Month: February 2006

One of the things that really struck me from the movie “End of the Spear” was that in the Waodani language, there is no word for forgiveness. The concept was so foreign to that culture that no word had ever been coined. In our Christian culture we have the word but we too often lack the ability to apply it. One of the joys of writing these daily ramblings is hearing from readers who are blessed or challenged by something I have written. Occasionally someone takes time out of their busy schedule to tell me I am an idiot. Isn’t it a waste of time to tell an idiot that he is an idiot? How can an idiot comprehend that? But I digress. The communications that are really hard for me are the ones from people who have been wounded by other people in the church or by church leaders. Those break my heart and such messages arrive far too often. Today was such a day.

I wrote a blog this week called  “Boomers get ready…how soon will we be going home?”. The article was based on a mortality calculator developed for baby boomers. You could add up your variables and predict your chances of living for the next four years. But my argument was that no matter how much time we have we should live with a sense of urgency.  Here are a couple of paragraphs from that post.

So how then should we live? Like Paul and Peter and John and the rest of the early followers of Christ. With an air of expectancy that tomorrow (or the rest of today) is not guaranteed. To live with a sense of priority and passion about what really matters. Do you have someone that you want to tell that you love them? Tell them now. Is there a relationship that needs repairing? Repair it now. Someone that you know you have to forgive? Please forgive them now by faith and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Still angry with a parent or sibling? Deal with it now. Have you slipped away from God for some reason? Come back now.

What if I told you that you have exactly one week to live? Write down what you would do and what you would say in those precious seven days. And then start doing those things now. Because no matter how stunning your score might be on the Grim Reaper Index it is no guarantee of anything past this moment. I know that not every recipient of such communications are receptive or even civil. But at the end of the day we are accountable before a Holy God only for our actions. They are accountable for theirs. Do the right thing and trust the rest to Jesus.  

Today I found this response to that post.

I agree that as a follower of Christ we should not be concerned about how many days we have left, we should live each day as though it is our last. My issues to deal with are related to pain inflicted by Christian leaders on trusting and innocent people. How can anyone forgive these people who take advantage of the very ones who they are entrusted to lead, teach, and help? HOW is it possible to forgive a pastor who has deliberately lied, stolen, and strung along an innocent person? Does God really expect us to forgive such people- exploiters who manipulate the word of God in order to trick a trusting person into submission – a pastor who uses a hurting person’s unfounded guilt to his own advantage? And when does accountability come into the equation? And do we have to forgive others when we are not even ASKED for forgiveness?

Dave, is a Christian required to forgive those who have willfully lied, used and abused them with premeditation when no apology was ever offered? If I die today will I go to Hell because I cannot forgive a pastor who caused me and my loved ones excruciating pain and suffering for years? What then is the difference between a Christian and a doormat?

Wow. Anyone out there want to field this one? The message was signed “doormat”. The pain and anger in that message are heartbreaking. There is no way I can address all of the issues raised here in this space. But I did want to offer a few things and hope that this reader finds some comfort. I think that we have generally done a poor job of teaching forgiveness. Here are a few misconceptions that I personally had about forgiveness.  This is from a chapter on forgiveness I wrote about in “Bring’em Back Alive – A Healing Plan for those Wounded by the Church”.

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  Forgiveness is not condoning or diminishing the offense. Forgiving a person who has wronged you does not mean they are “off the hook” for any consequences or judgment that may result from their actions. Forgiveness is a personal act of your will that releases the other person from your condemnation. At that point you have been obedient to what Jesus asks of you…the other person is responsible to God for their response. By extending forgiveness you are not saying the offense was insignificant or unimportant. You are saying that you trust God to see that justice is dispensed according to His Holy judgment and timing.
  
