This document was recently produced by a collection of prominent evangelical Christians. It is a fien summary of the evangelical Christian witness, with a refreshing mea culpa for the politicizing of Christian beliefs in America over the last few decades. It is nicely inclusive, while avoiding a watering down of the strong witness of the evangelical tradition. Check it out if you are interested…
According to a new survey of U.S. adults who don’t go to church, even on holidays, 72% say “God, a higher or supreme being, actually exists.” But just as many (72%) also say the church is “full of hypocrites.” Furthermore, a full 44% agree with the statement “Christians get on my nerves.”
I have spend years hearing these sorts of comments from people and I have to say that I find them sadly disingenuous. I would like to be more affectionate and compassionate, but God simply has not given me this strength.
Let me be the first to burst the bubble here. The Church is in fact full of hypocrites. Many of them. Even I am a hypocrite. In fact, I may be one of the best of them. My hypocrisies are backed with seminary education and the authority of collar wearing and a good enough mind to concoct many reasons why my hypocrisies are in fact consistencies.
Let me burst a second bubble. Quite often, Christians get on my nerves as well. In fact, I know loads of annoying Christians. Furthermore, I have been an annoying Christians to many people. (Just ask my wife.)
But maybe this will be the most surprising truth of all: Jesus – by his own admission - came into the world for those who are sick, not those who are well. (Matthew 9:12) Who is more ill than a hypocrite? We need Jesus and that is why we all go to church. To offer our hypocrisies upon the altar of God and receive the healing grace of God. Many of us are still waiting for that healing, but I am sure it will come.
If one is waiting for the community where no one gets on your nerves, then it seems we are destined to live alone in our own little holes. And even then, well, I sometimes get on my own nerves. So, to avoid such company is futile and probably a little juvenile. But if you think you can manage that, well, more power to you then. Please send an invite when you get there.
As for those who stay away from church because of all us hypocrites, I do not understand why you would leave us all behind to wallow in our blindness. If you have figured it out - and clearly you must have if you have moved out of glass houses and into something more sturdy – then why not share with the rest of us. To do anything less, would be . . . well, hypocritical.
Many people in my churches tell me that they have a great deal of difficulty speaking about their faith with other people. In a way, I find this confusing. The most likely reason is that - as clergy - I am a professional speaker-on-faith. Also, it is socially acceptable for me to speak about my faith. Others expect it and are not hurt, resentful, or taken back when I do. So, I understand that there are far fewer social opportunities for people to speak about their faith.
But here is the thing I think needs to be kept in mind by all those who are in a love affair with God:
When I am in company, I love to tell people about my wife and daughter. I love to share stories about them, ways they make me feel, my pride in them, and so much more. I love to tell people about good books I have read, and what I thought was great about them. And I love to tell people about an exceptional movie I viewed, and the ways in which the characters, story, and cinematography moved me.
So, what is the difference between this and religious faith?
If I would tell others about the people I love, why not about God? If I would tell people about great books I read, why not scripture? If I would tell people about a great movie-going experience, then why not about a moving moment at worship?
It is a great sign of caring to share what is important in your life with other people. We should share what we care about.
As has been noticed by more than a few people, today is the 50th anniversary of the greatest marketing disaster in automotive history. Fifty years ago today, the Edsel was launched by Ford. It last three years, which by most accounts was three years too long. It was proclaimed before it’s arrival as the greatest innovation in the history of cars, but was nothing new. It’s only two innovations were it’s ungle grill and it’s push button transmission which caused people to flip into reverse when they went to honk their horns. It was a complete flop.
There are more than a few things we can learn from the disaster that was the Edsel. But here is just one: Ford is still around. Yes, the lesson is that we all make mistakes. Sometimes we make major, gigantic, huge mistakes. So be it. Such is life. Get up, dust yourself off, and move on. If God did not bring you down, then He still has some piece of business for you to be about. Get on with it.
