Anne Rice - her spiritual odyssey

"To The Source" has a great piece on horror queen Anne Rice. She has journeyed back to Christ, as some of you already know. But this piece is outstanding on that journey.

Rice began writing novels that reflected her “guilt and misery in being cut off from God and from salvation; my being lost in a world without light.” Her research for her writing took her back through history. She confesses that she was obsessed with finding meaning in a world without God. As any historian knows, this journey leads to the undeniable fact that Christianity had the seminal influence on our lives today. How did this happen? She wondered what caused the fall of Rome, and what is in the very character of the Christian faith that enabled it to pick up the pieces? And even more perplexing, how have the persecuted Jewish people, the people of the Book, not only sustained themselves, but remained the great people they are.

These remarkable people of faith from our past, both Christians and Jews, along with friends in New Orleans who were churchgoers and believers, coaxed Rice back to God. It was a journey of the mind as much as a journey of the heart.

Holiday tip - the only way to watch a movie made in Hollywood

Pastors to blame for divorce epidemic?

We have a divorce epidemic in America today. And I am wondering how much pastors are to blame.

I am of the school that thinks that we usually put way too little expectation on the Church and its pastors for societal woes. And when it comes to the institution of marriage I think the vast majority of ministers have let the proverbial ball drop and by doing so have led the nation to the brink of disaster.

Too few of us (pastors, and I am one of them) take serious the words “holy matrimony” and by our lack of recognizing the importance of this expression assume that anybody who wants to should be able to enter into it and with our blessing. Afterall, not to perform such ceremonies could cause congregational rift and, as people who make livings by the offerings of that congregation, we allow almost anything.

But is it possible to have “holy matrimony” when one or both of the couples have no love relationship with the Lord? Do pastors query their young lovers about such matters? Or have we assumed that the pastoral office has no business budging into people’s lives in these all-important issues?

I heard a program on American Family Radio not long ago that had a number of family counselors on that were asked, “Would you marry a young couple that were determined not to have kids.” I listened intently on my side of the radio for the answers for I had never thought about such a thing. And, to my astonishment, every one of the people on that program said they would not marry such a couple. Afterall, biblically, procreation is largely what marriage is for.

Interestingly, I have never known a pastor to talk about a matter like this much less require such a thing.

Do church leaders require intense marital counseling? Not a couple of sessions and a blessing, but serious examination of a multitude of issues? I know that most do not, and by not training people for marriage we leave them vulnerable to the worldview of the less-than-successful marital culture they move in. Serious talk on finances, family, conflict resolution, personality match, friends and interests, communication, religion and values, parenting issues, etc. needs to be the tall expectation for every minister and the unions they counsel pre-maritally.

There is research out there that suggests when such matters are considered seriously and the church demands some significant things of those seeking marriage the divorce rate is lessened substantially. Where such matters are not taken seriously, we get what we are getting culture-wide - the breakdown of the family unit that threatens our very survival as a nation and a serious Christian community.

We pastors, and the churches we represent, are not to be “blessing machines” – throwing out words and sacraments willy-nilly to anyone who wants them. For in the end, we learn that by doing so we haven’t really blessed, but most assuredly have cursed the people we wanted to help with the lowest of views of the Church, of the institution of marriage and of the pastoral office.

Christmas greetings to my friends!

(Funny stuff a buddy just sent me...internet humor and who knows where it came from...)

For my Democrat Friends

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all! I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting these greetings, you are accepting the aforementioned terms as stated. This greeting is not subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wishor to actually implement any of the wishes for herself/himself/others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wishor.

For my Republican Friends

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Matt's Theological Profile (according to one quiz) - a hundred percenter!

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 100% Emergent/Postmodern 71% Charismatic/Pentecostal 68% Neo orthodox 68% Reformed Evangelical 64% Fundamentalist 64% Classical Liberal 43% Roman Catholic 32% Modern Liberal 29% What is your theological worldview?

Tuesday morning evangelistic smack-down, #16

We won! Or did we? But is hearing "Merry Christmas" from sales clerks really what we wanted for Christmas? And did anyone check out the price tag?

Here's more from that Christian Muslim Forum statement: "Those who use the fact of religious pluralism as an excuse to de-Christianize British society unthinkingly become recruiting agents for the extreme Right. They provoke antagonism towards Muslims and others by foisting on them an anti-Christian agenda they do not hold."

