Responding to Evil

We live in a world where we need more clarity on what is evil and what is good - as yesterday's events in New York remind us, there are those who believe they are doing "good," in the eyes of their so-called "god," when they are in fact what is forbidden by our God, the One True God.  Isaiah 5
says:
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!

The taking of innocent life cannot be considered to be good.  According to Townhall.com:

In the spirit of Halloween, Planned Parenthood sent out a truly ghastly tweet: they claimed it's "statistically safer" for a black woman in the United States to have an abortion than to actually give birth to a baby.

This is a clear example of calling evil good - abortion takes a human life.  Period.  How can that be safe for anyone, especially the child denied a chance to live?  Terrorism is committed to taking human lives - the young man who drove that truck on a bike trail yesterday thought he was doing good, but it was pure, unbridled evil.  Without a dependence on God's Word as a basis for our morality, confusion reigns, and we are seeing the fruit of that today.

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In light of recent events, we can be reminded about our clear Biblical direction to pray for our
leaders, as they exercise wisdom to keep our country safe. 1st Peter 2 says:
13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme,
14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.

Our hearts are certainly heavy in the wake of the terrible news out of New York City yesterday afternoon.  Fox News reports:

The man suspected of plowing a truck through a crowded bike lane in New York City on Tuesday is 29 years old, from Uzbekistan with a green card, Fox News has confirmed.

Police have identified Sayfullo Saipov as the suspect accused of driving a rented pickup truck into a crowd, killing at least eight people and injuring at least 11 more near the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

Newsweek reports that Saipov "was awarded a permanent resident visa in 2010 under the Diversity Immigrant Program," according to ABC New York. The report says:

The program is meant to increase the number of immigrants from countries with low rates of U.S. immigration. The program awards 55,000 green cards a year, a majority of which go to people in African and Eastern European nations, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Newsweek adds: 

Congress has tried to end the Diversity Visa lottery program five times since 2007.
The program's future most recently came into question when the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act, sponsored by Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), called for its elimination as part of a wider reduction in legal immigration.

In its statement supporting the bill, the White House called the Diversity Visa lottery program “outdated,” adding that it “serves questionable economic and humanitarian interests.”

In the aftermath of yesterday's attack in New York, the President tweeted out, according to PIX11 television:

“I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!”

This comes on the heels of the recent ending of the 120-day ban on accepting refugees from a variety of countries with ties to terrorism.  But, there are still stringent rules in place, especially with regard to selected nations.  Although Uzbekistan was not on the list, we can still expect to hear debate and discussion about our nation's immigration policies.

I have regularly discussed the balance between being compassionate in Christ and having a desire to keep our nation safe.  In a passage from a blog post in February, I included these comments, beginning with a quote from former Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd about a 2016 SBC resolution:

...Please notice one line in this resolution that realized the biblical responsibility of government: “RESOLVED, That we call on the governing authorities to implement the strictest security measures possible in the refugee screening and selection process, guarding against anyone intent on doing harm;”

This line was included in the resolution because as followers of Christ, we must understand the tension that occurs because our government has a responsibility it is mandated to fulfill.

I continued:

Jerry Johnson, President of National Religious Broadcasters, of which Faith Radio is a member, tweeted out those same words from the resolution, and he also shared this tweet: "Christians and churches must minister in love to refugees. Government must vet and limit immigration to protect citizens. Both are needed."

We also have to make sure that we are understanding the role of government and the role of the church. That is a point Franklin Graham has made. While government can and should create the climate for compassion to flow, we also recognize its responsibility for national security.

While we as Christians should seek to be welcoming, I think in the arena of policy, we have to recognize the costs and challenges of immigration.  I believe that a recent incident illustrates the type of  minefield that you can wander into.  A young lady who was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala was being housed, at taxpayer expense, in a government shelter.  She was pregnant and wished to have an abortion.  The ACLU got involved and went to the courts on her behalf.  Ultimately, a Federal appeals court, in contradiction to the principles of the Hyde Amendment, preventing taxpayer funds from going to abortions, ruled that she could take the life of her child, and that occurred last week.  Tragic!  This is a dangerous by-product of the loosening of our borders.

