Sudan Threatens Soft Drink Industry If Sanctions Imposed

Corrected Version

In former days, men such as William Carey went without cane sugar because the product benefitted the slave trade.

Today, the world soft drink industry enriches the Sudanese goverment through sales of gum arabic, a key ingredient in the mix.

As a result the Sudanese government threatened to hold drinkers of Coca Cola hostage if sanctions are imposed. (In reality there is no substance to the claim that Coca Cola will suffer according to the article I've linked to, but Pepsi declined to comment!)

How odd that our appetites for soft drinks and oil enrich those who hate the West so much!

I doubt that those who are so passionate about Darfur care enough to stop drinking soft drinks voluntarily to cripple the Sudanese regime if it could be shown to have an impact.

We're all outrage but no action...Our consciences are crippled by our appetites and we have no will to chage. Isn't that the definition of an "addict" when applied to an individual? If so, we have become the "Addict Culture".

On another note, I wonder how many who are so outraged about "Darfur" and "Tibet" and want something to be "done" are also against the "War in Iraq"?

And if not war... what is to be "done"? We can't even stop drinking soft drinks when the sodium benzoate is linked to Parkinson's, premature aging, and liver damage! We want "someone" to take "decisive action" without any personal cost to ourselves or any interruption in our conveniences.

We have no common worldview and as a result can arrive at no common moral consensus.

More Junk Evangelical Concern From Outreach & Evangelism Ezine This Time

My email box got the latest email from "Outreach" today.

I like to stay informed about outreach opportunities and this has the potential to be a good source of "outside the box" ideas as they say.

But I'm getting sick at the way evangelicals who are desperately in search of "relevance" these days seem to seek that "relevance" at any cost.

We have no internal compass to judge the validity of the world's agenda, so we kow tow to their wisdom at every opportunity it seems.

The latest example of this for me is this article: Whose Earth Is It Anyway? - Outreach & Evangelism

It's about the need to replace all the light bulbs in the church to save the world in Jesus's Name.

It's amazing how Jesus never calculated on the incandescent light bulb as the true barrier to his plans for creating the new heaven and new earth... He just thought sin, death, and the devil were the real problem!

Forgive my sarcasm. But it does get me to my point.

I think American Christians have lost their minds. Or at least their (our) discernment. The "Copenhagen Consensus" (summary chart below) was compiled by secular and environmentalist friendly persons without an axe to grind. They simply asked ... "What gives us the most bang for the buck in addresseing global human needs while bringing demonstrable results?"

On the chart below, you'll see how everything in this article about warming and climate control ranks as a cruel joke to the world's truly needy.

That means our evangelical preoccupation with climate change nonsense is also our participation in a cruel joke on the world's truly needy.

The only thing "addressing global warming" guarantees is the frightening increase of totalitarianism, the greatest mass murderer in human history - if you're not counting the devil, of course.

God help us and give us some perspective on what justice and righteousness really mean - from the Sciptures and not from the pagans of this world.

As an example of why I concur with the Copenhage Consensus, I would ask you to consider the message of this advertisement from Acton Institute. This is where we really need to be devoting our efforts as stewards instead of dupes of the zeitgeist.

For the projected cost of Kyoto in just the year 2010, the biggest health problem facing mankind could be fixed. We could provide clean drinking water and sanitation for every person in the world. Permanently.

Currently one billion people in the world use unsafe sources of drinking water. As a result of this contaminated water and lack of basic sanitation, 4,500 children die each day.

Worrying about deaths from global warming is, at best, a case of misplaced priorities.

Obviously, we can’t ignore any real global warming threats. But, with limited resources, we need to make smart, moral choices about what we do. Technological advancement is the key to controlling environmental pollution. And it takes wealth to make those advancements. If saving lives is our goal, we must advocate policies
that will help developing countries prosper.

Hospital Replaces Crucifix With Mary

This is both a setback for Protestant/Roman* relations and a setback for Christendom.

A hospital in Milan replaces crucifixes with pictures of Mary to appease Muslims.

For one thing, it is a setback for Protestant/Roman* relations because despite the protests of Rome, especially after Vatican II, that Marian devotion was simply "honor" and "respect" instead of the worship and devotion given to the Triune God, on a practical level, Mary has become part of the Godhead and easily replaces Jesus when the chips are down. This will confirm for many Protestants the latent fear that the "Roman Reformation" of Vatican II was only superficial and that the true affections of Rome are idolatrous and turning away from Jesus Christ.Some will say that on a practical level, Mary is already part of the Roman godhead.