In 1 Kings 19, Elijah goes to mount Horeb and prays: “I have had enough, LORD . . . Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” When God appears and asks Elijah what he is doing in Horeb (as oppose to Israel?) the prophet complains: “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
But God answers harshly, “Go back the way you came”. Disasters and fiascoes in our lives are not the sort of thing which hinders God and God would not have them hinder us. If anything, God seems to be impatient when we spend too much time wallowing in our misery. If we are still around, God has something for us to do and - while he will allow us a moment of pity - he then wants us to do what we were supposed to be doing all along.
In the Book of Revelation, when the fifth seal is broken, the martyrs are disvered below the altar of heaven. From their, they cry out to God that their blood may be avenged while they are handed white robes. (Rev. 9:9-11)
Why? Why do martyrs cry out for blood? These are the one people in the whole of the Kingdom of God who should not better than all that blood cannot be quenched by more blood. They are the one people in the Kingdom who should know better than all others than blood does not pay for blood.
In fact, the very idea is a anethema to the God revealed in Jesus Christ. The Son of God gave blood so that blood would not have to be spilled. He sacrificed, so that the rest of us would not have to be sacrificed to eternal death for the sin-debt we had incurred against the Father.
Perhaps this is the root of the response from God through the angels of Heaven. The martyrs are given robes and told to sit down and wait and see.
Perhaps this is a nice reminder that the great martyrs of the faith - Stephen, John the Baptist, Perpetua, Felicity, Clement, and more recently Rev. King or Dietrich Bonhoeffer - were far from perfect and are capable of a vengeful moment once in a while even after their entrance into the music of heaven itself.
Either way, there is some comfort for me in the fact that no one ever tells them that they are right to hope for blood, right to claim it, or right to expect it. Apparently, even in a place of perfection, where the Perfect God resides, we will all still be frail, simple, and small.
And that is the deep truth of this. Christians have at times and in many places been given to a touch of blood lust. Sometimes it have been in the Name of God - such as in the crusades. Even good souls like St. Bernard of Clairvaux were not immune to these spirits. At other times, it has been a blood lust in service to a false god mixed with the true God - such as in various form so patriotism or ideology. In the end, these phases pass and we are left with the collective embarasment for what we have done. Perhaps it is good to know that very much in spite of these faults, we can still hope for a while robe in the end.
This was posted to the website of the Toledo Blade. Get the article here. The picture below are of Mr. Joseph. This definitely constitutes one of the best “whatever” stories on this website yet. All the credit in the world to David Yonke for finding Mr. Joseph and realizing that he is worth the story time.
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
When Carl James Joseph left Toledo in 1991, he left on foot — barefoot, in fact — wearing a robe and carrying only a Bible, a rosary, and a toothbrush.
The long-haired, soft-spoken evangelist — who calls himself “What’s Your Name?” but is usually referred to as “The Jesus Guy” — has since walked his way through 47 states and 13 foreign countries.“I’m just a traveling preacher,” Mr. Joseph told The Blade in a recent interview.In 2000, the Bowsher High School graduate was quietly making his way across western Pennsylvania when the world’s media suddenly discovered this countercultural evangelist who seemed to have stepped out of the pages of the Bible. Mr. Joseph soon found himself featured in Time magazine and on Good Morning America, 20/20, British television, the Washington Post, and a three-part series in The Blade. “It got very intense. It was a pretty major story all over the country and internationally as well,” he said. “I somewhat ran away from it.”He headed south, he said, where the media were not so intrusive and people seemed more accepting of his unorthodox appearance and his Gospel message.“The South is a whole different world,” he said.Mr. Joseph, now 46, still wears a robe, never wears shoes or sandals, wears his long brown hair parted in the middle, has a beard because it’s easier than shaving every day, and carries only a Bible, rosary, and toothbrush.“What happens with the rosary and even with the Bible, I’ll give it away any chance I can if it’ll be used,” he said.In the winter, he wears a warmer robe but still goes barefoot.
“A lot of people ask me about the shoes,” he said. “I found that taking even that extra step of faith, not going with shoes, gets people’s attention.”
He does not have a job or money, relying entirely on the graciousness of others.
He has never been married. “I have never felt that call for family and so forth,” he explained. “I believe it’s a way that God has prepared me for this life.”
