The elephant in the room

 I recently attended a series of required continuing education lectures pertaining to the health of citizens of our state. Among the various topics was bioethics and women's health. In looking at the goals of that talk, I saw that the question of personhood was to be addressed. It didn't take a genius to know what the elephant in the room was going to be during that one. 

When the speakers were introduced, I noticed that there was only one person on the panel, a female OB-GYN. There was no member of the clergy, no philosopher, and no ethicist. You can guess what direction the "educational" session took. The speaker went on an emotion ridden diatribe about "reproductive health" (meaning abortion), the enslavement of women by men, the "right to privacy," how the Dobbs decision will result in back alley abortions, women dying, and well meaning physicians being handcuffed and jailed, etc. 

The scientific, moral, legal, and ethical questions of personhood were not addressed although a brief description of fertilization, and embryology was included.

Judging by the silence during the Q and A session that followed, I believe that most of the audience was as shocked as I was at the way this was presented, but we endured because we needed the credit hours.

After her talk, I kindly corrected a few scientific facts that she had gotten wrong for which she thanked me. 

The next day she sat at my table. 

A great big elephant separated us. 

You can't argue with such as these.

Pray for them. 

Pray for the unborn. 

Witnessing at your own risk

This Sunday's reading from Acts 5:27-32 presents a powerful witness to the Gospel,

When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority. The  God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, so that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.’ 

If Jesus had not been physically seen and touched after he had risen, would these men risk their lives for a lie? 

If these men had not been filled with the Holy Spirit, would they have the had the courage to testify?

That may be all the witness someone needs to come to the conclusion that the Gospel is true. 

Aiming to please: Did Francis miss the mark?

 The day after Pope Francis' death, this meme was circulated by some of my Episcopalian friends,

The Pope, bless his soul, was praised by "progressive" Christians for seeming to be one of them in many of his statements. This one in particular was one of the weakest theologically. It gives credence to the "all rivers flow to the same ocean" argument when it comes to the various religions to which he refers. He was not entirely inclusive in his list of religions however. I see that he did not include Wicca or other pagan religions. 

The following sermon was posted in 2014 by Rev Michael Chua, a Roman Catholic priest in Malaysia. I quote it in full,

“All Rivers flow into the Sea!” An oft-repeated analogy (or over-repeated), that may have had its origin in Hinduism, is used to describe that all religions have an element of truth in them and are thus, equally valid and parallel paths leading to salvation or liberation. Of course, no one bothered to consult a geologist or more specifically a potamologist, a person who studies rivers, to confirm the veracity of this statement. Surprisingly, not all rivers flow into the sea. For example, the rivers flowing south from the Tassili Mountains in North Africa disappear in the searing heat and scorching dryness of the Sahara. Others run into other bodies of water like lakes and even other rivers. So, not ALL rivers flow into the sea!

But say that we accept that most rivers, though not all, do indeed flow into the sea, can we similarly postulate that all religions equally lead to salvation? The equality of the salvific value of each religion is a fallacy, it contradicts logic, specifically the principle of non-contradiction. When one accepts a proposition to be true, one is automatically forced to believe that all statements to the contrary must be false; otherwise one cannot in reality believe what one claims to believe. This basic understanding is derived from the universal law of non-contradiction, without which nothing can be determined to be true or false. In the words of Aristotle, "One cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect and at the same time", e.g. the man is dead and not dead (at the same time and in the same respect), which is false. Or in the case of religious beliefs, if one religion maintains that there is no God, as in a Supreme Omnipotent Personal Being, and another religion maintains that such a Supreme Divine Being does exist, both cannot be equally true. Or given the gospel reading that we have heard, one cannot both maintain that Jesus is singularly and uniquely THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life as well as also accepting as equally valid that apart from him there are other Ways, other Truths and other sources of salvific Life.

But why would such a fallacy gain such widespread acceptance, to the point of being mistaken by many Catholics as a doctrine of the Church? We live in a free marketplace of religious options. It seems that nearly every belief subscribed to in the history of human civilization is available for us to believe. And so many people take a "mix and match" approach to religion. The New Age phenomenon attests to the fact that people actually attempt to create a "make your own" salad for the soul and there is no shortage of consumers in the market. But we are not saved by a human recipe — we're saved by the Truth. And if something is true, then it must be true for all people at all times or as Pope St John Paul II teaches, “Truth can never be confined to time and culture; in history it is known, but it also reaches beyond history.” Likewise, Pope Benedict reminds us that “truth draws strength from itself and not from the number of votes in its favour.”

