More Wise Words That Are Not my Own

"...life is a journey in a fallen world, where things are not the way they are supposed to be. Plans do not always go as expected. That for all of our sense of self-importance and control, we really have little management over the course of life—no more than a mariner has control of the sea."

-John Johnson (Village Pastor)

Aborting Barack

“A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."
The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.”

Hmm….I think I have a few issues with this. But before I mention them I feel like I should, once again, clarify my fundy stance on the issue. I don’t like abortions, I’ll go on record as saying that they’re not good; when I run for president in 2016 I will run as a pro-life candidate. I have said many times that the church needs to be the church and the state needs to be the state and that the church is in the position to do the most good when it is not trying to be political, and I think that is true about the issue of abortion as well. However, abortion happens to be an issue where the use of the political process can be valuable, and I’m not limiting that to laws banning abortions but rather government programs that prevent the need for abortions and serve as alternatives for it. Further, a politicians stance on this issue is a big deal to me, a very big deal, actually. I am not pleased with Barack Obama’s position on abortion and it was the subject of much reflection before I voted for him.

And that brings me to my first issue with Rev. Jay. Why have you highlighted this particular issue above any others, Reverend? Again, I bet both RJ (Rev. Jay) and I have the same basic view of abortion. It causes trauma to the mother, often times the father, and also to the doctor and nurses who perform the abortion, and it kills another human being. But what about arrogantly sending young people overseas to kill and be killed in the name of machismo? What about taking money away from programs designed to feed children and house the homeless so that the wealthy can have their tax break? Is that not sin? Human beings like to rank sin, to make some sins worse than others; God doesn’t do that: sin is sin.

RJ goes on to say that “voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil…” I don’t think so, RJ. I think we live in a fallen world and sometimes the right choice doesn’t exist. I think we are able to make the “most right” choice, but evil permeates this world and this world is governed by politicians, and thus I am forced to try and figure out what is most right. This is, in large part, a matter of conscience and this is between me and the Holy Spirit, not me and the priest (or pastor).

Telling someone that he or she shouldn’t or can’t take communion is bold and rather risky. To do so assumes a certain level of authority that I don’t think Scripture grants. By all means, RJ, we need to proclaim truth, fight for the good and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, but let us not presume to speak for God where he has not first spoken.

Oh, catchy blog title, huh? An attention-getter, I think.

My Festival of Lights (part one)

The last several years Jenny and I have commemorated Hanukkah, getting a little better at it each year (having not been raised to celebrate Hanukkah I am learning as I go). Often when people find this out they question why we would do this, as we are not Jewish (if they even know what Hanukkah is at all). My response is that the event which Hanukkah celebrates is a part of redemptive history and there is nothing about it that should make it exclusively a Jewish celebration; this was a miracle that God did, and I want to celebrate those. But they do have a point: we are not Jewish, which means that when we celebrate Hanukkah in the light of Christ we will celebrate it a little bit differently.

I’m still trying to figure out how this celebration plays itself out in the long run for my family and, hopefully, for other that will eventually join us. I’m still learning about the history of it and the foreshadowing that is present within the story. Over the coming weeks I hope to learn more, and to help in doing that I am going to tell the story of Hanukkah here. It’s actually a pretty long story, so I’m going to do it in parts. Here is part one:

PART I: FOREIGN RULE
Antiochus III, also known as Antiochus the Great, became the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire in 223 BC (ish) at the age of 18, and ruled until 187 BC. During his reign Antiochus fought many wars with an eye toward expanding his kingdom. In 198 BC Antiochus defeated Scopas and ended Ptolemaic rule in Judea.

The relationship between the Jews and the Seleucid king was overall cordial; the Jews paid taxes and accepted the Syrian authority and the king allowed them to lead relative autonomous lives, especially in regards to their faith. This friendly relationship was not to last, however, as the king’s successor and son, Antiochus IV, called "Antiochus Epiphanes" (God’s beloved) ascended to the Seleucid throne. A historian of the time, Polebius, called him “Antiochus Epimanes” (madman). At this time Roman influences and taxes began to take their toll on the Jewish people. Antiochus IV looted the temple in Jerusalem for its gold, gold whose purpose was the upkeep of the temple and charity toward God’s people. He sought to unify his region under one state religion and began persecuting and massacring the Jews. He suppresed Jewish laws and removed the High Priest, Yochanan, replacing him with a Greek sympathizer. Antiochus IV desecrated the temple by ordering the sacrifice of pigs on the alter and in 167 ordering a statue of Zeus be erected in the temple of Yahweh.

At this time the Jews were not only facing an external struggle to maintain their faith, but an internal one as well. Over a 100 years earleir Alexander the Great had conquered, well, just about everything and in so doing spread the Greek traditions and beliefs whereever he went. In the preceeding century the Jews has assimilated much Greek culture, watering down many of their distictive beliefs and practices.

PART II: THE MISCALCULATION