I don't pretend to completely understand the underpinnings or the economics of the immigration system, but I think that if Christians advocate for a lessening of restrictions on immigration and then expect the government to pay for the relocation process, they are entering a dangerous area.  Or, even help to facilitate individuals to break the laws of this country in order to find homes here.  I think you can follow the Biblical directive to "welcome the stranger" or the "sojourner" without placing an undue burden on government. 

The debate will no doubt continue, even among people of faith.  We have to make sure that we are pursuing the Biblical agenda without compromising our faith by aligning with people and organizations that have an anti-Biblical perspective.   Here is yet another issue in which the Church can lead the way and speak with a balanced, reasoned, compassionate voice to people in power.  And, based on some comments of a guest a number of weeks ago, Jalil Dawood of World Refugee Care, I think we can also encourage our people to minister to the immigrants that God has already brought to us.  Christ called us to go in to all the world, and now we see that the world is coming to us - what an excellent opportunity we have!

By Grace Through Faith

In Ephesians 2, we see a Scripture passage that shows the basis for our salvation and the proper
relationship between saving faith and certifying works:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Happy Reformation Day!  We celebrate today the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and we can concentrate not only on the historical underpinnings of this dramatic moment in Church history, but on the internal workings of the Holy Spirit to reform our lives - reformation means change, and God wants to change us day by day.  We have already been given a new heart and declared to be new creations through salvation in Christ; now He wants to produce more and more of His nature in us.

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On this day when Christians around the world are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the day when the monk Martin Luther nailed to a door in Wittenberg, Germany, 95 theses, pointing out areas of concern in the Church to which he adhered.  This became the basis for a sea change regarding the practice of religion and devotion to Christ.

I have made the point that we all need a personal reformation.  There is the story in the 8th chapter of Acts that depicts such a reformation.  It involves two men: a powerful preacher named Philip, whom we find effectively proclaiming God's truth to the "multitudes" in Samaria, as the Scriptures say. Then, he was sent to one man along a desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza.

We read in Acts 8:
27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,
28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."

Philip found that the man was reading the book of Isaiah, a passage that pointed to Jesus, the Messiah - Philip helped him understand the Scriptures, and the man replied:
34 "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?"
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?"
37 Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

This picture reminds us of the so-called "five solas," which were truths embraced by the Church reformers and described by John Piper on the Desiring God website:

The five solas were their attempt to summarize biblical teaching on salvation. That God makes us alive and is completely for us: By God’s grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone, received through faith alone, to the glory of God alone, with Scripture alone as the only, final, decisive, authority on truth.

I wanted to present this story because it is related somewhat to an op-ed piece that ran on The Commerical Appeal website from a Church of God in Christ minister who is a professor at McCormick Theological Seminary.  His name is Dr. David Daniels.

He claims that in 1517, Luther had become fascinated with Ethiopian Christianity.  Daniels writes:

As an ancient church with direct ties to the apostles, the Ethiopian Church conferred legitimacy on Luther’s emerging Protestant vision of a church outside the authority of the Roman Catholic papacy.

As a forerunner of the Protestant Reformation, the Church of Ethiopia embodied the gospel message more robustly and faithfully.

In 1534, Luther met with a Ethiopian minister, Michael the Deacon. Daniels writes:

Recalling the dialogue with Michael the Deacon, Luther later stated: “We have also learned from him, that the rite which we observe in the use of administration of the Lord’s Supper and the Mass, agrees with the Eastern Church ... For this reason we ask that good people would demonstrate Christian love also to this (Ethiopian) visitor."

For his part, after having Luther's Articles of the Christian Faith interpreted to him, Deacon Michael proclaimed: "This is a good creed, that is, faith."

Daniels also states:

His reforms were based on more than the early church of his imagination. For Luther, the Church of Ethiopia was the historical proof that his reform of the Church in Europe had a clear historical and biblical basis.

The revelation that Ethiopian Christianity possibly had links to Protestant Reformation is a game-changer for what is generally thought to be an exclusively European phenomenon.

So, if things are as Daniels claims, it shows that Luther may have been influenced by a church that traces its roots all the way back to a passage in Acts.  Christianity Today reported in 2015:

Roughly two-thirds of Ethiopians are Christians. The majority of these belong to the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church; the rest primarily to Protestant denominations such as the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Makane Yesus (which recently broke ties with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over theological concerns).

