tribal reservation just minutes from the university and CMU and the tribe have a strong relationship. In this instance, the tribe felt that the school did honor their people with the use of that name since 1) It was not a derogatory name (e.g. Redskins) and 2) The school agreed to do away with all Native imagery in connection with their athletic teams.

Because of the tribal approval that is given to the university, CMU was one of the few exceptions that the NCAA gave a few years ago when it banned the use of Native names for its members. Although this issue continues to be discussed, it is still an accepted part of the university. As a student, I was enriched by the Chippewa culture that was part of the university life and took advantage of the opportunity to learn about a culture other than my own.

I'm thankful that I am an alum of an institution that is one of the few cases that actually honors First Nations people in connection with their athletic teams. In other cases, I would like to challenge you to stop supporting institutions that continue to encourage the use of negative stereotypes and images in connection with their teams. It is not a matter of political correctness... it's a matter of doing the right thing.

Starbucks, Bill Hybels & Responding Like Jesus

2011-08-14T19:30:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Robert the Noid

Bill Hybels is one of America's most well-known pastors and is the leader of one of the country's largest congregations, Willow Creek Community Church. Willow Creek, located just outside of Chicago, hosts a Global Leadership Summit each year that attracts thousands in person and many more through satellite and other forms of technology.

The Summit has attracted a bit of attention this year due to the withdrawal of invited speaker Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks. Schultz's withdrawal came as a result of an online petition that urged him to drop out of the Summit due to what some feel is Willow Creek's "anti-gay" position.

Faced with a variety of options on how he could have responded, Pastor Hybels answered Mr. Schultz in a manner that is quite befitting of one that follows Jesus Christ. Please watch this video to see how Bill Hybels chose to address the situation:

I hope that Pastor Hybels is able to begin a dialogue with some gay and lesbian leaders as a result of his Christ-like response to this situation. God's love is available for all and I'm grateful that a prominent Christian leader such as Bill Hybels is making that known.

(h/t to Ragamuffin Soul for the video link)

Why You Don't Want To Be Primarily Known For What You're Against

2011-08-13T07:42:00.001-04:00

Photo Credit: 4lfie

It is a sobering reality that in many segments of our society Christians are known more for what we are against than for what we are for. Our public demonstrations against various sins and groups that we believe to be enemies of God have left many with the impression that we Christians are simply a bunch of angry zealots with nothing better to do than to demonize others.

In a convicting and telling post, Byron Yawn outlines the reasons why we probably don't want to be known as the "angry prophet." Yawn says this:

"Of the many things I’ve learned about pastoral ministry over these years one stands out among the most helpful: There is a real danger in consistently defining yourself and your ministry by what you are against."

He then goes on to list ten dangers of defining yourself by what you're against. Though primarily directed at pastors, his admonitions could apply to any of us. Here they are:

1. You’ll forget to talk about what’s good… especially about Jesus.

2. You’ll begin to take yourself too seriously.

3. You’ll begin to preach the same sermon from every passage.

4. You’ll foster mean people.

5. You’ll eventually assemble an audience of self-congratulatory clones.

6. You’ll take all correction personally and as an unpardonable offense against “God’s man.”

7. You’ll make a terrible shepherd.

8. You’ll become the type of person you warn others about.

9. You’ll thrive on controversy.

10. People will stop listening.

Jesus instructed us that we would be primarily known as followers of Him by the love we show to one another. That doesn't mean we never seek to speak truth but it does mean that the truth we speak is motivated by love and not condemnation.

You can read Yawn's complete post here.

(h/t to Tim Challies for the link)

Report Says Young People Do Not View U.S. As Post-Racial

2011-08-11T09:35:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Mighty mighty bigmac

From theGrio.com:

"Is racism interpersonal or systemic? If you were born after 1980, you may very well believe the former. A new report from the Applied Research Center takes a fresh look at the racial attitudes of the Millenials, as they're called, that up-and-coming generation of people ages 18 to 30. And their thoughts on race, like all matters of race in America, are a complicated mixed bag.

Most of all, in the age of Obama, this study throws cold water on the notion that we live in a post-racial, colorblind society -- that the president is the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. In other words, race actually still matters.

In one sense, the results of the study are encouraging. A majority of young people understand that race continues to play a significant role in education, the criminal justice system, immigration, employment and other sectors of society.