Pluralism has become attractive today, especially democratic pluralism which allows for personal freedom and social cohesion of a multireligious and multiracial society. Doctrinal pluralism, however, poses serious dangers. There is a danger that social tolerance of difference becomes personal indifference to values; when the lowest common denominator of public life becomes the major determinant of personal identity; when unreflective acceptance of material values precludes a deeper vision of life. Thus, when trying to find the ultimate common denominator among people of different religious or philosophical leanings, one would necessarily have to preclude God, since some religions and individuals choose not to believe in him. Perhaps another prime example of this danger may be seen in the area of morality, specifically in the degradation and cheapening of sexuality and love.

The most popular of all objections against the claims of Christianity today comes from this field. The objection is not that Christianity is not true but that it is not THE Truth; not that it is a false religion but that it is only A religion, one among many. The world is a big place, the objector reasons; "different strokes for different folks". Thus those who speak of the uniqueness of Christianity or even of Christ are deemed narrow minded and intolerant. Critics of Christianity’s exclusive claims would often co-op God into their argumentation – “God just has to be more open-minded than this.”

In our obsessively politically correct world, many actually no longer worship God, but equality instead has become the New Fashionable Deity. The benchmark for this new deity and his religion is a level playing field, even if this means dragging God down to our level. It fears being right where others are wrong more than it fears being wrong. It worships democracy and resents the fact that God is an absolute monarch. One popular Catholic apologist, Peter Kreeft gives this humorous though damning illustration, “If you confess at a fashionable cocktail party that you are plotting to overthrow the government, or that you are a PLO terrorist or a KGB spy, or that you molest porcupines or bite bats' heads off, you will soon attract a buzzing, fascinated, sympathetic circle of listeners. But if you confess that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, you will find yourself suddenly alone, with a distinct chill in the air.” You may actually risk being labelled ‘fundamentalist’,   ‘fanatical’ or a ‘religious bigot’.

When people claim that all religions are principally the same, with merely insignificant and superficial differences, as open-minded as they may sound, it actually betrays a certain ideological superiority and ignorance. No one could ever possibly make this claim unless he is abysmally ignorant of what the different religions of the world actually teach. Certainly, there are similarities and analogous parallels, but there are also many differences and even contradictions between truth claims. It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that there’s a world of a difference when one religion that states that there is no God and another one that asserts it, and one could obviously not sweep this inconsistency under the carpet and term it as ‘insignificant’ or ‘non-essential.’ To ignore or to collapse every single difference and contradiction into a single voluminous salad bowl of beliefs is like thinking the earth is flat.

Christianity is not a system of man's search for God but a story of God's search for man. Throughout the Bible, man-made religion fails but God continues to reach down, in spite of our failure. There is no human way up the mountain, only a divine way down. Of course, if these roads to salvation were indeed man made, it would indeed be stupid and arrogant to absolutise any one of them. But if God made the road and the path, He must indeed be a fickle and schizophrenic deity who enjoys confusing his creation by creating contradictory alternatives. But if He made only one path – One Way, One Truth and One source of Life, His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ and the Church which he has left behind as that one certain path for all humanity – then it is humility and not arrogance to accept this one road from God, and it is arrogance, not humility, to insist that all our manmade roads are as good as God’s God-made one.

The Second Vatican Council took a position that distinguished Catholicism from both modernist relativism, that all religions are either the same or that they all have relative value, and fundamentalist exclusivism, which proposes that only the adherents of one religious position can be saved whilst others are damned. The Council taught that on the one hand there is much deep wisdom and value in other religions and that the Christian should respect them and learn from them. But, on the other hand, the claims of Christ and his Church can never be lessened, compromised, or relativised. The Church continues to proclaim that God intends the salvation of all, and he does so through the mediation of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and the Church, which is His Body. And yet those who through no fault of their own do not know Christ or His Church, but who follow the dictates of their conscience as prompted by the Spirit, may also be saved. But their salvation too comes from Christ and never apart from Him.