  
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  Forgiveness is not forgetting. The old forgive and forget admonition was one of the biggest barriers I faced in my journey to learn how to forgive. You know the old mental challenge to not picture an elephant in the room. You can’t do it. Instantly the image pops into your mind. The more I tried to be spiritually mature and try to forgive and forget the more my offender became the “elephant in the room.” That person or event was all I could think of. Over time you will think less and less of the hurt and/or the one who administered same. C.S. Lewis wrote to a friend late in his life. “Dear Mary…Do you know, only a few weeks ago, I realized suddenly that I had at last forgiven the cruel schoolmaster who so darkened my childhood. I had been trying to do it for years.” To try to achieve a state of instantaneous forgetfulness is setting yourself up for failure and frustration.
  
  
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  Forgiveness does not require reconciliation. Certainly it is a worthy goal to have the gift of forgiveness lead to a restoration of a damaged relationship. But it takes two people to reconcile and you have no control over anyone’s response except your own. The other person may not respond graciously. They may not be ready to accept forgiveness or acknowledge their part or even desire to be reconciled. Again, we have done what is required of us by extending the grace of forgiveness. Reconciliation is not required  to be obedient to the command of Jesus.
  
  
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  Forgiveness is an act of the will and is not a response to feelings. We must choose to forgive and trust the Jesus who forgave us to eventually change our feelings. We may not “feel” like forgiveness has transpired. If you decide to wait until you “feel” like forgiving or that the other person must make the first move you will remain spiritually stuck. We have to make the choice and then wait for God to honor the choice.  We make a choice to forgive and then we have faith that the Holy Spirit will reshape our feelings over the course of time. Forgiveness requires choice and faith, just like every miracle that comes from God. 
  
  
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  Forgiveness is not ignoring or excusing the offense. There is nothing to forgive if we have not been wronged. Jesus is not asking us to ignore reality. He is asking us to acknowledge how much we have been forgiven and to extend the same courtesy to others. Forgiveness is acknowledging the offense without cover-up or excuse and still choosing to forgive.
  
  
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  Forgiveness is not denial of the hurt. Pride will often cause us to “not allow the person who hurt us the satisfaction” of knowing we are wounded. That is absurd. Acknowledge the reality of the injury but make the choice and decision of your will to be healed. 
  
  
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  Forgiveness is eliminating revenge as an option. Lewis Smedes makes a brilliant point about revenge. No matter how much we try “we cannot get even; this is the inner fatality of revenge.” When you start trying to get even you have lost. How many times must I gossip about you to get “even” for the hurt you caused me? When is the scale even? Or do I need to have the scale tip a bit toward me to be satisfied? What a self-defeating pursuit that becomes! And the truth proclaimed by Josh Billings is “there is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”
  
  
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  Forgiveness means understanding that hurt is part of the faith tour contract that we signed when we decided to follow Jesus. Author David Stoop notes that, “People choose the Path of Bitterness when they get caught up in trying to understand the reasons for the offense. They think, if only they could understand why the other person did what he or she did, they could get over it
  and let it go.”  I have three words for that approach….does not work.

 The late author Lewis Smedes wrote powerfully about forgiveness. He often spoke of how only forgiveness can “release us from the grip of our history.” We cannot change an abusive upbringing. We cannot alter dysfunctional theological training that denied grace. We cannot simply deny the hurts that have been visited upon us and be spiritually free. Only forgiveness can release us from the grip of these real and historical events.

So I would say this to my wounded brother who wrote the message to me. Yes, I believe you do need to forgive that pastor. But the reason you need to forgive is that Jesus knew that is the only way for you to be fully healed. You have a Savior who understands the pain of betrayal. So I am going to ask you to be selfish and forgive. Say what? I have heard bitterness described as drinking rat poison and hoping the other person dies. The comparison works for me. It is vital to your spiritual well being to forgive this person. When you follow the directive of Jesus and forgive you are free to concentrate on the blessings in your life. Is this easy? Of course not. I believe that forgiveness is the single hardest thing that Jesus asks us to do. But He knows how important forgiveness is for own growth. Will you go to Hell if you die today without forgiving this person? I don’t believe that for a moment. The redemptive act of Jesus on the cross literally has you (and sins past, present, and future) covered. But why would you want to live in anger and distress when Jesus has something better for you? The Apostle Paul’s wrote these words in Colossians.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Col 3  NIV

You and I have been forgiven of much. Thomas Fuller observed that “He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has to be forgiven.”  A
Christian who is not forgiving is a Christian who is not growing. I am going to pray for you to make the choice to forgive. God will do the rest.