For example, only 10 percent believe race is not a factor in the criminal justice system. "Why is it that over 90 percent of prison inmates are people of color? Rates of black men in prison versus rates of black men in college -- obviously, there's something going on that's wrong," said Margarita, 22, a Filipina-American and part-time program coordinator who participated in the study.

"The whole war on drugs is a war on black and brown folks. So what happens to a white person with a drug problem, right? Rich celebrities in rehab on television vs. people I know who face jail time for marijuana charges."

However, this is not to say that all Millenials, the nation's largest and most diverse generation of all time, think alike. Among members of the focus group -- which included blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans and whites between 18 and 25 years -- young people of color were able to make more of a connection between race and disparities in opportunity and resources. Many whites, on the other hand, had more of a problem connecting the dots."

To read the complete article please click here.

(h/t to News One for the link)

On Plumbing And Philosophy

2011-08-10T11:37:00.001-04:00

Photo Credit: naoyafujii

From John W. Gardner:

"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."

- Taken from Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?

Worldwide Religious Persecution On The Rise

2011-08-09T15:57:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: shashish

From CNN.com:

"Nearly a third of the world's people live in nations where practicing religion freely is becoming increasingly difficult, according to a new study released Tuesday.

The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life said government restrictions and religiously motivated hostility rose significantly between mid-2006 and mid-2009, when the research was conducted.

Only 1% of the world's population lives in countries where the trend was the opposite.

"The increasing levels of social hostilities is a definite trend that needs to be watched carefully," said Brian Grim, the primary researcher for the study.

Grim said the Pew Center's report on 198 countries found those that were already restrictive or abusive in the previous report continued their decline. Those that were tolerant became more so. The study found that 101 governments used force against religious groups or individuals.

He said Christians and Muslims, who make up more than half of the world's population, were harassed in the most number of countries, though that did not reflect the intensity of the persecution.

The Middle East and North Africa had the largest proportion of nations where curbs on religion went up, the study found. Nearly a third of those nations imposed greater restrictions. It was particularly bad in Egypt, the study said."

According to the Conference on the Persecution of Christians, religious persecution affects over 100 million Christians each year and, although people of all faiths face persecution, three out of every four religion-based hate crimes that lead to death are directed towards Christians.

To read the complete CNN.com article please click here.

How A Small Minority Can Change The World

2011-08-08T22:05:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: garryknight

It has been said that it only takes a small group of committed individuals to start a movement that can change the world. There is now some research that seems to back this up.

From Emily Sohn on Discovery.com:

"To change the beliefs of an entire community, only 10 percent of the population needs to become convinced of a new or different opinion, suggests a new study done at the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. At that tipping point, the idea can spread through social networks and alter behaviors on a large scale.

The research is still in its early stages, and it's uncertain if the results will apply to all kinds of beliefs, particularly in tense political situations.

But the findings do provide insight into how opinions spread through communities. The model may also help experts more effectively quell misconceptions and influence the choices people make about public health behaviors and related issues.

"This is really a starting point to understand how you can cause fast change in a population," said Sameet Sreenivasan, a statistical physicist and one of the co-authors of the study which included two graduate students and three senior faculty.

"The real world has a lot more complexity, obviously," he added. "But one of the things you can take away is that if you want to cause a fast change, there is an upper bound to how many people really need to commit."

To read the rest of the article please click here.

(h/t to Phil Cooke for the link)

A Lesson On Forgiveness From Rwanda

2011-08-08T14:53:00.000-04:00

Photo Courtesy of Blessed Madugba

One of the greatest human tragedies of recent memory was the genocide that occurred in Rwanda. During a hundred day period in the spring and summer of 1994, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed during a conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. The number killed was a staggering 20% of the population of the country.

Amazingly, the tribal differences that led to the genocide of 1994 did not always exist. At one time, the members of these two tribes were actually considered the same people with a shared language, culture and values. During the Belgian colonialist period of the mid-1800's, the people of Rwanda were divided into two different tribes based on their personal wealth. Those with more became Tutsi and those with less became Hutu. This separation of one people into two separate peoples treated unequally led to a struggle for power over the years that eventually led to the mass killings that took place in the 1990's.

