Re: Senate votes

After I wrote my last post I was thinking about all the things I’m selfish about. There are lots.
Then I stopped and read today’s reading from Night Light by Dr James Dobson and his wife Shirley. This whole week has been about serving others, especially your mate. Tonight’s reading was no different.
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” – Matthew 16:24
I had to stop and think about that. How does that apply to my relationship with Laurie. What must I deny myself of? What about my relationship with my parents or other family members? What must I deny myself of? What about my relationship with my co-workers, my boss, the taxpayers I work for? What must I deny myself of? What about the sick, and the tired and the poor? What must I deny myself of to show Christ to each of these people?

Television advertisers are experts at “rattling the cages” of viewers. They understand the philosophy of today’s audience: Look out for number one. That’s why we’re bombarded with slogans such as “Have it your way”; “You deserve a break today”; and “Because I’m worth it.” Their goal is to appeal to our self centered nature and manipulate us into buying a product. Frequently, they succeed.
The “I’m Third” approach to life is in direct contradiction to these ads. And well it should be! Jesus tells us that our obligation in following Him must be to deny ourselves — to let go of the steering wheel, so to speak, and let the Lord drive. Secondly, we are to love and care for others. Try implementing these priorities. They will lead to a better marriage in this life and eternal rewards in the next.
God first, others second, myself third. A simple phrase, but it contains far more wisdom for living life to the fullest than anything you’ll see or hear on a television ad.

I don’t think these are principals for just marriage. These are principals for life. I remember singing a couple songs growing up that I think we tend to forget or ignore as we grow older.

Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.

The other one went something like this:

Jesus and others and you. What a wonderful way to spell JOY. Jesus and others and you. In the life of each girl and each boy…

Would we really need immigration reform in America if Christians started acting like followers of Christ? You tell me.

Re: Senate votes

The discussion continues regarding immigration and the Christian response. From e-mail this week:

Jonathan,
That old saying is great and it is from the Bible and I believe it. However, it is sentiment like that that gives us votes like the ones referenced. What is happening in the border states, including Texas, to the crime rate, the cost of medical care, education etc. whatever services illegal immigrants use? I know what is happening to the jobs up here and we aren’t a border state. I know what is happening to health care. Why should an illegal allien get better health care than I do, even though they can’t pay for it many times and I’m paying for health insurance. What has happened in the past to countries that have tried to exhist with more than one language? I don’t mind helping my ‘neighbor’. If they want to come into this country get in line and come here legally, then assimilate into our society and leave yours behind. Wake up America before it is too late and we look more like Mexico than the U.S.A .

I have to ask – where is my allegiance? God or a flag? I have a problem when other people get better deals than I do. But I think that’s an issue of my selfishness and not Godliness.
I think the same benefits should be offered to all Americans, illegal or not.
I have trouble seeing how people can pull the “America is (was) a Christian country founded on Judea-Christian beliefs” card when the same people don’t show God’s love to their neighbor?
Sure they’ll cast judgment at sinners when they’re doing something they don’t like (imagine that – sinners sinning) but I want to be known for showing the world what I believe in not yelling about what I’m against.
I don’t think Jesus said, “As long as your neighbor doesn’t get a better deal than you, give him your coat.” When I read about the good Samaritan I don’t think the Samaritan thought, “You know this guy will get a better bed to sleep in tonight.”

Flyleaf to perform on Jimmy Kimmel

Flyleaf Performing on Jimmy Kimmel

Awesome – sad I missed this live. It’s Flyleaf from Belton and Temple, Texas on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Flyleaf bass player Pat Seals went to UMHB the same time I did. I didn’t get to hang with him too often but he was always a fun guy to be around. His dad was a pretty cool art prof too.