May I add that no one who has the courage and maturity to make that choice will ever be called a doormat in my book.

Any article entitled “Evangelicals Miss the Big Picture” will get my attention. So I delved into the piece in USA Today with great interest. The writer is William Romanowski, a film studies professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Romanowski surmised that “evangelicals can influence Hollywood, but their efforts would be more effective and better received if they focused on cultural discourse, not religious conversion.” Hmmm. Discuss. 

Here are some excerpts from Professor Romanowski’s essay. My commentary is italicized.

The Passion’s numbers were an eye-opener for Hollywood. Now, movies with clear religious themes such as Constantine, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and even those without any sort of explicit Christian connection, such as Cinderella Man or The Greatest Game Ever Played, are being pitched by studios to reach the “Christian” market. More specifically, the target is those evangelicals who embraced The Passion with such enthusiasm. Consumers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on religious books and Christian-themed music. The film industry wants to cultivate this market. The problem Hollywood faces as it seeks to maximize this potential audience is that “evangelical” Christians are not easy to define.

I feel your pain. The term Evangelical broadly categorizes Christians with vastly different philosophies but, in theory at least, the same distinct theology. It is our inability to unify over the core beliefs that confuses our message.

A recent MarketCast study co-sponsored by Variety magazine found religious and non-religious people “nearly indistinguishable in their attitudes” about moviegoing, according to a Variety article reporting the results. In fact, these religious folks seem to have a penchant for the sentimental, the melodramatic and the violent (of course that puts them pretty much in the mainstream of American taste in entertainment).

Anyone who has criticized George Barna’s research should send him an apology today. This is what Mr.Barna has been preaching for years. Our faith is making little difference in our day to day existence so our message falls on disinterested ears. Jesus should make a difference. When we show that others will listen.

People of goodwill ought to be concerned with the cumulative impact of a steady diet of American movies that often exalt self-interest as the supreme human value, glorify violent resolutions to problems, make finding the perfect mate one’s primary vocation and highest destiny, and offer material prosperity as the most reliable source of meaning and satisfaction in this life. Such a value system arguably runs against the grain of most religious traditions.

Amen. And I believe that you can boldly go further than arguably goes against the grain. Such values go completely against the grain of the teachings of Jesus. Try sampling the Sermon on the Mount as a little example of how far those values stray from His.

Of course, filmmakers claim they’re only giving people what they want.

Ouch. It hurts because it is true.

Were more evangelicals to think about movies in terms of their faith beliefs, they would actually have an opportunity to not only buy tickets, but also to begin to shape the entertainment industry.

Exactly. If we would support movies like End of the Spear instead of arguing about casting it would make a difference. Hollywood may be perceived as being godless in the evangelical sense but the studios and theaters worship the bottom line. If a movie like “End of the Spear” does well we (the Christian marketplace) will get more movies like that. And maybe the next one will pass our casting critiques. On some days I am sorely tempted to get the “Lord save me from your followers” bumper sticker.

For instance, the Judeo-Christian tradition maintains that all people have dignity and worth because they are created in the image of God, but that they also have a tendency to do evil. Redemption comes from experiences that make people aware of their own brokenness and insufficiency. Films such as Magnolia or The Apostle resonate with this kind of perspective. The characters have a moral ambiguity that fits with real life and makes for good drama — and interesting movies. Both are intended for adults. The best motion pictures transform the real world into an imaginary one with ideals, values, attitudes and assumptions woven into characterizations and storylines.

Professor Romanowski’s  piece takes a philosophical bent that I heartily endorse.

Evangelicals can influence Hollywood when they think of the cinema as an arena for cultural discourse but not a place for converting members of that culture to a specific Christian orientation. In other words, evangelicals’ goal for the movie industry should be to encourage discourse, not merely evangelizing.