A friend of mine, Blessed Madugba, recently spent some time in Rwanda and met with survivors of the genocide with the hope of bringing some healing to this troubled country. Blessed is Nigerian and his own tribe, the Ibo, experienced a similar atrocity at the hands of Nigerian government in the late 1960's when millions were killed. Possessing an empathy that few of us possess, Blessed shares:

"The absolute highlight of my trip is the meeting I had with the local pastors and Christian leaders. There’s a serious lack of unity among the Christian leaders and pastors. This contributed greatly to instigate some Hutu pastors & priests in joining the mass killings of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, including Tutsi members of their own churches.

Even after the genocide there’s still strong bitterness, hurt and distrust among them. But by God’s grace a number of them honored my invitation to meet, talk and dialogue. I patiently listened to them share their grievances, bitterness, frustrations and challenges, as well as their philosophy of ministry.

I admonished and exhorted them, and underscored the importance of unity among them and amongst the body of Christ for the work of God to advance and flourish in Rwanda. I challenged them to begin a Pastor’s Monthly Prayer Meeting, where they will take turns hosting it among their different Churches. They are to gather for prayer, fellowship, worship and sharing to encourage one another every month.

They all embraced the idea and immediately chose the next meeting date, time and location. I’ve talked with our Coordinator, Pastor Dennis, in Rwanda a number of times, and he excitedly told me that they have met three times and each time more pastors join as the word about their gathering spreads. I was told that a fresh fire and hunger for unity has been ignited among them, and they want to know when I’m coming back with a team. It was quite humbling to see how God touched and moved the hearts of these people and their willingness to come together, to eat and fellowship. The Lord worked through your prayers."

Even in the midst of massive injustice, as with what took place in Rwanda, forgiveness is the starting point for lasting healing and reconciliation. Our sins have lasting consequences that have the potential to affect generations to come. The people of Rwanda will continue to deal with the sins of their fathers, just as we in America continue to reap the consequences of the sins of our forefathers. But healing is possible and I'm grateful for those like Blessed that are helping that to take place in one portion of the world.

To learn more about Blessed's ministry, Hallomai International, click here.

To read more about the history of the conflict in Rwanda click here or check out the award-winning movie, Hotel Rwanda.

Five Things Needed For A Lifetime of Christian Service

2011-08-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

As a part of our ministry to college students with Campus Crusade for Christ, our hope is that young people would trust God to work through them by personally experiencing being part of God's mission while they are on the university campus. But, not only that, our desire is that they would serve God beyond college for a lifetime of service wherever He might lead them. We believe that Christians who are filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit can be used by God in great ways, no matter what their vocation or where they live or what stage of life they may find themselves.

Check out this video on the "Five Things": 1) A kingdom vision, 2) A plan, 3) A coach, 4) A team and 5) Ongoing equipping.

The 5 Things from CCCNEHQ on Vimeo.

[The 5 things for a successful ministry audio from the 2011 Boston Winter Conference, by Holly Sheldon. Art by Ed Flemming. Produced by David Rice.]

A Perspective On Immigration From The Old Testament

2011-08-04T15:31:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Edu-Tourist

One of the most pressing issues within contemporary society is the topic of immigration. This important subject is not just something for our government to consider but it is fitting for the Church to decide on how we will engage this matter. It is easy to simply view this concern through political lenses but those of us that are Christians must primarily look at this through a biblical grid.

For a thoughtful approach to considering how we can think about this matter, I recommend M. Daniel Carroll R.'s book, Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible. Carroll takes a balanced and insightful study on immigration and offers a compelling argument on how we can look to the Scriptures to shape our opinions on this pressing issue. Within the book, he examines the history of Hispanic immigration in the United States, looks at immigration as discussed in both the Old and New Testaments and sets forth some suggestions on how we can address this issue in modern times.

Within his overview of immigration as viewed in the Old Testament, Carroll adroitly brings a humanity to why people leave their homeland for another:

"The Old Testament is full of accounts of people on the move or who have settled in other places. Many reasons are given for this movement, and these migrations - whether of individuals or of large groups - span centuries. They are part of the fabric of biblical history - and ours. This realization offers a lesson to the majority culture. Migrations are a recurring phenomenon. According, Hispanic immigration to the United States is but another chapter in the very long book of the annals of humankind. That being the case, one can step back and try to appreciate why people, then and now, are compelled to go to another place.