The Big Debate

There’s been some talks back and forth now between James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Jim Wallis of Sojourners to discuss the “major moral issues of our day.”
Here’s the latest from Jim Wallis (via e-mail):

HEARTS & MINDS BY JIM WALLIS

The Big Debate

Last week, a letter from James Dobson and friends to the board of the National Association of Evangelicals challenged NAE vice president Rich Cizik’s efforts on global warming as “dividing and demoralizing,” claiming they shift “the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time.”
In response, I invited Dobson to a debate on the question, “What are the great moral issues of our time for evangelical Christians?” and suggested that a major evangelical Christian university should host it.
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported on the debate invitation, and this response: “A Focus on the Family vice president, Tom Minnery, said he would be happy to take up that debate. Dobson himself, Minnery said, is busy writing a book on child rearing.”
I’m also busy writing a book, but I suggest that when we’re both finished, we hold that debate. My personal invitation to James Dobson still stands. And since he was the primary driving force behind the crucial letter, the conversation should be with him. But let’s change the tone of this from “a debate” to “a conversation.” This is, in fact, the big conversation going on among evangelicals (and Catholics, too) across the nation and around the world.
In his letter, Dobson named the “great moral issues” as “the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children.” I said in my last blog that I believe the sanctity of life, the integrity and health of marriages, and the teaching of sexual morality to our children are, indeed, among the “great moral issues of our time. But I believe they are not the only great moral issues.” As many writers have been saying in this blog, the enormous challenges of global poverty, climate change, pandemics that wipe out generations and continents, the trafficking of human beings made in God’s image, and the grotesque violations of human rights, even to the point of genocide, are also among the great moral issues that people of faith must be – and already are – addressing.
Just in the last few days, we have already received invitations from six major Christian universities eager to host this conversation between James Dobson and me. But this is bigger than just two people: It’s the conversation we need to have on every Christian campus, in every church, and in public forums around the nation, especially as we approach another election season. So let’s do that together.
The board meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals also ended Saturday, and in the words of their own press release: “NAE Leaders Advance Broad Agenda with Landmark Document on Human Rights and Torture.” The release begins by noting:

    The board of directors of the National Association of Evangelicals advanced a broad public agenda at its annual meeting this week, endorsing a landmark document on human rights and torture, and reaffirming its “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Public Engagement,” first adopted in 2003.

Specifically, the board noted it

    …reaffirmed its support for the landmark “For the Health of the Nation” document unanimously adopted in 2003, commending its “principles of Christian political engagement to our entire community for action.”

These principles include: (1) We work to protect religious freedom and liberty of conscience; (2) We work to nurture family life and protect children; (3) We work to protect the sanctity of human life and to safeguard its nature; (4) We seek justice and compassion for the poor and vulnerable; (5) We work to protect human rights; (6) We seek peace and work to restrain violence; (7) We labor to protect God’s creation.
The only mention of Rich Cizik, whom the Dobson letter had singled out and called upon the NAE to fire, came with these words in the official NAE press release:

    Speaking at the annual board banquet, Rev. Richard Cizik, NAE vice president for governmental affairs, quoted evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry in his wake up call to evangelicals sixty years ago: ‘The cries of suffering humanity today are many. No evangelicalism which ignores the totality of man’s condition dares respond in the name of Christianity.’

The NAE statement went on to say:

    Speaking of a new generation of evangelicals that has responded to those cries, Cizik said: ‘We root our activism in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross and are giving it a proper temporal focus by emphasizing all of the principles that are found in the Bible. We come together in a positive way as a family bonded by the love of Christ, not as fractious relatives. We desire to be people known for our passionate commitment to justice and improving the world, and eager to reach across all barriers with love, civility, and care for our fellow human beings.’

I knew Carl F. H. Henry, during my seminary years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and through many conversations together during our early years of Sojourners. His biblical theology, social conscience, and political balance provided a younger generation with crucial moral guidance. We miss his voice today.
But the NAE board, and its president Leith Anderson, know that a new generation of evangelicals wants that same sound theology and good balance, and believe that Christian moral concerns (and God’s concerns) go beyond only a few issues. Recognizing how their broader agenda is resonating with evangelicals around the world, the NAE announced that at its fall board meeting in Washington, D.C., October 11-12, “the association will host an ‘International Congress on Evangelical Public Engagement,’ drawing prestigious leaders from around the world to meet with American leadership around the principles of the Association’s ‘For the Health of the Nation’ document.” It seems the broader evangelical social agenda has solid support and is moving forward.
So, let’s have the big debate, and make it into the kind of deep and necessary conversation among the people of God that it needs to be. And to Jim Dobson I say, let’s finish our books (as a Dad with two young boys I look forward to reading yours on child rearing!), and then agree to a public conversation at the right place and the right time. I look forward to that.