Yes. Yes. Yes. We must be creative to engage the culture. That was my argument with the Book of Daniel. What a great way to discuss what your faith looks like versus that “Cops” like family on the show. But instead we boycott. Here is a plan for you. When the culture opens a door to faith discussions…go through it. How complicated is that?

Last year’s Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby sparked debate about euthanasia. This year, Crash deals with racism; Good Night, and Good Luck probes the role of the news media in keeping politicians accountable to the people; Syriana touches on geopolitics and oil; A History of Violence explores the potential presence of violence in all of us; Munich the perpetuation of bloodshed. Religious audiences can engage these films by reflecting on the perspective they represent, yet applying their own religious context. But old habits die hard.

Boy do they. I totally agree with Romanowski’s concept. A discussion on euthanasia and the Scriptural value of the sanctity of life is natural after seeing “Million Dollar Baby.” I am not sure I would seek to place geopolitics and oil into my spiritual basket but most of his examples are intriguing.

Representatives of evangelical groups said they resisted boycotting “Brokeback Mountain” only because they did not want to draw attention to the critically acclaimed film about gay love. And evangelicals are divided over “End of the Spear”, an evangelical production based on a real-life missionary story. Some leaders are encouraging people to see this film about forgiveness, while others are campaigning against it because it stars an openly gay actor.

And that is the enigma of us. What is the classic line from the cartoon Pogo? “We have met the enemy…and it is us.” Evangelicals don’t want to call attention to one movie but they hurt another good and valuable movie (End of the Spear) and in the process call even more attention to the issue in a way that further alienates the church from gay men and women seeking truth.

So what do evangelicals want from Hollywood anyway? Help converting the masses? If so, movies don’t seem as if they’re the most effective forum. Despite all the evangelistic hype for The Passion, a survey by The Barna Group showed that less than one-tenth of 1% of those who saw the movie accepted Jesus Christ as their savior as a result of seeing the film. Likewise, don’t expect a jump in the size of the gay population because of Brokeback Mountain, however much it might foster the national conversation. Only when evangelicals agree to look at Hollywood not just as an evangelistic tool, or a harmless entertainment provider, but also as an important participant in cultural discourse will they understand that as a major share of the movie market, they are in a position to shape that vital discussion.

Hollywood, like it or not, reflects where culture is heading. So climb out of the comfort bunker and get in the battle. Engage the culture by looking for the spiritual aspect of movies and then discussing. Evangelism is a process. In baseball parlance I was taught in my early Christian experience that we must be closers. But the truth is that sometimes we are starters (planting a seed of interest). Sometimes we are middle relievers (watering that growing interest) and sometimes we are closers. Every part of the process is sacred and wisely using the opportunities presented by movies and culture makes sense.  Kudos to William Romanowski at Calvin College. A voice of reason in the cultural desert is like a cool refreshing drink. Paul had a good challenge to the Church at Corinth to put a wrap on this discussion.

I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized–whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ–but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!  I Cor 9,  The Message

Let’s jump in the arena and be in on it. It might even be fun!

A simple new test is designed to calculate the odds for me being alive in four years. That’s right. I can tally my score for the twelve predictive categories and decide if that five year bond is really a good idea. So I took the test and the results are in.

According to this measuring stick it looks like I will accomplish my goal of living long enough to be a problem for my children. The mortality calculator (that sounds dark) was developed by researchers at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The researchers developed the scale after studying 12,000 patients and then applying those findings to 8,000 more to chart the reliability of their GRI (Grim Reaper Index – that is my acronym, not theirs). This is a test where you hope for a very low score. A zero to five score for an over fifty respondent will give you a 96% chance of seeing 2010. I scored a sparkling 2 on my GRI! I was penalized two points just for being male and I cannot figure out how to circumvent that risk. Those who tallied 14 or more points have a 64 percent chance of dying in the next four years. If you want to know your potential fate you can take the test and calculate your GRI score. So what does this mean to me as average bad Christian guy?