But walking many thousands of miles — he cannot estimate the number — has taken a toll on his body, and Mr. Joseph underwent arthroscopic surgery on both knees last year.
“It’s extremely diminished my ability to walk,” he said. “Over the winter, I couldn’t walk at all. I could hardly stand. Now I have been able to go a few miles at the most. I have to do things in a stable manner instead of going from area to area, constantly on foot.”
The knee surgery, like dental work he had done last week, was donated, he said.
“THEY KNOW IT’S PURE”
People, whether it’s someone he knows or a courageous stranger, give him food and shelter, although he will not accept cash. Many nights when no one offered him a place to sleep, he slept in churches, parks, woods, and on the beach.
“For the most part, what I’ve been doing since leaving the Pennsylvania area was literally living the way Jesus talked about: The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” Mr. Joseph said. “I think that living without money, I’ve seen God’s hand in this because I can go into an area and talk to people and they know it’s not about money. People feel secure. They know it’s pure.”
He said he began walking because he felt he should not contribute to pollution or to the petroleum and automobile industries.
“I take advantage of [cars] now, for good reason, but back then I said that unless I’m sure it’s God’s will, I’ll walk.”
He has never owned a cell phone and regrets agreeing to carry one briefly at the request of a television news producer in Philadelphia who wanted to be able to contact him at a moment’s notice.
“So I agreed to carry someone’s cell phone around, and I went downtown and met this homeless person, who was overjoyed at meeting me because he saw me on TV,” Mr. Joseph said. “He used his spare change to buy me a water at McDonald’s and then the cell phone went off and his whole demeanor changed. I think it hurt my credibility.”
He laughed when asked about e-mail. “I may have sent one e-mail in my life. I certainly never received one.”
“SETTING IN THE SOUTH”
Mr. Joseph has settled for a while in Cullman, Ala., a town of 14,000 in north-central Alabama, midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. The town is 10 miles northwest of Hanceville, home of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network broadcast in 144 countries and 140 million households and the location of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Mr. Joseph has settled for a while in Cullman, Ala., a town of 14,000 in north-central Alabama, midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. The town is 10 miles northwest of Hanceville, home of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network broadcast in 144 countries and 140 million households and the location of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.The stationary life has its blessings, Mr. Joseph said.
Mr. Joseph has settled for a while in Cullman, Ala., a town of 14,000 in north-central Alabama, midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. The town is 10 miles northwest of Hanceville, home of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network broadcast in 144 countries and 140 million households and the location of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.The stationary life has its blessings, Mr. Joseph said.“I was able to, in a sense, get a fresh start,” he said. “That’s one reason I go by James Joseph now instead of What’s Your Name? It’s different here. I noticed the deep segregation that’s a problem here, especially in religion. So I was able to come into areas and help bring together blacks and whites.”
Mr. Joseph has settled for a while in Cullman, Ala., a town of 14,000 in north-central Alabama, midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. The town is 10 miles northwest of Hanceville, home of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network broadcast in 144 countries and 140 million households and the location of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.The stationary life has its blessings, Mr. Joseph said.“I was able to, in a sense, get a fresh start,” he said. “That’s one reason I go by James Joseph now instead of What’s Your Name? It’s different here. I noticed the deep segregation that’s a problem here, especially in religion. So I was able to come into areas and help bring together blacks and whites.”ROOTS IN THIS RELIGION
Mr. Joseph has settled for a while in Cullman, Ala., a town of 14,000 in north-central Alabama, midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. The town is 10 miles northwest of Hanceville, home of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network broadcast in 144 countries and 140 million households and the location of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.The stationary life has its blessings, Mr. Joseph said.“I was able to, in a sense, get a fresh start,” he said. “That’s one reason I go by James Joseph now instead of What’s Your Name? It’s different here. I noticed the deep segregation that’s a problem here, especially in religion. So I was able to come into areas and help bring together blacks and whites.”Mr. Joseph was born in Detroit and grew up in Toledo, attending Gesu Elementary School. He was 12 years old when he and his older brother, Vincent, were invited to join the Catholic Church. The brothers accepted, were baptized, and made their first communion a week later.