By the way, those concerns surrounded the ELCA's embracing of gay marriage, a bridge too far for the Ethiopian Christians.

The article states:

The Tewahedo church—like its Orthodox sister church in Egypt—celebrates its history of martyrdom. It claims descent from the Ethiopian eunuch converted by Philip in Acts 8, and dates formally to the preaching of Frumentius in the early fourth century and the acceptance of Christianity in A.D. 330.

This information can remind us of the growth of the Church throughout sub-Saharan Africa, a region that includes Ethiopia.  A Pew Research article from April of this year states:

If demography is destiny, then Christianity’s future lies in Africa. By 2060, a plurality of Christians – more than four-in-ten – will call sub-Saharan Africa home, up from 26% in 2015, according to a new analysis of demographic data by Pew Research Center. At the same time, the share of Christians living in many other regions – notably Europe – is projected to decline.

We can rejoice in what God is doing on the continent of Africa, as Christianity is spreading.

And, in a sense, we can trace a significant component of the spread of Christianity worldwide to a monk in Wittenberg, Germany who felt the church of his day had drifted from its Scriptural principles.  We can examine our own lives to see if spiritual drift has set in - are we attempting to live as a Christian based on our works, or by grace through faith?  Works don't save us, they are an outward sign of the inward change brought about by Christ.

Finally, as we consider the contention by this professor that Luther may have been influenced by a church that did not even reside in Europe, it can cause us to think about what influences us.  Certainly, our approach to matters of faith and life in general comes as the result of what we have allowed to influence us.  We have to make sure that in spiritual matters, that the Word is the measure. The Word, in fact, is the plumb line by which we measure ideas with which we interact and by which we measure how our lives reflect Christ.

Temporary Home

Ephesians 2 gives some insight into the definition of and the resident power within the Church, the
body of Christ:
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

We acknowledge that the Church, the body of Christ, is not defined by the building in which it meets, but it is described as a building in Scripture, established on our "chief corner stone."  Even though we are individuals and the Church is comprised of individuals, as the Holy Spirit gets involved, the work of God is expressed and we grow - together - in Him, as a strong entity, a force to exalt God in this world, to display His glory and to carry out His work.

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In 1st Timothy 3, the apostle Paul is writing about church structure. He states:
14 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly;
15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

A church in Sandston, Virginia, outside Richmond, ran into a unique predicament recently - what had been its place of worship, at a local hotel, had been shuttered.  The church's Facebook page recounted the story:

When we arrived for worship at the Econolodge on Labor Day weekend, there were signs posted indicating that the building was not to be occupied. We moved our equipment and began a search for a new worship space. We did hear from a Henrico County building official on Tuesday that we could have worshiped in the space that we had been using, because the issue was with other spaces in the building. My understanding is that as of the middle of last week the Econolodge had fixed the building issues. Due to a number of reasons, however, we are not currently planning to return to that space.

The post did express appreciation to the hotel for allowing the church to use the space - but it was time to move on.  So, where to go next?  According to a Fox News story, one of the church members called her boss - after all, that location she was calling about is not in use on Sunday...so the local Chick-fil-A opened its doors the next week - not to serve food, but in order for the church to serve its people.  The Fox story stated:

The fast food restaurant is allowing a displaced congregation from the White Oak Community Church to conduct its meetings inside the eatery until the group can find a more permanent solution, reports WTVR.

Fox reports that lead pastor Dave Wilde "was quick to add that there would be no food served during the meeting. '[But] if you’re a current or future attender, and you always wanted to worship in a restaurant setting, this is your lucky day.'"

I don't know how many weeks the church met in the restaurant, but they have re-re-located.  The church's website announces that it meets now on Saturday nights in another church building.  Its Facebook page actually has some video of the setup.  The church apparently is devoted to small groups, which can provide fellowship and growth opportunities.  And, they just concluded a community outreach earlier this month.

