Weekly Web Roundup (12/17/16)

Photo Credit: varunshiv

Here are some interesting items that I saw across the web over this past week:

9 Things You Should Know About Aleppo and the Syrian Crisis by Joe Carter (The Gospel Coalition)

"The battle for Aleppo began in mid-July 2012, when anti-government rebels gained control of several districts within the city. Since then the city has been divided between the government-held west and rebel-held east. Beginning at the end of 2013, the Syrian government began aerial bombing of the eastern sections of the city, a tactic that has caused a humanitarian crisis that has disproportionately affected the city’s children."

Sending out Leaders Creates More Leaders (or the genius of launching multiple movements) by Tim Casteel

Tim Casteel, Cru director at the University of Arkansas, explains how he has seen his the growth of his team's influence on campus (and beyond) by releasing people to focus on reaching out to specific groups on campus. Tim quotes JD Greear, “But here’s a principle we’ve learned that sustains us when our courage flags: sending out leaders creates more leaders. What you send out inevitably comes back to you in multiplied form.”

Colleges Really Need to Rethink the Career Advice They Deliver by Emily Deruy (The Atlantic)

"Colleges and universities are spending too much time admitting students and not enough time on the exit process after the last finals are handed in and the graduation caps tossed. And as more students who see college as a step toward upward economic mobility pursue higher education, the risk that young people will be left flailing in an economy where post-secondary education is more critical than ever stands to grow. That’s particularly true for young people who come from families unfamiliar with the process."

Black And White Americans View Historical Events Very Differently by Erin Schumaker (The Huffington Post)

"In fact, not only do many white Americans believe the U.S. is a post-racial society, but according to a study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science in 2011, there’s an emerging belief among some whites that anti-white bias is more prevalent than anti-black bias. (For real-world examples of this, you needn’t look any further than President-elect Donald Trump’s rallies in the lead-up to the election.) And while this might not be particularly surprising to anyone who followed the 2016 election, it’s important that we measure and talk about racial bias. As Sendhil Mullainathan, a Harvard economics professor who sent out identical resumes with stereotypically black- and white-sounding names to measure which race got better response rates (Spoiler: white-sounding names did), wrote in The Upshot last year, “The key to ‘fast thinking’ discrimination is that we all share it. Good intentions do not guarantee immunity.”"

Hype-Tape Superstar Sam McGuffie's Crazy Journey from CFB to NFL to...Olympics? by Adam Kramer (Bleacher Report)

Former Michigan and Rice running back Sam McGuffie has recently found success in both bobsledding and rugby. This article tracks his journey from high school YouTube sensation to college athlete to potential Olympian.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

This video is several years old but still gives me goosebumps when I watch it.

Sudanese Woman Sentenced To Death For Christian Faith

Photo Credit: Glen Van Etten

From Christianity Today:

"Given until today to recant her faith by a Sudanese court, Meriam Yahia Ibrahim instead declared she remained a Christian at today's hearing. The judge at the Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif Khartoum then confirmed her sentence of 100 lashes for adultery and death by hanging for apostasy. 

"I am a Christian, and I have never been a Muslim," Ibrahim told the judge after a Muslim scholar spent 40 minutes persuading her to recant, reports Morning Star News, which first broke the news of Ibrahim's case. In response, the judge told her, "The court has sentenced you to be hanged till you are dead." 

However, the sentence is to be carried out two years after her second child's birth later this month, not shortly after the birth as previously reported. 

Christian Solidarity Worldwide confirmed the death sentence in the case drawing international attention, calling the ruling a "violation of the Sudanese Constitution and of international conventions to which Sudan is party." 

Middle East Concern reports that Ibrahim's lawyer is appealing the ruling. Ibrahim's husband was also not permitted to witness the hearing, and has been denied visitation rights to see his wife and son while they are detained in prison. 

Ahead of today's hearing, Amnesty International condemned Ibrahim's death sentence and called for her immediate release. According to Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher: 

"The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion is abhorrent and should never be even considered. 'Adultery' and 'apostasy' are acts which should not be considered crimes at all, let alone meet the international standard of "most serious crimes" in relation to the death penalty. It is flagrant breach of international human rights law."

World Watch Monitor reports more background on Ibrahim's case, including how her brother first notified authorities about her alleged adultery."

To read more on this developing story please click here.

40 Maps That Explain The World

Photo Credit: WashingtonPost.com

Max Fisher of The Washington Post has created a sampling of forty different maps that demonstrate the differences in our world. The maps examine such things as religion, racial tolerance, economic realities, views on sexuality, population and languages spoken. Take a few moments to view the maps here and see the ways that people across the world are similar and which ways we are different.

