Stan Guthrie

Myanmar Cyclone Aid Caught in Red Tape

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:48:00 +0000

Military junta limiting ability of relief groups to deliver and distribute food, medicine, shelter.

Prayer for Burma

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:35:00 +0000

Pioneer American missionary Adoniram Judson arrived in Burma in
1813. He was 24 years old and Burma was a hostile place. Judson
laboured for six years before seeing even one convert. In 1828 a
former slave and hardened criminal named Ko Tha Byu became the
first ethnic Karen to receive Christ. By God's grace Ko Tha Byu
became a mighty evangelist. After 18 years of ministry Judson
observed in 1831 that a 'spirit of inquiry' was spreading across
the whole land. Operation World (2000) estimates that Burma is now
8.7 percent Christian. The 70 percent Burmese majority is strongly
Buddhist, whilst the ethnic minorities are predominantly Christian.

In 1962 the Marxist-influenced military seized power in a coup.
Foreign missionaries were then expelled and all private (mostly
Christian mission) schools and hospitals were nationalised.
Political repression and isolation escalated further after the
major crackdown of 1988, and again after the junta received an
influx of arms and military hardware in 2005. The junta is no
longer defined by ideology but by its addiction to the perks of
totalitarian power. Its violent, corrupt, discriminatory and self-
serving regime fuels resistance to its rule, which the military
then violently represses. Thus goes the perpetual cycle of
conflict.

A genocidal conflict is presently being waged against the ethnic
Karen. (See 'Burmese Darfur: The Silent Genocide of Myanmar',
Spiegel online, 6 Sep 2007.) This has created around 540,000 IDPs
(internally displaced people) in eastern Burma and forced some
200,000 Karen into refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. Most of
these refugees are Christians.

The United States 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)
decrees that the US Commission of International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) designate as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) those
countries whose governments engage in or tolerate systematic and
egregious violations of religious liberty. Burma has always been on
the USCIRF's CPC list, being re-designated a CPC most recently on 2
May 2008. Over recent years the increasingly desperate and paranoid
junta has escalated its efforts -- as its official policy states --
to 'destroy the Christian religion in Burma'.

On 3 May 2008 the 190 km/hr (120 miles/hour) winds of Cyclone
Nargis ripped through Burma's Irrawaddy delta. The toll of injured,
dead and missing is spiralling upwards at a horrendous rate. On
Tuesday 6 May Burma's state television reported that 10,000
perished in the town of Bogalay alone. Rescue operations will be
difficult due to the remoteness of the disaster region which is a
major rice-producing area and home to 24 million people. The risk
of disease is high. However, Cyclone Nargis has blown open a door.
The junta that has kept Burma closed, isolated and violently
repressed for decades has now issued an appeal for international
assistance.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO --

* work through the affliction caused by Cyclone Nargis, to deliver
Burma from its affliction of violent, repressive, totalitarian
rule; may he open the ears of multitudes of Burmese to the
gospel of Jesus Christ.

'He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears
by their adversity' (Elihu, Job 36:15 ESV).

* bless all Burmese pastors, Christian leaders and teachers: inside
Burma; in the refugee camps; in the Burmese diaspora; and
especially those who are presently fleeing or suffering in
terror. May the Holy Spirit fill the leaders with the wisdom,
faith, grace and strength to shepherd the Lord's flock through
these difficult times.

--Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | No. 477 | Wed 07 May 2008

Good News for Embryos

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:05:00 +0000

The end may be in sight for the debate over "harvesting" human embryos for their stem-cells in the pursuit of possible medical cures. Apparently adult stem cells--those cells gotten from human body tissues and not embryos--have the potential to be just as versatile for medical research as ESCs--but without the need to kill nascent human life. An article in Newsweek:

In June 2006, a Japanese group led by Shinya Yamanaka reported the first successful result with mouse skin cells, and between November 2007 and January 2008, Yamanaka's group and two American groups led by James Thomson and George Daley at Harvard University all reported the successful reprogramming of human skin cells into a state that is indistinguishable from human embryonic cells. Over the last several months, progress made along this new scientific path has been breathtaking. The laboratory of Rudolf Jaenisch at MIT has taken in the lead in developing therapies with this new technique in mice, demonstrating a cure for a mouse version of sickle cell anemia and alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease in mice.

