Ugh

Re utters:

With sport-utility vehicles at the altar and auto workers in the pews, one of Detroit's largest churches on Sunday offered up prayers for Congress to bail out the struggling auto industry.

"We have never seen as midnight an hour as we face this week," the Rev. Charles Ellis told several thousand congregants at a rousing service at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple. "This week, lives are hanging above an abyss of uncertainty as both houses of Congress decide whether to extend a helping hand."

Local car dealerships donated three hybrid SUVs to be displayed during the service, one from each of the Big Three. A Ford Escape, Chevy Tahoe from GM and a Chrysler Aspen were parked just in front of the choir and behind the pulpit.

Ellis said he and other Detroit ministers would pray and fast until Congress voted on a bailout for Detroit's embattled automakers. He urged his congregation to do the same.

...

Ellis said he started to organize the service last week after hearing from auto workers, retirees and their widows who were all fearful of even harder times.

At one point, Ellis summoned up hundreds of auto workers and retirees in the congregation to come forward toward the vehicles on the altar to be anointed with oil.

"It's all about hope. You can't dictate how people will think, how they will respond, how they will vote," Ellis said after the service. "But you can look to God. We believe he can change the minds and hearts of men and women in power, and that's what we tried to do today."

Michelle McDade, 50, who attended the service, said her late father had worked at GM for 30 years and her mother was now living on his pension.

"I pray in good times and in bad times, but I pray these days because it's something that directly affects our lives. "Politicians forgot autoworkers for ages. You can't just forget them. We're also part of the country."

Founded in 1927 when Detroit was an automotive boomtown, Greater Grace Temple is one the city's largest and most influential black churches.

It is right and natural for Christians to pray for the welfare of others when things are bad. It's also right and natural for Christians to pray for specific issues. Yet to pray that God would somehow influence congress to throw money at the "Big Three" automakers is quite presumptive. To then get some SUVs up the front of the church suggests a more than unhealthy focus on the wrong thing.

The fact is that US automakers have been struggling for years, and their struggle is based upon poor decisions made in the past by Auto executives, union members and Congress. Wanting some form of economic recovery is essential - but keeping dying industries open is not the way to do this.

I'm really hoping that God will say a big, loud "NO" to the prayers of the church mentioned in the story above - not because I want lots of people to suffer, but because I want a sustainable, intelligent solution rather than MOTS (more of the same).

AAAAAAAAA

A blog post with every single category marked (I'm doing this for scribefire)

The power of lies

From the department of ignorance and arrogance:

Ten percent of American voters believe Sen. Barack Obama is Muslim, despite the presidential candidate's frequent descriptions of his Christian faith and a high-profile flap over his former pastor.

The finding was contained in survey results released by the non-partisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

While a majority — 53% — identify Obama as a Christian, 16% of conservative Republicans, 16% of white evangelical Protestants and 19% of rural Americans believe the Illinois senator is Muslim.

About a third of Americans said they don't know what Obama's religious beliefs are, and 9% of that group said it's because they've heard different information about his faith.

Confusion over the candidate's religion crosses party lines.

Fourteen percent of all Republicans, 10% of Democrats and 8% of independents think he's Muslim, according to the survey.

How not to evangelise #3

The Spears family

From the Department of Ironic punishment:

A book about parenting by Britney Spears's mother has been delayed indefinitely, her publisher said.

Lynne Spears's memoir was put on hold last week, Lindsey Nobles, a spokeswoman for Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson Inc, said. She declined to comment on whether the delay was connected to the revelation that Spears's 16-year-old daughter, Jamie Lynn, is pregnant.

"I can tell you that we are standing behind Lynne and supporting her decision to be with her family at this time," Nobles said.

'Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World was initially scheduled for release May 11, Mother's Day in the United States.

Spears, the mother of three children with ex-husband Jamie Spears, had been working with a Michigan-based freelancer since March on the memoir chronicling her experiences raising a family in the public eye.

Jamie Lynn Spears, star of Nickelodeon's Zoey 101 and sister of Britney, told OK! magazine in its new issue that she is expecting her first child and the father is boyfriend Casey Aldridge.

Nobles and representatives for Britney Spears said they did not know how Lynne Spears could be reached for comment about the status of her book.

I don't know what's worse - the fact that Lynne Spears could actually write a book about parenting... or the fact that it was going to be released by a Christian publishing company.

Christians + Gun Culture + Insanity + Colorado =

From the department of do-any-evangelicals -want-stricter-gun-laws-in-the-US?:

A gunman walked into a dormitory for young Christian missionaries in training in the US state of Colorado early on Sunday and opened fire, killing two people and wounding two others.

The gunman is still missing.

The shooting occurred just after midnight at the Youth With a Mission centre, police spokeswoman Susan Medina said. About 45 people were evacuated from the dormitory in this Denver suburb.

Medina said a man and a woman in their mid-20s died, and two men aged 22 and 23 were wounded.

Paul Filidis, a spokesman for Youth With a Mission, said all four of the victims were staff members. One of the injured men was in critical condition, he said.