(HT: Cody Lorance for the link.)

The War On Christians That You Don't Know About

Photo Credit: Imagens Cristãs

With a significant amount of coverage in the news recently concerning claims of discrimination against Christians in the United States, one might think that American Christians have it pretty rough.

While it is true that many of us are rightly concerned about churches getting kicked out of NYC public schools, government requirements regarding health care and contraception, and campus groups losing their charters on college campuses because of their beliefs, we must also realize that many of our brothers and sisters in other places are facing far greater challenges.

Even with the appearance of the lack of concern for the rights of Christians in the U.S., the treatment of Christians in my home country is far from the worst in the world. In a recent Newsweek cover story, Ayaan Hirsi Ali sheds some light on what is happening to some Christians in other parts of the world:

"We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries. 

The media’s reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia—and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called “Islamophobia”—a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia. 

But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake."

While it is true that Christians should be concerned about the mistreatment of any persons no matter what faith they subscribe to, we mustn't minimize the very real suffering and persecution that Christians around the world face everyday -- whether the mainstream media covers it or not. Kudos to Newsweek for bringing further attention to this matter.

To read the rest of the article please click here.

Pakistan, Islam and Blasphemy

Photo Credit: Joe Gratz

Blasphemy means to show disrespect or to speak against revered religious figures, beliefs and customs.  Although those of us that have deeply held religious beliefs can easily get offended when our faith is mocked or disregarded, few of us believe that others should lose their lives over the words they speak against our beliefs.

For example, the name of Jesus is commonly used as a swear word within our culture and, though highly offensive to Christians, I have never heard a call from conservative believers within the United States that those that take the Lord's name in vain should be executed for doing so.  Apparently, the laws in Pakistan are much different.

A Christian woman who is accused of insulting the Islamic faith and its prophet, Muhammad, is facing the death penalty for her words, which some consider blasphemous.  CNN.com shares the story:

"In this village in Pakistan's Punjab province a tearful 12-year-old girl ponders if the Pakistani government will soon hang her mother.

"Whenever I see her picture I cry," Isham Masih told CNN. "I want my mother back. That's what I'm praying for."

This month a Pakistani court sentenced Isham's mother, 45-year-old Asia Bibi, to death, not because she killed, injured or stole, but simply because she said something.

Prosecutors say Bibi, who is a Christian, broke Pakistan's strict blasphemy law by insulting Islam and the prophet Muhammad, a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment according to Pakistan's penal code.

The alleged incident happened in June 2009 when Bibi, a field worker, was picking fruit in a village two hours west of Lahore. Prosecutors say when Bibi dipped her cup into a bucket of drinking water during a lunch break, her co-workers complained the water had been contaminated by a non-Muslim."

You can read the rest of the story here.

Even though it grieves me deeply when I see or hear others making injurious comments towards my Savior, Jesus Christ, I'm glad that I live in country where I'm not looking for my government to kill those I disagree with.

A few years ago when a Danish cartoonist drew some cartoons of Muhammad, there was an uproar as some Muslims called for violence towards those involved.  Note, not all Muslims called for the violence.  And it wasn't even most.  Just some.  Shortly thereafter, John Piper offered a challenging perspective on how Christians should respond when our Christ is insulted.  As Piper noted,

"The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted. This produces two very different reactions to mockery."

To read more of Piper's thoughts on the matter click here.

Qur'an Burnings, Porn Stars & WWJD

Photo Credit: Tobey_Cat

Several years ago a popular trend swept through modern Christian circles as a number of people began sporting simple cloth bracelets with four initials imprinted upon them -- WWJD ("What Would Jesus Do?"). The bracelets were inspired by Charles Sheldon's 1896 book, In His Steps, in which members of a fictional town committed to not do anything for a year without first asking themselves what Jesus would do in the same situation.  Although the bracelets have waned in popularity, I think present events dictate that the question still needs to be asked.  What would Jesus do?

A little-known pastor with a fairly small congregation in Gainesville, Florida has ignited a media firestorm over his plans to hold a public burning of the Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslim faith.  Although Rev. Terry Jones has said that he believes he is following God's will, a number of Christians and public officials have condemned his plans.  Just as many Christians have expected Muslim clerics to publicly condemn acts of terrorism and hatred, we Christians should let it be known that we oppose the actions of those that act in the name of our God, yet do so contrary to our faith.