What these scientists can now do is essentially to take any type of cell and turn it into the equivalent of an embryonic stem cell—without needing embryos or egg cells. So what exactly are these new cells? Cells are fundamentally defined not by where they come from, but by their program of gene activity. In this sense, the new cells should be called embryonic stem cells. And since they are genetically identical to the person who provided the original sample, they are technically embryonic cell clones of that person. But scientists have discovered the power of words to elicit positive or negative emotional responses. "Clone" and "embryo" are words to be avoided. And so by consensus, the new cells are being called induced pluripotent stem cells.

Researchers say more work must be done on the promising technique.

Obama Breaks Ties with Wright

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:19:00 +0000

Controversial remarks provoked Obama's denunciation.
By Sarah Pulliam

A Friendship Tested by Faith

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Stan Guthrie and Rabbi Yehiel Poupko on National Public Radio.

Food Crisis: No Free Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:56:00 +0000

With gasoline flowing toward $4 a gallon in the U.S., some Americans are trying to figure out what they can cut from their budget to remain behind the wheel. In other parts of the world, high prices for basic items are causing more trouble.

The prices of wheat and rice this year will have doubled since 2004, according to World Bank projections. Soybeans, sugar, soybean oil and corn are expected to be 56% to 79% costlier than in 2004. The bulk of the increases have come in the past year and can be attributed to the West's push to turn these crops into fossil-fuel replacements like ethanol. Food prices will likely remain overinflated until at least 2015, the Bank says.

The result of these rising prices is that 100 million people could slip back into poverty, erasing seven years' worth of gains, Bank President Robert Zoellick warned earlier this month. Food inflation and shortages have sparked riots from Egypt to the Philippines, and six people were killed in Haiti alone during nine days of related unrest there this month.

Soaring oil prices have made it more expensive to transport food products, though the World Bank estimates this and costlier fertilizer account for only 15% of the rise in food prices. Improved eating habits in developing nations are also increasing demand for grains – both for human consumption and to feed livestock, since rapid economic growth in places like China means more people have enough money to buy meat. But the Bank notes that "almost all" of the increased growing of one of the key crops, corn, "went for biofuels production in the U.S."

For a look at what the World Bank says about the food crisis, click here.

While the science of whether ethanol is an efficient use of corn, given its proportional removal from the world's food supply, is beyond me, the current world food crisis points out the fact that there are economic costs and drawbacks with every government mandate and subsidy. There is no such thing as a free lunch. When corn is turned into fuel, it cannot be used for food, and some who would eat that corn will have to buy other food (presumably at a higher price) or go hungry.

Christian Evangelism and Judaism

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:05:00 +0000

An exchange of views between a rabbi and a columnist.
Rabbi Yehiel E. Poupko and Stan Guthrie

Mikhail Gorbachev ... Christian?

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:21:00 +0000

We've heard much from atheists about why they don't believe. Here's an interesting item about the spiritual journey of one of the world's best known disbelievers--Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev's visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy this month has rekindled those questions about Gorbachev's faith. Was he denouncing atheism and affirming his faith in God? Was he a closet believer even during Soviet times?

Several European media outlets were quick to size up Gorbachev's half hour of silence at St. Francis' tomb as proof that the 77-year-old former leader of an atheistic superpower was, in fact, a Christian.

The Italian newspaper La Stampa called his visit a "spiritual perestroika." A story in the London Daily Telegraph's March 19 edition concluded Gorbachev "has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time."

The paper quoted the former Soviet leader as saying that the saint's "story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life." But Gorbachev subsequently told the Russian news agency Interfax, "Let me say that I have been and remain an atheist."