Not much. Whether I have forty years or four years or four months really should not affect how I live as a follower of Christ. I have been knee deep in the mortality of my fellow human beings recently. My dear friend Trisha died in early January. A television associate died unexpectedly this month. Both were my age or younger. So even if I am in the ninety-six percentile there are statistically still four of us in that sampling of one hundred that will be dead by 2010. “Couldn’t be me,” says my bulletproof brain. “Sure it could,” replies the teeny common sense cortex buried deep below the machobellum section of my brain.

So how then should we live? Like Paul and Peter and John and the rest of the early followers of Christ. With an air of expectancy that tomorrow (or the rest of today) is not guaranteed. To live with a sense of priority and passion about what really matters. Do you have someone that you want to tell that you love them? Tell them now. Is there a relationship that needs repairing? Repair it now. Someone that you know you have to forgive? Please forgive them now by faith and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Still angry with a parent or sibling? Deal with it now. Have you slipped away from God for some reason? Come back now.

What if I told you that you have exactly one week to live? Write down what you would do and what you would say in those precious seven days. And then start doing those things now. Because no matter how stunning your score might be on the Grim Reaper Index it is no guarantee of anything past this moment. I know that not every recipient of such communications are receptive or even civil. But at the end of the day we are accountable before a Holy God only for our actions. They are accountable for theirs. Do the right thing and trust the rest to Jesus.  Boomers get ready. In the time frame of eternity all of us will be going home very soon.

Part of the great comfort I felt when my Father died two years ago was knowing that everything that I wanted to say to him had been said. I believe that if something happened to me before I get to write another word that my sons would have that same peace. They know they are loved by me and I am loved by them. They know how proud I am of them as men and as followers of Jesus.

I hope you score well in your GRI. I wish you health and blessings. But my fervent prayer is that you will test better in your readiness to peacefully leave this planet. I pray you will have the courage to say what you want to say and need to say. Make peace with those you feel a lack of peace with in your soul. What a wonderful way to prepare to meet your Savior face to face. Paul’s words to the church at Colosse offer a few thoughts on getting ready.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.   Colossians 3  NIV

I suppose that most writers perceive themselves as wordsmiths. But most of us merely arrange previously coined words. What a thrill it must be to actually create a word and see it become a part of the lexicon. The Seinfeld television show was known for inventing new words and phrases that are now in common usage. I was reminded of that this week when I read a survey about the phenomenon of regifting. Regift is a verb and means “to give an unwanted gift to someone else; to give as a gift something one previously received as a gift.” (dictionary.com) That term, as well as the noun regifter, were first used in a Seinfeld episode from 1995 called The Label Maker. Seinfeldians will recall this dialogue…

George: The wedding is off.  Now you can go to the Super Bowl.
Jerry: I can’t call Tim Whatley and ask for the tickets back.
George: You just gave them to him two days ago, he’s gotta give you a grace period.
Jerry: Are you even vaguely familiar with the concept of giving? There’s no grace period.
George: Well, didn’t he regift the label maker?
Jerry: Possibly.
George: Well, if he can regift, why can’t you degift?
Jerry: You may have a point.
George: I have a point, I have a point.

Trust me,  before this is over I hope to have a point, I hope to have a point. Knight-Ridder Newspapers reported that nearly 60 percent of us receive unwanted gifts over the Christmas season and half of us admit to regifting. That is the percentage that will admit to the practice. The study was commissioned by eBay and they found that more women than men admit to regifting (59 percent vs 45 percent). A number of questions arise. Are women just more honest? Are men too thoughtless to even regift? Is it because the average bad man gift (i.e. Billy the Singing Bass) is just too tacky to even regift? According to the survey the top regifting items were knickknacks and pampering products so that might explain the lower masculine percentile. I wouldn’t admit that I regifted pampering products even under duress.