In other words, Christian conservatives, not the multiculturalists, are becoming the Scrooges in the story. Or maybe we're the old, grumpier Santa, but instead of bringing coal, we bring subpoenas. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) announced that it has 950 lawyers (a 19 percent increase from last year) standing by "to combat any improper attempts to censor the celebration of Christmas in schools and on public property." It's hard to feel jolly when the person saying "Merry Christmas" adds, "Want to make something of it, punk?" http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/january/5.24.html

Shocking “Having procured an apparatus on purpose, I ordered several persons to be electrified, who were ill of various disorders; some of whom found an immediate, some a gradual, cure. From this time I appoionted, first some hours in every week, and afterward an hour in every day, wherein any that desired to it might try the virtue of this surprising medicine. Two or three years after, our patients were so numerous that we were obliged to divide them. So part were electrified in Southwark, part at the Foundery, others near St. Paul’s, and the rest near the Seven-Dials. The same method we have taken ever since; and to this day, while hundreds, perhaps thousands, have received unspeakable good. (Journal of John Wesley, November 9, 1756)

Fire up the prayer meeting “Prayer was mentioned as the second most important methodology for reaching people for Christ in these evangelistic churches. But even that statistic may be understated. In every methodology – preaching, Sunday School, ministries, etc. – prayer was the underlying strength to the methodology. (Thom Rainer, Effective Evangelistic Churches, 79.)

The meaning of conversion “‘Conversion,’ from the Latin convertere, ‘to rotate,’ is not a leap, it is a turning. It leaves a person about where he was before, but now aimed in a different direction. Change depends on what happens next…the question still remains, ‘Is that person who has faced toward Jesus Christ now going to walk toward Him?” (George Sweazey, Effective Evangelism, 17.)

Christmas carols in the most unlikely places

Standing out at an abortion clinic this morning promising prayer and hope for women with children in their womb we began singing hymns. Christmas hymns, to be exact.

Typically, when we sing, we add in prayers for those inside and try to do it all loud enough that it penetrates the glass door and reaches some inside who have a church background and might resonate with some of the words.

“Ever go Christmas caroling outside an abortion clinic?” I quipped to one of the ladies standing next to me. “No,” said one, “never have, and it feels a little strange.”

It did, but I am not sure why. These Christmas songs can pack a spiritual punch, and certain for those considering abortion. Consider “Joy to the World”:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessing flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of His righteousness,
and wonders of His love,
and wonders of His love,
and wonders, wonders of His love.

Or a verse from Charles Wesley’s “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”:

Come, Desire of nations come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the Woman's conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the Serpent's head.
Adam's likeness now efface:
Stamp Thine image in its place;
Second Adam, from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.

If I know the hearts of the Wesley men like I think I do they would be thrilled to know their Christmas hymn made it through a crack in the door to a woman considering ending the life of her child. Wouldn’t it be grand if women around the world today dealing with crisis pregnancies could here these lines from “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.

The best part of my Christmas, I suspect, has already happened. Having a chance to do something typically Christmas in a place that is anti-God, anti-decency, anti-baby, anti-love, is, alas, very "Christmasy" I have learned. My prayer is this: Lord, replicate such moments throughout this Advent season, for your glory. Amen.

What you have been searching for your whole life

You have found it.

And guess what...it is not just AIDS

It is tragic that the facts are rarely articulated historically or in the contemporary age about the good work that Christianity is about in the U.S. and around the world. One example - if it weren't for the religious community in America precious little would be getting done concerning the post-Katrina damage that has so damaged our state of Mississippi. On issue after issue, tragedy after tragedy it is frequently Christians who arrive first and stay late. At any rate, this paragraph from the LA Times. Bless them.

"Bush and his Christian supporters seldom get the credit they deserve for their role in the global fight against AIDS. U.S. spending on the disease overseas has risen more than tenfold under Bush, while Christian groups have given unselfishly to the cause. Churches, in fact, run health clinics in much of rural Africa; without them, stemming AIDS would be all but impossible. So praise the Lord and pass the antiretrovirals." More, here

Take it with a grain of salt, but take it!

Quote of the day:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Western leaders to follow the path of God or "vanish from the face of the earth". More, here.

Ahmadinejad is who he is, and his God is not ours. But this sentence is spot on. To ignore the general sentiment is to dig our own national grave. Solzhenitsyn, years ago, said that the passing of the might of his native land was because "They forgot God." Good to remember, regardless who says it.