The text gives a human face to the migrants. They are tested and discriminated against; they want to have a home and provide for their families; they worship God; they work at different jobs, some not by their own choice; others are gifted in special ways, rise to positions of authority, and do marvelous things for the country in which they live; some long to return to their homeland while others choose to stay in their new country; and they wrestle with how to coordinate their backgrounds with the different culture that surround them - the issues of language, customs, faith, politics, economics, and laws. These are also flawed individuals. They sin; they are imperfect in all kinds of ways.

In other words, the Bible offers the reader very realistic scenes and situations and amazingly true-to-life characters. These immigrants and refugees are people above all else, people caught up in the trials, tribulations, and joys of life. It is everyday life, but the text teaches that these lives are set against a much bigger canvas. These people are part of the plan of God for the unfolding of world history. Consequently, the majority culture must evaluate its reaction to immigrants. The Old Testament recounts compassionate actions of some as well as the cruelty of others toward foreigners. Herein are examples, good and bad, to be followed and avoided."

Some good thoughts to ponder...

An Epidemic Of Suicide Among Native American Youth

2011-08-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: Kami Jo

Lorna Thackeray of the Billings Gazette reports on the disturbing rates of suicide of Native American youth:

"All the reasons that put young people at risk of suicide in the country at large are amplified on Indian reservations.

Indian children are more likely to be abused, see their mothers being abused and live in a household where someone is controlled by drugs or alcohol. They have the highest rates of emotional and physical neglect and are more likely to be exposed to trauma.

“The unfortunate and often forgotten reality is that there is an epidemic of violence and harm directed toward this very vulnerable population,” Dolores Subia BigFoot, director of the Indian Country Trauma Center at the University of Oklahoma, testified a before the Senate Committee of Indian Affairs during hearings on the Indian Youth Suicide Prevention Act of 2009.

“American Indian/Alaska Native children and youth experience an increase risk of multiple victimizations,” she said. “Their capacity to function and to regroup before the next emotional or physical assault diminished with each missed opportunity to intervene. These youth often make the decision to take their own lives because they feel a lack of safety in their environment. Our youth are in desperate need of safe homes, safe families and safe communities.”

...Weakening of those bonds and loss of culture and spirituality are among the reasons young people cannot find their way, she said.

Others describe historical and cultural trauma that remains ingrained in the Native American psyche. Colonization and racism and the abrupt end to traditional life still reverberate in new generations, said Clayton Small, a Cheyenne, who works in a nonprofit suicide prevention program.

Generational trauma weighs heaviest on the male population, he said. They commit suicide at a far higher rate than female Native Americans.

“In Indian Country the role of our men has been significantly altered,” Small said. “Then throw in poverty and violence and it descends into drug and alcohol abuse.”

He said one out of three Native American males end up incarcerated at some time during their lives, in part because their cases are brought in the relatively unforgiving federal system. With a criminal record, employment is nearly impossible to find and they suffer the indignity of not being able to support their families, Small said.

“We have to teach kids that they don't have to continue this cycle,” he said. “We have to teach them to cope with the stress and trauma they see every day.”

One organization that is seeking to stem this tide is Nations, a movement that seeks to develop leaders on the college campus by honoring Native American students and faculty by restoring their lives and culture with Jesus Christ. Nations embraces and honors First Nations people while recognizing that there is one true Creator who desires to restore what has been lost by placing his Son Jesus Christ at the center of American Indian life and culture. To learn more about this important organization, click here.

To read the rest of the Gazette article please click here.

(h/t to Racialicious for the link)

Maybe Being An Evangelical Isn't So Bad After All

2011-08-01T17:29:00.002-04:00

Photo Credit: jeremy.wilburn

The evangelical Christian movement has been around for centuries but it has only been in recent decades that the definition of what it means to be an evangelical has changed within mainstream culture. Originally, the definition of an evangelical had nothing to do with political affiliation. To be an evangelical meant:

1. You were committed to the Bible as an authority in your life.
2. You believed in the need for a "born again" experience through faith in Christ.
3. You emphasized the necessity of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for personal salvation.
4. You regularly talked with others about how they could have a relationship with Christ.

In recent years within the United States, the term "evangelical" has become, for many people, synonymous with a politically conservative Christian who votes Republican. While it may be true that many evangelicals may vote along these lines, not all of us do. It's unfortunate that the definition of an evangelical has come to mean more about politics when the most important thing about us is our faith.

