The State Theatre is showing “The Big Lebowski” on Friday night (January 15th) at 7pm for only $5. http://ow.ly/1n1yhK
Thought we’d make a night of it: watch the show, then discuss over food–good thing to invite your friends to.
Wanted you to know as you plan your weekend.
Sojourn folks–see you tonight!
If my last post caught your attention, or peaked your interest, you may also want to check out a very well-written article entitled “Oh, Damn! Blasphemy Day Looks for a Target” by the Politics Daily blog. Interestingly enough, this “holiday” along with the accompanying “Blasphemy Contest” advertised on the Center for Inquiry (CFI) website as well as the general attitudes and tactics of today’s “New Atheists” have drawn criticism from Paul Kurtz, the Founder (now emeritus chair) of CFI. In the Politics Daily article by columnist David Gibson, Kurtz’s criticisms from a recent essay posted on the CFI website entitled “A Dissenting View About Blasphemy Day” are quoted:
“The right to publish dissenting critiques of religion should be accepted as basic to freedom of expression,” Kurtz writes. “But for CFI itself to sponsor the lampooning of Christianity by encouraging anti-Catholic, anti-Protestant, or any other anti-religious cartoons goes beyond the bounds of civilized discourse in pluralistic society. It is not dissimilar to the anti-semitic cartoons of the Nazi era. Yet there are some fundamentalist atheists who have resorted to such vulgar antics to gain press attention. In doing so they have dishonored the basic ethical principles of what the Center for Inquiry has resolutely stood for until now: the toleration of opposing viewpoints.”
“It is one thing to examine the claims of religion in a responsible way by calling attention to Biblical, Koranic or scientific criticisms, it is quite another to violate the key humanistic principle of tolerance. One may disagree with contending religious beliefs, but to denigrate them by rude caricatures borders on hate speech. What would humanists and skeptics say if religious believers insulted them in the same way? We would protest the lack of respect for alternative views in a democratic society. I apologize to my fellow citizens who have suffered these barbs of indignity.”
Gibson also quotes from the same post by Dr. Al Mohler that I referenced in my earlier post, remarking that “When Al Mohler and Paul Kurtz are singing the same tune, you have a sense that something is shifting in the cosmos.”
It’s a fascinating article. To check it out go to: Oh, Damn! Blasphemy Day Looks for a Target — Politics Daily
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I’ll be getting back to the “identity issues” I promised to write about last week as soon I get a chance (probably Friday). In the meantime however, today has been declared by Atheists and Agnostic groups around the world to be ”International Blasphemy Day.” I don’t know if the Atheist Agnostic Association on campus is doing anything for this, but I know in the past they have put on “blasphemy challenges,” encouraging people to deny the Holy Spirit in exchange for a free slice of pizza.
How should we as Christians respond to this kind of offensive behavior? For those of us involved in Sojourn, this question hits close to home, as some of the Atheists and Agnostics engaging in these activities are our friends. Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, recently posted an article on his blog, offering some helpful advice:
1. First, take no offense. Refuse to play into the game plan of those sponsoring International Blasphemy Day. The Lord Jesus Christ was and is despised and rejected of men. Our Lord bore the scorn heaped upon him by his enemies. Christianity is not an honor religion. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not commanded to defend his honor, but to be willing to share in the scorn directed to him. Is the servant greater than his master?…We must be those who take to the streets with the Gospel — not with a defense of our honor or the honor of our Lord. When Christians forget this, we lose our Gospel witness. The history of the church includes far too many instances of this loss. We dare not add another.
2. Second, mourn the blasphemy. The warning of Jesus is clear — blasphemy has eternal consequences. The worst form of blasphemy is the refusal to hear and believe the Gospel. For that sin there can be no forgiveness. We must mourn the blasphemy, not because honor is at stake, but because souls are at stake with eternal consequences. God will ultimately and perfectly defend his honor. On that day, there will be no escape for unrepentant blasphemers.
3. Third, see this observance for what it really is — an unintended testimony to the existence of God and the foolishness of those who deny Him. The sheer foolishness of a blasphemy contest with t-shirts and mugs betrays the lunacy of it all. They can do no better than this? One testimony to the power of God is the fact that his self-declared enemies come off as so childish and manic. The heathen rage and God sees the foolish grasshoppers.
You can read the entirety of Dr. Mohler’s post here: Why Do the Heathen Rage? International Blasphemy Day
May International Blasphemy Day be for us a day to love our Atheist & Agnostic friends, and pray that God would mercifully reveal the reality of Himself to them.