I don't personally believe this to be the case. The Roman communion is too broad to make such a sweeping statement. My point is that the ability to thoughtlessly replace Jesus with Mary by grassroots Romanists will confirm for the average Protestant the lingering suspicion that the agenda of Rome is ultimately worship Mary.

But this is also a setback for Christendom. Christian people in a once Christian land are not free to practice Christianity for fear of the unrest from the followers of a minority religion with a history of violence.





*Note: I do not say "Protestant/Catholic" relations because - as one considered "Protestant" by Rome though I prefer to consider myself evangelical, reformed, and catholic - I confess my belief in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. To qualify "Catholic", a term for universality, with "Roman" a local and juridictional term for the pretensions of the ancient Bishopric of Rome, is to create an oxymoron and absolve "Protestants" of their obligation to pursue catholicity within the bounds of theological integrity.

Amazing Grace - The Movie

I just viewed the movie trailer for the forthcoming film Amazing Grace, the story of William Wilberforce. It's timed to come out February 23rd, 2007 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. (At least the English slave trade. 27 million it's estimated still languish in slavery of one sort or another, but this movie will still help them.)

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) led the twenty-year fight to end the British slave trade, a victory now regarded as He finally succeeded in March 1807 and continued to fight for abolition until, days before his death in 1833, he saw the institution of slavery abolished throughout the British colonies. Not limiting himself to just abolitionist work, he dedicated his life to what he called his "two great objects:" abolishing slavery in the British Empire and what he called "the reformation of manners [society]." To this end, he advocated for child labor laws, campaigned for education of the blind and deaf, and founded organizations as diverse as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the National Gallery (of Art). "Good causes," it has been said, "stuck to him like pins to a magnet." - Wilberforce biographer and Amazing Grace lead historical consultant, Kevin Belmonte

The movie hopes to also introduce The Amazing Change Campaign to end modern chattel slavery. Sunday February 18th is "Amazing Grace Sunday" Most churches using a lectionary based on the common lectionary will be celebrating our Lord's Transfiguration. By extending the reading to include all of Luke 9:28-43 they can include the text where immediately after that event our Lord descends the mount to free a child held in bondage to demonic spirits... How appropriate!

One little known fact: There are more slaves being traded and in bondage now than any time during the 400 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade the Wilberforce helped end non-violently.

One Concern: Will the movie adequately portray William Wilberforce's Christian motivations or downplay them? The bio of Wilberforce never mentions that he lived and died a zealous Christian after an "evangelical" conversion experience!

Are the promoters of the film hoping to downplay this fact to give the movie broader appeal (the lead character starred in the "Fantastic 4" and is recognizable to millions of youth)? Do they hope that Christian interest can be maintained by having the song Amazing Grace play in the background?

I did notice a link to the World Evangelical Alliance Amazing Grace Church Resources page for this movie.

At least their marketing is better than the Nativity Scene! They are also linking a movie to CONCRETE ACTION!

Here's the Official Movie Site: AmazingGraceMovie.com

"Advocate For The Homless" Bumbling Officials Help Starve The Homeless

A self proclaimed "Advocate for the homeless" from Fairfax County, Virginia called the food police on some grannies who were making soup and corn bread at home for their church and then feeding homeless people for free, but obviously not through the "proper" homeless advocacy channels.

Between the "advocates" - grant seeking whiners who don't want competition from churches and who don't want "compassion" to be anything more than grant money channelled through their grubby hands so they can get a hefty cut of it whether the poor are helped or not - and the "health department" whose actions give people no option but to eat out of dumpsters, is there anyone really helping the homeless here?

Too often "Compassion" has become an industry to fatten the wallets of "advocates" and extend the power of bureaucrats. What's been lost in the equation is anything that might reconnect people who are alienated from both Jesus Christ and society back to both... like the personal help of little old ladies making home made soup.

Thankfully 2 pastors are speaking out...

Rev. [Judy] Fender added, "They've set up a situation that you have to have a $40,000 kitchen to feed someone who's going to get their food from questionable sources at best."

Rev. Kathleen Chesson said her First Christian Church would not obey the rules. "Our agenda is to feed the hungry. We're going to feed the hungry. That's it."

Evidently adverse publicity has let the soup kitchen reopen - for now.

Note: This news I've linked to here jibes perfectly with an article I read today on who the real skinflints are... the ones shouting loudest about "caring". More "homeless advocates" I presume.