I think there are some great concepts that we can apply to our own lives and the collective life of the church.  For one thing, we continue to highlight that the Church is not a building.  You can hear a phrase such as "the church is located..." in such and such a location.  That refers to where the church meets, but we know the Church resides in the hearts of God's people, and where we are representing Christ, that's where the Church in located.

But, God does desire for us to meet together - for teaching, for fellowship, for outreach, and more. Why, just this weekend, and continuing perhaps tomorrow, churches will be sponsoring outreach events providing a Christian alternative to the celebration of Halloween.  These fall festival activities do give churches a chance to interface with their communities and to perhaps see people come into a saving knowledge of Christ.  For various types of outreach, churches can meet on their property, or perhaps do an outreach event in a special location where people are in need of ministry.  In those cases, the church meets in order to minister.

We can also look to God as our provider.  White Oak Community Church in Virginia lost its meeting place, but God provided another in the form of a local Chick-fil-A, which allowed the body to meet there.  This is indicative, by the way, of Chick-fil-A's commitment to serve its local community.  And, apparently, God has provided again with another location for that church.

We can reflect on our relationship with the living God, Who is at work in the hearts of His people, who testify to His greatness by living our lives in dependence upon Him.

Turning It Around

God is calling us to experience His wonderful forgiveness, to break free from the past, and to walk in
the power and love He offers in His Spirit. 1st John chapter 1 says:
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We can stand before the Lord absolutely clean - not because of anything that we can do; we cannot save ourselves.  But, we can know His forgiveness as we accept His free gift of salvation, acknowledging that we are sinners, believing on Christ, and confessing Him as Lord of our lives. We can confess our sins before Him - regularly - and allow His forgiveness to flow through our hearts, so that we are defined not by our past actions, but our present position in Christ.

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God has brought us into a relationship with Himself through Christ, and has established a new covenent, an arrangement that is predicated on the death and resurrection of Jesus, that can bring us true forgiveness.  Hebrews 8 says:
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

It's really unprecedented when a movie star expresses regrets for an appearance in a film - on moral grounds.  Yeah, you might have an actor talk about his or her involvement in a bad movie in the past, but what Mark Wahlberg has done is certainly worthy of attention.

Faithwire reported on a recent event, at which Wahlberg shared:

Actor Mark Wahlberg recently revealed the one movie that he’s prayed to God for forgiveness for starring in, telling a Chicago audience on Friday that it was his lead role in “Boogie Nights” that left him seeking absolution.

Wahlberg, who played porn star Dirk Diggler in the 1997 film, stood next to Cardinal Blase Cupich at an event aimed at inspiring young people to come back to the Catholic faith when he made the admission.

“‘Boogie Nights’ is up there at the top of the list,” he said when asked if he had any films in particular for which he sought spiritual clemency.

Wahlberg continued, “I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving, because I’ve made some poor choices in my past.”

The story linked to reports at the Chicago Tribune and People.

The Tribune story stated that Wahlberg "believed his own troubled adolescence, which included time spent in prison for a racist assault on a Vietnamese immigrant, might make it easier for Chicago youths caught up in violent crime to relate to how he turned his life around with the church's help." He said, "I've never been shy about sharing my past and the bad decisions I've made and being affiliated with gangs, being incarcerated, so absolutely I think they can identify with me on a personal level, and that's why I've continued to try to do as much as I can to help young people..."

Faithwire reported that the actor told People magazine last year, in a conversation about the movie about the Boston Marathon attack, Patriots Day, in which he starred: “I think the fact that I’ve been able to turn my life around and really make my mom proud and become a better person through focusing on my faith, it always gives me great sense of pride to come home..."

 Franklin Graham posted a response to Wahlberg's admission.  He stated on Facebook:

Mark Wahlberg is quoted in the news as saying he hopes God will forgive him for his “turn as a porn star” in a 1997 film. The answer to that for Mark or anyone else is—Yes, God will forgive, but it’s on God’s terms. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Bible is very clear that it is “by grace through faith” not of works.

Franklin went on to include a sinner's prayer.

According to Fox News, the actor hosted an event in Philadelphia when the Pope visited the U.S. in 2015, and the Tribune reports that he had an audience with the pontiff.