Wherever the truth lies, the discussion reminds me of a passage in Paul Kengor's book, God and Ronald Reagan, describing the beginning of Reagan's May-June 1988 mission to Moscow:

[Reagan] finished his remarks by pausing, looking up, and delivering this direct, closing salutation to the general secretary and his comrades: "Thank you and God bless you." As the words left his lips and were translated into Russian, the hardened Kremlin atheists visibly blanched. Gorbachev's translator said that Reagan's words rang like blasphemy to the Soviet officials present, and they reacted with wry expressions. "The heretofore impregnable edifice of Communist atheism was being assaulted before their very eyes by [Reagan]." the translator recorded in his notes.

Much has happened in the two decades that separate us from that simple, yet defiant statement asking for God's blessing on the Soviet leaders. Mr. Gorbachev was friendlier than his predecessors to the role of religion in society. Perhaps that's all this flap over his visit to the tomb of Saint Francis signifies. I'm an optimist, however, and will be looking for more.

God, bless Mikhail Gorbachev.

Why Evangelize the Jews?

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:40:00 +0000

God's chosen people need Jesus as much as we do.

The 2008 Christianity Today Book Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:17:00 +0000

This year, 49 publishers nominated 359 titles published in 2007. CT editors selected the top books in each category, and then panels of judges — one panel per category — voted. In the end, we chose 10 winners and gave 11 awards of merit to the books that best shed light on people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission.

Spitzer's Logic

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced governor of New York, resigned this week after a federal investigation revealed he repeatedly used a high-priced prostitution ring. Many people are asking how the former New York attorney general could be so stupid to brazenly flout the law. I confess I don't know. Perhaps sex addiction may have something to do with it. I suspect we will learn more details about this sordid case than anyone really needs.

Ironically, I see a sad link between Spitzer's public positions on issues of concern to pro-lifers and his acts with prostitutes. The link involves his evident contempt for women: his wife and daughters, certainly, but also his contempt for women caught in the sex trade, and his contempt for women generally as mothers.

Of course, Spitzer pleased many advocates for women by pushing for passage of a tough state law against sex trafficking. Studies show that 89 percent of prostitutes strongly want to leave this work, while two-thirds experience a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Yet here is Spitzer happily and repeatedly abusing young women's bodies and souls for his own sordid pleasure. Hypocrisy concerning sexual matters is nothing new for a politician. Just ask David Vitter.

But while conservative politicians such as Vitter have been rightly lambasted in the press for hypocrisy, Spitzer's private actions are sadly the logical result of his public leadership.

Spitzer's contempt for women is also evident in his radical pro-abortion positions. Spitzer as attorney general founded a "reproductive rights" unit within his office and aggressively tried to shut down pregnancy support centers across the state.

His own private sexual misdeeds clearly divorce the sexual act from reproduction, and his public stances do the same. Gone is the dignity of women who nurture children in favor of women as the mere playthings of the rich and powerful-like Spitzer. If something so unfortunate as a pregnancy might ensue, not to worry: just get an abortion. Spitzer the AG and governor saw terminating a pregnancy as a fundamental right for New Yorkers.

Of course, many, if not most, who support abortion rights don't cheat on their families and cavort with high-priced call girls. But they are virtuous in spite of their public positions. Abortion is infidelity on so many levels: to women, to children, to self, and to God. We shouldn't be surprised that Spitzer's public life spilled over to his private life.

Reproductive Outsourcing

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:21:00 +0000

You've heard about international adoption, no doubt. But what about international surrogacy? Here's the news from The New York Times:

An enterprise known as reproductive outsourcing is a new but rapidly expanding business in India. Clinics that provide surrogate mothers for foreigners say they have recently been inundated with requests from the United States and Europe, as word spreads of India’s mix of skilled medical professionals, relatively liberal laws and low prices.

Commercial surrogacy, which is banned in some states and some European countries, was legalized in India in 2002. The cost comes to about $25,000, roughly a third of the typical price in the United States. That includes the medical procedures; payment to the surrogate mother, which is often, but not always, done through the clinic; plus air tickets and hotels for two trips to India (one for the fertilization and a second to collect the baby).

Is Barack Obama a Red Letter Christian?

