I’ve heard for years that, according to some study, the divorce rate among Christians is the same as in the general population. That never tracked with me. I’ve always thought something was askew. Yet I’ve heard Christians repeat that statistic many times. We like to speak badly about ourselves, I guess to show that we are scum in need of a Savior.

But in my naive little world, I believe Christ makes a difference.

So I’ve never believed that stat. I’ve always insisted, at least to myself, that Christian marriages are stronger than nonChristian marriages.

Because having Jesus in your life matters. That’s what I believe, no matter what surveys say.

Now I read a piece from Ed Stetzer about the subject. He says the difference-maker is depth of religious commitment. Plenty of people call themselves Christians. But those who are serious about their faith, as evidenced by certain surveyable behaviors–weekly church attendance, reading the Bible and Christian literature, praying regularly, pursuing discipleship–have a significantly lower divorce rate.

Stetzer says this is explained in a book by Bradley Wright called, “Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites…and Other Lies You’ve Been Told.” That’s a book I may need to read.

Three of Ann’s books that I especially enjoyed.

Back in 2006, I wrote on my blog about Ann Kiemel, whose writings had been such an inspiration to me over 20 years before. The post was titled “Ann Kiemel, Wherefore Hast Thou Been?”

Thanks to Google, other fans of Ann Kiemel discovered the post and began leaving comments (Google her name, and my post is near the top). Thus far, 82 comments. A number of those comments express the same sentiments I wrote in the post–that her writings had been a huge inspiration to them.

Ann Kiemel

One person who had been touched by her influence wrote, “I personally feel America desperately needs to hear such a message again today more than ever.” I responded, “The thing is, to me, Ann’s message was her lifestyle, and that was the magic of her books–it wasn’t preaching about what we need to do, but stories of a person actually doing it. Not admonitions to go change our world, but glimpses of a person actually changing her world.”

Spiritual growth happens in different ways with different people. For some folks, listening to sermons spurs them on. Others, it’s their devotional time. Others, reading Christian books.

For me, spiritual growth comes from watching other people. From seeing solid Christian examples. I can point to various people I’ve known over the years whose lives left an imprint on me. Jack Wade, Marvin Price, Russ Birdsall, Ray Miller, Roger Reeck…some college friends…some very ordinary people in churches I’ve attended. I may have heard them preach sermons and teach classes, but it was not their words that remained with me. It was their Christian example.

That’s why Ann Kiemel’s stories made such an impression of me. I wasn’t watching her personally; I’ve never met Ann. But her little stories about ordinary encounters with ordinary people told me a lot about Christlikeness. In reading about one of her everyday encounters–which I could picture in my mind–I would get a better grasp on what God wanted me to be and do.

Examples like that affect me more than anything.

Ann Kiemel herself discovered my blog post, and left comments twice.

In July 2007, she wrote (in her trademark style), “please, never forget that life is NOT about me, but ALL about Jesus. my books are simple, as is my message still today. they have only touched your lives because Jesus put His hand on me.”

She also added, “i am praying that God will allow me to possibly write and speak again since my youngest is now graduated.”

Ann left another comment in May 2008:

today, i still believe utterly in sharing Jesus with my neighborhood. i speak the name of Jesus every day to someone. yes! i have built a bond with the lady next door. everyone at my grocery store. the bank.

i haven’t told most here that i am a writer. they know me as a single mother of four, very nice sons… and, every day, i look for ways to love people to Jesus. to love them. to speak His name. no one…who passes my way..do i just ignore. a warm smile. a touch on the arm.

i had my blood drawn, and a little, hispanic boy with a beautiful young mother was in the room next to me, sobbing. “no, mommy!!”

as i started to walk out the door, i unzipped my purse, and saw a $5, and went back to this tear-stained face, and put it in his hand, and told him he was very brave.

“thank you.”

i was so happy i thought to do that. an ordinary friday in an ordinary city on a hard day. i was trying to be Jesus.

it is not hard. God gives me every idea. every natural response. my children’s friends.

i stepped away from the public arena because my husband was so ill (died 7 yrs. ago), and my children were so vulnerable and i didn’t want to not give them everything i could to prepare them for life.

Ann repeated her desire to return to writing. I hope that my blog post, and the outpouring of support in the comments, perhaps spurred her on. Let her know that lives were changed through her simple free verse.

Today, a note was passed on to me from Ann Kiemel. Ann wrote, “i’m thrilled for all steve has done. really touched me….the first time i read his column and the comments about me, i had to stop half-way through because i was so moved and crying. it just blew me away.”

Good. I’m glad those comments–most of them representing someone Ann never met, but whose life she influenced–blew her away.