Now, the Chicago Tribune story does point out that Wahlberg has a different point of view than Cardinal Cupich and traditional church teaching on gay marriage - the actor supports it.  His response: "I haven't spoken with the cardinal or the pope about that," adding, "I just think we have a lot more important issues to be worrying about. For me, I've got my own issues to deal with. ... I go to confession and I want to continue to work hard on myself."  Perhaps he can have an attitude adjustment on that issue, as well.

Faithwire, referring to a story at The Blaze, stated that "It was in 2012 that Wahlberg told Piers Morgan he either goes to Mass or church every day, stopping in for 15-20 minutes to say some prayers and get his day going."

So, what do we take away from this high-profile expression of faith?

Wahlberg stated, "I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving."  Well, we can, as Franklin Graham pointed out, have an assurance of God's forgiveness, not by works, but by faith in Christ.  We can be assured of our salvation - if we have trusted Christ as Savior, we can acknowledge that the old is gone, the new has come, and we don't have to live in the bondage of the past, but in the joy of the present, possible through a relationship with Christ.

Wahlberg is definitely owning his bad decisions and issuing a warning to young people.  And, yes, our choices do affect the trajectory of our lives.  We will face the consequences of our choices, but we also have the power to change our course through Christ.  It's not a case of mind over matter or trying to be good in our own human strength, but appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wahlberg's participation in the film about pornography has a degree of permanence - the film will likely never be erased or made unavailable for people to access.  And, there are decisions and maybe even work product of our own that never go away.  That's a great lesson, by the way, in the world of social media - be careful what you post or share; you can become marked for life.

The best thing we can do when confronted with our past is to ask for and accept forgiveness, to repent and go in a different direction - and we can point to our future in Christ.  We have to be humble, we don't have to try to justify bad behavior, and above all, we can show others who we are now in Him.

SBNR

When you look into the book of Acts, you see that there was supernatural activity all around, including the expression of the power and presence of God.  In Acts 19, we read about a man with an evil spirit who overpowered someone who was trying to drive the spirit out. This obviously terrified the witnesses, but in the aftermath, God was glorified, as we read:
18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.
19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

I believe we are living in times where there is significant spiritual activity, and we have to be incredibly discerning to determine what is of God, what lines up with His truth, and what doesn't. A person who is not reliant on God's Word and begins to investigate and experiment with other spiritual practices opens himself or herself up to the power of the enemy.  In this age of spiritual experimentation, we have to hold on to the one true God and model His truth.

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As the early Church began to progress, ministers of the gospel ran into some errant spiritual practices. They encountered a sorcerer named Simon in Acts 8, who accepted Christ and was baptized, who tried to pay for the expression of the Holy Spirit and was told to repent.  Acts 16 talks about a girl
who made money for her employers under the influence of an evil spirit:
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation."
18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.

There continues to be a marked departure from organized religious practice among the Millennial generation, and young adults are getting a spiritual "fix," it seems, from a variety of other spiritual practices that do not involved the worship of a deity.  Liberty McArtor of The Stream calls attention to a MarketWatch story that includes information on the so-called "psychic services industry." That story states:

...more than half of young adults in the U.S. believe astrology is a science. compared to less than 8% of the Chinese public. The psychic services industry — which includes astrology, aura reading, mediumship, tarot-card reading and palmistry, among other metaphysical services — grew 2% between 2011 and 2016. It is now worth $2 billion annually, according to industry analysis firm IBIS World.\

The statistic relative to astrology being a science comes from a 2014 study by the National Science Foundation, as reported at UPI.com.

McArtor quotes from a 2012 Pew Research Center poll that found that "a third of millennials have no religious affiliation. But that doesn’t mean they’re atheists. Of that group, one third identify as spiritual but not religious (SBNR). One in five pray every day. Two-thirds believe in God. Over half feel a 'deep connection with nature and the earth.'"

And, MarketWatch reports on a Pew study released last week that says that, "The majority of Americans now believe it is not necessary to believe in God to have good morals...The percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who 'never doubt existence of God' fell from 81% in 2007 to 67% in 2012."

The opening statement in the Pew summary states:

Most U.S. adults now say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values (56%), up from about half (49%) who expressed this view in 2011. This increase reflects the continued growth in the share of the population that has no religious affiliation, but it also is the result of changing attitudes among those who do identify with a religion, including white evangelical Protestants.