Why Is "The Nativity" Bombing At The Box Office?

WorldNetDaily.com reports that "The Nativity" is bombing at the box office.

This is supposed to reflect the people of faith's ennui and laziness.

Of course it couldn't reflect Hollywood's lack of credibility?

Or Hollywood's lack of marketing for the film?

Here's more of what the article said...

Baehr believes a major problem for "Nativity" was that marketers didn't get the word out early to their vital partner, the churches.

Mel Gibson, he pointed out, was promoting "Passion" in churches nine months before its release. With "Narnia," study guides were distributed to nearly every church – an effort that requires marketers to be "one year ahead of the game." "Passion," released in 2004, had a worldwide box office of $604 million.

The bottom line is that even when Hollywood produces a great film - like the one recently on Esther, a "Night with the King" - nobody ever hears about it until the day it comes out. The Passion built interest and tension months in advance.

It just goes to show that Hollywood doesn't know how to market wholesome movies.

Hire the crew that promoted the Passion and partner with churches and you'll have a huge turn out.

Personally I love the film and have encouraged everyone I've spoken to about the film to see it. I might go see it again just to register my interest.

Impact of Religion on Social Stability

Let me note that in the United States at least, "Religion" usually means "Christianity" - or a religion that has inevitably been heavily influenced by the moral values of traditional Christianity so that it can fit into American society.

So it's very significant that the Heritage Foundation has recently published this paper entitled Why Religion Matters Even More: The Impact of Religious Practice on Social Stability By Patrick F. Fagan

Despite the ignorant special pleading of self-avowed atheists (like Richard Dawkins) and those who glorify their own debauchery (like Elton John) that religion is the problem, following Jesus Christ is in fact the solution to our ills. Servants of Christ knew that already, but here's some more empirical proof.

Why won't this paper have much impact?

Because there is no longer a common definition of what is "good" and "right".

We got in this mess, to quote Eugene Peterson's version of Romans 1:18-25 called the "Message" because...

People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them.

When there's no common definition of "God" or "good" or "bad" (a classical case of Postmoderism being so profoundly wise in its own eyes it has become stupid. But without the grace of God we prefer our stupidity to the initially painful act of repentance), there will never be any agreement about a way forward in families, denominations or societies.

Purpose(ly) Driven Off from Church - It Doesn't Have To Happen

Recently the Wall Street Journal and Baptist Press have noted a disturbing trend.

Pastors wanting grow their church into a mega church and looking to Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Church" seminars for the instant recipe mix are leaving split churches in their wake. Life long church members with years of service to a particular church are finding themselves ousted as troublemakers and rabble rousers if they oppose the new measures.

But it's not fair to blame Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church methodology or any methodology really. The spirit of Diotrephes can manifest itself in many forms, though many prideful pastors seem to be using Warren's words as a pretext for their self-exaltation. We did hire them to be the Messiah, right? (Oh wait, I think He's already come! That's why there was a church there in the first place!)

I remember reading Warren's book and I remember the part that could be taken to "prove" the need to drive off rabble rousers.

As Warren was building Saddleback from scratch as a church planter, new visitors attracted to his nascent church would say things like "At ___________ we used to do ___________". Since he was building the church from scratch and he had the investment in the church, not they, he'd suggest they may be happier back at their other church. I'll bet many times the left the last place in a huff and it was probably good advice not to seek a "geographical cure" for their personal inablility to get along at church.

When Messiah wannabe pastors though come to a church where they were invited to be a shepherd, the situation's entirely different.

It's the long term members who have the investment in the place.

Their attitude is "he acts like he wants to be here, but we'll give it a few years." That's why folks say it takes 6 years in a church to have maximum impact. Till then, the people still wonder if you'll be gone on the next train.

So when Messiah II (the new preacher) comes in, unpacks his bags, and starts changing things before he even remembers anyone's name - whether it's to help the church be "Purpose Driven", "Liturgical", "Free in the Spirit", "Evangelistic" - you name the symptom in front of the disease of pride - and tries bending people who don't trust him to his iron will, the manure's going to hit the spreader.

I chalk most of these splits in the name of trying to be "Purpose Driven" to pride, foolishness, and utter lack of love. Some of these people posing as pastors can taste success so badly they'd excommunicate their mother from the church as a "rabble rouser" if they didn't coo like a dove after every sermon. They're just climbing the ladder of "pastoral success" and looking for the right rung to launch their mega church reputation from.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

I ran across the blog of a pastor whose writing exudes pastoral love and concern. The man purposely chose a small church - and to minister to other small churches in his area - because of his heart for the small church.