But for Christians the concept of regifting is noble and even encouraged because the gifts we have received are not unwanted. For example, we have received the gift of hope in Jesus. Hope makes a lovely gift to share with a world that is very short of that commodity.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesian 1  NIV

How about regifting those who feel quilty and downcast with the concept of the grace that you have received as a free gift? Twenty times Paul refers to grace in his letter to the Roman Church. Grace is such a liberating gift for a wounded world. We don’t have to live as a slave to sin anymore.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.  Roman 5 NIV

This amazing and unmerited gift of grace is a message that we have not done a very good job of telling…or of gifting to one another.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.  All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life–a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.    Romans 5 The Message

Aggressive forgiveness. I love that phrase! That is what grace is all about. Philip Yancey gave me the knowledge of this gift through his wonderful book What’s Amazing about Grace?. I was raised in a church where we wouldn’t have recognized grace if it bit us on our hindquarters. So this has been a life changing gift for me. I want to regift everyone I know with this message.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.   Romans 3  NIV

Package up a little hope and grace and feel free to regift others. Who needs more pampering products when you can share gifts like these?

I recently posted a rather fanciful look at how “man’s best friend” could teach Christians a lot about evangelism. I was heartened and bit surprised at the level of response to that article (Canine School of Evangelism). Apparently there are a lot of dog lovers embedded into the Evangelical community and that gives me hope for the church!

The star of the most recent post featured our rescued lab/mix Hannah.  This is not a   posed photo. At any given time around our household Hannah will come waltzing up with the three tennis balls in her big mouth and download them one by one onto your lap for playtime.

But the star canine of my two books was the late, great Charlie. Our beloved Golden Retriever died last year at the ripe old canine age of 14. Here Hannah snuggles up next to Charlie.

This excerpt from “Bring’em Back Alive” documents an experience I had with our senior dog citizen Charlie. It was one more example of the spiritual lessons we can learn from our faithful canine friends and it gave me a little hint of how our relationship with the Good Shepherd Jesus should work. 

The lesson I learned from my Golden Retriever came when Charlie suffered a health crisis. He developed a large benign tumor under his front leg that made walking difficult. We took him in for what would be a rather serious surgery at the ripe old canine age of twelve. The vet did a masterful job in removing the growth and taking care of Charlie. We were called to the animal hospital to pick up the old guy.We waited as they brought him out. He shuffled slowly out and I was taken aback by his appearance. Charlie was trembling, frightened and appeared to be in some pain. His head was down and his perpetual motion tail was strangely still. He seemed confused and disoriented. Then I walked over to Charlie and simply touched him. Almost immediately he quit trembling and he made a valiant attempt to wag his tail. We carefully got him into the car and took Charlie home to heal.

As I reflected on that scene it struck me that Charlie’s reaction to my touch and mere presence was a wonderful illustration of how Jesus comforts (or desires to comfort) His sheep. When I (his master) touched Charlie he was comforted. His pain was not gone. He was still frightened. He was still a bit disoriented and unsure. Charlie’s circumstances hadn’t really changed at all. But he knew that his master was there and that made it better. What a picture that is of how the touch of Jesus enables us to respond when we are frightened, in pain, disoriented and confused. We need to remind ourselves that Jesus never promised that all trouble would vanish when we believe in Him. Jesus did promise that He would be there and that would be enough. But the tough question arises…do we truly believe that?

My prayer for myself and for you today is that we will seek, realize, and be comforted by the touch of the Master. As I learned with Charlie, it doesn’t really matter what the circumstance might be, it is the knowledge that the master is there that makes all the difference.

My first reaction to the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) yesterday was to start brainstorming ideas to help. For example, if Christian television preachers and hosts/hostesses voluntarily switched from hairspray to gel I think that would make a big difference in the size of the ozone hole. Maybe the megachurches could start a hybrid bus ministry to save precious fossil fuel for the people that drive over twenty miles to go to their churches instead of local churches. Perhaps the biggest contribution the evangelical community can make is to reduce the volume of hot air generated over philosophical issues that are not critical to essential message of Christianity. 

It is okay to disagree about issues like global warming. Really. Global warning is not a part of the Apostolic Creed. I applaud the men and women who took the initiative to produce this document. Are they right about the danger of global warming? Who knows? But a call to action doesn’t seem too radical to me. Here is a sample of the statement from ECI’s website.

