eChurch Blog

Time for our weekly dose of biblical psychobabble fusion and it’s a good one:

The unholy emotions-anger, rage, hate-disturb the soul, damage the body, and harm relationships. This is why the bible tells us: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. (Eph. 4:26) The brief satisfaction you derive from discharging these toxic feelings is surpassed by the fact that these emotions pollute you and everyone around you. When you feel but do not express negative emotions, they will still leak out and cause damage. Like remnants of toxic materials that are buried deep in craters, these emotions remain dangerous. And no one escapes the harmful effects. The Bible warns us: An angry man stirs dissension, and a hot-tempered one commits many sins. (Prov. 29:22)

However, toxic emotions, like nuclear materials, can be sources of energy if converted into a useful force. When you feel anger and hatred toward someone, take the following steps:

Face it. You are angry. Don’t try to find a reason for it or explain it; don’t look for a rationale and justification for it. Especially, don’t seek revenge. That is God’s privilege. The Bible says, Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.” (Rom. 12:19)

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OK, for those who were not so keen on my recent post on Republican Congressman John Shimkus and climate change, here is a cross post by Professor James McGrath of Exploring our Matrix, to redress the balance:

Lauri Lebo shared a video of a Republican representative citing the Bible as proof that humans will not be able to destroy the earth.

That is wrong on so many levels.

Rep. Shimkus said, “The earth will end only when God declares it’s time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth.”

Biblical prophecy, even understanding it within its own Biblical and contextual framework, consistently warns of future disaster so that people may change their ways and avoid the judgment that has been foretold. To suggest that human misbehavior can never have dire consequences because of Biblical predictions seems, even if one were to approach this from a conservative Evangelical perspective, to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of prophecy in the Bible.

Moreover, teaching the Book of Revelation this semester, I’ve also noticed some verses that surprisingly never get mentioned by Christian deniers of global warming. Revelation 16:8 says “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire.” And Revelation 11:18 says “The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great–and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

And so, if conservatives were inclined to look for Biblical texts that might warn of global warning, and punishment for those who harm the Earth, they could find such passages. And so this is just one more in the long list of examples illustrating that there are no Biblical literalists in any meaningful sense, nor anyone who is “Biblical” in the sense that they manage to take seriously all that the Bible says.

Rep. Shimkus may sincerely mean it when he says “I do believe that God’s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.” But sincerity is not enough. Saying you believe this, and using the Bible selectively to support an agenda that conveniently allows you to maintain a particular way of life to which we’ve become accustomed, doesn’t seem to be treating the Bible with the respect Shimkus claims that it deserves.

Everyday Christian has an interesting article which begins thusly:

If we were to go backwards in time 1 billion seconds, the year would be 1976. A billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was doling out free wine and free food to every Roman citizen over the age of 14… male, of course.

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OK, we’ve got a handle on that, so what is the UK debt right now?

£4.8 trillion. Do you know how much that is? Neither do I.

Cross-post by Red Maria of Dolphinarium

This week is the first anniversary of the report Free Speech is Not for Sale, which highlighted the oppressive nature of English libel law; a law which is extremely hostile to writers, while being unreasonably friendly towards powerful corporations and individuals who want to silence critics.

In light of recent events on the British Catholic blogosphere, Catholic bloggers should be particularly aware that English libel law is a pernicious tool in the hands of bullies everywhere.

The English libel law is particularly dangerous for bloggers who are generally not backed by publishers and who can end up being sued in London regardless of where the blog was posted. The internet allows bloggers to reach a global audience, but it also allows the High Court in London to have a global reach.

Priestly bloggers face the additional threat of being abandoned to their fates by the very bishops who should be supporting them as a matter of principle.

You can read more about the peculiar and grossly unfair nature of English libel law at the website of the Libel Reform Campaign. The campaign is not calling for the removal of libel law, but for a libel law that is fair and which would allow writers a reasonable opportunity to express their opinion and then defend it.

The British Government has made a commitment to draft a bill that will reform libel but it is imperative that bloggers and their readers send a strong signal to politicians so that they keep their promise. You can do this by joining me and over 50,000 others who have signed the libel reform petition at

http://www.libelreform.org/sign

You can sign the petition whatever your nationality and wherever you live. Indeed, signatories from overseas remind British politicians that the English libel law is out of step with the rest of the free world.

The current situation is untenable; English libel law is the most censorious libel law in the democratic world. It serves established interests at the expense of freedom of speech and expression. It must be reformed for the good of everybody and for the good of the Church.
We must speak out to defend free speech. Please sign the petition for libel reform at

http://www.libelreform.org/sign

I simply found this offer of compassion and refuge moving. Hat-tip Jim West

Iraqi Christians under siege by Islamic militants are welcome in the country’s north, a Kurdish leader said Thursday, after a string of attacks that have killed dozens of the faith.

“I want to let them know that the Kurdistan Region is open to them. If they want to come, we will protect them and provide them with all services,” said Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan regional government. “We are extremely sorry for the crimes they have been subjected to and we condemn these criminal acts, they are innocent people and a precious part of this nation.”

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The Kurds are willing to do as the French are doing, which is more than the Brits or Americans…..

The following is a cross-post by Michael Merrick – currently a teacher in training – of Outside In:

Take a 14 year old girl on a school trip and you’ll need a permission slip. That is, a parent will have to be notified and, as legal guardian for that child, give permission for them to attend the trip.

On the other hand, if a 14 year old girl reveals she is pregnant and does not want her parents to know, then one must not tell the parents, on pain of prosecution.

Tell the ‘health advisor’, of course. Call in the ‘family planning’ agencies, by all means. Gather all the information and the contacts so that the young girl can ‘sort it out’, as I have heard it expressed – but do not tell the parents. Do not dare let them know that their child is pregnant, never mind considering, or being advised upon, or has already had, an abortion.