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:36:00 +0000

Many evangelicals seem taken with Barack Obama. Tired of the Religious Right and seeking a new tone in Washington, they see in this untested, enigmatic senator a chance for real change. And indeed he is congenial and a breath of fresh air when compared with the grasping Clinton dynasty. Many Bible-believers seem ready to look the other way with Obama, despite his extremely liberal voting record (including unfettered backing of abortion), because he appears to be a genuine person they can work with.

I wonder how his latest, religiously based comments might change this. The other day Obama reiterated his support for civil unions for homosexuals. No surprise there. Some Christians (but not me) do indeed allow for the conferring of some legal rights, short of marital status, on gays as a simple matter of fairness. But I suspect his rationale raised some hackles.

If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.

Since when did Romans 1 become obscure? I thought pitting the words of Jesus against those of Paul was a tactic of Red Letter Christians, not something a serious candidate for the Oval Office would engage in.

But be that as it may, it's a good thing that Obama is not running for theologian in chief. There is no refererence to gay civil unions in the Sermon on the Mount (unless you stretch the Golden Rule beyond all recognition). Perhaps Obama mixed up his Bible references, like Howard Dean calling Job his favorite New Testament book?

When Jesus spoke of marriage, of course, he assumed it is a heterosexual institution. There may be a legal case to be made for marriage-like civil unions. But, please, let's not drag Jesus into it.

Larry Norman, Coffee Shop Evangelist

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:38:00 +0000

How a chance meeting with a selfless Christian star changed my life.
By Susan Perlman

The Once and Future Vampire Novelist

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:42:00 +0000

In a CT article by Cindy Crosby published just over two years ago, novelist Anne Rice--famous for her dark stories about vampires--spoke of her return to her Catholic faith and said she would from now on write about Christ. While she did not repudiate her earlier work, saying it was a record of her spiritual journey, she said she was through with vampires:

I would never go back, not even if they say, 'You will be financially ruined; you've got to write another vampire book.' I would say no. I have no choice. I would be a fool for all eternity to turn my back on God like that.

And for a while, she was true to her word, writing the first two works in a series about the life of Christ. The second, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, is due out on March 4. After a planned third installment on Jesus, Rice plans to return to her vampire chronicling. But isn't that going back on her word? Rice answers Time this way: "I don't see it as a violation of my promise, because I won't be writing about vampires in the same way." And indeed, her new promise--to put the stories in a Christian framework with an accent on redemption--sounds interesting. But Time isn't buying, commenting: "Still, it is difficult to see it as anything but a change of heart."

I cannot pretend to see into Anne Rice's soul, but to me this is a troubling turn of events. Whatever the merits and drawbacks of writing one final vampire novel, her vow was all-encompassing, seemingly linking her eternal destiny to keeping it. I am reminded of the following verses:

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

Singable Doctrine

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:03:00 +0000

Keith and Kristyn Getty have a passion for writing modern hymns.

Manga and Bible Come Together

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:37:00 +0000

The Bible is the most read, translated, and packaged book in history. There are Bibles for soldiers, teens, dispensationalists, the reformed, golfers, and on and on. The latest effort to contextualize and target the Scriptures is The Manga Bible, just out from Doubleday.

Manga, a Japanese-inspired form of the graphic novel, is a big seller right now, so many will see its marriage with Scripture as a match made in heaven. However, this is not your father's (or mother's) Bible, according to a story in The New York Times.

The medium shapes the message. Manga often focuses on action and epic. Much of the Bible, as a result, ends up on the cutting room floor, and what remains is darker.

“It is the end of the Word as we know it, and the end of a certain cultural idea of the Scriptures as a book, as the Book,” Timothy Beal, professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University, said of the reworking of the Bible in new forms, including manga. “It opens up new ways of understanding Scripture and ends up breaking the idols a bit.”

While known for characters with big eyes and catwalk poses, manga is also defined by a laconic, cinematic style, with characters often doing more than talking.

In a blurb for the Manga Bible, which is published by Doubleday, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is quoted as saying, “It will convey the shock and freshness of the Bible in a unique way.”