Today, Ann Kiemel writes on her own blog. Perhaps you were touched by her writings many years ago. Or maybe you’re too young, and don’t even recognize her name. In either case, I encourage you to meander over to AnnKiemel.com. Read, and watch, a woman who–still–has a heart for God.

Surveying a mosque in Joplin, Missouri, destroyed by an arsonist.

Religious persecution is alive and well in America. But the victims are not Christians.

There is no liberal “war on religion” or “war on Christmas.” A lame, half-hearted boycott of a chicken restaurant does not equal religious persecution. Disagreements about gay marriage, no matter how contentious, do not equal religious persecution. Banning a nativity scene from public property, or not allowing a prayer at a public school graduation…not persecution. Just examples of the give-and-take of public policy in a free society which is continuously testing the boundaries between church and state, and the boundaries of the free expression of religion in American life.

Fact is, Protestant Christianity is the Big Dog in American religion, just as Catholicism is the Big Dog throughout Latin America, and the Anglican church is in England. All of them “Christian” religions. Christianity enjoys a host of freedoms and privileges, and every single president has claimed to be a Christian (Romney would end that streak). Christianity is not persecuted. Christianity is on top, with tons of influence.

If you want to claim religious persecution, become a Muslim or a Sikh. That massacre in Wisconsin at a Sikh temple, true, was the work of one madman. That will happen. But the public record is filled with scores of incidents in which members of non-Christian religions–nearly always Muslims, or persons mistaken for being Muslim–are targeted.

During the past year, arsonists have struck Islamic centers in Arlington, Texas, Corvallis, Ore., Stockton, Calif., Houston, Texas, Worcester, Mass., and Wichita, Kansas. There have been scores of other acts of vandalism and other incidents at Islamic temples. This goes way beyond a few big-city mayors trying to score a few fleeting political points by saying they’ll oppose permits for new Chick-Fil-A franchises.

It’s not safe to be a Muslim. Consider these incidents, all of which happened within the last three years.

• New York: A 56-year old woman was attacked while walking on a city street by two people who ripped off her religious attire and called her a “f-ing terrorist.”
• Brooklyn, NY: a Turkish man and his wife were attacked by a neighbor screaming “F-ing Arabs! F-ing terrorists.”
• Wisconsin: a man of Moroccan heritage was hospitalized with head injuries while walking with a friend downtown. The friend was punched, knocked to the ground, and kicked. The attacker allegedly said “f___ Osama Bin Laden” during the attack.
• Illinois: a faculty member was stabbed by a man seeking to “save his country” because he thought the man was Middle Eastern.
• A Sikh man was stabbed at the airport in Fresno, Calif. Sikhs, because of their long beards and turbans, are often mistaken for Muslims.
• San Jose, Calif.: A Hindu man was assaulted by a group of men who called him a “terrorist.”
• St. Cloud, Minn.: Graphic, sexually explicit anti-Muslim cartons were posted on utility poles.
• Staten Island: A 14-year-old was beaten by a classmate who said he hated Arabs.
• New York: A man threatened to kill a Muslim mother and daughter, shouted racial and religious slurs, and spat on their car.
• Calif: A taxi driver was repeatedly hit in the back of the head by passengers calling him “Taliban” and “terrorist.”
• Florida: a Marine reservist hit a Greek Orthodox priest with a a tire iron and chased him for three blocks. He later claimed than an “Arab man” was trying to rob him, and described the priest as a terrorist.
• An Idaho Muslim had swastikas and slurs painted on the side of his truck.
• Cedar Rapids, Iowa: an 18-year-old Iraqi refugee and his mother were assaulted after a softball game. The boy’s jaw was broken by a member of the other team, who called him raghead, terrorist, and camel jockey. The same person assaulted the mother when she tried to defend her son.
• In July 2011, a Pakistani Muslim family that had lived in the US for 15 years had the word “Terrorist” spray-pointed onto their home.
• Murfreesboro, Tenn: a mother and son were the targets of anti-Musim and racial slurs by a knife-weilding driver.
• A man at an “Ask a Muslim” information booth outside a mosque was punched in the face by two men, who told police they wanted to kick out all the “ragheads.”
• Reno, Nev: Scrawled on a wall–“Don’t burn the Koran. Why? Just burn Muslims.”
• Manhattan: A passenger asked a cab driver, “Are you a Muslim?” When the driver said he was, the passenger slashed him with a knife on the throat, arm, and face.
• Missouri: a worker at an Islamic center was threatened by a man carring a knife and handgun, who said the center was for people “trying to take over the United States.”
• A Muslim man of South Asian descent had an aerosol cleaner sprayed into his yes by a coworker who, after failing to convert him to Christianity, began calling him “terrorist” and “Bin Laden.” The Muslim man was later fired from his job.
• Cyprus, Calif: “US Military is going to kill you all” was scrawled on the side of a mosque.
• Florida: a mosque was sprayed with bullets that left broken windows and holes in the dome. The mosque’s sign was previously defaced with a swastika and profanity.
• South Carolina: “Death to Muslims” was scratched into the sidewalk outside a mosque.
• Oregon: “Allah is a pig” was written on the mailbox of a mosque.
• Los Angeles: a burned Quran was found at the back entrance of a mosque. Burned Qurans were also found outside mosques in Tennessee, Michigan, and San Francisco after that crazy Florida pastor proposed burning Qurans.
• Jacksonville, Fla.: a bomb exploded late at night outside a mosque.
• South Carolina: vandals used bacon to write “pig” and “chump” on a mosque walkway.
• Seattle: Two Muslim women of Somali heritage were punched and kicked at a gas station by a woman who threw out allegations of “terrorist” and “suicide bomber.”
• Ohio: A mosque’s surveillance camera caught a man pulling his SUV behind the car of a Muslim woman, who was wearing a veil in which only the eyes are visible. He walked to her car and pepper-sprayed her through the open window, while yelling racial and religious slurs.
• Dearborn, Mich: a man was arrested carrying large amounts of explosives. He was planning to attack one of the nation’s largest mosques.

