Colin Gunn has recently released a documentary he created. The film examines the controversial topic of “free” health care. The documentary can be viewed for free (ironically) on the film’s website.
One of the most encouraging things about the film is its presentation of the sensible alternatives to health care that exist within the Christian community.
In other words, the key question seems to be this: In light of terror attacks worldwide, is bringing 10,000 refugees from the Middle East really a safe decision?
While we shouldn’t downplay these concerns, I do wonder what would happen if Christians stood counter to American culture on this issue, by asking fundamentally different questions. What if, while America was asking questions about safety and risk management, Christians were asking, What is God doing? What if, through the senseless evil of civil war, God was bringing unreached people groups to our cities? What if, through great tragedy, God was bringing about the triumph of the gospel?
Conservative Christians can’t talk about gambling, if we don’t see the bigger picture.
We must understand that gambling is an issue of economic justice. We can’t really address the gambling issue if we ignore the larger issue of poverty. Evangelicals who don’t care (as does Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles) about the poor can’t speak adequately to the gambling issues. By this I don’t simply mean caring about individual poor people but about the way social and political and corporate structures contribute to the misery of the impoverished (James 5:1-6). We will never get to the nub of the gambling issue if we don’t get at a larger vision of poverty and the limits of commercial power.
Too many of our “opponents” see us as morally-prissy Victorians who don’t want people doing “naughty” things in our presence. Let’s demolish that pretense, by being the gritty colony of the kingdom that sees the economically downtrodden among us as, when in Christ, “heirs of the kingdom” (Jas. 2:5). And let’s hold out a vision, for all of us, of an inheritance that comes not through predation, and not through luck, but through sonship, through grace.
Ron Cantor shows how modern claims that the first Christians were Palestinian must be false. It is good to be concerned about the plight of Palestinians today, but rewriting history is not the way to do it. This video helpfully summarizes some of the erroneous teaching that is circulating these days. (more…)
Here is what is amazing! Palestinians are experiencing a real genocide and no one cares. Have you even heard one peep from Hollywood or MSNBC about Yarmouk?
Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee camp is under siege by Assad and under attack by ISIS. It has shrunk from 160,000 Palestinians to 18,000 in three years.
Israel tries to stop Hamas from sending rockets against her, and the world is livid. Arabs kill Palestinians in cold blood and hardly a peep. The silence is deafening!
A declining fertility rate in our culture is evidence that we have, as a culture, devalued children and family. We have done so to a point that our very future is now in question, though we may not realize it yet. One culture that is going against this trend is the Muslim culture. In countries all around the world, Muslim populations are gradually becoming the majority, no weapons or violence necessary. Muslims will become a dominant force in the world simply by maintaining a strong belief in the power of multi-generational family while the rest of the world squanders its fertility in preference of other short-sighted goals. The changing demographics are a consequence of different values and worldview.
The beheadings by the Islamic State in Libya have resulted in unprecedented sympathy for Egypt’s Christians, who are increasingly finding common identity across denominational lines. The martyrdoms have also allowed Copts a platform to witness to the realities of their faith, as they publicly forgave the terrorists.
Many in the West are confused about how to respond appropriately to the grizzly scenes of Islamic terror littering the headlines these days. The confusion comes from a general ignorance about the teachings of Islam and of the goals driving the efforts of the jihadists. The Atlantic recently published a lengthy exploration of the beliefs and goals of modern day Islamic groups in order to reduce our collective ignorance and to make suggestions about what a more informed response to Islam might look like for Western nations. The article is quite long, but well worth the read for anyone seeking to get more informed about Islam in our world. Click the “Read More” button below to read the article in its entirety.
“Our ignorance of the Islamic State is in some ways understandable: It is a hermit kingdom; few have gone there and returned. We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world.
We have misunderstood the nature of the Islamic State in at least two ways. First, we tend to see jihadism as monolithic, and to apply the logic of al‑Qaeda to an organization that has decisively eclipsed it. We are misled in a second way, by a well-intentioned but dishonest campaign to deny the Islamic State’s medieval religious nature. In fact, much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.”
George Deek is Arab. He’s also an Israeli diplomat. He’s also a Christian. Is your mind blown yet?
George shares his family’s story of displacement and return as a way to show that people who are often thought of as enemies can become friends by securing a future together. Past wounds and sins can be forgiven and redeemed as God works good from those things which people meant for evil. Indeed, it is possible for this to be a reality, even on the world’s largest geopolitical stage.
There was an early revival in China in the 1920s. Those early Christians had a vision to bring the gospel “back” from the ends of the earth (China) to Israel. They dedicated themselves to the “back to Jerusalem” movement. They felt they had received eternal life from the Jews and wanted to return to them the same grace.
The Chinese church loves Jesus, loves Israel and loves the Arabs. Today we are here, hugging you. Just as the sun rises in the East, so will this revival return to Jerusalem.