When I checked out his church's website, lo and behold, he lead this small church to be "Purpose Driven".

Do I think his church's adoption of Rick Warren's methodology will cause a split?

No.

Why?

He's not pompous, arrogant, or self-centered! That's why. It used to be called having a "pastor's heart". That's not discussed much in the CEO model of the church.

So he's going to use the method to revitalize his church and the cluster of churches he has influence with.

God bless those pastors who are doing what they feel to be the most faithful things to build up the body of Christ.

They'll do so with a pastor's heart that seeks the lost sheep without driving away the "ninety and nine".

MTV Style Youth Ministry Is Out Dude!

MTV Style Youth Ministry is OUT... the Bible is IN says the Christian Post.

We could never compete with Disney anyway, but we preachers are good at making fools of ourselves. So why not try that too?

Thankfully the teenagers are smarter than we'd give them credit for. But, then, by definition, they'd have to be smarter than we thought if we assumed "ministry to teens" meant trying to answer the question "What would Beavis and Butthead do while wearing a W.W.J.D. bracelet?"

One surprising finding that Fuller Seminary's Center for Youth and Family Ministry revealed in an ongoing study was that teens attend youth group because they like their youth pastor and to learn about God. Those reasons were listed by the majority of the surveyed students. The Barna Group found the top reason listed among teens for attending church was to "understand better what I believe."

Students also said they wanted to have more time for deep conversation and also desired more accountability in their youth groups. Games or other activities were not a desired priority. (emphasis added).

Sadly, by the time we figured this out, a generation may have gone down the drain.

The question is: will we challenge youth to be more than "slogan Christians"?

A local church in our presbytery had a youth group who got sick of giving toys at Christmas. They kept getting asked for "Xbox's" and "Playstations" and they didn't own them themselves. So their youth director wisely got them involved helping some people who really needed help and who appreciated getting clothes and food for Christmas. That became life changing and helped the kids peel off the middle class materialism and ingratitude we tend to suffer from.

Reformed University Fellowship has done a good job helping college age youth reconnect with the great post-reformation hymns set to new music, complete with occasional archaic language retained. In the process, they have learned the theology of the hymns.

Forever Grateful Music has put 80 to 100 scripture passages to modern tunes to aid scripture memorization.

I find that most Christians - even ones who've been in the church "all their lives" and are no longer teens - need to reconnect with the rich history of the Christian Faith in general and their own church's tradition in particular. Ministers to all ages need to help people learn a Christian worldview for the first time and break out of the dumbed down sentimentality that passes for the faith of the apostles, prophets, and martyrs in our churches.

Comfortable Christianity Depresses Me - Baroness Cox

The TimesOnline (UK) writes about Baroness Cox's work articulating the plight of the world's persecuted Christians. Her latest book is Cox’s Book of Modern Saints and Martyrs. They write:

It is not an easy read. We hear of walking 12 miles of scorched earth littered with corpses of women and children in Sudan; of beheaded teenage girls in Indonesia; and religious persecution in the shape of rape, torture and murder elsewhere.

But we also hear the story of 15,000 people fleeing violence in East Timor, who are fed for a week from one bag of rice by Sister Maria Lourdes; and remarkable instances of courage, such as when Lady Cox sat beside the Rev Rinaldy Damanik in an Indonesian court and heard him choose the scaffold over renouncing his faith (he was later released after serving a prison sentence, during which time he handed out to injured Muslim inmates plasters that contained verses from the Bible).

Evangelicals and Social Justice

The Washington Post ran this article called Let's Stop Stereotyping Evangelicals.

It's an interesting article and perhaps a series of new thoughts for typical Washington Post readers. It does a particularly good job of noting Chuck Colson's work through Prison Fellowship that is a direct outgrowth of his fall from power and redemption in Christ.

As the article shows, evangelicals in America can't catch a break. They used to be criticized for having a theology of salvation described as "pie in the sky, by and by" thanks to Dwight Moody's motto "You don't polish the brass on a sinking ship". Moody, though, never lived up to his motto. For example, he started what is now known as the Moody Bible Institute that remains to this day. Whether you care for every jot and tittle of its theology or not, people who start schools are future oriented, not escapists.

