My Story-Part 1

I haven't writtten anything much about myself mainly because this blog isn't about me as much as it is about theological ideas and truths I've seen in my 41 1/2 years of being a born-again Christian. Yes that wasn't a typo-- forty-one and a half years.
I am an old person...60 to be exact although I was very fotuante to have two parents who had young looking genes. Most people guess I am 45 when they meet me And that is without botox or plastic surgery or scads of goopy makeup.

Exactly two weeks ago an event occurred that probably made it a good time now for spilling the beans about me....:)

If you read TotemtoTemple's blog you will already have known that my mother passed away Friday, December 17th. And you will also know that I was my mother's caregiver for almost 6 years. 5 years, 10 1/2 months to be exact.

I think I will tell you about me by working backwards since that would be sort of different than the usual forward chronological order.

Because I couldn't find work, which will be explained in tomrorow's installment, I needed to live with my mother to avoid things like..er..um...homelessness. It was fortunate I was there when she had her stroke in October of 1998 or she would have lain on the floor for days.
She was in rehab for three and half months at two hospitals and a nursing home. When she came home at the end of January, 1999, the rehab had done wonders for her. After her stroke she was completely paralyzed on her right side and after the rehab she had almost full use of that side with the exception of her right leg being weak. The plan was for her to be able to be alone for two or three hours and to walk with a walker. Unfortunately her heart became weaker and she was confined to bed almost from the beginning. My mother at this point was 91 and sharp as a tack in her mind. The first two years weren't too bad for her but as the years droned on the bed-stay became very difficult. Meanwhile, financially we were both a disaster barely holding on. We couldn't afford help so I took care of her 24/7 all by myself. I really had no choice but she was fairly easy to take care of. Until the last 6 months she slept through the night and rarely needed me so I had no trouble getting a night's rest. However, since we had to depend on friends to sit with her when I had run errands, and our car was a lemon that never could go outside the city, and I had no money to go anywhere anyway, I seldom really got out for a long period of time. And church? Nope. Couldn't go there either since all of our friends went to their churches and were not available to sit with her on Sundays. Fortunately God had led me a few months before her stroke to a Presbyterian church. In Presbyterinaland they have deacons:) And although only elders are allowed to give communion, our Presbyterty specially commissioned our deacons to serve communion to shut-ins since the church wanted the shut-ins to have communion at the same time the church did, on the first Sunday of each month. At first the church wasn't sure how to classify me since I wasn't the sick person. But finally they decided taht I fit the desxription fo a shut-in since I couldn't attend church. So my faithful deacon came the first Sunday of each month to serve communion, pray with me, talk, tell me the church news, etc. It was a wonderful experience and I can never thank her enough.
You don't know what freedom means until you lose it. Now I am free--sort of. But no job, a lemon car and little money..so really 1/2 freedom. But I know a secret that I may share a couple of months down the road that will finally probably free me the whole way. But the next couple of months might be a "challenge." Or perhaps not. God is showing Himself strong lately on my behalf.

In The Next Installment:
*The Anyone can find a job myth
*The Teachers can always find a job myth
*What poverty taught me
*How my arrogance is slowing dissipating.
*and other assorted items....

stay tuned........

The Tsunami

OK..I will weigh in on this although I doubt that you will read anything like I am about to write on any other blog.
I realize that my post here will incense a lot of people. But I believe I have solid Biblical ground as the Prince of the Air (satan) is always at work sticking his "fingers into the pie." So here goes.

If one looks historically at the world since the inception of Christianity in the first century, one sees an interesting pattern. This pattern is fairly consistent although sometimes there has been exceptions. Wherever true Christianity (read that Reformed Protestantism) has spread, several things have happened to those areas.
First, before Christianity hits most areas, the masses are in poverty with a few priveleged wealthy and powerful few. After Christianity comes, a strong middle class usually arises and the country or countries as a whole begin to prosper.
Second, women and children are usually lifted up and taken care of much more.
Third, there is more freedom of investigation and development of science and the arts.
Fourth, more freedom in the countries happen. That doesn't always mean democracies such as ours here in the USA. But it does mean a relaxing of strict dictatorial rule even if there is a one-person rule such as a monarchial form.
For example, comparing pre-World I governments in Asia and Africa to those in Western Europe which was Christianized illustrates this.

So what's this got to do with the recent diaster in southeast Asia? It occurs to me that these pagan areas get more disasters and worse effects. The disastrous effects result from the poverty which results from the paganism. Contrast the Florida hurricane disasters with what just happened in the Indonesian-Sr-Lanka area. The Florida damage was certainly a disaster in our eyes, but comparatively speaking the Floridians got by rather well. How many died there as compared to southeast Asia.
Where I live in the Los Angeles, California area, it's called "earthquake country."
However, the damage done by earthquakes in my state pales compared to the recent quakes in Iran, Armenia and Turkey. Yes I know that Armenia is a "Christian" country but it is Orthodox and if you look at the Roman Catholic and Orthodox areas..well...that is for another blog. I am talking about areas of Protestantism. This includes most of Western Europe (Italy, France and Spain excepted--all Catholic countries by the way), Scandinavia, the United States and Canada. Now as these areas give up their Christian beliefs and practices and move into more and more paganism, We can expect more disasters to hit those areas with more ferocity.

Here is the adage I see:
Where satan is allowed in spiritually, he will come in physically.