McArtor, in her article, also explores what some academicians are saying about the so-called SBNR movement (which stands for "spiritual but not religious").  There are those that have their theories about the departure from organized religion, which would include Christianity. But, two things stand out from her article. One is: "millennials still want meaning. " She quotes Matthew Hedstrom of the University of Virginia: “They also want to be a part of something larger — a spiritual belief … a movement to improve the environment, or social justice.”

Another comes from Casper Ter Kuile, a "ministry innovation fellow" at Harvard Divinity School, a 30-year-old religious "none." He told the PBS News Hour, “We aren’t young people who hate religion,” adding, “It’s a growing group that feel like they have been left behind by religious institutions.” He talked about how community is important in filling a void.

McArtor writes:

As examples he named The Dinner Party, which brings people together to share a meal and grieve a lost loved one. He also mentioned CrossFit. The fitness brand has communities across the nation. In June, The Atlantic talked with Ter Kuile on how CrossFit and other gyms function like a church.

Ter Kuile said these kinds of communities are more than “simple entertainment.” He noted how members help each other in times of need, much like a religious congregation.

I think there are several concepts that come to mind here:

It's a bit discomforting in this context to refer to Christianity as a "religion." We really can't put our faith into a sociological box; our practice of faith is more than a ritual or religious expression - it is to be vibrant relationship with a living God.  In a sense, Christianity is in a class all by itself, and that is consistent with Jesus referring to Himself as "the way, the truth, and the life."  The Christian who is following Christ as His disciple, outside the survey world, could be considered SBNR (spiritual but not religious).

But, Christianity, in a demographic sense, fits more with theistic religious practices than these rogue spiritual experiences such as astrology and the so-called "psychic services industry."  But, we can look around and identify that young adults are seeking out a sense of spirituality, which is consistent with that "search for meaning," a sense of something greater than themselves.  That is where the Church has a chance to present the true Jesus, the One who comes to redeem our lives, who invites us to experience His love, and who will bring purpose and direction to our lives.

The Church also has the potential to provide community - an environment in which people can grow in fellowship with God and one another.  Millennials are apparently desiring authentic relationships, rather than, as Ter Kuile says, "simple entertainment."  And, it's important that the Church not become just another entertainment source driven by the consumer culture.

We also can stay away from spiritual practices that do not exalt God.  Astrology puts faith in the stars, it's a diversion from the truth of the Word.  And, it's certainly not harmless.  According to John Ankerberg: "astrology is related to the occult in four main ways." They are: 1) "dictionaries often define astrol­ogy as an occult art because the practice employs occult divination." 2) "astrology appears to work best when the astrologer himself is psychically or mediumistically sensi­tive, what most astrologers term 'intuitive.'" 3) "prolonged use of astrology leads to the development of psychic abilities and the contact of spirit guides." 4) "astrology often becomes the introductory course to a wider spectrum of occult practices."

You have occult practices and witchcraft which offer a spiritual experience, but they stand opposed to the truth of God and open people up to demonic influences.  That is why elements of the practice of Halloween have become concerning to Christians, and why the Church has sought to provide alternatives to the immersion in negative spirituality.  We have to recognize that there is a spiritual realm and there are practices and influences that can be damaging to the spirit of a person.

Solutions

Paul opens up the fourth chapter of Ephesians with a strong exhortation about pursuing peace:
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

In the body of Christ, with Jesus as the head, we are held together by a common bond, sealed by the Holy Spirit, who enables us to remain in a spirit of unity.  We are called to seek ways, regardless of our backgrounds, to display unity to a dying world that needs to see the love of Jesus.  The enemy would try to use our unique identities as sources of division, but God wants to take us individually and mold us together into a diverse expression of His love.

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In Galatians 3, we see a wonderful picture of the body of Christ - unified not in spite of our racial and cultural backgrounds, but as a result of God using our uniqueness as individuals to mold a unique and effective body. Here are some verses to consider:
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

So, we are called to be one in Christ. The enemy recognizes that when the Church is of one mind and one purpose, we are unstoppable and undefeatable.  Now, as it's been said, unity is not uniformity - God doesn't expect us all to act the same, and we will bring different approaches to the Scriptures based on our experience and our capacity to reason.  And, that can be healthy - or detrimental.