“We are proud of the evangelical community’s long-standing commitment to the sanctity of human life. But we also offer moral witness in many venues and on many issues. Sometimes the issues that we have taken on, such as sex trafficking, genocide in the Sudan, and the AIDS epidemic in Africa, have surprised outside observers. While individuals and organizations can be called to concentrate on certain issues, we are not a single-issue movement. We seek to be true to our calling as Christian leaders, and above all faithful to Jesus Christ our Lord. Our attention, therefore, goes to whatever issues our faith requires us to address.”

I can’t find much to disagree with in that statement. Part and parcel to our call to communicate the gospel is to minister to the needs as well as the souls of the world. This powerful passage from Isaiah reminds us that our very petitions to heaven are “grounded” by a lack of caring for the impoverished and the powerless.

The kind of fasting you do
    won’t get your prayers off the ground.
    Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    a day to show off humility?
    To put on a pious long face
    and parade around solemnly in black?
    Do you call that fasting,
    a fast day that I, GOD, would like?
    “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
    What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.
    Do this and the lights will turn on,
    and your lives will turn around at once.
    Your righteousness will pave your way.
    The GOD of glory will secure your passage.
    Then when you pray, GOD will answer.
    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, “Here I am.’
    “If you get rid of unfair practices,
    quit blaming victims,
    quit gossipping about other people’s sins   (Isaiah 58, The Message)

If these men and women who generated the Evangelical Climate Initiative feel led of the Holy Spirit to take this action then I will support them. I am not as smart as some Christians who can apparently discern God’s will for everyone. Our Lord said that “wisdom is proved right by her actions.” Time will tell if the Lord is leading their actions.  I think that letting the culture know we care about the planet is a good message. And I don’t mean that just to be politically correct. Christians believe in a Creator and we must be excellent stewards of that creation as a logical response to that belief.

I think it is interesting and more than predictable that the Atlanta Journal Constitution led their story with this line.

“A Bible-based call to fight global warming has split evangelical Christians.”

I think that is a pretty big overstatement. The evangelical community does disagree over the extent (or even the existence) of the problem. But I think that when you compare this issue to some of our other “Family Feuds” this is pretty minor.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on one of the dissenting groups.

Other prominent evangelicals have formed the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance to oppose calls to curb the emission of greenhouse gases. They include Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm; James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family; and Charles Colson, an official in the Nixon White House who founded Prison Fellowship Ministries.

I am thinking about starting my own organization today. Here is part of my proposed press release:

A less than prominent evangelical has formed the Evangelical Initiative for Environmentally Independent Observation also known as E-I-E-I-O. They already have a catchy little theme song in mind. E-I-E-I-O founder Dave Burchett said, “I firmly believe that global warming may or may not be a problem so I am calling for a curb on the emission of all gases. Why just curb gases in greenhouses? Thank you.”  We now return you to the prominent evangelicals.

“We all agree that there is a basis for global warming,” said Melinda Ronn, a spokeswoman for the alliance, “but we differ in what we believe is the severity, the cause and what to do about it.”
The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance said in a recent letter that “there should be room for Bible-believing evangelicals to disagree” on climate change, saying “global warming is not a consensus issue.”

May I suggest that a consensus issue would be the living out of the gospel message. E. Stanley Jones succinctly noted that “when we talk about what we believe in we divide. When we talk about Who we believe in we unite.” I am willing to allow God to move in the hearts of good men and women to seek His direction for their lives. When we disagree let it be gracefully. When Jesus prayed for us on the eve of his betrayal He spoke about unity.

I pray not only for these,
    but also for those who believe in Me
    through their message.
May they all be one, 
   as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. 
May they also be one in Us,
   so the world may believe You sent Me.  (Holman Christian Standard Bible, John 17)

May we hear your prayer Lord Jesus. And may we seek to live it for Your glory.