So what is the answer? To parphrase Doug Perry, instead of churches paying $10,000 for chandeliers in the sacntuary, perhaps using the money to support stable missionaries and missions organizations?

Coaches and Abuse

Last night on the NBC TV program Dateline I saw a disturbing picture of what I believe needs to be discussed within the sports world.
I don't wish readers, especially men readers, to "write off" what I am about to say because they attribute it to female blogging sentimentality. But it really does need to be discussed.

The program was really a very nice one about a high school women's basketball team in I believe Tennessee. They had won the state championships for many years and now were in the process of trying again to be #1. The program focused on about four girls, two African-American and two Caucasians. The program followed their family and personal trials and tribulations.

The part I wish to discuss here is the coach. Like most coaches both on the high school and college levels as well as the professional level, he did a lot of yelling and screaming and generally abusive verbal language. But according to him, the girls "needed" it to motivate them. Here is the really frightening part. I say this coming after studying control and abuse in various environments (situations) for the past 25 years. The girls felt that this abusive was normative and that it showed he cared. If they performed well (it reminded me of a trained seal), they got a hug, or a pat on the back or head, and a little verbal praise. But the rest of the time they got put down.

What happens when athletes or military people get yelled at, verbally abused and put down constantly? Does it make them "stronger?" Or does it create an inner anger that resolves itself through spousal, drug and/or alcoholic abuse?

Can there be another way of coaching? Well, in fact yes and there are two winning coaches to prove it. In September I wrote a post here entitled A Very Different Way To Coach Football. Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL player for the Baltimore Colts, co-coaches a high school football team. He doesn't yell, rant and rave or abuse. In fact he stresses love and respect as goals for his players while exemplifying these himself.
At the same time as the Dateline program was showing last night, over on CBS 20 Minutes was repeating a program they had shown previously about a winning NFL coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots. He too is quiet and calm, not yelling and cursing at players.

The egregious part of the program last night was the fact that these girls could very well believe this behavior on the part of men was the norm. Would they then date and even marry men that yelled at them because that shows "caring?"

Perhaps the sports' world needs to rethink this age-old method of coaching. I'm not talking about pansy coaching, but rather cutting the abuse and disrespect.

Barna's Year-end Report

George Barna has come out with the end of the year results for his Christian-themed polls. Here are some of his findings. I've left out a few for sake of space and my comments are in italics.

Encouraging Outcomes

»Most Americans want their faith in Christ to be reflected in public symbols and language, as evident in public places and policies. Consequently, they support retaining statements such as In God We Trust and One Nation Under God, displays of the Ten Commandments, and teaching creationism in schools.

I've written about this in previous posts here. Ask the average American Christian to name the Ten Commandments in any order and few can do so. In one survey, only 5% could do this. It's a kind of hypocritical to want everyone else to see the commandments as this is supposed to be some type of magic potion to change the country, but not even know them ourselves.

»A large majority of adults reject the idea of active homosexuals being ordained or retained within the clergy.

IMO this is of course right on and a no brainer. If more main line denominations cave as the American Episcopal Church, then they really do need to make a choice to leave and join a movement such as the Confessing Movement. As a PCUSA Presbyterian I am of course watching very carefully what happens in my own denomination. Most experts are saying that within 2-3 years the PCUSA will begin to ordain homosexuals and lesbians. It'll be interesting to see what the more evangelical churches such as mine do if that occurs.

»Most Americans nearly two-thirds of them continue to give significant amounts of money to churches and houses of worship. Not only did the dollar amount of donations rise, but about three out of every four dollars contributed to a non-profit entity was given to a church last year.

This is very good indeed.

»Born again Christians played a huge role in the outcome of the presidential election. They not only turned out in record numbers they were a majority of the voters participating on election day but their solidarity provided President Bush with the margin he needed for re-election.

I've warned over and over again that there are serious problems within the Bush administration and with some of his policies. Time will tell if Christians have been bamboozled.

»Despite numerous economic, political and social challenges, African-Americans remain firmly committed to their Christian faith. They were more likely than people from white, Hispanic or Asian backgrounds to exhibit evidence of Christian practice and Christian belief.

This is great news!

»Thanks to the continued growth of the nation's population, an estimated 22 million adults have been added to the numbers of churched individuals in the U.S. during the past decade.

»The number of adults involved in small groups has jumped from 12% to 20% since 1994.

This info is confusing as Barna previously wrote that there was no significant growth in our churches and in fact for the first time since the founding of our country there was little, if no, evangelical church growth. He further stated that any growth in individual churches was horizontal (i.e. people leaving one church for another one). But this is surely good news if the trend is changing.

»Half of all born again adults have endeavored to share their faith in Christ with a non-believer in the past year. Although a large share of those efforts are indirect such as lifestyle evangelism and few believers are aware of anyone accepting Christ as a result of their efforts, there is a veritable army of Christians who understand and accept the importance of bringing the good news to the world.

This is good news indeed. However, as I wrote in my post Somebody's Missing, what exactly are these people sharing? If it is simply "accept Christ" without any explanation, then perhaps we need to get back to learning the gospel ourselves.

Surprising Findings

»Hundreds of thousands of Americans embrace Jesus Christ as their savior for the first time in any given year. However, only 7% of those are likely to do so in direct response to the outreach efforts of a minister, whether it be through preaching, teaching, or a more personal form of interaction.