So, we have to work at being unified, as representing Christ's body.  Racial divisions within the body of Christ will diminish our work.  And, in culture at large, racial wedges will harm our capability to function as a society.

Two U.S. Senators, who are Christians, get that.  They are James Lankford from Oklahoma and Tim Scott from South Carolina.  Lankford is white, Scott is African-American. The Gospel Coalition website reports on their effort called "Solution Sundays."  The article says that the concept was explained in TIME Magazine last year:

Americans do not really get to know their neighbors and fellow citizens at a rally or a big event, we get to know each other typically over a meal, especially in our home. What if Americans intentionally chose to put our prejudice and broken trust on the table by putting our feet under the same table? If it seems too simple and obvious, let me ask you this question . . . have you ever had dinner in your home with a person of another race? Many Americans have not.

They write: "we challenge each family to give one Sunday lunch or dinner for building relationships across race, to literally be part of the solution in America."

The Gospel Coalition article states that "Lankford says the idea for Solution Sundays arose from his disdain for hearing people say, 'We need to have a national conversation on race.'" He told Focus on the Family: "People perceive ‘a national conversation’ as being a group of politicians sitting around a table, with a bunch of media cameras around them, as those individuals talk about race and try to resolve things,” adding, “That’s not how we resolve anything in America.”

Scott and Lankford just released a video about the concept, inviting people to "venture into someone else’s territory and learn as much as you possible can about someone else.”

The video includes Senate Chaplain Barry Black, who is quoted as saying, "...it may not be the solution, but it’s certainly the beginning of a solution.”

A few observations here:

Number one is that we have to talk with each other.  Not about each other.  And, not necessarily just going to events with each other.  Understanding one another's perspective and background and even approach to God can be helpful in working to solve some of these enormous dilemmas in the area of race relations.  We can't withdraw from each other - not now.  We've come so far, but there is plenty to go.

I was touched by Stephen Mansfield's comments about race relations on yesterday's Meeting House.  He attends a predominantly African-American church and called for a measure of understanding. He said that we need to "gentle up" (never heard that phrase, but it works) with one another.

We have to also acknowledge the enemy's modus operandi to drive wedges between us.  He will do that in any number of ways, but the goal is to keep us separated - if we view each other as separate groups, at the expense of preserving the unity of the Spirit, and then parade that online for all the world to see, we make the Church look like a family feud.  It's not attractive. We have to present a unified, passionate front in order for the world to see Christ.

I also like the term, "Solution Sundays."  Scott and Lankford have a very specific initiative here, but shouldn't Sundays, our day of worship, be a time when we do find solutions - solutions for our individual lives: a greater devotion to God, help to overcome sin, wisdom to deal with relationships, and an enhanced sense of God's healing that is available.  Collectively, in our proclamation and fellowship, we can find and radiate hope and develop a Biblical mindset to affect the world for Christ.

Call for Clarity

The Bible is very clear about God's standards, how we have not and can never meet His standards, but how Christ has come to redeem us so that we might have fellowship with God the Father.  Titus 2
says:
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

So, how do we define "lawless deed?"  The Scriptures show us what pleases God and what violates His principles.  And, we have the guiding and convicting power of the Holy Spirit.  So, if we're are open as we come before the Lord, we can depend on Him to illuminate areas that He wants to transform.  But, we cannot go in with preconceived notions, making the determination ourselves about what is and isn't OK; we are not to withhold any area from Him - in humility, we allow Him to do His desired work for His glory.

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Jesus invites all to come before Him and experience His truth, His mighty power, and His ability to
forgive a person's sin and to experience His redemption. Colossians 1 says:
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

There's a new rating service for churches, and on the surface, it seems to be something that would be useful. But, considering the background of the leaders of it, it does raise some important concerns.

It's a website called ChurchClarity.org.  Jonathan Merritt of Religion News Service has already spotlighted it - basically the "clarity" is on one issue: a church's response to LGBT individuals.  Merritt states:

Today, a new organization, Church Clarity, launched an online database that will score churches’ positions on the issue and rate each congregation as either “affirming” or “non-affirming.”