To burn a book that Muslims revere will only inflame the tensions between Christians and Muslims around the world and make genuine dialogue more difficult.  It is true that Muslims and Christians have many disagreements.  We do not view Christ in the same way, we have different views on the Bible and the Qur'an and we do not see salvation in the same manner.  But book burning never changed a heart and insults only make things more difficult.  California pastor Rick Warren said this about the matter on his Twitter account, ""Book burning is a cowardly act by those afraid their beliefs aren't strong enough to attract if people are allowed a choice."

If Pastor Jones were genuinely sincere in his desire to see Muslims come to the Christian faith, there are better ways for him to see that happen.  He could look to the example of Craig Gross, the founder of XXXchurch.com, a Christian ministry founded to help deliver people from the bondage of pornography and sexual sin.  Gross recently wrote a provocative piece for CNN.com entitled "Jesus loves porn stars", in which he shares how he has built a genuine friendship with Ron Jeremy, a well-known figure in the adult entertainment industry.

Since he's opposed to the porn industry, Gross could destroy porn DVD's, try to shut down websites and protest at industry conventions.  But he's taken a much different approach.  Gross has gotten to know Jeremy through a nationwide tour that they have done together on college campuses as they have debated the place of pornography in our culture.  Naturally, Gross has received a lot of flack from a number of folks in Christian circles that feel uncomfortable talking about sex and some look down upon him because he's actually friends with a porn star.  But Gross is in good company.  Jesus himself was derided as a "friend of sinners" and although others called him that in contempt, it is an accurate description.

Jesus hung with those that were considered the scourge of his society (the prostitutes and tax collectors) but he loved them just the same.  Craig Gross has a challenging perspective on his relationship with Ron Jeremy:

"We are opponents on stage but off stage we are great friends. That's really what this is about. Jesus dined with tax collectors and befriended prostitutes. I don't want to be known as the guy who debates Ron, I'd rather be known as the guy who loves Ron."

Gross pulls no punches in his views on pornography. He feels it is evil and destroys lives. He hates porn. But he loves porn stars.  I wonder if Terry Jones took a different approach to Islam if things might turn out differently.  He wouldn't generate worldwide media coverage but inviting a local imam to dinner might be more effective than the approach he's currently planning on taking.  But I get the feeling that he's probably not interested in that.  He seems more concerned with expressing his disdain for Islam rather than God's love for Muslims.

So what would Jesus do?  It's certainly a good question to ask ourselves...

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UPDATE: Apparently Pastor Terry Jones has had a change of heart and has canceled his planned Qur'an burning.  While this is certainly an answer to prayer, his condition of doing so is based on a change plans of the proposed "Ground Zero" mosque in New York.  Stay tuned for more details.

Is Rifqa Bary Really in Danger for Her Life?

There is an interesting story that is getting a lot of attention here in Orlando about a young girl from Ohio that is accusing her Muslim family of threatening her life because of her conversion to Christianity from Islam. Rifqa Bary, a 17 year old high school student from Columbus, recently fled to Orlando to live with a Christian family who befriended her on the Internet.

You can catch up on some of the details in this article from the Orlando Sentinel. I honestly don't know what to think of this story. Many evangelical Christians have joined Rifqa's cause and believe her story of seeking to escape a strict Muslim family that is not accepting of her Christian faith. (In fact, while writing this post, I received an invitation from a friend to join a "Saving Rifqa Bary" group on Facebook.)

While I would like to believe that there is no truth to this story and that this is just another example of a teenager telling a tall-tale in order to exert her independence, I also know that what she is accusing her family of is not out of the realm of possibility. The reality is that in many parts of the world those that come from Muslim backgrounds that become followers of Jesus may very well find their lives in danger.

According to Open Doors USA, seven of the top ten countries that are most notorious today for the persecution of Christians are Muslim-majority nations. This certainly does not mean that every Muslim that has a family member convert to Christianity will act violently towards them. But I have been concerned how the local Orlando media has been so quick to dismiss Rifqa's assertions as a child's make-believe. For example, Mike Thomas, an Orlando Sentinel columnist whose writings I often enjoy, almost mocks even the possibility that Rifqa may be telling the truth.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there has been a growing bias towards Muslims in the U.S., many of whom are law-abiding, tax paying American citizens. And many Christians have been guilty of not extending to their Muslim neighbors the same kind of courtesies that they would expect in return. However, this not does not mean that this young girl should be ignored. What she charges is serious and should be investigated.

If she has not been telling the truth, then she needs to face the consequences of making unfounded claims such as these. But if what she has been saying is true then we have to ask ourselves if we going to continue to allow people freedom of religious expression or if that is something that parents can decide for their grown children.