»Although the West is often maligned as a spiritually bankrupt region, it is the area of the nation that has experienced the greatest increases in Bible reading, church attendance and small group participation in the past decade.

Again, very good news.

»Baby Busters and Mosaics i.e., people from the two youngest generations, under the age of 40 are renowned for the emphasis they place upon the importance of personal relationships. However, when asked to identify the most satisfying element of their spiritual life, these people were the least likely to mention their relationships with other believers.

I've written post after post about how mixed up the younger generations of Christians are, especially theologically. The church must retain the gospel message and believe it will reach them. We don't need to mix it all up in the world so they will "accept it." We need to believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring it upon their hearts.

»For many years, the long-term commitment to Christ by people who were saved as children has been questioned. A national survey revealed, however, that people who embrace Christ before the age of 13 are more likely to remain absolutely committed to Christ in their adult years than are people who accept Christ in their teenage or adult years.

I thought this was the most interesting finding of all. Perhaps it's time to get spiritually and emotionally mature Christians to teach our children, instead of allowing any idiot to volunteer?

»Churches and parachurch ministries have made divorce a widely-discussed matter in the past two decades. Yet, a majority of born again adults do not believe that divorce is a sin (excluding cases in which adultery is involved).

Amazing. And I bet you any money that homosexuality and other egregious behaviors will be the next "it's ok for some" topic to be accepted by a large number of evangelicals.

»Public opinion was evenly divided on the Federal Marriage Amendment. The underpinning of this division was the notion that there is no moral truth on which to base such a law, and therefore people ought to be free to make their moral choices without legal intervention.

»Two-thirds of all evangelicals support a constitutional amendment to establish Christianity as the official religion of the United States. Evangelicals are not alone in that desire, although they are the most prolific supporters. In total, one-third of all U.S. adults support the idea.

As I've written here before, that is nice but it will not impress God who looks on hearts, not outer laws.

»For the typical adult in America, the number of movies they watch during the year is greater than the number of worship services they attend.

-->This is the most disturbing fact to me of the whole Barna article. And I did talk about this very thing in my blog

Disappointing Realities

»Born again Christians and adults who attend Christian churches are more likely than atheists, agnostics, and adherents of non-Christian faiths to buy lottery tickets.

Again, we see hypocrisy here as Christians are "supposed" to be against gambling.

»There seems to be a consistent degree of attrition of men from the Christian faith. The numbers of men who are unchurched is rising, while the numbers of men who are deeply spiritual and those who possess an active faith (attend church, pray and read the Bible during the week) is declining.

This is nothing new. It has been going on now for at least a century. I applaud churches who are thinking seriously about how to get men, and especially strong men, back into the church. I read an interesting book that talked about how the church became "feminized" early in the 19th century as men began to leave the home for industrial complexes usually on town outskirts. And since the working hours were long and it was a 6 day week, the women then had to take over more of the child raising and church duties.

Challenging Conditions

»Most Americans do not accept the notion that they are engaged in a spiritual battle. This is fueled by the widespread rejection of the notion that Satan is real, that salvation is by faith alone, and by the common acceptance of the idea that there are multiple paths to salvation. This also partially explains why only half of all self-described Christians are not absolutely committed to the Christian faith.

Well, in my Somebody's Missing blog, I think I said this very thing. And so many other bloggers are saying it too. In other words, as we dilute gospel more and more, we will find ourselves on a path we should not be on.

»The number of unchurched adults in the United States has doubled since 1991. That growth has been especially pronounced among men, people under 40, singles, and people living in coastal states.

I find that so many churches treat newcomers as if they already have heard the gospel message as well as understand the intricacies and peculiarities of the church service. The challenge to us is how to make the visitor comfortable without compromising the gospel. And since I live in a blue coastal state, I certainly understand what Barna is saying here.

»Tithing is pitifully uncommon. However, it is almost non-existent among people under the age of 40.

Since I don't believe in tithing for Christians, this doesn't bother me. But what does bother me is that correct teaching on giving apparently isn't being done. If it was, I think these numbers would be higher.

»Female pastors are substantially different in their theological beliefs than are male pastors. They tend to be much more liberal in their views, are less likely to have a biblical worldview, are less likely to be born again, and more likely to have been divorced.

This may surprise you since I tend to be an outspoken female, but the Bible doesn't seem to include women pastors. Sometime I will blog on why I don't think women should be pastors. Teachers and prophets and evangelists..yes. Pastors? No. Elders? Only if they are married and their husbands are elders with them. I may be wrong..time will tell.

Naming Names?

My last blog post, Somebody's Missing, was submitted to the Carnival of the Reformation II. In his description of my post, the moderator included this:

Diane's post is polemical, she names names here. She may have named the names of people you respect, but I hope you will take what she says to heart.


I looked up polemical and it means "aggressively countering or debating." I didn't know my post was so aggressive...LOL. Hey, I'm only 5'4" and 120 pounds. How aggressive can I be?

Seriously, let's get to the main point I want to make. Should we be naming names? I have really struggled with this for several years as I have participated in online Christian forums, email discussion groups and now writing my own blog and commenting on other people's. Here is my dilemma. I hear Christian leaders and pastors talk all the time about the "wolves and false prophets" or a teacher that is off. But often they never name them so no one really knows who they are talking about. There might be vague descriptions as to what these people teach, but you really never know if your "guess" is right on or not. Not only do I find this not helpful, but it is confusing and could be dangerous. People who hear these things can "guess" the wrong person. That could lead to defamation of someone's character who the teacher never meant to implicate.