Nicholas Kristof, a writer for The New York Times, has written a splendid piece about how we evangelicals are often unfairly characterized as all being like the more extreme members of our community. Using the recently deceased John Stott as an example, he says this:

"Centuries ago, serious religious study was extraordinarily demanding and rigorous; in contrast, anyone could declare himself a scientist and go in the business of, say, alchemy. These days, it’s the reverse. A Ph.D. in chemistry is a rigorous degree, while a preacher can explain the Bible on television without mastering Hebrew or Greek — or even showing interest in the nuances of the original texts.

Those self-appointed evangelical leaders come across as hypocrites, monetizing Jesus rather than emulating him. Some seem homophobic, and many who claim to be “pro-life” seem little concerned with human life post-uterus. Those are the preachers who won headlines and disdain.

But in reporting on poverty, disease and oppression, I’ve seen so many others. Evangelicals are disproportionately likely to donate 10 percent of their incomes to charities, mostly church-related. More important, go to the front lines, at home or abroad, in the battles against hunger, malaria, prison rape, obstetric fistula, human trafficking or genocide, and some of the bravest people you meet are evangelical Christians (or conservative Catholics, similar in many ways) who truly live their faith.

I’m not particularly religious myself, but I stand in awe of those I’ve seen risking their lives in this way — and it sickens me to see that faith mocked at New York cocktail parties.

Why does all this matter?

Because religious people and secular people alike do fantastic work on humanitarian issues — but they often don’t work together because of mutual suspicions. If we could bridge this “God gulf,” we would make far more progress on the world’s ills."

I appreciate Mr. Kristof's candor in acknowledging that evangelicals are often unfairly stereotyped within popular culture and that there is more to us than how we vote politically. Contrary to popular opinion, evangelicals as a whole are some of the most courageous leaders within our society as it pertains to providing for the poor, sending aid to other countries and caring for orphans. Yes, we are unusually committed to the tenets of our faith in Christ but it is because of this unusual commitment that we seek to actively live out our faith as people that emulate the Nazarene carpenter.

You can read Kristof's complete post here.

(h/t to Scot McKnight for the link)

How One College Student Received A Lesson On Race

2011-08-01T00:21:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: howzey

It is nearly twenty years to the day that I first stepped onto campus as a university freshman. I remember experiencing a mixture of emotions marked by excitement, fear, anticipation and nervousness. One of the feelings that I didn't have, though, was wondering if I would see anyone that looked like me. On a campus that was overwhelmingly white, nearly all my classmates and almost all my professors looked like me.

In four and a half years of college, I never once had a class where I wasn't in the majority. For many students of color, however, their experience is anything but similar to mine. Alana Mohamed, a current college student, writes of her experience on what it was like for her to attend a predominately white, northeastern school as an ethnic minority. Here are some of her thoughts

"Maybe I’m naïve, but when I stepped on the campus of my New England public university, I was dumbstruck by the whiteness of it all. I was literally the only person of color in a sea of white people. This had never happened to me before. I grew up in New York City and had never been to a school that was predominantly white. As such, I was partial to the color-blind politics of the day. This is not to say that I never experienced racism, but I was lucky enough to discount the few times I had encountered racism as the statistical outliers of my life. However, I was surprised to learn that my peers at university had rarely come in contact with people of color and often times lacked any sort of tact when dealing with people of color.

...The scariest sort of situation was dealing with hostile, purposeful racism. At the beginning of the year, when people didn’t know I had a Muslim last name, or that my father was Muslim, I heard a student loudly decry, “F****** Muslim scum, f****** ruining our country. Motherf******,” at a party further down my hall. I also heard cheers, egging him on. I was in my room at the time and couldn’t see who had said it. And quite frankly, I was too terrified to go see. When it comes to direct confrontations, I draw the line at putting myself in dangerous situations. I wish I would have told my RA [Resident Hall Assistant], but I was too scared of stirring up trouble so early in the year. As a consequence, I often felt unsafe and alienated from many of the kids on my floor."

Not only can the college campus seem intimidating to many ethnic minority students who are just venturing into a mostly white context for the first time in their lives but it can be downright scary. Unfortunately, Alana's experiences are all too common as I've had numerous students share with me similar encounters they had while adjusting to this very new environment.

