Britain is waking up to the effects of their complacency as their freedoms erode more and more. When they banned handguns, the government controlled the law-abiding people but not the criminals. Go figure. A crime victim in an isolated location is in jail for using a gun to protect himself while the criminal is already out of jail. This is insane. Will we continue to make the same mistakes?
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You might be an Obamunist if . . . — sad but true. Samples:
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“Christian” denomination says to pass out condoms at church — surprise! It’s the UCC!
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PCUSA Considers Editing Out Biblical Teaching on Gays — shocking.
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Stan nails the problems with business-like marketing of the church:
The first rule of business is “The customer is always right”; the first message of the Gospel is “all have sinned”. In business you tailor your product to meet the customers’ needs; the “product” of the church is God. Or put it this way: Business never asks customers to submit to their product.
What seemed like a good idea may not have been. It just may be that, in our aim to “redeem the culture”, we sold out the Gospel.
I do think many of the things that make one successful in business will help make churches successful: Clear communications, knowing how to manage people, organization skills, efficiency, etc. There is no excuse to run a church in a sloppy manner. We should be good stewards of everything God gives us. But we can’t change the message to win people over.
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Prominent Ugandan AIDS activist Martin Ssempa thanked Pope Benedict for saying that condoms can exacerbate the problem of HIV/AIDS — they are both right.
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The Shameful Lynching of A.I.G. Executives — just do a little research. Obama & Co. are at fault. If not, they’d be blaming Bush like they do for most everything else.
Eternity Matters 
You are absolutely right about Obama & Co not being able to blame Bush. Its looking more and more like these companies are asking for help, because they are in it up to their eyeballs and couldn’t even pay their employees.
I know I won’t be popular for saying this, but they had to pay those bonuses. No the contracts shouldn’t havev been written in that manner, but you can’t go back and re-write a contract when the chips are down unless everyone is in agreement.
We complain about the government spending our money as they please and taking it when they want it, but that’s exactly what we are doing by forcing them to give it back.
I would have liked to see more giving anonymously like others have. No one told them to give it back or threatened to over tax them. We talk about having faith in the Father, and we need to also have faith in each other.
Moses instructed us not to covet our neighbors belongings. Jesus instructed us to love our brothers as we love ourselves. We’re failing miserably folks and it seems its going to get worse before it gets better.
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I am gathering ideas for a paper I wish to submit to my fellow congregants regarding my call for seceding from the UCC. Thanks for providing me with more ammunition. The UCC is a bastardized version of Christianity if ever there was one. It is pretty clear that they are an “anything goes” denomination, afraid to stand for anything lest people think badly of them. Well, I think very badly of them as I know other Christians do as well, including the many congregations that have left the denomination. Some like to think of those who left in terms of it being a good thing, as if what is left over is the cream of the crop. How sad. What is left over is simply a sorry group who’s only relation to Jesus is using His name on their letter-head.
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It always bemuses me when people harp on about condoms as being the cure for sexual-ills when they really are anything but. Seems a thinly disguised ploy (the pun is there, if you look for it, but it was unintended) to keep on doing what they want to keep on doing rather than face up to the real ills of practicing sex outside of marriage.
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Great set of stories in this post Neil. I really hope the PCUSA takes those “Gay verses” out of their Bibles so we can finally stop calling them Christians. Unreal.
Does anybody know a good copyright lawyer that can help us sue all these churches for using the name of “Christ” in vain?
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Re abstinence and AIDS in Uganda: I guess we’ll believe who we’ll believe, but it’s worth quoting from this 2005 article in the New York Review of Books:
“…Uganda’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, flew to Washington and presented a formal letter to Republican lawmakers stating that abstinence was key to Uganda’s success. Her involvement helped secure the $1 billion abstinence earmark that appears in the final bill.