So, here is the rule that I am feeling more comfortable with, although I still wrestle with it. First of all, I don't play the "good 'ole boys" or "good 'ole girls" game. I refuse to play that game which I also call the Monkey Game. The three monkeys see nothing, know nothing or hear nothing. In Christian circles among leadership this means "I don't see anything you are doing or teaching that is wrong." Or, "If I do and wish to bring it up, I certainly don't name names." And in return I expect the same "courtesy" from you.

I recently talked here about Andrew Strom's revelation of the Kansas City prophets (finally!). After he saw the weirdness, he spoke out about it on his ANZAC prophetic list and HE NAMED NAMES!

Now here is the rule that both Strom followed and I do too. We don't attack the people. We discuss their theology and comment on it.

Early on in my blog writing I discussed Dr. C. Peter Wagner's Third Wavism. I bent over backwards telling my blog readers that he is a very nice person. I know that because I was in his Sunday School class at the church I was attending in the 1990's.
BUT, I disagree 100% with almost all he teaches, although I too am a Charismatic/Pentecostal (although with what is going on today in the Charismatic movement, I am more Pentecostal...let's say neo-Pentecostal).

For example, it's not helpful to talk about the head apostle of the Apostolic Reformation Council without telling who it is. Oh by the way, it's Dr. Wagner. He isn't keeping it a secret, so why should anyone else?

Again, if Christians want to be in the limelight in ministry, they need to expect their views challenged. I certainly would if I was teaching on TBN and had best selling books. And that would be alright. Where the line is crossed is when personalities are attacked. Let's pretend I am a big Christian teacher. If someone says, she's ugly, that is off limits. But if someone says, I think she has embraced too many Word of Faith concepts, that is very fair.
There also may be a gray area. If someone says I drink too much wine (I don't, but let's say I did), that may be for my church to sort out, not someone else outside it. But as I said when I began this post, I am still sorting all of this out.

I would really appreciate comments about this either here or in email (fcov.geo@yahoo.com).

Somebody's Missing!

[Note: I am submitting this blog to the Carnival of the Reformation 2]

Call the police! Notify the FBI! Send out an Amber Alert! In many churches, somebody's missing! I've looked in the church bathrooms, custodial closets, and under the seats and I just cannot find this person. Have you seen or heard of Jesus Christ? There seems to be a dearth of conversation and teaching about Him in many of our churches.
Just like the evangelical churches of the late 19th and early 20th centuries--the ones that became liberal--many evangelical churches today are taking that very same road. Previously, to offset this liberalism, the fundamentalists (the evangelicals' predecessors) started to add legalistic rules in order to obtain salvation. Dont drink, don't smoke, don't go to movies, don't wear makeup, women--don't wear red (Im not making this one up...really), don't gamble, don't listen to the radio; don't, don't, don't.

In the 1960's there seemed to be a backlash against these rules. It seems what was supposed to happen was this:
As the rules were shed away, Christ and His atoning work could be alone, nothing added including those pesky rules. However, the move didn't stop at Christ alone but swung over to the opposite extreme to what I call evangelical reductionism. Christ and His atoning work alone stopped being preached. Instead we have "accept Christ."

My church just finished Rick Warren's 40 Days of Purpose based on his best-selling book. It's a six week program and most of the study is done in small groups and I led one of the groups. In each of the six meetings we watched a 20 minute video by Warren and then discussed questions, prayed and shared from a workbook provided by his ministry. At the end of the first week's video, Warren said this:

If you want this purpose in your life and you haven't accepted Christ, why don't you do it now.

I was flabbergasted. No teaching aobut WHY Christ had to go to the cross, no teaching about the atonement, His mediatorial work or the sin dilemma....nothing....I mean nada.

I have a friend who tears her hair out over the seeker sensitive churches and now I think I am seeing why. I mean there was some "good stuff" in the 40 Days experience, but I am seeing that no foundation is being given Christians, especially new Christians. Our Reformed friends would say they aren't being catechised.

In these churches, and even in their evangelist outreaches, no explanation is given for the need for sins being taken away; the need for justification through faith in the atoning work; or Christ as our propitiation. No, instead we are told to accept Christ for purpose in our lives, to feel good, to feel close to God, to feel the love of God, to get our heart's desires (many times that means money), and so forth.

In the Cambridge Declaration it says,

We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.

Well I guess that pretty well says it. The gospel isn't preached if all we do is say, "accept Christ." And if the gospel isn't adequately being preached, then can those hearing this "gospel" really become a Christian? What about those that "accept Christ" without any explanation about why they are doing this? Are they really Christians? I think this is a dilemma and a question that will be rising more and more in theological circles.

Tonight I decided I would see what is on TBN. I haven't been able to watch that network for the past decade. In my next post I will explain why. So, this is what I saw. In the first program the pastor talked about how we could get into the ZONE. The second program was an African-American church having hip-hop Sunday. The pastor's son was "preaching" about what hip-hop is and how unfair it is for the police to stop hip hoppers because the po-leece think they are ganstas. I think he was going to tell us how to reach the hip hop generation for Christ, but he got off track a little bit (just a little bit....:)

These people really should read the book of Hebrews, especially the first 10 chapters. God has this weird idea that everything is about Christ, of Christ and in Christ. Perhaps we all need think like God thinks on this subject. Yes indeedy, I do think we had better.