That would be against her ‘human rights’, apparently. It would break the bonds of trust and confidentiality, and would constitute a failure of the duty of care, apparently. It would contravene her right to self-determination, the right to privacy, apparently.

So long as the fourteen year old girl can be said to have entered into the relationship as a fully consenting individual, of course. Though, beyond the establishment of that fact, the father has no other role in this. Obviously.

Because this is all about safeguarding the child.

Or one of them, anyway.

“How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!”

TCR of the New leaven blog has picked up on an interesting article in Christianity Today which argues that Christians must defend religious liberty for Muslims when they are the minority.

Although many would argue – and I have adopted this position myself – that Islamic nations need to offer reciprocal freedoms to Christians, the article pivots on this Scripture:

Luke 6:35

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.

The premise being that we should defend Muslim liberties in the western world regardless if they reciprocate or not.

The article cites specifically laws banning the public wearing of Islamic full face veils – which I have commented on here – and argues we should ‘lead by example’ and fight for this right.

I’m going to confess that against the backdrop of recent attacks against Christians in Iraq and elsewhere in the Islamic world, I balked at this article and instinctively recoiled at the idea of defending Muslim liberties in the West in light of atrocities perpetrated in Islamic nations.

Perhaps this makes me un-Christian in this regard.

Whilst festering on these negative thoughts, I stumbled on the fact that the odious Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood have expressed their disgust at the Baghdad bombings, and called for Cairo to protect its churches.

I must admit this revelation induced me to ruminate a little more deeply on my own attitudes.

Should we fight for Muslim rights irrespective of reciprocal rights, inspired by the teaching of Jesus? Or are the teachings of Jesus nothing to do with defending other religions?

I thought this was fantastic.

Joseph McElwee was convicted of drunken behavior, verbally abusing the gardaí, and faced a prison sentence.

Instead of sending him to prison, Judge Seamus Hughes ordered McElwee to climb Ireland’s holiest mountain – Croagh Patrick – raise money for charity, say some prayers and observe the four stations, which he duly did.

The Irish Times has the story, but in the meantime I can’t help being reminded of when the Orthodox Church in Georgia announced a scheme to let prisoners shorten their jail terms by spending time in a monastery instead.

Imagine the prison inmates dismay when they realised that time actually moves slower in church than prison.

I came across a little article in the Telegraph which amid the doom and gloom actually raised a smile on my weary face.

I wasn’t going to mention this, but as David over at Anglican Samizdat has picked up on it, I’ll share it with you also.

Basically, Republican congressman John Shimkus is hoping to chair the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, which takes a central role in formulating U.S. policy on climate change and global warming.

The thing is, the good congressman doesn’t believe in the possibility of an existential environmental threat, because of the promises God made to Noah in which He said He would never again destroy the earth.

Anyway, you can enjoy the good Senator’s audacious faith here.

I’m with David on this one who says:

I have a lot of sympathy for Shimkus’ views: God is ultimately in control of what happens to the earth and man’s presumption of self determination is largely vanity. At the same time, although I think anthropological global warming is a hoax, I have enough of the hobbit in me to like green fields, woods and meadows filled with wild flowers. Our world is filled with spectacular beauty: it is ours to enjoy, not destroy.

President Obama is fawning over Indonesia currently, which is nice.

Obama is especially enamoured with Indonesia’s religious tolerance, which is also nice.

Now, it’s not that I don’t trust Obama or would doubt the great man’s words, but I thought I would quickly verify Indonesia’s marvelous track record with religious freedom over at Voice of the Martyrs.

Here’s some snippets:

Indonesia, a vast collection of some 13,600 islands and 300 ethnic groups, has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world.

[.....]

There is officially no state religion in Indonesia but Islam seems to be gaining strength politically, often at the expense of religious minorities such as Christians. The province of Aceh, for example, has imposed Sharia or Islamic law. Christians say they are being marginalized in society and increasingly persecuted. Many house churches have been closed. Nationally, they are the target of a concerted campaign by militant Islamist groups bent on the total Islamisation of the archipelago. In recent years, Islamist groups such as Laskar Jihad have carried out jihad or holy war against Christian communities, particularly in the Moluccas and Central Sulawesi. The Indonesian army has frequently been accused of complicity and involvement in these attacks.

Calls for jihad led to widespread violence in the Moluccas and Central Sulawesi between 1999 and 2002. Thousands of mujahedin were mobilized, hundreds of churches were destroyed and Christians were forced to convert to Islam. As a result, Muslim and Christian communities were pitted against each other, with casualties on both sides. The 2002 Malino Peace Accord signed in Maluku marked a truce and the start of a reconciliation process. A fragile peace has held but attacks on Christians have continued. The murder of three Christian girls, beheaded by militants as they walked to school in Poso in 2005, sparked international outrage. Three militants were convicted of the killings in March 2007. Less dramatic, but equally alarming, was the conviction of three female Sunday School teachers from West Java for “proselytizing Muslim children” in September 2005. The women’s claim that they had the Muslim parents’ full consent was drowned out in a courtroom full of Islamist militants making murderous threats.

Well that is odd, I’m baffled, perhaps Wikki could shed some light on this:

In January 1999, anti-Christian violence erupted by local Muslims. “Tens of thousands died when Moslem gunmen terrorized Christians who had voted for independence in East Timor.

Well, maybe this is all old news and Obama is commenting on how good things are nowadays:

AsiaNews – 2/08/2010 – Indonesia Bekasi, anti-Christian persecution continues. A Protestant church targeted

Yep, things are just great in terms of religious freedom on the ground Mr President.