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I think that is quite possibly my favorite Disney song ever. It brings up some serious questions though. Why is it so hard not to compare ourselves with others? Like the Ape King in the jungle, we often struggle with wishing we were someone else, or at least with wishing we were as talented, smart, rich, or good looking as someone else. I’ve met very few people who do not struggle with this temptation. I don’t have some spiritual silver-self-esteem-bullet to offer you, but I can offer a few questions that will set us in the right direction and help us preach to ourselves when we struggle with our identity or performance.
#1 How does God see us?
#2 How is success in life truly measured?
#3 What do we do in times of failure or rejection?
I’ll spend the next few days tackling these questions. Stay tuned….
We’ve noticed higher traffic on our site today due to the many internet searches related to the tragic death of Joe Dado.
If you are a friend or classmate of Joe’s, we’d like to offer our condolences, and our prayers.
Whether you knew Joe personally or not, we want to let you know that we (professional campus ministers at Penn State) are available if you need somebody to talk to. Feel free to email us at missiodeipsu@gmail.com.
If you are struggling with the issue of death, we invite you to learn what the Bible has to say about it in the following video message by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Here’s the link for the video: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/rebels-guide-to-joy/the-rebels-guide-to-joy-in-death
As most of you probably know by now, we lost a Penn State student this week. After leaving a party early Sunday morning, Joe Dado dissapeared. After an extensive search Sunday and Monday, Dado was found dead last night.
You can read about the situation in The Daily Collegian (http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/09/22/body_located_after_campuswide.aspx) or The Centre Daily Times (http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1519215.html).
Please keep the Dado family in your prayers, as well as Joe’s friends and classmates.
Situations like this are a sobering reminder that we are not guaranteed a long, full life. May we live like it’s our last day, loving God and loving others with all of our heart, soul, and mind.
If you are on the Missio Dei Bible Reading Plan (or even if you aren’t), you are invited to send us your reflections on the scripture passages you are reading.
Send your submissions to missiodeipsu@gmail.com.
This passage highlights the faith of Moses’ mother, as she let go of her son. It was up to God now; she had done all that she could do. So she places him in a basket and essentially gives him to God. This act of faith is met by God’s gracious providence in which he not only blesses this risky move by keeping the child alive but makes it part of the grand story of redemption. You have to wonder how hard it was for Moses’ mother to come to the point where she was ready to let him go, and then to get him back and nurse him for a few years, only to let him go again when he was adopted into Pharaoh’s household. It must have been so bittersweet. She must have been overjoyed that her son was still alive and being cared for, but it must have ripped her heart out to see him adopted into the family that was persecuting her people; she must have wondered if he would lose his identity completely and join in the persecution of the Israelites. What is worse?: For your son to die, or for your son to live and end up persecuting his own family? Moses’ mother’s humble surrender of her son, as much after he was saved as when she placed him in the water, is an amazing act of faith.
This made me think of two things. The first is that my Mom always refers to us as her arrows. She did what she could while we were in the quiver, and now she has shot us out into the world, and chosen to let go of us, and trust God to care for us, and to use us for his glory.
The other is the general theme throughout the Old Testament especially of sons surrendered in faith or thought to be lost, and how these stories may be a foreshadowing of the God who would surrender his son to what seemed to be a very bad situation, death on a cross. But like the stories of Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and his mother, and Hannah and Samuel, the agony ends in redemption. The story of the Prodigal Son also seems to play into this theme. And our own story of salvation as told by Ephesians 2. We were as good as dead, but Christ made us alive.
Where is God calling you to have faith today? What is he calling you to surrender? What are the hard things in your life that God may actually be using for good? Do you realize that you are part of God’s story of redemption? Are you in awe?
We see God’s heart for justice in this passage. We also see that there is a time for civil disobedience. God honors the midwives for disobeying the Pharaoh’s orders to kill the Hebrew male infants. They disobeyed out of their fear of God.
A controversial issue in this passage is the apparent lie of the midwives when confronted by the Pharaoh about their failure to kill the babies: “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” This brings up the question of whether or not it is ever ok to lie. It is not as if they lied to save the babies; they lied to save their own necks.
Or were they lying? My girlfriend Ruth suggested that perhaps they are just being “sassy.” Can an argument be made that they are not lying but simply making a clever response?
What do you think?
Either way, God does not seem displeased with them. The verses following the apparent lie say that “God dealt well with the midwives…and gave them families” (1:20, 21).
Setting the controversial issue aside, and getting back to the issue of justice and fearing God, what is God calling you to stand up for today? You may not need to break any laws, but chances are there are times in classes or with friends that you sense God calling you to stand for what is right. What are these issues? Where do you need courage?
This also reminds me of the verse in proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” You will not know what to stand for unless you are tuned into a relationship with God. True justice is built on a foundation of a relationship with God and a reverence (fear) for God.
Steve Lutz
calvarycollegeconnection