Prosperity Wrap Up

Well, today is the last in the series on the church and money, the rich, poor and prosperity teaching. Today, I will basically review some of the points I've made over the past few months on this topic as well as in this series over the past few days.

First of all, the church must understand two things. It is becoming more and more apparent that the "world" may not be able to adequately meet financial, physical and emotional needs of the Christian (as well as anyone) in the future. I spent a lot of time on the dangers of certain prescription drugs, the limitations of doctors, and the collapsing health insurance problem, especially for those out of work or independent contractors.
I pointed out that Christian therapists were becoming pill pushers, teaming up with doctors and psychiatrists to give out dangerous antidepressants. I summarized the work of Dr. Breggin about Prozac and other antidepressants and the faulty "chemical imbalance in the brain" theory that Christian psychologists are now pedaling.

Social Security is in extrme danger of collapsing in the future but most Americans do not have adequate retirement savings or plans. More and more companies are defaulting on both their present and retired employees' pension and health plans.

So what is the church to do? Well, for a start, stop teachig their members to depend on the "world's" methods. We'll talk about the solution for this in a moment.

Second, I discussed in the last few days the church's bizarre attitude toward the poor, especially toward its own members. I also presented statistics from the book Affluenza concerning the materialism in this country. In addition, Doug Perry's website statistics and parts of a teaching by David Wilkerson were presented to show how Christians in this country have succumbed to the same materialism.

So what is the church to do? One thing they must not do is what they usually do. Go to the other extreme. We don't need a poverty mentality....again. What we need is more integrity along with care by church leaders communicated to church members for the poor and disenfranchised in their congregations. As this happens, hopefully this giving and compassionate attitude will go out to non-Christians.
But how do churches get the money?
First, stop spending exorbitant amounts on non-essentials. I realize not all churches do this, but too many do.
Second, start believing God for the funds to do good. Both churches and individual congregants need to learn how to do this. I think some (and I emphasize some) of the Word of Faith teaching can be useful for this, as believing for funds takes real faith, not a "golly I hope it happens" faith.
Challenge Christians to believe for more to give; not to hoard or use on themeselves. Do we really need one more curio on our book shelf?
Fourth, invite church leaders from other poorer countries to come speak to our congregations telling how they take care of their people with so little (and they do).

Here are the other posts in this series:

The Church and Money

Shame, Shame On Us

The Poor

Affluenza

David Wilkerson Weighs In

If you have been following this blog over the past three months at least, you will by now know that I DO subscribe to much of the Word of Faith (WOF) teaching, but certainly not all of it. One of the most egregious events to happen in that movement is the allowance of the so-called "prosperity" teachers to run rampant. IMO, the Rhema organization really should speak out against this wild teaching and reign it in. In fact, Kenneth Hagin Sr., a few years before he died, wrote a wonderful book against much of his own disciples' teaching. The book, The Midas Touch, speaks out about teachings like the 100-fold return which Hagin correctly says is souls, not money; and devotes the last part of the book to financial integrity and ethics in the ministry.

From time to time, David Wilkerson, of Teen Challenge and the Times Sqaure Church, weighs in on this teaching. He is solidly against it and in his latest newsletter really lets these "prosperity" teachers have it. Here is one of the points he makes:

Show me a preacher who never exposes sin--who doesn't show people the difference between the holy and the profane, who doesn't mention repentence or judgement, but instead says God wants to make you rich and prosperous--and I'll call such a man what he is. He is a wolf. And he has substituted the Cross for cash.
Let me describe such a modern-day wolf. The man I'm thinking of is one of the better-known prosperity preachers in America. A few weeks ago, this was his message:

"You have heard about the coming of Jesus. You've heard that He can return at any time. I tell you that's impossible. He can't come until you're prospering--until you get your nice car; until you have your dream house. He simply cannot come until then."

Wilkerson is right on. My question would be this, How in the world did we get this far out of the mainstream gospel?

The Christian community and especially the church desparately needs to rethink and reform their theology of money.

Here is why I believe Christians need to start to believe for their needs met and a little more. That is hardly the gospel of opulence these WOF teachers are peddling.

1. More and more God wants His people to stop depending on the government and other "flesh" (doctors, psychologists, lawyers, etc.) as they will fail in the future. NO, I'm not calling for people to stop going to the dentist and the doctor this moment. But I am calling for people to begin to study a cogent theology in which they learn to live in divine health and their needs met by God; and to learn to pray for others also in these regards.

2. The church MUST begin to take care of their OWN widows and orphans and other poor.
As I wrote in the previous post, this is a church scandal IMO. To neglect your own is scandalous to say the least.

3. Christians and churches need to have so much money that they not only can take care of their own needy, but also those in the community. The only reason the government has taken over this function is because the churches relinquished it long ago. That of course means that churches must be run ethically and honestly with regard to its finances. That also means the days of pastor-run churches is over. The Biblical model of elder-run churches must be the norm, not the exception, especially in many of the Charismatic/Pentecostal groups. And the elders must conform in character to the Biblical descriptions. The days of the good 'ole boys must end.

Today, I am calling for more and more WOF leaders (and especially the Rhema group) to speak out against this messgae of opulence that many of their own are teaching and to also reorganize their churches from pastor-run to elder-run to avoid the dirty little secret of abuse that the WOF'ers don't wish to admit is rampant in their churches.