“Mrs. Museveni’s claim that abstinence had triumphed over AIDS in Uganda is incorrect. Between 1988 and 2001, the average age at which young Ugandan women started sexual activity rose by less than a year, even though the national HIV rate fell by some 70 percent.[4] Most Ugandan girls begin having sex at around age seventeen, a year or so younger than in Zimbabwe, where HIV rates are about five times higher. More than half of all Ugandan women have been pregnant by age nineteen. HIV rates in pregnant teenage Ugandan girls fell rapidly during the first half of the 1990s, but during this time, the rate and ages at which these girls became pregnant—a marker of their sexual activity—barely changed at all.[5] Moreover, a study carried out in a rural area of Uganda found that young women who abstain from sex until they are twenty are just as likely to become infected with HIV by age twenty-four as young women who first had sex in their teens. ”
Full article here: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17963. It features Ssempa too.
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Edgar, good point about the copyright infringement! Seriously, they make such a mockery of the church in general and the persecuted church in particular (historically and currently).
Marshall, my (least) favorite UCC pastor was bragging on his blog about how progressive UCC pastors are and how 90% wanted more government involvement on social issues. The pathetic irony that pastors would view it as “progress” when they dump their responsibilities on government was lost on him.
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This round up is rank with ridiculousness. In America we have got to fight against these limitations that are being placed on the Second Amendment to avoid becoming that way. There are so many powerful stories of people who defend themselves against violent intruders in their own homes. It’s encouraging. http://tinyurl.com/c7e8pg
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Those who live by the sword die by the sword Kellene and is totally against the master plan. We have been charged to love each other regardless of how bad it gets.
The taking of life leaves no room for repentance and forgiveness. Balance can never be restored and the sickness never ends.
We don’t know the beginning or the end, so how do we have the right to take a life? While you’re crying for your second amendment rights, we lose too much on the other end of that barrel!
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I’m BLESSED Neil, thanks for asking!
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Yo, Neil. Just a note to let you know I changed the name I gave this place on my blogroll and that I was stuck with it while Blogrolling was messed up for so long. Anyhoo, it’s just “Neil’s blog 4Simpsons” now.
Since I’m here, and the topic is raised, of course, I think that while the position is debatable on its merits, I also think there is nothing unChristian about the UCC’s admonition on condoms, especially since, the UCC, unlike your own tradition, can’t “make” any of its local churches do anything. As for the merits, I personally think it would be a good idea depending on the individual church, its location and its needs.
Re, Marshall’s “Some like to think of those who left in terms of it being a good thing, as if what is left over is the cream of the crop.” Some do think that, I’m sure. My own view: I’m all for congregations finding their own way, and if that means withdrawing from fellowship with others, why would anyone stop it?
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MizClark,
Good people don’t use their weapons in a manner that suggests they live by them. Self-defense is not living by the sword.
Regarding abstinence programs vs. condom distribution, it seems to me that constant reminders regarding chastity is required for abstinence-only to have any chance. A good religious foundation and regular exposure to the Word through church and Bible study, or even a constant secular alternative for distinguishing between when sex is OK (marriage) and when it isn’t (any other time) is essential.
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Hi ER,
Thanks, much appreciated.
Aside from differences in church organization, it seems that the Christian merit of an idea would succeed or fail regardless of whether it is forced on member churches.
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Loved the Obamunist link.
You picked the two best examples too!
Barb
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Any Christian church that thinks making condoms available is a good thing, both enables sinful behavior and teaches that God has no power to help us resist temptation. The reason that out-of-wedlock births are up, that incidents of STDs are up, that thousands of unborn are put to death every month, has more to do with how people perceive God than anything else. With most sin, there is accountability since civil laws often parallel religious teaching. With sex, unless we’re talking rape, there is no such sense of accountability and usually nothing is mentioned until it is too late.
Churches should be offering counseling to anyone struggling with ANY sexual issue, and that means out of wedlock heterosexual sex as well. The Bible is clear that the only sex permissable is that which occurs between a man and his wife. The Church doesn’t even need to join in with the secular world in enabling this behavior by passing out condoms.
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Its hard to agree with your statements Marshall. You can’t have it both ways.