I object to any mission to bring prayer “back” to school because I can’t support the faulty theology—downright heresy—of implying God is only around to hear our prayers when the building sanctions his presence.
Prayer never left schools. And God never did either. To suggest otherwise should make us shudder. And yet, that’s what campaigns full of good God-fearing folks seem to be saying.
What are we communicating with our laments over godless classrooms and demands for established prayer times? We insinuate we have the power to take and put God where we want him. We suggest the act of teacher-led prayer or a public invocation of God’s name keeps us from harm or makes a place more God’s and therefore more worthy than another.
In almost every American Christian sanctuary (especially those within the Protestant communions), you can all but guarantee that the American flag will be found. And it is my contention that it should be taken down. Today. And never be put up again in the places where we worship the Lord.
The point is that our faith in Christ, our being a part of the Christian church, transcends nationality. When we enter our Lord’s sanctuary we do so to receive His grace: His Word, His Sacraments. We come as the body of Christ to receive Him. We don’t come as Americans. We don’t come as democrats. We don’t come as constitutional patriots. We come as sinners who need Jesus.
Every empire of man is built upon a lie.
So when Christ came, he did not bring another empire of men built upon a lie as the liar in the desert tempted.
Instead he brought the Empire of God, Good News!
In Americanism, America enjoys a special favor from the Lord, not granted to other nations. He has a special love for us, and our history demonstrates the unique role that God has played in the founding of our nation, as opposed, to say, Russia, or Mexico. Why? Because America has made God her God, “honored him” as no other nation has, and so God has made her his nation.
The problem with this view, though, is that it’s actually a heresy, or at least a seriously false teaching.
My heart breaks over the evil being done in Iraq right now. Christians in America know little about persecution. Click the button below in order to see what persecution looks like. Let us pray fervently for the persecuted.
“Christianity in Mosul is dead, and a Christian holocaust is in our midst,” said Mark Arabo. In an interview with CNN, he called what’s happening in Iraq a “Christian genocide.”
Salim Munayer, a Palestinian Christian, shares his story of how his family is pursuing peace with Israel. It comes through unlikely friendships and recognizing the humanity of his neighbors.
Spoiler alert: A common faith in Christ is the key to bringing peace. Also, everyone involved has to understand their primary identity as being a child of God first. All other identities (e.g. Israeli, Palestinian, etc.) are secondary.
In lieu of a nicely dressed preacher with a polished sermon, I’d like to offer you a testimony about what life is like in Israel these days. Hearing from someone on the ground may help you form your view of the conflict there rather than letting the biased media outlets form your opinion. (more…)
For the first time in 1,600 years, Mass is not being said in Mosul: an ancient culture has been wiped out in a matter of weeks. It’s a war crime that, strangely, no one seems to want to talk about.
Mosul is the second-largest city in Iraq. Since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) rode into town, the Christian’s faith has been forced underground. Bells have been silenced, the hijab enforced with bullets.
As a church, we are not called to condemn or to despise these children, even if they have broken the law. From my humble point of view, these children should be treated as refugees. For those of us who call ourselves Christians, the Bible tells us to welcome the stranger.
This is not only a political matter; this is a biblical matter. It is about how we apply the gospel to this problem and recognize what Jesus expects from us.
With tensions in Israel escalating and more journalistic attention being focused on the situation, it becomes even more important than ever to understand that there is a pervasive and powerful bias in the mainstream media against Israel. The video above offers just one case study in this reality, but many more could be provided. The mere fact that organizations such as Honest Reporting and CAMERA exist is testimony to the fact that this long-standing bias is is alive and well in the media these days.
Note: See also another example calling out the ongoing bias from the NY Times, and yet another example also involving the NY Times.
How was Hitler able to convince Christian soldiers to kill other Christians in Poland, France, and Russia? Hasn’t something gone tragically wrong with the church when Christians can be persuaded to kill other Christians in the name of ideology and nationalism? The enduring catastrophe of Constantine subverting the kingdom of God was that the politics of Jesus were set aside for the interests of empire.
The authors of the Declaration of Independence understood from Scripture that government is a sacred trust given by God to protect the inherent rights of people created in His image. They had no other recourse, they stated in the document, but to declare their independence from the tyrant who represented neither them nor the God who entrusted him with his position of leadership. They rejected his authority because King George had rejected His authority.
After 2,000 years of Replacement Theology, the existence of devout Christians who support the Jewish State of Israel is a mind-blowing reality. Both Jews and Christians involved in this world should not take this support for granted. After all, the vast majority of Christian traditions regard the church and Israel as one-and-the-same, a transcendental entity without borders or boundaries in this world.
This 5 minute video shows how the Israeli Palestinian conflict is an often misunderstood political battleground where facts are mixed with opinion, preference, and prejudice. There’s so much confusion around the conflict that we want to bring light to what is truth and what is myth. What issues are actually standing in the way of bringing peace between the Israelis and Palestinians?