I hope they take the challenge.

The Poor

The evangelical church has it all wrong. The Bible says to help the poor. Not despise the poor.
A lot of people want to discern between the poor who got there by their own fault; and those who did not. I certainly would. But then I tend to be judgmental and we are warned not to judge. Do we hand out money to irresponsible people? No. But the
church certainly should have some discernment. They have been called to help those who cannot help themselves and many churches are really rallying to that call. However, there is one thing, something in fact I noted in another post, that I just cannot understand. Why is it that so many churches today will give to the poor in their communities but have a grudge against helping their own poor members? Is it because these churches don't think any of their members should be poor, therefore disdaining them? Jesus had something to say about this. In He says to the Jewish leaders that not taking care of your own is worse than the infidels (Gentiles), who do take care of their own. While He probably meant their aged parents, this certainly could be a theme pertaining to the church looking after their members, instead of pawning them off onto the government. I call this the Vista mentality.

In Vista, California (near San Diego) some evangelicals decided to run for the school
board there. They campaigned basically within their own evangelical community but not really outside it. So, no one outside the church community really knew what they stood for. This has become known by the term Christian Right stealth politics. I believe it was two of them who were elected. After they won, they decided to opt out of the free state breakfast program for the poor children in the schools because, as they put it, "children should eat breakfast with their families."

I don't know whether these people are just naive or plain mean but somebody is "out to lunch." Or perhaps that should read, "out to breakfast." My point is this, I don't see churches in Vista feeding the poor children breakfast. It is unbelievable not to help the poor, then when the government steps in to do it, criticize
the government for doing it (scratching my head trying to figure this one out).
And that is my beef.

Books
Recently I've read two books, one on the poor and the other about materialism in our
western world. Affluenza was the book I reported on yesterday. The other one is by the ultra-liberal Barbara Ehrenreich. While I certainly don't agree with her politics as evidenced in the NY Times Op/Ed pages, her book is a must read IMO. In the book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Ms. Ehrenreich tells how she shed her life as a successful journalist for a period of time and worked as a minimum wage earner. Her jobs included waitressing, hotel maid, house maid for a maid service and working at Walmart. It is an eye-opener to why the poor cannot get ahead, or even live decently. Most of them are women and the only way to survive is to find some guy to shack up with (unless of course they can find some schmuck to marry).

Blog
I found a wonderful blog on the poor with commentary from a passage of Scripture for
each post. The blogger only blogs about once a month but it is worth every read.
This blog is entitled The Poor You Will Always Always Have With You.

Affluenza

I am reading a most interesting book that I saw on the amazon.com best seller's list. Affluenza, by John De Graaf and Thomas H. Taylor, is not a Christian book but has some very good things to say about our American materialistic world. In summary, it is out of control. And sadly, Christians are participating in this madness too.

Here are some tidbits from Affluenza (published in 2001):

*Because we're on a treadmill of wanting bigger and better things (the disposable society), we are now transferring this to people. So, don't like the wife? Get a new one.
*Families are not connecting with each other. Dad is in the den on the computer, kids in another room playing video games, mom upstairs on the VCR. And of course, Families are not connecting with other families because time is spent within the house playing with these gadgets and toys.

*Conservatives often wish to go back to the way it was in the 1950's, but at the same time want unregulated big business which pollutes the environment, promotes materialism and produces more and more "things." You cannot have it both ways.

*Americans who work in poverty areas around the world report that the children and adults in these Third World areas rarely get bored. They take pride and contentment in what they make with their hands as well as being with each other telling stories and relating the days events. When these Americans come back to their affluent communities at home they see bored children and bored adults not interacting with each other. Then to ease this pain of alienation and loneliness, these same bored people often partake in addictions such as food, buying more things, alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc.
*Children are the new marketers' dream client and they are doing brazen and harmful advertising geared toward this group, thus ruining childhood and the family overall.
*The 1990's were the most prosperous years in the history of this nation. But Fordham University found that the Social Health Index of the country pointed to a nation in social crisis. Marc Miringoff of Fordham says this decline started in 1977. He cites that 4.7% of children are abused every year. He goes on to say that in 1950 youth suicide was only 4.5 per 100,000. By 1970 suicides among youth had nearly doubled and by 1990 the rate was up to 12 per 100,000.
*In the 1960's youth at least had a goal to better the world. Today, they only care about partying and getting rich. A professor at Duke university recently asked his students what was important to them. Above all, they wanted money, power and things. The most common thing he would hear students say to each other was, "I can't believe how drunk I got last night."

*People need to understand that happiness comes from within, NOT from without (i.e. getting more things).

*When Kellogg began his cereal company in 1930 he paid his workers a thirty-five-hour-week wage for thirty hours of work. As a result productivity rose so much that he could pay them a forty hour wage, but still for thirty hours of work. After Mr. Kellogg died, because the price for benefits rose so much, the company went back to the 40-hour work week. The workers who had worked there when the thirty-five wage for thirty hours work was in effect, told an interviewer they had time to volunteer for the community and enrich their lives with such activities as gardening, hobbies, exercises, etc. But when the forty-hour work week went into effect, not only did the volunteerism go down, but crime in Battle Creek, Mich. rose.

*The advent of television was basically responsible for the new consumer mentality because it showed how "the other half lived."