Now the criticism has turned. When evangelicals engage in any social action - once considered the exclusive territory of the mainline - they're condemned for wanting to create a "theocracy" by people busy imposing their own "atheocracies" or "anthropocracies". What else can they be called since the critics of "theocracy" didn't allow belief in "God" to be mentioned in the social realm as anything more than an embarrassing personal failing much like exhibiting flatulence in crowded room.

Why weren't Protestant social activists from the mainline criticized for trying to implement a "theocracy"? Oh, yeah, I guess they had no discernable "theos" to have a "theocracy". With the demise of orthodoxy in the old mainline, it wasn't too threatening. At worst, I suppose, people feared they wanted to impose a "Maybeocracy".

With evangelicals though, it's a case of "darned if you do and darned if you don't".

Loconte and Cromartie do a good job of trying to set the record straight. Hopefully it won't fall on deaf ears.

But if it does, the good news is that evangelicals, absent for a short time from the battlefields of social activism are returning with zeal. However mistaken some of their causes seem to be, like jumping on the Global Warming bandwagon, they're on target and creating innovative solutions in other areas. And best of all they don't care if they're accused of trying to set up a theocracy.

Knowing Jesus is Lord already, there's nothing to set up. It's just time to get to work displaying His rule.

The Legacy of the Nazi Eugenics Program & It's American Counterpart

The Times Online (UK) ran an article recently about the Nazi Lebensborn program.

It's a sad and twisted tale about what happens when abortion depopulates a state as Western Europe and Russia are being depopulated by abortion today. Now these nations see themselves about to implode because it takes people to maintain the infrastructure of a culture.

Post World War I Germany noticed that too thanks to the depopulation of war and mad men seized on a "solution" they thought. They would breed the "master race" and seed the Reich with "pure progeny".

Like other experiments where demonic states attempt to replace the family unit ordained by God, it failed on several counts.

The children of the "Master Race" were found to be as subject to their environment as any others. Their genetics did not guarantee superiority despite their nurture.

Hitler believed the “Nordic race” was destined to rule the world. But many Lebensborn children ended up emotionally scarred underachievers, craving the warmth of family ties and alienated from their foster parents or mothers, who in many cases refused to speak about the programme, either out of shame or loyalty to the SS oath that they had sworn. The children’s suffering was worst in Norway, where many never recovered from the stigma of having a German father. Some were put in mental asylums.

Gisela Heidenreich, blue-eyed and tall with fair hair, found out in the 1950s that her father had been a married SS officer and her mother a secretary for Lebensborn. She started investigating her past when she was shown a magazine report about Lebensborn “studs” and “SS whores”.

“My world fell apart. My mother wasn’t a harmless quiet secretary, she was this whore who bred me,” Frau Heidenreich said.

Though Americans will wag their heads in derision of this failed experiment, the philosophy behind it is a well funded entity in the U.S. It's called Planned Parenthood, and its founder shared Hitler's eugenics theory.

In the U.S. the mode of action is not the outright breeding of a "master race" a la Lebebsborn but the attempt to eradicate the "underclasses", those not "fit to breed".

Politicians voting to fund abortions in the name of "Choice" are, in essence, continuing the Nazi program here and have been for nearly a generation.

Today as we shake our heads in wonder at the insanity of Lebensborn and the scarred lives left behind... will we look to ourselves and do something about the same philosophy hard at work here, funded by our government, doing more to kill off the "underclasses" than any of Hitler's schemes accomplished?

Related links: Pastor Clenard Howard Childress, Jr. on how abortion decimates the Black Community.

Madonna and Child

Rev. Dr. Larry Brown, a missionary teacher in Malawi, tells how the locals in Malawi view Madonna - the performer not the Virgin - obtaining a child under questionable circumstances:

Today Madonna’s adopted child left Malawi. He’s a one-and-a-half year old boy named David Banda. No, Madonna wasn’t with him; he arrived in London accompanied by two of her staff. There has been here in Malawi a cry of outrage. The law says that one must have been a resident in Malawi for one year before being eligible to adopt. A spokesman for the Malawian government told the BBC radio today that after all, it’s only a law, and as such is subject to interpretation. I tell my students here that there’s an ancient American proverb, “Money talks.” They smile knowingly; they have a similar proverb in their culture. The child, meanwhile, is more of an orphan than ever.

Update 11/6/2006 - Reports reveal that "Madonna" chose this child despite the fact that he was not really an orphan. In fact, she passed up legitimately orphaned children, then, after criticism claimed that this boy too was an orphan because his father "never visited him". In fact, the father robe 36 km three times per week - by bicycle - OR MORE to visit the boy.