Mr. Joseph has settled for a while in Cullman, Ala., a town of 14,000 in north-central Alabama, midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. The town is 10 miles northwest of Hanceville, home of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network broadcast in 144 countries and 140 million households and the location of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament.The stationary life has its blessings, Mr. Joseph said.“I was able to, in a sense, get a fresh start,” he said. “That’s one reason I go by James Joseph now instead of What’s Your Name? It’s different here. I noticed the deep segregation that’s a problem here, especially in religion. So I was able to come into areas and help bring together blacks and whites.”Mr. Joseph was born in Detroit and grew up in Toledo, attending Gesu Elementary School. He was 12 years old when he and his older brother, Vincent, were invited to join the Catholic Church. The brothers accepted, were baptized, and made their first communion a week later.James attended St. John’s Jesuit High School for 3½ years before transferring to Bowsher as a senior, graduating in 1978.
A year later, he was confirmed at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Temperance.
MOVED BY “THE HOLY SPIRIT”
He never attended seminary but has devoted much of his life to reading the Bible and the writings of major religious figures. He said it would be inaccurate to describe him as “self-taught.”
“I like to emphasize that it’s the Holy Spirit,” he said. “Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach you all things. The Apostles were, for example, taught directly by Jesus, but it really wasn’t until the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost that they were able to share and to write.
“Yes, I’ve done an awful lot of reading on my own — the Bible, church fathers, some of the Scripture scholars of the last 2,000 years. But I would say it’s especially through the gift of God, through prayer, that I’ve been able to share,” Mr. Joseph said. “And also, like Jesus, it’s through experience. It’s one thing to learn by reading; it’s another to learn by experience.”
Mr. Joseph said he preaches a Christian message, not specifically Catholicism.
“I’ve always been open to whatever God may want. I never really set out with the intention of living this particular lifestyle,” he said. “But once I recognized it was what God was calling me to do, I went along with it.”
His father, Louis Joseph, 71, lives in a condemned rental house in West Toledo and is hoping to move near his son soon. He wants to join forces with a man who owns property near EWTN’s shrine, on which he plans to build cabins for pilgrims to rent at low cost.
Louis Joseph, who is separated from his wife, Bette, said he regrets that he was not an “active Catholic” when James was young.
“I did try to instill basic Catholic values — honesty, integrity, and morality. But I didn’t have much emphasis on it like I do now,” he said. “He made me more that way. He does that to everybody he comes in contact with. He’s quite an unusual person.”
“A VERY HOLY MAN”
Marie Arsenault, 65, a French-Canadian living in Cullman, met James Joseph shortly after moving to Alabama three years ago. She and her husband have occasionally provided the evangelist with a room, and he has been staying with the Arsenaults since December.
“He’s very normal, very easy to get along with,” Mrs. Arsenault said. “Very intelligent. Very soft-spoken. The Spirit just leads him. He’s definitely a very holy man. To me, it was like Jesus coming to visit you.”
A monsignor in Pennsylvania called Mr. Joseph “a modern-day St. Francis of Assisi,” and some people have reported miraculous healings after coming into contact with the itinerant preacher.
Mr. Joseph said he tries to avoid such labels as “healer” or “prophet.”
“I think that’s one of the reasons I used that particular moniker of ‘What’s Your Name?’ We have a way of putting people in categories by way of position. And I was very conscious of that. In one sense, I would identify with an apostle, as one living an apostolic life for 16 years. … I do identify more with the term of ‘evangelist,’ ” he said.
“THE JESUS GUY”
Sean Tracey, of Portsmouth, N.H., is in the process of finishing a documentary film about Mr. Joseph titled The Jesus Guy, which he plans to debut at several festivals this summer.
“I think a lot of people are fascinated by who he is, what he is doing, and his commitment to this. There’s a lot of interest just in the way he’s leading his life,” Mr. Tracey said.
