Yearly Archives: 2015

Conversion Experience? Converting from What?

An interesting point was raised on a private Facebook forum I’m part of. It regards the Christian term “conversion experience.”

For example, I point to my conversion experience as occurring at age 9 at Rhodes Grove Camp in Pennsylvania. However, what was I converting from? I was raised in a strong Christian home, had always attended church, had always been taught the Bible, and had never strayed from that path.

My parents, essentially, had put me on a course which led directly (but not inevitably) to that camp altar in 1967. I didn’t convert “from” anything. It’s not like I was a Hindu or atheist. I was just accepting for myself what I’d been raised with.

I had never thought of this before, and have no replacement lingo to suggest.

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The President’s Prayer Breakfast Speech

After getting home, I read the transcript of President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. It’s really, really good. He made very strong statements about ISIS, and superb statements about the approach Christians should take. I’m proud to see such words come from my president.

I point this out because, on the way home, I listened to The Five on FoxNews. They used one sound bite in which President Obama used the Crusades to illustrate a theological point about the sin nature. They totally didn’t get it. Clearly, none of them are versed in basic Christianity, else they would have understood what the President was saying. Instead, they treated it as a political speech, and took this soundbite as condemnation of Christianity (which it wasn’t at all). It’s just dishonest, and I feel compelled to say something. Because all night long, the other FoxNews shows are going to be saying the same nonsense, and many of you will be listening. You may assume FoxNews is giving you an accurate report on the speech, when in fact they are giving you a very intentional hack job. It’s what they do.

As a Christian interested in the truth, I read the entire transcript. I often do that with speeches which pundits on either side are criticizing. I want to see the entire speech, with everything in context. In this case, I wanted to read what President REALLY said–not what the FNC pundits tell me he said.

Here is an early part of his speech, in which he set up his theme.

Part of what I want to touch on today is the degree to which we’ve seen professions of faith used both as an instrument of great good, but also twisted and misused in the name of evil.

As we speak, around the world, we see faith inspiring people to lift up one another — to feed the hungry and care for the poor, and comfort the afflicted and make peace where there is strife. We heard the good work that Sister has done in Philadelphia, and the incredible work that Dr. Brantly and his colleagues have done. We see faith driving us to do right.

But we also see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge — or, worse, sometimes used as a weapon. From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith, their faith, professed to stand up for Islam, but, in fact, are betraying it. We see ISIL, a brutal, vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism — terrorizing religious minorities like the Yezidis, subjecting women to rape as a weapon of war, and claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions.

We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion.

So how do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities — the profound good, the strength, the tenacity, the compassion and love that can flow from all of our faiths, operating alongside those who seek to hijack religious for their own murderous ends?

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Second Thoughts About That Teacher in 1973

We moved to California at the beginning of my junior year of high school. I played basketball that year at Tulare Union High School. Practice went until about 6:30. Since we lived 15 miles away and I had no car, I usually walked a couple blocks to the bookstore on Tulare’s main street and waited for one of my parents to pick me up.

As I stood there browsing through magazines, a short guy with stringy hair wearing gym trunks, a tank top, and flip-flops came and stood besideme. In a whisper, he asked me if I wanted him to perform a certain sex act on me. Being a naive preacher’s kid, I was totally flummoxed, but I managed to mutter a “No.” (Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what he was asking, but I knew it was bad.) He then gently placed his hand on my thigh. I batted his hand away and quickly exited the bookstore, my heart racing.

The next day, I saw him at school for the first time. He was a teacher. Another time, I entered a restroom and looked down the long line of urinals. There he was, along with a very strange student, standing side-by-side at neighboring urinals. Gross. I immediately turned around and left.

That was 1973. I never told anybody about the guy. The idea was unthinkable at that point in my life. Nobody talked back then about reporting things like this. I was new to the school, and couldn’t imagine telling anyone what the guy had said to me. I saw no upside. I didn’t even warn my younger brothers about the pervert (both graduated from that school).

The experience had no lasting affect on me. It left no residue whatsoever (please don’t play amateur psychologist and imagine affects buried so deep that I’m not even aware of them). It was just something that happened, and that I kept to myself. I almost never think about it.

But yesterday I came across an article about a predatory teacher whose signature move was to put his hand on a girl’s knee. So it reminded me of him. Curious, I Googled his name. It turned up a few times. One article identified him as a retired teacher from Tulare Union High School, with a $30,000 pension. So it sounds like he taught at that school for another 30 years and never got caught.

I should probably have done something, but I’m not sure what. Even now.

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The Muslim Name Game

For a while now on Facebook, Christians have felt it vitally important to convince people that Islam is a “Religion of Violence.” When they hear someone say Islam is a Religion of Peace, they go bonkers: THIS MUST BE REFUTED. So they regularly post stories about the many atrocities currently being committed in the name of Islam. Stories we’re all totally aware of. Duh. But they feel it’s vitally important that everyone acknowledge, “Islam is a terrible, horrible, very bad religion.”

Which raises the question: Why are you so passionate about this?

Such arguments go back and forth on Facebook. Someone puts out further obvious evidence of Muslim terrorists committing atrocities. Then people counter with stories from Christianity’s history. The Crusades get mentioned, the Inquisition, the Catholic-complicit genocide and enslavement of native South Americans, the KKK, etc. Round and round it goes. We have people who suddenly declare themselves as experts on the Koran, and who can PROVE that Islam is all about killing infidels.

I’m SO weary of it. Why must a religion of a billion people, most of whom live peaceably amidst practically every nation on the planet, be denounced as a Religion of Violence? Why, my Facebook friends, do you consider this so vitally important?

We all see what’s being done in the name of Islam. It’s horrible. Should we throw that at our Muslim neighbors, coworkers, and others living in our communities: “You realize you belong to a Religion of Violence. Cutting off people’s heads is what your religion is all about.” Would that be helpful?

Should the United Brethren denomination, perhaps, make some official statement about how evil Islam is? “Whereby Muslims did such and such, we hereby declare….”

In Sierra Leone, our church leaders work harmoniously with Muslim leaders. A few months ago we started a school in a predominantly Sunni town, and they welcome us. In Turkey, the organization we work with has been offered property–by Islamic government officials–in which to start a Christian church. Would it be productive if they knew we view them as a Religion of Violence?

I just don’t get it, friends.

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Bush and Nixon – The Winning Combo

This morning Joe Scarborough said that since 1932, no Republican has been elected president without a Bush or Nixon on the ticket (as either president or VP). I mentally traced it back; it’s true. Nixon was there for 4 elections, a Bush for 5 elections. Fascinating.

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The Big Shiny Pipe

I’ve been reading about how a foreign company is using “eminent domain”–basically, condemning good American farmland–so they can build a Big Shiny Pipe. We’re talking about TransCanada, which will build the Keystone Pipeline.

To secure land for their Big Shiny Pipe, they’ve been very aggressive with US farmers, threatening to take them to court and sue for eminent domain if they don’t take TransCanada’s offer. They’ve filed scores of eminent domain lawsuits against the minority of American ranchers who have stood firm, who want to keep the family land they’ve owned for decades.

So, productive land that has provided American jobs for a hundred years, and could continue doing so for a hundred years, will be taken out of production as we employ a few thousand people for two years to build a Big Shiny Pipe.

Is that right?

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