Thanks be to God

 Because of hurricane Helene, we are dealing with a twisted knee, a barked shin, flood waters, downed trees, no power, and no internet except using phones at present so I am typing this short post on my mobile app listening to the generators and chainsaws around me. 

The Psalm for today reminds me that if not for the grace of God, things could be worse. 

124 Nisi quia Dominus

1 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
let Israel now say;

2 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
when enemies rose up against us;

3 Then would they have swallowed us up alive *
in their fierce anger toward us;

4 Then would the waters have overwhelmed us *
and the torrent gone over us;

5 Then would the raging waters *
have gone right over us.

6 Blessed be the Lord! *
he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.

7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; *
the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

8 Our help is in the Name of the Lord, *
the maker of heaven and earth.

Our house is high and dry, but the waters have risen through our boat house and the waves from 60 mph winds carried away our neighbor’s pier and parts of ours. Many of our neighbors are on lower ground and will have more problems so pray for them.

We are fine because our trust is in the Lord.

Queer Theory Going Atomic

The LGBTqrsetc movement used some bizarre arguments when they worked to revise traditional interpretations of Biblical sexual morality. These revisionist ideas caught on with certain denominations. Those denominations are currently in a death spiral.

Where will the LGBTqrstetc forces strike next? Well they dropped a bomb in the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" when they published last year, "Queering nuclear weapons: How LGBTQ+ inclusion strengthens security and reshapes disarmament." 

Read it all if you dare. Here is an example, 

Queer identity is also relevant for the nuclear field because it informs theories that aim to change how officials, experts, and the public think about nuclear weapons. Queer theory is a field of study, closely related to feminist theory, that examines sex- and gender-based norms. It shines a light on the harm done by nuclear weapons through uranium mining, nuclear tests, and the tax money spent on nuclear weapons ($60 billion annually in the United States) instead of on education, infrastructure, and welfare. The queer lens prioritizes the rights and well-being of people over the abstract idea of national security, and it challenges the mainstream understanding of nuclear weapons—questioning whether they truly deter nuclear war, stabilize geopolitics, and reduce the likelihood of conventional war. Queer theory asks: Who created these ideas? How are they being upheld? Whose interests do they serve? And whose experiences are being excluded?

...Queer theory is also about rejecting binary choices and zero-sum thinking, such as the tenet that nuclear deterrence creates security and disarmament creates vulnerability. It identifies the assumptions and interests these ideas are built on—and imagines alternatives that serve a broader range of interests, including those of the invisible and resource-stripped.

Indeed, queer theory helps us not only see the bad of a world with nuclear weapons, but also imagine the good of a world without them. It envisions using the resources freed up by nuclear disarmament to build structures that tangibly increase people’s safety and well-being through healthcare, social housing, etc. In this scenario, the more than $100 billion that nuclear-armed states spend on nuclear weapons every year could be used to address the climate crisis, which could kill up to 83 million people by 2100. 

Disarmament, tied to climate change.. genius!  

If we follow this reasoning, we are doomed to the same fate as those denominations I referenced earlier. 

 The arguments are so weak and such a stretch that I hope that no one other than the authors take them seriously. 

These people are a few cans short of a six pack.

I think the "troll" that tweeted, 

“They should not allow mentally ill people near weapons of mass destruction.”

in response to a December 2022 panel discussion on LGBTQ+ identity in the nuclear weapons space was probably right.

The Revised Common Lectionary Strikes Out Again

This week the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) used in many churches once again strikes through parts of the Epistle of James. Initially, I could not figure out the reasons for this, but upon further reflection with Pewsterspouse, I think James words offend the zeitgeist. 

James 3:13-4:3,7-8

Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’?  But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,

‘God opposes the proud,

   but gives grace to the humble.’

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

So it is okay for the simple Sunday pewsitters to hear about envy, selfish ambition, cravings, murder, covetousness, and asking wrongly, but don't you dare let them hear about adultery and most of all about PRIDE! That would really go against the spirit of the age now wouldn't it.

 

What Does This Pope Really Believe?

 

Pope Francis speaking recently to young Catholics in Singapore: 

"All the religions are a path to arrive at [or: reach] God. They are  – I make a comparison – like different languages, different idioms [or: dialects] to arrive there. But God is God for everyone. And since God is God for everyone, we are all children of God. 'But my God is more important than yours!' Is this true? There is only one God, and we, our religions are languages, paths to arrive at [or: reach] God."*

I have heard this and other variants of the "all streams flow into the same ocean" theory before, and I cannot square them with the Bible.  

Neither can Robert Gagnon, 

This is an unfortunate pluralistic view that bears no resemblance to the apostolic witness to the gospel in the NT. I hope my FB Catholic friends will agree with this. It is absurd to view all religions as arriving at the same God, with the Christian view of God being "no more important" than any other religious path. There are outright contradictions between the various religions. The God of Jesus is very different from the God of Mohammed, and both of these are even more different than the polytheistic religions of the Sikhs and Hindus. 

The primary NT witness is also that people become adopted children of God when they have faith in Christ. All people are children of God only in the diluted sense that all are created by God. But they do not enter into a covenant or kinship relationship with God until they believe in the gospel about Christ.

There are elements of Francis's message that agree with Paul's Areopagus (Athens) speech in Acts 17, making a bridge to pagans. Yet the most important part of Paul's speech there was left out by Francis: The imperative of proclaiming the gospel and the requisite response of faith in Christ. Without these there is no certain hope of salvation. 