*As Third World poor areas become more prosperous, the same illnesses and stresses as seen in the First World become common.
*Also, as Third World countries become more propserous, the environment is more polluted and stripped.

So there it is. Perhaps it is time for Christians and the church to really think about these things? Perhaps we Christians can lead the way to a good solution.

We Get No Respect

Today we will take a short interlude from the Money series and return tomorrow or the next day.

I am an alumna of the #1 BCS ranked college football team in the United States of America. Bt know, if you haven't heard, it's USC.

The really grating thing is how many people, probably including some readers of this blog, think I went to the University of South Carolina. No one ever thought about South Carolina until Lou Holtz showed up; and now Stevie, the next coach on board. I love Spurrier so Stevie is my pet name for him. He's cute as a button.

Anyway, continuing with my rant. No. I didn't go to the University of South Carolina.

Why the Pac-Ten west coast teams are ignored is beyond me. But then in most people's eyes, including Christian ones, we are the left coast of fruit and nuts. If Pat Robertson says that once more I think I will scream. And that goes for Rush Limbaugh too.

For those of you who still don't know who the #1 college football team is in America; the one meeting up with the University of Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl for the college football championship............it's...............
.
.
.
.
.
.
The University of Southern California (Trojans).

Shame, Shame on Us

Here are more stats from Doug Perry.

*38 countries are primarily unevangelized. (ie. 1.6 Billion souls)

Assets of the Church:
*US Christians control TRILLIONS in assets while at any given time 200,000,000 Brothers and Sisters starve.

--> This is what I never get. Churches rarely teach on the condition of poor Christians both in the West and in Third World countries. Why? There seems to be so much written about this in the Bible, both in the OT and NT.

*78 countries each have Great Commission Christians whose personal incomes exceed US$1 billion a year.

Financial Fraud in the Church:
*Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the entire cost of all foreign missions worldwide. Emboldened by lax procedures, trusted church treasurers are embezzling from the Church $5,500,000 PER DAY. That's $16 Billion per YEAR!
(For reference: TOTAL Christian spending on foreign missions is only $15 Billion.)

*Criminal penalties against clergy in sexual abuse cases now exceed $1 billion, causing a number of churches, dioceses and denominations to be forced into bankruptcy.

Wasteful Spending by the Church:
*95% of all church budgets in the US are spent on our own comforts and programs. Less than 1% is spent on evangelism to the most unreached.

*40% of the church’s entire global foreign mission resources are being deployed to just 10 oversaturated countries already possessing strong citizen-run home ministries.

*More than 90% of all Christian materials are in English, but only 8% of the world speaks English.

All costs of ministry divided by number of baptisms per year. Cost per baptism in India - $9803 per person. Cost per baptism in the United States - $1,550,000 per person.

*91% of all Christian outreach/evangelism does not target non- Christians but targets other Christians in already-evangelized countries or people-groups.

Missions and the Church:
*Some 250 of the 300 largest international Christian organizations regularly mislead the Christian public by publishing demonstrably incorrect or falsified progress statistics.

*It costs Christians 700 times more money to baptize converts in rich countries (eg. Switzerland) than in poor countries (eg. Nepal).

*Percent of Christian resources in countries that are already more than 60% Christian - 99.9%.
Percent spent in countries where less than half the people have EVER heard of Jesus - 0.01%.

*It is estimated that Christians worldwide spend around $8 BILLION dollars PER YEAR going to the more than 500 conferences to TALK about missions. That's more than TWICE the total spent DOING missions.

*Everywhere on Earth can now easily be targeted with at least 3 of the 45 varieties of effective evangelism.
818 unevangelized ethnolinguistic peoples have never been targeted by any Christian agencies ever.

*Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians, 70% have never been told about the world's 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.

Growth of the Church:
*The country with the fastest Christian expansion ever is China, now at 10,000 new converts every day.

Persecution of the Church:
*More than 70% of all Christians now live in countries where they are experiencing persecution. In some cases EXTREME persecution.

Global Population Issues:
*124 million new souls begin life on Earth each year, but Christianity’s 4,000 foreign mission agencies baptize only 4 million new persons a year.

Unreached Peoples
*Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians, 70% have never been told about world’s 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.

*Despite Christ’s command to evangelize the world, 67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present have never even heard of his name.

___________________________________
[Perry's Sources: An AD 2001 reality check: 50 new facts and figures
about trends and issues concerning empirical global Christianity
today. (from Table 1-1 in World Christian Trends, William Carey
Library, David Barrett & Todd Johnson.)

The Church and Money

-->Today, I am beginning a series on prosperity teaching; the rich; the poor; Christians and wealth/materialism; the government taking care of the poor; the church (which is supposed to take care of, at least, it's own poor); and other topics that pertain to the subject of Christians and money.

The post today will present an article by Doug Perry. He has a real in-your-face website; translate that "blunt;" at What Have We Done

Here are segments from an article by him entitled The Church and Money.

"If you want to put your finger on what's wrong with the church in
America today, just follow the money. Always follow the money.

I can't begin to tell you how badly we've managed the money. It's
awful, AWFUL! Horrifyingly bad. I'm still just trying to get my head
around how bad it is. It's no wonder the secular world hates us.
We're all hypocrites of the highest order. More than any other part
of the church anywhere ever! The Catholic Church during the
Inquisition wasn't as bad! For what we could have been with our
blessings, we've let hundreds of millions of souls go to hell and
millions of Brothers and Sisters starve to death. So that we could
have padded pews and new carpet.