No doubt. In the Manga Bible, whose heroes look and sound like skateboarders in Bedouin gear, Noah gets tripped up counting the animals in the Ark: “That’s 11,344 animals? Arggh! I’ve lost count again. I’m going to have to start from scratch!”

I guess it's OK, as long as we don't start preaching from it.

Post-Mayhem Woes

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:00:00 +0000

The latest from Kenya.
By Sheryl Henderson Blunt, with reporting by Sue Sprenkle in Nairobi, Kenya

Graceful Argument

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Christian conservatives are often lambasted these days for fixating on abortion and homosexuality, as if we have sexual hang-ups. Tony Campolo has said for years that the Religious Right has “hijacked” the Christian faith over such issues. Yesterday at the National Cathedral, Rick Warren, who said the country needs liberals and conservatives, lamented that Christians still are viewed as only “right wing.” (I'm not quite sure how that is still possible, given that Pastor Warren is arguably the nation’s most prominent evangelical himself.) Such critics point out that the call to discipleship also involves addressing things like environmental stewardship, poverty, and racism. And in that they are right.

But with the persistent push in our culture toward both abortion and homosexual marriage, what would these critics have Christian conservatives do? Earlier this month, Al Gore came out in favor of gay marriage, stating, “Gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women — to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage, and I don’t understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage. . ..”

Are we not allowed to answer him? To abondon the argument is to lose the argument. And we have good reasons, beyond Scripture itself. But we must make these arguments as gently and lovingly as possible, never forgetting that how we make our case counts almost as much in today's culture as the substance of our case.

Pastor Warren is calling for a “second reformation” that includes reconciliation in the church. That’s great. Let’s all stop calling each other names and agree to do whatever work that God has called us to ... with grace and truth.

A Hole in Our Holism

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:08:00 +0000

Why evangelicals might be shy about sharing their faith.
By Stan Guthrie

Winning the Abortion Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:33:00 +0000

Just days before the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we have a new report from the Guttmacher Institute that says the U.S. abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1974. Despite fairly widespread access to the new abortion drug RU-486, the rate now stands at 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women age 15-44 in 2005, down from a high of 29.3 per thousand in 1981. The number of abortions is also down, from 1.6 million in 1990 to 1.2 million in 2005 (the last year for which data are available).

While pro-choice advocates point to a lack of access to abortion providers and the success of comprehensive sex-ed programs as factors in the decline, pro-lifers say state laws have made a difference.

Bill Beckman, director of the Illinois Right to Life Committee, said he sees the national decline in abortion numbers as a victory for anti-abortion efforts.

"A number of states over the last five or six years have enhanced their pro-life laws, such as requirements for informed consent and parental notice," said Beckman. "When those laws take effect, the rate of abortion drops. I think the data they're getting is reflecting that change."

While I'm looking forward to a thorough analysis of the numbers, the answer is probably both/and rather than either/or. I believe that cultural attitudes also are changing, thanks to the persistent efforts (such as the spread of ultrasound machines) of pro-lifers to keep before the American people the undeniable fact that every abortion ends a human life. And these efforts must be working, if even pro-choicer Hillary Clinton concedes that abortion is a "tragic choice."

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Guttmacher study comes on the heels of news that the birth rate is unexpectedly booming in the United States.

An Associated Press review of birth numbers dating to 1909 found the total number of U.S. births was the highest since 1961, near the end of the baby boom. An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. ...

Experts believe there is a mix of reasons: a decline in contraceptive use, a drop in access to abortion, poor education and poverty.

There are cultural reasons as well. Hispanics as a group have higher fertility rates — about 40 percent higher than the U.S. overall. And experts say Americans, especially those in middle America, view children more favorably than people in many other Westernized countries.

"Americans like children. We are the only people who respond to prosperity by saying, `Let's have another kid,'" said Nan Marie Astone, associate professor of population, family and reproductive health at Johns Hopkins University.