To all of my Christian brothers and sisters…

I love you all like, well, brothers and sisters. But it is time for us to have a family conference. Next time you are really concerned about my health, hard drive, or soul could I request that you just pray for me instead of forwarding dire e-mail warnings? I don’t want to appear ungrateful but I have to agree with this note I received recently from my friends C&C.

To all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me “forwards” over the past 12 months…

*Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed and healthy. Extra thanks to whoever sent me the e-mail about cockroach eggs in the glue on envelopes – I now have to go get a wet towel every time I need to seal an envelope.
* Without you I would likely have gotten that flesh eating bacteria from bananas.
* Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.
* I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS. Oh wait…I haven’t used a pay phone in five years. But thanks anyway!
* I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants or shampoos. I will live to be 100 but no one will ever come near me.
* I was alerted to the deadly toilet spiders at a Chicago airport. That made for some long layovers!
* I no longer eat fast food chicken because their “chickens” are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers. Actually I still do…they are just too tasty!
* I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl on the internet who is about to die in the hospital (for the nnnth time).
* I no longer have any money at all in fact – but that will change once I receive the thousands of dollars that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special on-line e-mail program.
Yes, I want to thank you all so much for looking out for me that I will now return the favor! If you don’t send this as an e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 7 minutes, a large pigeon with a wicked case of diarrhea will land on your head at 1:00 PM tomorrow. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician, and have a Happy New Year!

The automatic forwarding of e-mail warnings is a real pet peeve of mine. About every other week I have to send an e-mail to a wonderfully well intentioned friend to let them know that they are forwarding a hoax. I feel a little uncomfortable when I do that because I know it is embarrassing to them.

For Christians this is an important issue. When we forward false information it can (and often does) do damage to the image of Christianity and to the very name of Christ. It makes Christians appear lazy and uninformed (restraint Dave…easy). How about the poor receptionist who fields thousands of irate calls for something that is not even valid? By the way, you would be amazed at the less than godly content of some of these callers.

Here are just a few of the hoaxes that crossed my inbox in recent months.

ACLU objects to Marines Praying –  False. They cause enough problems without making stuff up.
Al Gore calls Christians blight on environment – False. The quote is fabricated.
Harry Potter was written to recruit children to witchcraft – False.
James Dobson is pleading for our help because of a petition to stop the reading of the gospel over public broadcasting outlets – False.
This has been dead since 1975 but continually gets repackaged and reforwarded. And when it does the Federal Communications Commission must field thousands of calls and e-mails (at taxpayers expense).

Just this past week I got the e-mail that I needed to call the poor receptionist at my local NBC affiliate because of a storyline that was to be a part of the Will and Grace show. According to the e-mail Britney Spears was going to play a character that would mock the crucifixion. NBC quickly said the story was not true. I have no idea if the network intended to air that story line or not. What I do know is I got the e-mail to call/write NBC and my local affiliate several days after the network either pulled or debunked the script (depending on your view). For hundreds of Christians to call an underpaid receptionist at the NBC affiliate after there is no reason would be tragic. And that brings me to point number two. As good as it makes you feel to download on some faceless “pagan” you are probably not talking to a person who can make a difference.  I make it a core principal to try to communicate to the people who are actually responsible.

Here are my requests and suggestions (forward these to five friends and you might win something from somebody)

1) Be naturally suspicious. About.com has an article on how to spot an e-mail hoax that is very helpful.
2) Verify the story. There are a number of sites that catalog e-mail/internet hoaxes. Sites such as snopes.com or urbanlegends.about.com have extensive databases on these stories. Check before you forward. Please.
3) If the story is real and you feel led to respond please formulate your own response. Forwarding a boilerplate note of indignation tends to lose its effectiveness after the first few hundred times it is read.
4) Be gracious. You can let others know exactly how you believe and why you are concerned without gloating over their eternal destiny.
5) Apply Proverbs 2:11 to your cyber-ministry. Discretion will protect you,  and understanding will guard you.

James has a nice little take on wisdom.

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.  (James 3, NIV)

I could go on but I just received a personal note from a doctor in Nigeria. He needs my help and he promised me 5 million dollars. Don’t worry, I’ll tithe!