I know of one Evangelical church that believes in the imminent
return of Christ with a chandelier that cost $1,000,000!! The pastor
didn't pay for it out of HIS pocket! It was the folks with the big money
that played along. They're going to have to account for the decisions
they made as stewards of God's blessings. When they "stand"
before Jesus to account they're going to be wishing they could get
UNDER the ground.

I'm telling you flat out, the folks that did the worst damage need to
be crushed - and then they need to go see to it that the church
changes it's ways. Look at it the other way - if you DON'T get the
businessman to repent, he'll see to it that they find another pastor
before he'll give up the shiny buildings he donated.

I think consciously or subconsciously the reason American
Christians only tithe 2% is because they know that if they were
obedient and gave FIVE times as much there would be gold plated
mega churches on every corner and every pastor would have his
own TV show. There'd be Jesus theme parks in every big town.
Everything EXCEPT raw, effective evangelism and care for those in
most need.

Until they are a great crushing weight pressing against the souls of
the guilty, the massive piles of money in this country will not be
liberated to go be a blessing to the unreached, the widows, and the
orphans as we're commanded. We'll never live according the the
model of Jesus and we'll always be hypocrites. There's going to be
some serious heart-crying when this message finally sinks in. We
have a lot to atone for.

Clear enough? "

-->While I don't agree with Mr. Perry's view in almost every article he writes that everyone should leave the so-called institutional church, I do believe he has made some very important points. Isn't it really waaaaay past time for the church to speak out about this without thinking they will "offend" people? They might really be amazed at how many people they DO NOT offend.

Euthanasia for Children

This is what happens when the church takes Christ out of it's teachings.
Are you listening Peter Wagner, Rick Joyner, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Joel Osteen and others?

The following is especially poignant to me since my grandmother was born in a town very near Groningen. I vistited her town in 1980 and stood in front of the very church (Dutch Reformed) where she went to church. But sadly, I realized that this church was probably dead as a doornail because of the liberalism that has swept throughout the mainline churches both here in the United States and Canada as well as Europe.

In my life long study of Hitler and the Third Reich I am recently reading about what the Lutheran church's role was in the Nazi regime. Believe me, they were up to their ears in cooperating and promoting the Anti-Semitic "positive Christianity," as they called it, that contributed to the whole Nazi scheme of events.

Today we are seeing the EXACT same thing in our evangelical churches, both on the seeker sensitive side and the Third Wave side.
I am so thankful as I read so many Chrisitan blogs whose writers are holding to the true faith. I just hope there are as many pastors and ministry leaders out there that are doing so too, or heaven help us here as more Hitlers rise; and believe me they will. The Republicans won't be able to stop them; nor the Democrats; nor any other party. And remember, Hitler was duly elected IN A DEMOCRATIC country (the Weimar Republic). That is how he became the Chancellor (German name for Prime Minister). Well, and a bit of threat and thugerry too.

So read and weep for the following.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.

The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives - a prospect viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by advocates.

In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident.

The Health Ministry is preparing its response, which could come as soon as December, a spokesman said.

Three years ago, the Dutch parliament made it legal for doctors to inject a sedative and a lethal dose of muscle relaxant at the request of adult patients suffering great pain with no hope of relief.

The Groningen Protocol, as the hospital's guidelines have come to be known, would create a legal framework for permitting doctors to actively end the life of newborns deemed to be in similar pain from incurable disease or extreme deformities.

The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child's medical team and independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect for improvement, and when parents think it's best.

Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain damage from bleeding and convulsions; and diseases where a child could only survive on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness.

The hospital revealed last month it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors. There have been no legal proceedings against the hospital or the doctors.

Roman Catholic organizations and the Vatican have reacted with outrage to the announcement, and U.S. euthanasia opponents contend the proposal shows the Dutch have lost their moral compass.

"The slippery slope in the Netherlands has descended already into a vertical cliff," said Wesley J. Smith, a prominent California-based critic, in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Child euthanasia remains illegal everywhere. Experts say doctors outside Holland do not report cases for fear of prosecution.

"As things are, people are doing this secretly and that's wrong," said Eduard Verhagen, head of Groningen's children's clinic. "In the Netherlands we want to expose everything, to let everything be subjected to vetting."

According to the Justice Ministry, four cases of child euthanasia were reported to prosecutors in 2003. Two were reported in 2002, seven in 2001 and five in 2000. All the cases in 2003 were reported by Groningen, but some of the cases in other years were from other hospitals.

Groningen estimated the protocol would be applicable in about 10 cases per year in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people.

Since the introduction of the Dutch law, Belgium has also legalized euthanasia, while in France, legislation to allow doctor-assisted suicide is currently under debate. In the United States, the state of Oregon is alone in allowing physician-assisted suicide, but this is under constant legal challenge.

However, experts acknowledge that doctors euthanize routinely in the United States and elsewhere, but that the practice is hidden.

"Measures that might marginally extend a child's life by minutes or hours or days or weeks are stopped. This happens routinely, namely, every day," said Lance Stell, professor of medical ethics at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. "Everybody knows that it happens, but there's a lot of hypocrisy. Instead, people talk about things they're not going to do."

More than half of all deaths occur under medical supervision, so it's really about management and method of death, Stell said.