Disturbing, huh?

How would you like to live in fear of being attacked–in your home, on the street, anywhere–simply because of your religious beliefs? As a Christian, I face absolutely no such fears. Never have. I’ve been in situations where I felt in danger because of my race, but never because of my religion. But other persons–fellow Americans, protected by the same “freedom of religion” clause–do live in fear simply because of their religion. Fear for themselves, fear for their children. When they go out in public, it’s on their minds. Now THAT is religious persecution.

People like Pamela Geller make a living writing and speaking against Muslims and spreading hate. Geller has posted images on her blog depicting Muhammed as a pig. She frequently appears on FoxNews, a huge platform from which to spread her Islamophobia. Other conservative commentators keep the anti-Muslim hysteria alive, giving fuel to the whackos out there who put the hate speech into action. These commentators will never condone violence against Muslims, but they are entirely complicit it enabling it among their devoted listeners.

To our credit as a nation, attacks on Muslims and mosques are prosecuted by the police, and the FBI also frequently gets involved, since these are hate crimes. As a society, we do not tolerate hate crimes. Unfortunately, we give hate-speakers way too much of a voice. I find it shameful, unAmerican, and certainly unChristian. And I really wish my fellow citizens would be as upset about it as I am.

I like to challenge Christians to examine their assumptions, even if raising questions about their most cherished beliefs makes them mad. American Christians tend to go through the roof when you  raise questions about God and country. I realize people will think I’m anti-America (which I’m most definitely not), but I’m more interested in being pro-Bible, in really understanding how God views things. So with that in mind, let me ask:

What does it mean for a country to have God’s blessing?

In praying for people, we often say, “God, please bless so-and-so today.” That’s a different kind of blessing, akin to singing “God Bless America.” I’m talking about the “special anointing” kind of blessing, the type of blessing many Christians claim America has had from the beginning. The type of anointing Israel had, that various prophets had, that the early apostles had, and that I believe Billy Graham had. Yes, I think God has blessed America in various ways, has rewarded us for our goodness, and has used us for his purposes. I see nothing unbiblical about that. But though I’ve been taught it my whole life in every church I’ve attended, I can’t accept the idea that America has been given a special anointing by God.

American Christians are part of the worldwide church, a universal body of believers, all of us equal children of God. Christians in other countries, I’m told, are sometimes amused by the arrogance of American Christians, who think their country holds a special place in God’s eyes. We assume that our power and affluence are proof of God’s blessing. Because, as Scripture shows, God is always on the side of the rich and powerful…right? But other nations and empires enjoyed extended periods in the sun–Babylon, Alexander’s Greece, Rome, the Incas and Mayans, Genghis Kahn’s China, England, Spain–and we don’t talk about them as possessing God’s anointing.

Or is America just, you know, special?

I’m sufficiently true-blue American to believe that yes, among the countries of the world, we are indeed special. I love my country, and am willing to fight and die for my country. But I’m not willing to insist that America enjoys some kind of special blessing from God, because I see no biblical precedent for that. And when people talk about God’s special blessing on America, I tend to take a contrarian approach.

In 1776, did God favor the Colonies, which supported slavery and would continue to support it for nearly 100 years, causing untold human misery and injustice, over England, which was ending the slave trade? Prior to the Mexican-American war, Mexico had ended slavery. But in defeating Mexico, slavery was able to spread to Texas, and took aim at the other Western states we “liberated” from Mexican rule. Was the spread of slavery pleasing to God? (Actually, based on Old Testament precedents, you could make a case for this very thing. But not under the New Covenant.) Maybe we won those wars on our own, because we were simply superior militarily.