First: Murder is murder, whether by abortion or self defense. There are no ‘conditional releases’ under the Father’s law. It states simply: Thou shall not kill.
One who owns a gun or any other weapon for the sole purpose of ‘harming man’ whether in self defense or otherwise, leaves themselves and others in danger of violating that law. You may purchase a gun just for the protection of your family and follow all known rules for ‘gun security’, but how many cases have you read where someone was accidently shot and killed by a gun that was ‘supposed’ to be locked up?
Second: I believe you place too much faith in the belief of others. I have read your comments about your frustration with the UCC and now this statement concerning a church that may pass out condoms, and it distresses me a little.
The world as it is now is a terrible place. You complain about abortion rates as much as you complain about the distribution of contraceptives. How do you expect to get anyone in the door without grace? You don’t see a correlation? Which is more important, saving a life or promoting abstinence?
We have to start some where? Some people have gone their entire lives never learning about God or His Son, so you can’t expect them to believe in that kind of power. How do you know the church isn’t offering counseling for sexual issues and this is an answer to the number of parishoners they have counseled?
Jesus was a radical minister in his day using unheard of methods just so people would believe. Times have changed and peoples’ heads are harder than ever!
If a condom gets them in the door, who says the power of God can’t convince them NOT to use it before they leave?
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Mizclark,
I disagree entirely with your idea that murdering an infant and self-defense are identical. I think that your argument about guns ends up labeling God a hypocrite because there are numerous examples of God instructing the Israelites to kill numerous people. I think that a more accurate reading of the 6th Commandment is ‘Do not murder.’ Murder is a different thing than killing, else war would not be permitted by God. War is not always wrong, and by extension, neither is killing always wrong. Police who are forced to use their weapons are not subsequently charged with murder, as there is provision for the use of lethal force.
To address the idea that accidents happen with guns, I posit that accidents happen with ladders as well. Or to address the idea that locking guns up is a fail-safe way to deal with dangerous equipment, I posit that legislating people to be sober before driving is not a fail-safe way of dealing with vehicles. Why? Because accidents happen, and we do not accept accidents to be extra-ordinary. There are no perfect systems.
I also do not agree that it is the Church’s (I’m using the term liberally) responsibility to distribute condoms. The issue that drives AIDS and teen pregnancy isn’t lack of condoms, the real issue stems from immoral decisions. Should we distribute clean needles to addicts to ‘get them in the door’? Passing out condoms is rightly rejected by the Catholic Church because it does not address the root cause of AIDS, teen pregnancies, fatherless children etc. A corrupt heart is the root issue.
Jesus’ radical methods did not involve encouraging people to continue their adulterous behavior, it involved working on the Sabbath, performing miracles, thumbing his nose at the establishment and claiming to be God. Setting up a hotel for clandestine encounters whilst standing at the door encouraging people to behave morally was not part of His plan.
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Woops. I meant to say that ‘we do not accept accidents to be ordinary’. Currently, my sentence up there makes no sense!
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Free beer would probably attract alcoholics to AA as well, but there might be a downside to that.
I agree that the church should offer grace. Lots of it. But grace only makes sense if there is a need for it. Winking at or even encouraging sin is not biblical and not the role of the church.
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You know, I wasn’t there when they came up with this, but I’m pretty sure the nice tidy, suburban churches filled with nice, tidy suburban kids weren’t the ones they had in mind for this. I figure they were thinking of churches in urban settings at the crossroads of despair and social abandonment. I’m thinking it wasn’t the kids of the church they’re talking about handing condoms to, but maybe they are.
In any case, for a church faced with an epidemic of disease, whether involving members or nonmembers, with the resources to do something to slow it down, to do nothing — that’s a greater sin than “facilitating sin” when illicit sex is already going on.
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You assume that the condom distribution would be effective and you assume that teaching people the truth about God’s way would be ineffective. I disagree with both.
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Imagine that.
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Especially when you consider the condom’s lack of effectiveness against HIV.
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Craig, do you have some info from a good source that goes beyond this from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?
http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.htm
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