The organization claims to be neutral on the issue, but visitors will be excused from assuming otherwise based on the organization’s leadership. Two of CC’s co-founders — Tim Schraeder, who identifies as gay, and Sarah Ngu, who identifies as queer — are clearly more progressive on the issue. The third, George Mekhail, identifies as straight but serves at the LGBT-affirming Riverside Church in Manhattan.

Merritt believes "CC’s mission is one that many conservative Christians should embrace. Many evangelicals have decried the theological ambiguity of some churches and have called for greater clarity on the matter."  The Church Clarity website has four scores: Clear, Unclear, Undisclosed, or Actively Discerning.  What's unclear is how these are actually determined: it looks like the church's website is a tool for determining the score, as well as submissions to the site.

The question becomes: is a church really going to put an "LGBT policy" on its website - isolating just that one area? To me, it seems to place a greater emphasis that one matter than it deserves.  After all, Jesus Christ died for ALL sin, not just for one!  But, we do have to consider this has become such a contentious issue, even among Christians, not to mention the relationship of the Church and society at large.

Rod Dreher of The American Conservative, author of the book, The Benedict Option, agrees with the concept of the website.  He quotes David Gushee, whom he calls a "liberal evangelical," who wrote at ReligionNews.com:

It turns out that you are either for full and unequivocal social and legal equality for LGBT people, or you are against it, and your answer will at some point be revealed. This is true both for individuals and for institutions.

Neutrality is not an option. Neither is polite half-acceptance. Nor is avoiding the subject. Hide as you might, the issue will come and find you.

Dreher states:

It’s pretty clear that Church Clarity is interested in policing churches from the Christian left. If this were a conservative Christian website, there would be no end of caterwauling from the media and elsewhere about these horrible conservative inquisitors, blah blah blah. This site will be greeted by those same people as a tool for advancing social justice. I can live with that hypocrisy, and still be glad for the clarity this site provides, and compels congregations to embrace.

It’s important. This matters. This winnowing is sad and painful, and is going to be even sadder and more painful. But it can no longer be avoided. The differences are significant, and irreconcilable.

He adds, in response to a reader comment: "...this website starts out as a consumer service (it claims), but as others say, it will be ultimately be used to pressure, shame, and ultimately to persecute dissenting congregations — all in the name of social justice." He adds, "I welcome the Church Clarity site because it clears away the obfuscation and wishful thinking about what’s really going on in this struggle, and what’s really at stake in trying to be a faithful Christian in our time."  

And, in a chilling update, the Church Clarity blog says that "they are going to use this data to make sure that churches “earn” their tax-exempt status. Translation: data collected will ultimately be used in a federal civil rights lawsuit against dissenting churches. There it is. This was always in the cards. It was never about tolerance, but coercion. With Church Clarity, we now have, well, clarity."

Well, I still contend that "clarity" is in the eye of the beholder.  But, I do think that churches and individual Christians need to be clear on where they stand on issues surrounding homosexuality and the LGBT agenda, including same-sex marriage.  Dreher mentioned the importance of the Nashville Statement, which incorporates Biblical principles about sexuality.  

But, I also contend that a person can be "welcoming" toward LGBT people without being "affirming."  Issuing a "warning" about a particular church can thwart the work that the Holy Spirit wants to do in the life of a person by connecting with a congregation.  We should all be eager for all who are sinners, and that includes all of us, to enter into a life-changing encounter with the living Lord.  We should be desirous to see all, including those who identify as LGBT, come into the presence of the Holy Spirit as the Word is preached, as His people worship together, and as they fellowship together.  

Bottom line: all are welcome.  Those who commit sin are invited into the presence of God; but we do not tolerate sin; rather we are to appropriate the redemption for which Jesus died.  God wants to forgive those in sexual sin, those who are addicted to life-controlling substances, those who have committed crimes against others or crimes of the heart.  But, when you come to church, when you submit to the Word, you can expect to be changed.  Unfortunately, those who adhere to the LGBT lifestyle apparently don't want to change; they want their lifestyle to be accepted - that's not the role of the church.