Though the world may appear to be free market place of ideas, opinions, theologies and ideologies, where we are constantly tempted to come up with a recipe or salad of ideas, we Christians have already made our choice. There may be many rivers which may ultimately lead to the sea, but there is only one Way, one Truth and one Life that leads to Heaven, it is Christ, for He is both the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Source of Life itself and its destined End.

Yes, Francis missed the mark with his statement, and many of my friends found false comfort in his words. 

We shall see what the next Pope has to say about the subject. 

Eastern and Western Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

From Premier Christian News,

This year, all Christians will celebrate Easter on the same day – a rare alignment between the Julian and Gregorian calendars...

Both Western and Orthodox churches celebrate Easter on the Sunday after the first full moon following the Northern Hemisphere’s spring equinox - also known as the vernal equinox, and the autumn equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.

This method of calculating Easter was set by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

In a joint statement, the Presidents of Churches Together in England (CTE) marked the occasion, calling it “a special blessing from God.”

The celebration also honours the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a foundational moment for Christian unity and belief. Held in 325 AD, the council sought a unified date for Easter and helped shape core Christian doctrine, including the Nicene Creed and discussions on the Trinity.

The CTE Presidents – representing Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant churches – said: “Often divided by our sins and arrogance, we now come together in unity, with one voice and one heart, as did those divinely-guided individuals seventeen hundred years ago to defend the Truth that has been entrusted to us. We come together to reiterate the message and truth of Nicaea.

“It is a special blessing from God that this year all Christians will celebrate Easter – Pascha – on the same Sunday. We are empowered by this and we draw strength to face the realities of our divisions with a new hope of reconciliation.”

Passiontide music: Passionsgesang

As we walk towards the cross this week, I present to you Passionsgesang by Rheinberger, a work that I had the honor of singing with our choral group this week. If your German is good, just listen. If not, read my translation as you listen.

To death on the cross they are leading my Jesus.

His pain cannot move them nor his composed mind.

They have even crowned his wounds with thorns,

felt no sympathy for him, but mocked him with scorn.

Can nothing bring him back, rescue him from intense suffering?

Oh, must he struggle with death, can no angel free him?

So flow, my tears, let me love my pain,

no comfort will I crave,  quietly my heart will grieve.

Ah! Bowed down towards the earth, he bears the guilt of mankind,

bleeding, he carries our sin, and carries on patiently.

The bindings are hardly removed when he suffers the pain of the cross;

oh pain of new wounds, oh suffering without end.

He calls out to seize the pain, surrounded by shame and ridicule: 

"Why have you abandoned me, oh Lord my God?"

But his complaints are short; he takes courage again.

He can bear it now, the Hand that rests on Him.

And he still has for his friends comfort in his breast;

He begs mercy for his enemies, who are unaware of their guilt.

To the most loyal of his brothers, who has not run away wailing,

he gives another mother to his mother he gives a son.

Look up, downhearted sorrow, your Jesus has accomplished it;

he lowers to soft sleep his head in death.

Darkness covers the sinful land, 

and in the night of horrors God's son is recognized.

Now clarity beams down; I turn my gaze 

back to my Father with joyfulness.

You have allowed me, my Saviour, to look up to him, with childlike trust. 

Forever, forever I thank you.

I thank you forever, I thank you forever!

 

Zum Kreuzestode führen sie meinen Jesus hin,                           

sein Schmerz kann sie nicht rühren, nicht sein gelaß'ner Sinn.   

Sie haben seine Wunden mit Dornen noch gekrönt,                      

kein Mitgefühl empfunden, ihn spottend noch verhöhnt!             

Kann nichts zurück ihn bringen, retten aus schwerer Pein?         

Ach, soll er sterbend ringen, kein Engel ihn befrei'n?                  

So fließet, meine Zähren, so sei mein Schmerz geliebt,               

nicht Trost will ich begehren, mein Herz sei still betrübt.            

Ach! tief gebeugt zur Erde, trägt er der Menschheit Schuld, 

trägt blutend die Beschwerde und wandelt in Geduld. 

Der Bande kaum entbunden, empfängt ihn Kreuzesqual; 

o Schmerz von neuen Wunden, o Leiden ohne Zahl!

Er ruft, den Schmerz zu fassen, 

umdrängt von Schmach und Spott: 

Wie hast du mich verlassen, o Herr, mein Gott! 

Doch kurz sind seine Klagen, er atmet wieder Mut! 

