Aspirations
Just since it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these… here goes one of those life-goals assessment” exercises.
I want to be a man:
Who honors God with my life.
Who practices the habit of faith.
Who is intentional about my call to be a husband and father.
Who works faithfully and diligently, stewarding God’s gifts.
Who is not addicted to comfort.
Who follows God’s will whole-heartedly.
Who leads with grace and humility.
Who graciously leads my wife in faith.
Who loves my wife like Christ loves the Church.
Who practices Gospel-centered parenting.
Who honors my wife in public and private.
Who lives soberly in the fear of God.
Who reveres the Word of God.
Who sees lies for what they are.
Who can make my wife laugh.
Who can laugh at myself.
I want to marry a woman:
Who honors God with her life.
Who practices the habit of faith.
Who practices femininity.
Who recognizes a specific call to be a wife and mother.
Who does not place her trust in riches.
Who puts calling over comfort.
Who supports me in following God’s call.
Who can submit to my authority.
Who is faithful to love me in spite of my sin.
Who is faithful to gently confront me when I sin.
Who can respect me joyfully as a Christian duty.
Who acts compassionately toward the poor and helpless.
Who will gratefully accept God’s gift of children.
Who will honor me in front of our children and others.
Who takes God at His word with sincere piety.
Who takes other things lightly.
Who can recognize and laugh at absurdity.
Who has an cheerful approach to life, even in adversity.
O Lord my God, you are very great!
Psalm 104
O Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.
He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
he makes his messengers winds,
his ministers a flaming fire.
He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until the evening.
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!
Caring for the environment and the poor, Biblically
Caring for the Environment and the Poor, Biblically
“Only, they asked that I should remember the poor,
the very thing I was eager to do.” (Galatians 2:10)
From the beginning, Jesus’ followers have tended the sick, relieved the poor, and stood up for those who could not speak for themselves. But today some well-meaning activists are trying to shift Christians away from these historic values, to lobby for government environmental policies that would—ironically—hurt the world’s most destitute.
It’s not about whether we care. It’s about how we care.
That’s why I was happy to sign the WeGetIt.org declaration, a simple statement by which Christians can unite their Biblical view of the environment and their sincere concern for the poor. The fact is that global warming activism distracts us from our God-given responsibilities; for instance, proposals to reduce energy consumption by limiting carbon emissions will raise living costs and condemn generations of our global neighbors to grinding poverty.
Won’t you join me in standing up for the poor? The WeGetIt.org declaration has an ambitious goal of gathering one million signatures, including 100,000 students. Go to www.WeGetIt.org/Youth and sign up today. There, you can also find out more about becoming a WeGetIt.org Youth leader and spreading the word among your friends and family. Christian leaders (like Chuck Colson and Dr. James Dobson) are joining with thousands of pastors, Christians, and students. Together, we can send a powerful message to our leaders: “We Get It!”
A Courageous Film
[This is not a movie review proper. It is a response to themes in the film. If you're wondering whether you would enjoy the film, or even whether it is good art, or appropriate for children, look somewhere else.]
As a student of political theory, I was impressed by the way The Dark Knight approached many critical dilemmas of human political existence. What price can be placed on the value of human life? Is it ever right to commit the injustice of killing one man so that others may live? How must governments and citizens respond to terrorists who hold their lives–and their moral values–hostage?
The Dark Knight approaches these questions practically, and answers them without simplifying them. There are no perfect solutions, and often perfect justice is unattainable in a world of unjust men. But this movie teaches us to hope that people can be inspired to act in a decent and even altruistic way.
A strong political subtext was also inevitable, given the themes of terrorism and citizens who are weary of a constant struggle with evil. This film courageously insists that even in a world weary of conflict, evil must be opposed at any price.
Dominion & Stewardship
Someone named Jim posted this comment here. I thought it was worth spreading around.
To say that we have carte blanche is incorrect. If we have dominion over His creation, then we are to act as a king would. Who is our role model for king anyway, a tyrant?
Yes! Jesus is our model for a king–and He’s still the King.
The problem is pollution. We need to focus on that. This issue has become more conflicted since climate alarmism became the cause celebre of the Mass media. It used to be that we focused on the facts; smog, measuring estimated pollutants in the air, cleaning up our rivers and waterways etc.
Pollution and waste is what really hurts the poor and damages the environment. There’s lots of room to be concerned about environmental impact and invest in cleaner, more efficient ways to do things without getting caught up in the ‘climate change’ movement.
Global warming hysteria has blurred our focus instead of strengthening our resolve. GW is simply the result of radicalizing, politicizing and emotionalizing (that a word?) something we should all be united on together – and were, prior to GW.
I think God gave us dominion so we could grow and populate the earth, while showing respect for Him by not wantonly wasting His creation.
Green is the New Black: Climate Activism and the Culture of Death
Young Evangelical Climate Warriors?
In 2006, a group of college students claiming to represent the new generation of young evangelicals arrived in Washington D.C. to lobby Congress on global warming.