He has edited more than 70 hours of film into the 65-minute documentary and decided to call it The Jesus Guy because that’s how “people on the street” usually refer to Mr. Joseph.
A BUMPY ROAD
The barefoot evangelist has faced a number of obstacles in his 16 years of traveling.
He said he was kicked out of Mexico in 1999 when government officials became concerned over the large crowds that were following him.
In Texas, he said, a group of youths once threatened to crucify him. He was arrested in Greenfield in southwest Ohio on a disorderly conduct charge when he refused to stop preaching to a crowd. The charge was later dismissed.
In Pennsylvania, a man accused Mr. Joseph of blasphemy and then tried to stab him.
A few months ago, Mr. Joseph said he was insulted by a minister at an African-American church in Alabama.
“I was invited up to the front and the next thing you know, the pastor was talking about a ‘white devil’ and then talking about how it’s common sense to wear shoes. I knew he was talking about me personally. I just had to shake the dust off my feet and move on,” he said.
“It can be very difficult for me, emotionally. But rejection is something I shouldn’t be surprised about,” Mr. Joseph said. “In Jesus’ life, it wasn’t his success in preaching or his miracles that brought about salvation; it was his suffering and death on the cross.”
“THAT SIMPLE LIFESTYLE”
Lately, he said, he’s been going into public schools on literacy days, reading from the Gospels and answering students’ questions.
“I was invited as a guest reader and my choice of books was the Bible. All day long, they brought people in who asked questions. I was not proselytizing, but answering questions,” he said.
He said he has never tried to start a religious community, preferring to carry out his evangelism on his own.
“I have a sense that God is calling me to something unique. Maybe there are people who want to follow a similar lifestyle. But I don’t know about formalizing it as a religious order or something like that. I think one reason I’ve avoided that is to avoid the idea of a cult or something like that.”
He hopes to continue his journey in the same manner for as long as possible.
“The core of my being is wanting to follow Jesus in a more literal way,” Mr. Joseph said. “It may change, by not being as mobile, for example, but I have a deep conviction about living that simple lifestyle.”
Contact David Yonke at:dyonke@theblade.comor 419-724-6154.
DEBRE BIZEN, Eritrea (AFP) - Wrapped in white blankets against the chill air at an all-night vigil, Eritrean Orthodox monks sway slowly as they chant.
The community of around 200 men lead an austere life hardly changed since the Debre Bizen monastery was founded some 650 years ago. They keep a low profile in a country where religion is a delicate matter.
“Life here is simple,” said one monk staring at clouds, silver in the moonlight, floating far below the community’s scattered collection of simple stone dormitories.
The site, which lies east of the capital Asmara on a rocky peak 2,400 metres (7,920 feet) high, can be reached only by a breathtaking two-hour climb up narrow and twisting paths.
“We devote our time to prayer, to God. We are kept busy with that, we are happy and are at peace,” he said.
The government says it wants to keep national unity in this country of about 4.2 million, split equally between Muslims and Christians, and people are reluctant to talk about religion — even at this remote outpost.
But human rights groups and opposition reports say all is not well in the ancient Church, which was established in Eritrea in the fourth century.
Patriarch Abune Antonios, named the Church’s leader in 2004, was removed from his post in January last year.
The human rights group Amnesty International attributes his removal to his criticism of alleged state interference in church activities, including a crackdown on several evangelical Christian movements popular with some young Eritreans.
But the government dismissed the allegations, saying it was an internal Church matter.
Eritrea has reacted angrily to human rights organisations, which regularly accuse authorities here of religious persecution particularly against unregistered evangelical congregations.
A US State Department report last month branded Eritrea as a “country of particular concern” over the “government’s continuing severe violation of religious freedom,” including what it said were the arrests of hundreds of worshippers.
Asmara denounces such reports as “fabrications” and “childish plots by colonialists” using religious issues to “create division and conflict” in a bid to weaken the country.
The information ministry recently singled out Washington in a caustic editorial, posted on the ministry’s website, saying “the US’s daily pretentious cry for religious freedom is nothing but a means to establish political domination and subordination by creating division among peoples…”
The ministry also slammed what it said was a bid “to defile religion by using it as a political tool to satisfy one’s own gluttony.”