In fact, numerous countries abolished slavery before the United States got around to it–Denmark, Norway, Haiti, England, Mexico, Spain, Holland, Argentina, Uruguay, Estonia, France, Greece, Chile, Sweden, Bolivia, Portugal, Venezuela, Prussia, Austria, Peru, Cuba. And after finally freeing the slaves (at great cost), we turned our attention to wiping out Indians. Is this the picture of a divinely anointed country?

I’ve heard Christians claim that America lost God’s blessing when we ended prayer in public schools, or after the Roe v. Wade abortion decision. To me, those are just opportunistic political arguments. We’ll hear the same thing if gay marriage becomes the law of the land. What’s the truth? None of us have a clue. We’re just putting words in God’s mouth.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites certainly enjoyed God’s blessing. It kind of came and went over the decades, depending on their leadership at the time and the attitude toward worshiping idols. Under Moses and Joshua and David, and occasional judges, God most definitely helped the Israelites succeed. They were favored.

It’s sad reading about King Saul. He had everything going for him, including God’s anointing. I picture him like Lyndon Johnson–tall, commanding, charismatic, forceful, talented. But things went tragically wrong, and it was Saul’s fault. God told Saul, “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

Saul destroyed all of the people, but kept the best sheep and cattle. When the prophet Samuel showed up, Saul boasted, “I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

To which Samuel replied, “Then why do I hear the sound of sheep and cattle?”

Busted!

Because Saul didn’t completely carry out God’s command, God rejected him as King. He remained as King, but without God’s blessing. 1 Samuel 16:14 says, “The Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul.” Chapter 18:12 adds, “The Lord was with David”–who was not yet king–“but had left Saul.”

Everything David did prospered. Success came easily. But not for Saul. He no longer had God’s blessing.

Success once came easily for America. Most everything we did prospered, even though some of it was evil (like our treatment of American Indians, not to mention–again–slavery). Today, we can still get our way, but mainly because we have such a powerful military and a dominant economy. We can force our will, without God’s help–which is how Genghis Khan and Alexander and the Romans extended their godless empires. They relied on pure human strength. We in modern-day America don’t require God’s blessing. We’re powerful enough on our own.

The Bible, from what I understand, never shows God bestowing any special anointing on any country except Israel. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) Did America ever have some special blessing from God? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps America, like other great powers throughout history, is mostly a synergy of resources and personnel and energy and circumstances. Yet, like England, we’ve been a spiritual standard-bearer for the world, spreading the Gospel across the planet, and I’m sure that counts for something with God. So maybe we did–or do–have some special extra-biblical blessing from God. But maybe not. Who can claim to know the mind of God on this? And therefore, can we justify perpetuating this concept of divine anointing?

In warfare, history is always written by the victors. In many wars, both sides are confident that God is on their side, but the winner is able to boast, “See, God was on our side.” I totally sympathize with Christians in other countries who think it’s arrogant for American Christians to think we are divinely favored, just because we are the biggest dog on the block–as if Jesus always sides with the powerful. Jesus liked to hang around the marginalized, the poor, the decidedly non-powerful. And I see no reason to think Jesus has changed his tune.

Last night’s reading included 1 Samuel 10, where Saul is made king. And I mused about the startup costs of having a king.

Before, the Israelites had been a collection of, basically, semi-independent states with no central authority. Not even states–just tribes. A confederation of sorts. Sometimes a “judge” would rally everyone to defeat an enemy, of which there were many. But then they’d go back to doing their own thing in their own territory.

But now, this farmer named Saul had been plucked out of the cornfields and annointed King. But there was no “kingdom” infrastructure. They had a lot of scurrying to do.

• Where was the King to live? A king needs a palace. Quick–hire an architect!
• A King needs an entourage–attendants and deputies and cooks for state dinners and a person to hold an umbrella over his head. Maybe a jester or two. That means lots of recruiting and interviewing and vetting and writing of job descriptions.
• A King needs an expense account.
• And who is going to pay for all of this? Somehow, they would need to raise money from the people, which meant a tax system.

A Kingdom is a complicated thing. You don’t just snap your fingers and Presto! you have a Kingdom. Lots of startup costs. Lots of stuff to organize from scratch. Kind of like starting a new church, but with pageantry.

Of course, if you’re the King, you can, indeed, pretty much snap your fingers and make things happen. But first, there need to be people within hearing distance of the snapping. I imagine many Israelites wanted to participate, to get in on the ground floor of this new venture, maybe position themselves for knighthood or some profitable skimming. So along with everything else, I suppose you need a patronage system.

When Saul started out, it was just himself and Samuel. This was a big deal for a farmer and an old guy to pull off. I wish the Bible explained how they went about creating a Kingdom. It would have made an interesting case study.