According to one student, “Responding to human-induced climate change is a moral issue. For us, it’s about following Christ and being obedient to His word. As young evangelicals, we hope that our government leaders will tackle the challenge of reducing global warming pollution.”
Activist Peter Illyn from a group called Restoring Eden led the delegation. His words for evangelicals were “It’s time to have a bigger gospel. It’s time to have a bigger agenda.”
A bigger gospel?
Some evangelical leaders want to test their political influence beyond issues the Christian Right has long seen as crucial, issues centering around the sanctity of marriage and of human life. But by jumping on the “climate change” agenda, they may actually be undermining these core evangelical values.
The science is not settled on whether the slight rise in global temperatures over the last few decades is caused by human activity or is part of a natural self-regulating cycle. Drastic proposals such as a carbon tax or offset will raise energy and food prices, signing a death sentence for millions of families who struggle to get by on one or two dollars a day in the developing world. Recently, the Hewlett Foundation, an energetic promoter of abortion and population control in developing countries, funded a half-million dollar ad campaign by the Evangelical Climate Initiative. This uncharacteristic donation is very telling of the philosophy behind climate change. Christians must stand up for the poor and oppose this kind of “eco-imperialism.”
NAE VP and global warming activist Richard Cizik endorsed Peter Illyn in the same video.
The Theological Question
All this about a 2006 lobbying trip might seem like old news, but in an Earth Day interview with the American News Project this year, Richard Cizik criticized the great fathers of the Church for their emphasis on salvation and the soul over concern for the earth:
“For a lot of different reasons the Christian Church has never been active on these ecological, creation issues . . . originally the Church Fathers opted for, unfortunately, a kinda Neo-Platonist view, that the spirit matters, matter doesn’t matter; they were succeeded by the great Reformers during the sixteenth century . . . [who] taught–Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others–that while it is important to care, the overall emphasis…was that the earth was just a staging ground for a great moral conflict between God and Satan over man’s soul, so the Earth itself didn’t get much emphasis…”
[You can see the feature here: http://newsproject.org/node/70]
This dismissive attitude toward the historical fathers of the faith might raise a few eyebrows among those who take historical Christianity and its deliberate emphasis on eternal matters seriously.
As the American News Project reporter remarked, “Cizik’s doing his best to change the emphasis, and bring it down to earth.”
An environmental emphasis will obscure other more important Christian duties, such as preaching the gospel and helping the poor. Jesus never mentioned the environment, but He had a lot to say about salvation and helping the poor. Historically, these concerns have rightly occupied most of the Church’s attention. Environmental activism threatens to dilute our witness.
Practical Concerns
The premise that comes through with these evangelical environmentalists is this: Jesus commands Christians to care for the poor. (So far, so good.) Therefore as Christians we’re lobbying the government to fix the environment because it might harm the poor.
First of all, the duty of Christians is to help the poor, not ask the government to do it for you. But there’s a bigger problem. Climate change is not such a settled question as the media would have us believe. And there’s a clear connection between political efforts to regulate carbon emissions (which usually involve some form of taxation) and a negative effect on the global economy. Responding to the G-8’s recent declaration of intention to halve carbon emissions by 2050, India’s PM Manmohan Singh observed that India’s most critical goal, poverty reduction, cannot be carried out with limitations on carbon emissions. In other words, abundant energy is necessary to drive the kind of economy that can raise a nation to a decent standard of living. Christians who care for the poor should not take this lightly.
Political Realities
Meanwhile, one-time Religious Right icon Pat Robertson has gotten chummy with Al Sharpton in a clever commercial sponsored by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.
(I got a chuckle out of Sharpton’s Reagan riff.)
If the ad was intended to turn evangelical voters into zealous environmentalists, it was probably ineffective. Robertson has been out of touch with his base for quite some time, as evidenced by his endorsement earlier this year of Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani—largely eschewed by evangelicals because of his pro-choice views and personal life.
In fact, studies show that far from splitting on this issue, evangelicals see global warming as less of an issue today than they did in 2004.
This year’s National Survey on Religion and Public Life (by Calvin College) found that “despite the efforts of many Evangelical Protestant leaders to encourage evangelicals to adopt a more environmentally friendly stance, evangelicals as a whole are actually less supportive of environmental regulation in 2008 than they were in 2004.” As one expert observes, for evangelicals “Global warming may have peaked as a major political issue.”
And a January Barna study found that only 33% of evangelicals consider global warming to be a major challenge–and that evangelicals are the most skeptical segment of the American population on this issue.
Climate Change and the Culture of Death
I saw a t-shirt the other day with the slogan “Green is the new Black.”
It was meant as a lighthearted expression of support for the environment, but it reflects a sinister reality. Environmental emphasis is moving away from legitimate anti-pollution concerns and supporting ‘carbon reduction’ efforts that will have a catastrophic human impact, especially in the developing world. A culture of death is underwriting the “climate change” juggernaut—and Christians are being taken in by it.