Fear Itself

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:02:00 +0000

We voters just can’t make up our minds. One day it’s Rudy. Then Huck. Hillary. Then Obama. Then Hillary again. Hey, here’s McCain, risen from the political dead!

Certainly one reason we can’t decide is because no one candidate fulfills all of our hopes and dreams. One has experience (sort of). Another has charisma. One speaks of conservative values but has other issues. Another champions those same values but is a . . . Mormon. Some say the only African-American candidate isn’t black enough, or the only woman candidate not womanly enough. They’re like the old commercial . . . everything you always wanted in a candidate—and less.

Another reason for voters’ fickleness is the economy. If you’re not covered at work, private health insurance is unaffordable for all but the wealthy. Gas and milk cost three bucks a gallon. Economic growth appears to be stagnating, and the growing mortgage crisis is hammering the real estate market and home values. Big-screen TVs and other luxury items aside, according to The Two-Income Trap, it generally takes two incomes to match the standard of living that one income provided a generation ago, and many people feel they are in danger of slipping from the ranks of the middle class.

Americans’ priorities are also in flux early into the primary season. The survey found voters to be in their darkest mood about the economy in 18 years, by some measures; 62 percent said they believed that the economy was getting worse, the highest percentage since the run-up to the recession in 1990. Seventy-five percent said they believed that the country had “seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” also similar to levels in the early 1990s, when such discontent fueled the presidential candidacy of Bill Clinton.

Worries about the economy now dominate the voters’ agenda, even more so than the war in Iraq, which framed the early part of this campaign. While change has emerged as an abstract rallying cry in the campaign debate, what the voters mean when they talk about change is clear — new approaches to the economy and the war, according to the poll.

Whatever their personal or policy differences, nearly all candidates are promising “change” in response to consumer angst. Now as the breadwinner in my family, I can understand those fears, and the understandable desire to latch onto someone who promises to fix my financial problems. Sometimes it does feel as if the big corporations have an unfair advantage over consumers, and it feels good for government to “level the playing field.”

However, despite our present economic uncertainty, is all this worry really justified? The statistics, though troubling, are not as bad as the election-year rhetoric: Joblessness, at around 5 percent (up from 4.4 percent a year ago), remains low by historic levels. Adjusted for inflation (up 4.3 percent last year), gas and milk don’t cost as much relative to our rising incomes as they seem to. Those struggling with “subprime” mortgages, though their pain is real, are a relatively minor percentage of the American people. Despite the considerable challenges we face, the American economy remains the envy of the world.

Every generation worries about the economy (remember the “stagflation” of the seventies?), and while no one knows the future with precision, I would guess that we have less to fear than most generations—even if recession comes. There are many other issues we also must consider, such as the war on terror, peace in the Middle East, abortion, the environment, and other priority issues.

Beyond all that, as Christians, we should look at the coming election through the lens of faith, not fear. We are to trust God to provide, not the promises of politicians. As a certain nonpolitical leader once said:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Thus, whatever the economy brings, we are to be busy doing his work—including helping those who really are struggling—trusting him to provide our needs each day.

Christians Attacked in India

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:10:00 +0000

By Joseph D’souza

Gladys Staines, the widow of the martyred Australian missionary Graham Staines, wrote to India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with an urgent request on January 1, 2008. She expressed deep concern about terrible persecution of Dalit Christians which broke out on Christmas Eve in the Kandhamal district of Orissa (“Gladys Staines expresses concern over Orissa violence”, The Indian Express, Jan. 1, 2008, http://www.indianexpress.com/story/256457.html). The Prime Minister promised immediate action to restore peace in the area.

But the affected areas still report sporadic violence now, over two weeks since the attacks against Dalit Christians began. The apparition of the gruesome burning of Graham Staines and his two sons in 1999 is being revisited. Hindu fundamentalist groups led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have attacked Christians and their institutions at will in rural Orissa. Over 70 churches and Christian institutions have been burned and vandalized, over 500 Christian homes destroyed, and the number of pastors and Christians killed is yet to be known. One report says that eleven pastors have been killed and thousands of Dalit Christians are displaced. Report speaks of many people who are missing and have vanished in the nearby forests.