Witnesses told police the gunman was a 20-year-old white male, wearing a dark jacket and skull cap. He may have glasses or a beard.

But wait, there's more!:

A gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, striking four people, the church's pastor said.

The conditions of the people shot outside the New Life Church were not known, El Paso County Sheriff's Lt Lari Sevene said.

Lance Coles, a pastor at New Life Church, said he received a report that a man was shooting at people in the church parking lot and that the gunman may have entered the church.

It was not immediately known whether the shootings were related to an earlier shooting about 100 kilometres away in the Denver suburb of Arvada.

Two shooting incidents on the same Sunday in the same state known for its Christian subculture. I blame it on atheism and the rise of militant Islam.

Update:
Five confirmed dead in the Colorado Springs shooting. The New Life Church where this shooting occurred was Ted Haggard's church before he left.

Quotes for the day

I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.

-- Glenn Beck, The Glenn Beck Program

Stay out of Malibu, beatnik!

-- The Big Lebowski

A Broken Church

From the department of Jesus-wept:

(Pentecostal preacher) Thomas Wesley Weeks III, who is now facing charges of assaulting his wife, recently stood in his pulpit in Atlanta during a marriage conference and proceeded to teach married couples how to use profanity during sex.

Yes, the man who allegedly kicked and punched Juanita Bynum in a hotel parking lot last month told attendees at a “Teach Me How to Love You” event that they should get over their hang-ups about cussing. The bedroom, he said, is the place to get down and dirty.

“Don’t bring your salvation into the bedroom,” he said in a sermon segment that has been posted on YouTube. “All those special words that you can’t say no more because you’re saved … save that for the bedroom!”

It is bad enough that Weeks told his followers that it’s OK to use filthy language with your wife during lovemaking. It’s worse that he said these things as a minister speaking from a pulpit during a church service. Thankfully he didn’t bring a bed on stage and give a demonstration—but now that he has taken pulpit crudity to a new level, someone else is sure to introduce Pentecostal porn to an audience somewhere.

I enjoy my weekly read of J. Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma magazine and the author of the above quote. Praise the Lord that He has put this man in a position to speak prophetically against the excesses he sees in the modern church.

Letting kids drink alcohol

From the department of prohibition-still-doesn't-work:

Over dinner recently, Anna Peele recalls one of the first times she drank alcohol. "I was like 14 or 15," Peele says. "I ordered a beer and they served me."

She had just finished her freshman year of high school and was traveling in Greece with family friends. "We would just have wine with dinner," Peele says. "In Greece it's so not a big deal."

While that experience would cause some American parents to worry, Peele's parents weren't upset.

In fact, starting in middle school, her parents allowed her and her siblings to have an occasional sip of beer or wine. By the time she was in high school, Peele was drinking beer and wine regularly at family functions and social events. But it was always in moderation, Peele says. She says her parents' attitude toward alcohol made it seem less mysterious. "It wasn't some forbidden fruit," Peele says. "I didn't have to go out to a field with my friends and have 18 beers."

Experts say binge drinking continues to be a growing problem across the country. According to a recent report from the U.S. surgeon general, there are nearly 11 million underage drinkers in the United States. Nearly 7.2 million are considered binge drinkers, meaning they drank more than five drinks in one sitting.

In this age of "just say no," some people believe it is time for Americans to reconsider how they teach kids about alcohol. Peele's father is at the top of the list.

"We taught them to drink in a civilized fashion, like a civilized human being," says Stanton Peele, psychologist and author of "Addiction-Proof Your Child."

America's draconian alcohol laws have failed to prevent binge drinking and alcoholism. I find it incredible that Americans can get married and serve in the armed forces when they are 18, but are unable to legally purchase or consume alcohol until they are 21. I also find it incredible that so many dry counties continue to exist.

Psalm 104.14-15 says:

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

Is the US Constitution a Christian document?

From the department of the-devil-is-in-the-lack-of-details:

Most Americans believe the nation's founders wrote Christianity into the Constitution, and people are less likely to say freedom to worship covers religious groups they consider extreme, a poll out today finds.

The survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and the press found that 55% believe erroneously that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. In the survey, which is conducted annually by the First Amendment Center, a non-partisan educational group, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. About half of Democrats and independents do.

One of the most important events in my young Christian life was reading Roman Catholicism, a polemic against the Roman church by Reformed theologian Loraine Boettner. Although I found some of his arguments interesting, I eventually became bogged down with his arguments based upon the US Constitution. Not being American, and not being in America, I found his arguments quite hollow.

The easiest way to find out how "Christian" the US Constitution is is to do a word search throughout the document. If you're willing, click here for a copy of the US Constitution.