It’s crucial for defenders of the faith to expose the climate change agenda for what it really is. As Cardinal George Pell says, “Church leaders in particular should be allergic to nonsense.“
Cardinal Pell on Climate Change
I really appreciated what Cardinal George Pell had to say about this topic.
Years ago I was struck by the fears that middle-class kids without religion had about nuclear war. It was almost an obsession with a few of them. It’s almost as though people without religion, who don’t belong to any of the great religious traditions, have got to be frightened of something. . .
In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. . .
There are many measures that are good for the environment that we should pursue. We need to be able talk freely about this and about the uncertainties around climate change. Invoking the authority of some scientific experts to shut down debate is not good for science, for the environment, for people here and in the developing world or for the people of tomorrow.
My task as a Christian leader is to engage with reality, to contribute to debate on important issues, to open people’s minds, and to point out when the emperor is wearing few or no clothes. I strive to argue rationally towards God the Creator, and reject substitutes, be they pantheist or atheist.
Radical environmentalists are more than up to the task of moralizing their own agenda and imposing it on people through fear. They don’t need church leaders to help them with this, although it is a very effective way of further muting Christian witness. Church leaders in particular should be allergic to nonsense.
The Christian God is not an insurance broker, nor did his Son Jesus Christ say anything on global warming, although he said much on the struggle between good and evil, meaning and fear, love and hate.
Jesus calls us to address the challenges in our own hearts, families, and communities before we moralize about distant worlds, where we are usually powerless.
We won’t have no intolerance in THIS city!
The following would be funny if it weren’t true.
City and Council of San Francisco
RESOLUTION
Resolution urging Cardinal William Levada, in his capacity as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, to withdraw his discriminatory and defamatory directive that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households.
WHEREAS, It is an insult to all San Franciscans when a foreign country, like the Vatican, meddles with and attempts to influence this great City’s existing and established customs and traditions such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need; and
(This right and custom has, after all, been established by law over one month now, and as for this Vatican place, we’re not really sure what it is, but who are they to tell us about customs and traditions and rights, anyway?)
WHEREAS, The statements of Cardinal Levada and the Vatican that “Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households,” and “Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children” are absolutely to the citizenry of San Francisco; and
WHEREAS, Such hateful and discriminatory rhetoric is both insulting and callous, and shows a level of insensitivity and ignorance which has seldom been encountered by this Board of Supervisors; and
(Mph. We certainly won’t stand for any of that ignorant and hateful intolerance here. I mean seriously next time you want to say something like that could you make sure the kids aren’t in the room?)
WHEREAS, Same-sex couples are just as qualified to be parents as are heterosexual couples; and
(Naturally…)
WHEREAS, Cardinal Levada is a decidedly unqualified representative of his former home city, and of the people of San Francisco and the values they hold dear; and
(Bad, bad Cardinal Levada.)
WHEREAS, The Board of Supervisors urges Archbishop Niederauer and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to defy all discriminatory directives of Cardinal Levada: now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the Board of Supervisors urges Cardinal William Levada, in his capacity as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican (formerly known as Holy Office of the Inquisition), to withdraw his discriminatory and defamatory directive that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children in need of adoption with homosexual households.
(Ooh! Clever touch there with the Inquisition! I’m sure that showed them.)
Seriously though, isn’t that the sickest, blindest, most ignorant and bigoted thing you’ve ever seen?
Judaism and vegetarianism
From the Acton Institute’s online publication, Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition: Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Wisdom on the Environment, this excerpt on vegetarianism and Judaism. (Emphasis mine.)
A religious Jew may choose to restrict his diet to vegetables during the week, but come Saturday and most holidays, he is to eat some meat as a religious obligation. The reason for this is that God created a world of hierarchy. Minerals are consumed by a higher life form, namely plants. Animals survive by consuming plants, while the highest life form of all, humans, eat animals. It is interesting to note that those animals permissible to Jews as food are animals that eat only plants. In other words, those animals that violate the hierarchical order, such as wolves and bears, may not be eaten by Jews. Now, for a Jew to attempt to improve on God’s definition of morality by refraining from eating any meat on moral grounds is another way of announcing that one is nothing more than an animal oneself. Animals are supposed to eat only plant life. Thus, a Jew who eats only vegetables is announcing himself to be a very good animal. Once each week, God demands of his people that they leave the moral refuge of vegetarianism. We are then forced to confront the reality that an animal died to provide our meal. That places an obligation upon us to be worthy of the sacrifice. Now, for an animal to die for no reason other than to provide meat for another animal is less than ideal. Thus, the plundering animal is regarded as non-kosher, or not fully worthy of being eaten by Jews. However, the Jew who eats meat on a regular basis knows that he must conduct himself in a manner that makes his food’s sacrifice morally justified. He is obligated to be a human, not merely another animal.
While always prohibiting cruelty or wanton destruction, Judaism abhors the entire notion of animal rights since it violates the very foundation of biblical belief in God’s sovereignty and God’s role as ultimate arbiter of moral right. Judaism and secularism are fundamentally incompatible, and the doctrine of animal rights is a doctrine of secularism.
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