This is just one reason why it is so important that there is spiritual assistance available for each and every student no matter what their background or how they define themselves culturally. Each person is created in the image of God and is worthy of love, respect and acceptance. I'm grateful that I'm part of a community of caring individuals that is actively reaching out to the over 7,000,000 American ethnic minority and international students currently studying on college campuses across the U.S. To learn more about some of the ministries that Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) offers on campuses throughout the country, please click here.

To read the rest of Alana's story on the Racialicious blog please click here. (WARNING: There is some strong language found at this link.)

John Stott: A Legacy Passed On

2011-07-29T12:27:00.000-04:00

Photo Credit: osattack

John Stott, a leading figure in Christian evangelicalism in the past century, passed away this week at the age of ninety. Christianity Today has written a wonderful piece about his influence and legacy on the world. Here's a highlight:

"Stott was every inch an evangelical, but a reforming evangelical. He recognized that evangelicalism could and sometimes did sink down into mere piety, whereas the Bible spoke of a robust transformation of the world brought about by God's people engaged in mission. As a London pastor, Stott increasingly recognized the need for evangelicalism to reclaim its heritage of engagement with the social issues of the day.

As he told an interviewer years later, "In the early 1960s, I began to travel in the Third World, and I saw poverty in Latin America, Africa, and Asia as I had not seen it before. It became clear to me that it was utterly impossible to take that old view." The "old view" was that preaching was always a Christian's preeminent task, and that deeds of compassion were strictly secondary. As Stott probed the Scriptures, he came to believe that Jesus' Great Commission commanded Jesus' servants to carry on his entire mission, which included practical concern for life and health.

One of Stott's most significant works—and one that carried him far out of his own expertise—was the book Issues Facing Christians Today (1984), in which he attempted to address crucial concerns of contemporary society such as abortion, industrial relations, and human rights. Earlier he had written Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life (1972). In 1982, he helped to launch the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, which offered classes and lectures on a wide variety of topics relevant to life in modern society.

His greatest impact in the area of social concern came somewhat inadvertently. In 1974, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association convened an International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland. About 2,500 members attended (in addition to 1,300 other participants). About half of the delegates and speakers came from Majority World countries. The gathering's wide representation resembled meetings of the World Council of Churches, but the excited atmosphere of unified mission was unprecedented. Many participants grasped for the first time the global dimensions of the evangelical church. Almost 30 years later, Philip Jenkins would write The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. But as David Jones, president of John Stott Ministries, says, at Lausanne, "Jenkins' book was there in the faces and minds of people. Lausanne showed the global church that we can work together."

Such unity was hardly automatic. In fact, there were great differences in perspective between those from the West and those from the Majority World, and the relationship between evangelism and social concern was an emotional hot button. According to some, Christians were called to preach the gospel, full stop. For others, particularly those in countries where poverty and injustice were inescapably obvious, such a stance amounted to callous indifference to people. Lausanne could easily have divided between these perspectives.

Stott had been asked to give the opening address on the nature of biblical evangelism. He began with characteristic humility, calling for "a note of evangelical repentance." And he spoke head-on—with a lucid exposition of Scripture—to the issue on people's minds.

"Here then are two instructions, 'love your neighbor' and 'go and make disciples.' What is the relation between the two? Some of us behave as if we thought them identical, so that if we have shared the gospel with somebody, we consider we have completed our responsibility to love him. But no. The Great Commission neither explains, nor exhausts, nor supersedes the Great Commandment. What it does is to add to the command of neighbor-love and neighbor-service a new and urgent Christian dimension. If we truly love our neighbor, we shall without doubt tell him the Good News of Jesus. But equally, if we truly love our neighbor, we shall not stop there."

Stott's speech made it possible for delegates to rethink their positions, to listen to others, and to conceive of preaching and social action working in tandem. He managed the same trick in chairing the committee that drafted the Lausanne Covenant. Stott's skill as a diplomat was never more in evidence, as he chaired potentially fractious meetings, getting people to listen to each others' views. He worked tirelessly behind the scenes to draft and redraft the covenant, finding wording that would capture various points of view without doing violence to any. In the end, the Lausanne Covenant spoke to the moment, expressing a common mission that most delegates could enthusiastically endorse; and it spoke to the future, providing a framework that evangelical groups could use as their basic statement. Lausanne was a defining moment in global evangelicalism. Billy Graham was the indispensable convener, but John Stott was the indispensable uniter."

You can read the complete CT article here.