• Number of times the word "God" appears: zero
• Number of times the word "Creator" appears: zero
• Number of times the word "Jesus" appears: zero
• Number of times the word "Bible" appears: zero
• Number of times the word "Church" appears: zero
  

But what about the Declaration of Independence? Surely that document is important too in determining whether or not the founding fathers were believers:

• Number of times the word "God" appears: once
• Number of times the word "Creator" appears: once
• Number of times the word "Jesus" appears: zero
• Number of times the word "Bible" appears: zero
• Number of times the word "Church" appears: zero

Here are the passages in the declaration of independence that mention God and the creator:

When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Of course, there is nothing else within either document that indicates who exactly this God or creator is. Moreover, the specific phrase "Nature's God" is quite Deist in its tone (Deism is incompatible with Orthodox Christian belief). The arguments that many Christians have is that these people were believers so therefore these references exclusively mean the Christian God. Yet I have to point out that the basic ideas of Democracy and a Republic are more Athenian in their roots than Judeo-Christian. Moveover, I cannot remember any passage in Scripture that outlines either implicitly or explicitly the idea of a Democracy. Yet are we to believe that the founding fathers of the United States were born-again Christians who saw Democracy as the natural outworking of the Christian faith? The founding fathers certainly believed that a Creator God led them to revolt against colonial rule and establish their own independent nation - yet this idea is nowhere found in the US Constitution later on.

What I would like to do is examine the Federalist Papers in more detail to see what the framers thought of Christianity. I would also like to see a quote from one or more of the framers that shows their understanding and acceptance of the Gospel. Of course people in that era spoke about their devotion to God, including the framers of the constitution... but which, if any, explicitly explained the message of Christ crucified?

Why am I, an evangelical Christian, disagreeing with my brethren on this? Firstly, Jesus said My kingdom is not of this world, which indicates that Christ did not attempt any form of political takeover of either the Jewish state at the time or their Roman masters. Secondly, I think that Dominionism as a belief is unbiblical (the idea that the Church should take over political institutions and enforce Christian laws in a nation). And thirdly I believe that the idea of American Exceptionalism (a belief that America is somehow predestined by fate to be greater than other nations), which has no biblical basis and which came from a worldly philosophy, has been syncretised with Evangelical belief.

If American Christians took both the Bible and their own nation's history seriously, they would come to the inevitable conclusion that America was never founded on Christian principles.

Divorce Rates in the US

Are highest in the "Bible Belt" according to a survey from a few years ago.

Who is to blame? Obviously the family-hating, liberal states of America (who, incidentally, have the lowest divorce rates).

Reasons why American Christianity is failing

#1 Failure to love its enemies.

A question

Does anyone know of any instances where gangs of homosexuals, or a lone homosexual, has gone out and killed Christians because they think that the sexual beliefs/practices of Christians are immoral?

The reason why I ask is because it seems to happen the other way around quite a lot in the US.

America - a Christian nation?

I got my propaganda, I got my revisionism
I got my violence in hi-def ultra-realism
all a part of this great nation
I got my fist I got my plan I got survivalism

- Survivalism (Nine Inch Nails)

Bush's grandfather planned fascist coup in America?

I would dismiss this as another nutty conspiracy - but it was reported by the BBC. From the link:

A BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.

In 1933, Marine Corps Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler was approached by a wealthy and secretive group of industrialists and bankers, including Prescott Bush the current President's grandfather, who asked him to command a 500,000 strong rogue army of veterans that would help stage a coup to topple then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

According to the BBC, the plotters intended to impose a fascist takeover and "Adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression."

This is one of those things that needs a Snopes article.

Another useless news report

Drink-driving arrest for Lohan.

Do we care? No.

Will the media report it? Obviously.

Al Qaeda Supports the emerging church

Quite a few bloggers have pointed this one out. It's quite disgraceful. Here's a sample:

If the world is to be saved from Muslim conquest, it will be America who does it. And if America is to be saved, only conservatism can do it. And if conservatism is to be saved, it will be those Bible-believing patriots who do it–those conservative, evangelical Christians who are the bedrock of the American way of life.

Update:
Tom Ascol comments about this at his blog and some of the comments there are worth reading. From what I can see there is a unity amongst non-emerging types against this article. In other words, yes we disagree with the emerging church but no they are not terrorists.

I suppose it shows just how poor the situation has become in the US that people are so willing to call someone a deadly enemy based upon theological disagreements like this.

How not to evangelise

US Army Sniper kills his estranged wife

It's good to know that the "skills" he gained in the armed forces were able to be used.

Life imitates false prophecy

Most Europeans are becoming distrustful of the United States. They wonder why we had the Marshall Plan. WHY are we so beneficent? WHY are we sending them so much money? They can't understand altruism and generosity. They suspect ulterior motives. They are thinking more and more about the coming UNITED STATES OF EUROPE!

We Americans, with the British, gave them the idea. We've tried to organize the European nations together against Russia. They are going to unite against us! And now Europe is about ready for it! The stage is all set! All that's lacking now is the strong LEADER - the coming FUEHRER! The Germans are coming back from the destruction of World War II in breath-taking manner. Germany is the economic and military heart of Europe. Probably Germany will lead and dominate the coming United States of Europe.

- 1975 in prophecy, Herbert W. Armstrong, June 1956.