The New Testament witness has an operating missionary premise, namely that sans faith in Jesus, people perish. Faith in Christ is the only certain means of being saved. Everything else is wishful thinking. "There is salvation in no other one" than Jesus. "For there is not even any other name under heaven that has been given to humans by which it is necessary for us to be saved" (Acts 4:12). Only by calling upon the name of Jesus can anyone be placed on a certain path to God. If God has anything else up his proverbial sleave, he hasn't told us about it. You would be a fool to stake your eternal life on something so insecure as a wish for which there is little or no support in the apostolic testimony to Christ.

The language of the RCC Catechism is better but still deficient: 

//The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."//

The only assured way of receiving life is through faith in Christ. That was the operating premise of the apostles as they took the gospel around the Mediterranean Basin, always assuming that pagans and non-Christian Jews (like the pre-Christian Paul) needed to believe in the gospel about Christ in order to be saved.

*The original Italian reads:

//Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio. Sono – faccio un paragone – come diverse lingue, diversi idiomi, per arrivare lì. Ma Dio è Dio per tutti. E poiché Dio è Dio per tutti, noi siamo tutti figli di Dio. “Ma il mio Dio è più importante del tuo!”. È vero questo? C’è un solo Dio, e noi, le nostre religioni sono lingue, cammini per arrivare a Dio. Qualcuno sikh, qualcuno musulmano, qualcuno indù, qualcuno cristiano, ma sono diversi cammini.//

 Yet another reason to not swim the Tiber.

"No one can tame the tongue"

I wish our politicians and television commentators would put James 3:1-12 on the walls of their offices.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

 

Amazing Benefits of Amazing Grace

I sing in a couple of Christian groups so it was interesting to see the health benefits of this.

From Premier Christian News, 

Singing ‘Amazing Grace’ for just ten minutes a day could help reverse the effects of heart disease, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin investigated how singing various songs impacted the blood vessels of older individuals with heart disease.

The findings revealed that those who regularly sang 'Amazing Grace,' a hymn penned by clergyman and poet John Newton in 1772, experienced the most significant improvements in endothelial function—a key indicator of the health of blood vessels surrounding the heart. 

(This was an exploratory analysis)

The 1968 release ‘Hey Jude’ brought about smaller improvements, as did Dolly Parton’s 1976 hit ‘Jolene’. However, the US folk classic ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ recorded by Woody Guthrie in 1940, showed little impact.

The group recruited 65 participants, mostly in their 60s, who were being treated for heart issues or had previously had a heart attack. Under a singing coach's guidance, they sang four songs while researchers measured changes in blood flow, an important indicator of heart vessel health.

The study, published in medRxiv, found that 22 per cent of volunteers improved blood flow while singing ‘Amazing Grace,’ compared to just ten per cent when singing ‘This Land Is Your Land’.

The research concluded: “Singing along to a pre-recorded instructional video for 30 minutes improved microvascular, but not macrovascular, endothelial function, in older patients with known CAD. Singing should be considered as an accessible and safe therapeutic intervention in an older population who otherwise may have physical or orthopaedic limitations hindering participation in traditional exercise. Future studies should explore the sustained vascular response to singing over weeks to months and explore the potential for “earworm” effects between visits.”

Excuse me, but I have to go to rehearsal now... 

Qui confidunt

This week's Psalm 125 Qui confidunt is a prayer for peace to be upon Israel. I don't know if it will happen in our lifetime, but we should keep on praying.

1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, *

which cannot be moved, but stands fast for ever.

2 The hills stand about Jerusalem; *

so does the Lord stand round about his people,

from this time forth for evermore.

3 The scepter of the wicked shall not hold sway over the land allotted to the just, *

so that the just shall not put their hands to evil.

4 Show your goodness, O Lord, to those who are good *

and to those who are true of heart.

5 As for those who turn aside to crooked ways,

the Lord will lead them away with the evildoers; *

but peace be upon Israel.

If They Only Knew

 From Evangelical Focus,

People living outside their country of birth represent 3.6% of the world’s overall population. Almost half of identify as Christians.

There are over 280 million people in the world who are migrants, a figure that has grown by 83% in the last three decades.

A new report by Pew Research concludes that 47% of these migrants are Christians, while 29% are Muslim and 13% do not identify with a specific religion.

Christians are an estimated 30% of the whole global population but represent almost half of the migrants in the world. Other faith groups such as Muslims and Jews are also highly represented among the migrant communities. Meanwhile, is it the non-religious who are underrepresented among those who had to leave their home country.

Interestingly, the leading countries of origin for Christian migrants were Mexico (11 million), and Russia (8.9 million).

If the anti-Christian left only knew that the vast majority of those coming into the U.S. through our southern border were Christians, they would put up a wall quicker than they could raise the taxes to pay for it. 

 

RCL Strikes Through the Gospel of Mark

The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) that many churches use does not provide the casual Sunday pewsitter with a complete view of the Bible. The RCL commonly omits sections of the Bible that might be troublesome for progressive preachers to explain away or might sound offensive to modern listeners. The harm that is done is incalculable as pewsitters are taught an expurgated version of the Bible. 

This Sunday is no exception. I added (in red) the verses that were cut.

Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

“This people honours me with their lips,

   but their hearts are far from me;

7 in vain do they worship me,

   teaching human precepts as doctrines.”

8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 

 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

I suspect the "goes out the sewer" bit was too graphic for the editors of the RCL, but I think the other goal was to eliminate the "Thus he declared all foods clean" comment because that essentially destroys the shellfish argument.

If your church uses the RCL, you should probably find another church. If you want to stick it out, you had better open your Bible and get the whole story.