Er kann sie nun ertragen, die Hand, die auf ihm ruht. 

Und hat für seine Freunde noch Trost in seiner Brust; 

fleht Gnade seinem Feinde, sich keiner Schuld bewußt. 

Dem Treusten seiner Brüder, der klagend nicht entfloh'n, 

gibt er die Mutter wieder, der Mutter ihren Sohn!

Blick auf, gesenkter Kummer, dein Jesus hat vollbracht; 

er neigt zum sanften Schlummer sein Haupt in Todesnacht. 

Die Finsternisse decken das sündenvolle Land, 

und in der Nacht der Schrecken wird Gottes Sohn erkannt!

Nun wallet Klarheit nieder; 

ich wende meinen Blick zu meinem Vater wieder mit Freudigkeit zurück. 

Zu ihm hinauf zu schauen, 

gabst Du, mein Heiland, mir ein kindliches Vertrauen. 

Auf ewig dank' ich Dir!

Cloaks and palms

 In Luke 19:28-40 we see another reference to "Cloak Sunday,"

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” ’ So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

‘Blessed is the king

   who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven,

   and glory in the highest heaven!’

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

Why is it that we teach our children that it is all about the palms this Sunday? I think focusing on the cloaks would teach a more valuable lesson. It is a far greater honor to Jesus to sacrifice one's cloak to cover the nasty path for his ride, but for those without cloaks, palm branches would suffice.

 

 

Engaging Street Preachers

 I usually pass street preachers by because I have already answered the call, but I always wonder how many people are reached by their methods. The methods vary as evangelism should because what works for one person might turn another person off. What worked for me was receiving a New Testament from a Gideon and several books from Christian girl friends in college who had been touched by the Campus Crusade for Christ. What did not work was the man with a megaphone warning me of my impending doom. In a way, he was right, but his approach rubbed me the wrong way.

Over at the Catholic Herald, Heather Tomlinson wrote about this in a post titled, "In defence of US-style street evangelism: as seen on streets of Hull in rain or shine" that presents the central question we must ask ourselves when we see the street preacher, 

So, before any of us deign to criticise a street preacher for their message, manner or fondness for conspiracy theories, we might ask ourselves, Well, what I am doing to help people find faith in Christ, including those in our own society who have barely heard His name except as a swear word?

Street evangelism can help people come to faith. Once I met someone who was converted to Christian belief almost on the spot – from atheism – after merely listening to someone reading from the Bible on the street.

For those of us who have a quieter spirit, there are less overt means to reach people on the streets than megaphones. One such Catholic ministry has been out on those same Hull streets every month for eleven years, rain or shine.

This team of mostly women has a particular approach – smiling. Holding a picture of the Divine Mercy image alongside the offer “Would you like a free Rosary?”, this group of faithful Catholics aims for a gentle witness, offering prayer, miraculous medals and booklets to those who pass by.

“Do you have a faith?” they ask those who stop, and listen to the response rather than arguing with it.

It’s a subtler, more gentle approach that was part inspired by the network St Paul Street Evangelisation, which has nearly 200 groups listed across the US, though only a handful abroad.

Hull is not the easiest place to share the faith. The 2021 Census recorded that 49 per cent of the population considered themselves to have no religion, and the Yorkshire area has one of the lowest proportions of Catholics in the UK. Yet these friendly women meet little resistance in their non-confrontational approach.

I was there as an onlooker but I couldn’t help but compare the experience with these patient, listening ladies to my decade spent in Protestant evangelicalism, where I had taken part in many different methods of sharing the gospel: from gentle offers of prayer to street preaching, and even offering fruit (to symbolise the message of the fruits of the spirit being spread). 

The latter type of style was described as “street chaplaincy” by Protestant minister Chris Duffett, who took to the streets of the English city of Peterborough regularly with a gentle message of Christ using creativity. Once he brought a sofa to the city centre, and sat down with a sign: “I will listen.”

During all these experiences I was surprised how open and interested many of the passersby were. In Hull too, the offer of prayer was willingly accepted by many: those with health concerns, the worry etched in their faces; the bereaved, who shed tears; young children were interested in the colourful plastic rosaries; and many of faithful stopped to say hello and “well done” or “thank you”.

The next time I see a street evangelist praying with someone or offering a gentle, nonamplified call, I just may stop and give them a high five.