Time magazine was quick to state that Hindu caste discrimination is one major factor behind the present persecution of Dalit Christians in Orissa (“A Christian-Hindu Clash in India”, Dec. 27, 2007, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1698533,00.html?imw=Y). Large numbers of Dalits have turned to Christianity in the area and their transformed social, educational, and developmental conditions are plainly evident.

The caste ridden Hindu fundamentalist groups find this difficult to digest and made threats and false propaganda against Christian missionaries and humanitarian workers in recent years. Now they’ve resorted to violence to kill, destroy, and intimidate those who exercise free choice and live under the law. Their ideologues publicly raised the issue of conversions again saying that this is the main reason for the violence.

Human Rights Watch and others recognize that freedom of religion –especially in a democracy like India’s – must be respected and have decried the present carnage in Orissa (“India: Stop Hindu-Christian Violence in Orissa”, Dec. 29, 2007, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/12/28/india17668.htm).

Frankly, conversion is the way of revolt taught to the Dalits by their champion and liberator Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a lawyer educated in the USA, who himself turned to Buddhism. His writings are well known all over India among the Dalits. He clearly called for the Dalits to convert in order to escape caste-based humiliation and discrimination.

The Christian, Buddhist, or any other faith community in India cannot shut the doors to the Dalits who want to turn to a new faith. Under India’s Constitution, Christians and any people of others faiths in India are free to practice and propagate that faith in India. The practice of the Christian faith demands that the Christian church receive all the Dalits that want to follow Christ.

In the Kandhamal area there are about 100,000 Dalit Christians and 500,000 non-Christians and media reports admit that the Dalit Christians have “done well after converting to Christianity” (“Caste, tribe, conversion make Orissa district volatile,” CNN-IBN, Dec. 30, 2007, http://www.ibnlive.com/news/caste-tribe-conversion-make-orissa-district-volatile/55272-3.html). Clearly, a transformation rooted in Christ is offending today’s attackers.

A transformed Christian community becomes a powerful motivator and attractor of all those who are still treated as sub-humans by the caste system in Orissa. Despite the excuses of Hindu fundamentalists, the problem is definitely not improper conversions. Christians are not conducting fraudulent or forced conversions. Instead the inhuman and fraudulent social structure of the caste system stands fully exposed.

Violence against Dalit Christians in Orissa and state-sponsored anti-conversion laws will not stop the conversions into other faiths. Nor will it take care of the decay within the caste-based social system.

Sadly, the state government is not implementing laws that call for severe punishment of those who commit crimes against Dalits. But even worse, it is in the state of Orissa that Dalits cannot go to the main temples because they are considered polluted and will supposedly pollute the temple. It is in Orissa where Dalit girls cannot ride a bicycle through an upper caste village. It is in Orissa where the Scheduled Castes and Tribes eat poisonous roots because of lack of food and imminent starvation. All this in an India which is claiming to be one of the biggest economies and democracies in the world!

The last few weeks of violence have produced a surprise to human rights veterans like myself. An unexpected and new dimension in the persecution of Dalit Christians in Orissa was the involvement of extremist left-wing groups called the Naxalites. These militant Maoists draw many of their members from the Dalit and tribal communities. The Naxalites are blamed for retaliatory attacks against the VHP fundamentalists and the Hindu community in the wake of the violence against Dalit Christians. Reports suggest that this has left about a hundred Hindu families homeless.

My colleagues and I have condemned all forms of extremism, whether Hindu or Christian. But India stands on a precipice of caste discrimination and impoverishment. I pray that we will back away from the ledge of caste-based violence and discrimination and limitations to religious freedom. Only then will India achieve its potential as a super power in the 21st century.

Joseph D'souza is director of the All-India Christian Council.

Those Iowan Evangelicals

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:59:00 +0000

Who voted for Huckabee and why.
By Ted Olsen

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

noreply@blogger.com (Stan Guthrie) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:46:00 +0000

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Refrain

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

Refrain

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Refrain

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.