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu himself angrily dismissed claims last December that the government had wrested financial control away from the Church as “rubbish.”
He rejected a US State Department report that Church offerings now go into a state-controlled fund — from which the priests’ salaries are then paid — and that Church leaders must now perform military and national service, from which they were formerly exempt.
Amnesty meanwhile says that Abune, still recognised as the legitimate Church head by the Coptic Orthodox headquarters in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, has been held under house arrest since January. A recent statement by the human rights watchdog expressed concern about the health of 79-year-old cleric.
This followed a statement posted on an opposition website in February charging that three security officers and two priests had forcibly stripped Abune of his chain and sceptre, symbols of his spiritual authority. The statement was allegedly signed by monks, priests and deacons of the Orthodox Church.
“We have been following the sad developments in our Church and the suffering of His Holiness for the sake of his faith and the Church he loves so much,” it read.
The patriarch’s failure to pronounce the Easter benediction earlier this month on the most solemn day in the Church calendar raised eyebrows. The blessing was given instead by Abune Dioskoros, whom the state-run media described as a “senior religious leader.”
In the quiet of Debre Bizen, such earthly concerns seem far away and monks insist they know nothing about the allegations.
“I don’t want to talk about that, I don’t know anything about it,” said a young novice nervously, carrying a Bible in a cloth bag by his side.
Prayer dominates life in the monastery, which lies above the town of Nefasit, 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Asmara, and is accessible only to men.
In a small dining room lined with portraits of past spiritual leaders, monks preparing a simple supper look forward to the future.
“Eritrea had to suffer for many years in the fight to be free,” said one monk laying out the traditional injera, a sour flat bread, on a communal plate.
“There was much hardship, but the monastery never closed. Life is still not easy, but the church goes on.”
Posted by North West Arkansas Online’s Morning News. Click here.
SOUTH HILL, Va. — The new pastor at a Methodist church that had barred a gay man from membership two years ago has reversed that decision and allowed the man to join.
The Rev. Barry Burkholder, the new leader of South Hill United Methodist Church, told the congregation to accept the man’s transfer from a Baptist church. The denomination has not released the name of the gay congregant.
The former pastor, the Rev. Edward H. Johnson, said in 2005 that he could not accept the man as a member because he would neither repent nor seek to change. Johnson has since been appointed pastor at another Virginia church, Dahlgren United Methodist Church.
The case led to a showdown in church courts between Johnson and the denomination’s Virginia Conference, which oversees congregations and pastors in the region.
The conference tried to bar Johnson from ministry for a year for his decision.
The Methodist Book of Discipline declares gay relationships “incompatible with Christian teaching,” and bars sexually active gays from ordination. However, the denomination has no rules on church membership for openly gay congregants. The mainline Protestant denomination advertises itself as an open and welcoming church.
Johnson appealed his punishment to the highest church court — the Judicial Council — and won. The high court concluded that pastors have the authority to decide who becomes a member of a local church and ordered Johnson reinstated to ministry.
Burkholder told United Methodist News Service last week that the gay man professed that Christ was his savior and that Jesus died for his sins, so he was ready to become a member of the church.
NOTE FROM ANDREW: The sixth paragraph “Methodist Book of Discipline” should read “United Methodist”, that being the actual name of the denomination.
Posted by North West Arkansas Online’s Morning News. Click here.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A lawyer for the United Methodist Church is cautioning clergy against getting caught up in the presidential race as the 2008 election heats up.
The Internal Revenue Service has been warning churches and nonprofits that they risk losing their tax-exempt status by backing a candidate or engaging in partisan activism.
“Churches should take stands on appropriate issues, but it cannot be a substantial part of their ministry,” said Jim Allen, general counsel of the Methodist Council on Finance and Administration.
To protect themselves, Allen said congregations should not invite candidates to speak from the pulpit and avoid statements at any church function that could be interpreted as endorsing or opposing a candidate. Churches, however, are allowed to distribute voters education guides and encourage people to vote.
