Bandits No More

Has the “Global War On Terror” become the “Global Jihad On Terror”? Today’s Washington Post reports:

The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, according to senior administration and military officials.
In recent speeches and news conferences, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the country’s top military officer have spoken of “a global struggle against violent extremism” rather than “the global war on terror,” which had been the catchphrase of choice.

The article suggest this change originates in a view that the “war” wil be longer and include more than just battlefield action. Quite possible. I find it fascinating that “struggle” can be a good translation of jihad also. I wonder how the US is handling the Arabic ranslation of this new phrase.

The rage on conservative talk radio yesterday was over a funeral crasher. Apparently Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Catherine Baker Knoll attended the funeral of a Marine who had been killed in Iraq. Here is the story from the Pittsburg Port-Gazette.

The article says that Knoll attended the funeral uninvited. The reasonable concern is that she apparently took every opportunity to politicize the event. To politicize a funeral for personal gain is the ultimate in bad taste, but can be remedied at the ballot box.

My concern is not that Lt. Gov. Knoll acted in such a boorish and insensitive way. That much is obvious. My concern here is that every conservative talk radio host I heard reference the story was furiously offended that Knoll had attended the funeral though she hadn’t been invited.

I have never heard of funeral by invitation. Certainly there are times when the family desires a closed or very limited service, but in general funerals are attended freely by all who want to pay respects to the deceased. That Knoll seemingly intended to pay no respect is a great point of discussion for talk radio and partisan debate. Who attends which funeral is not.

It is the time of year when professional football players hold out for more money. Players and their agents sit across tables from owners. Offers meet counteroffers until a compromise is reached somewhere in between. It is a microcosm of a system that is rooted deeply in our culture; the adversarial system.

The primary presumption of the adversarial system is that a fair outcome is reached by opposed sides vigilantly contend on issues at which they are at odd. The outcome of such organized and refereed contention is to be accepted as the best possible outcome. The adversarial system is the basis for contract negotiations, our justice system, and much of the work of the academy.

But ought it be the basis for all our public and social interactions? One of the benefits of the adversarial system is that it works whether or not one’s opponent has compromise or fairness of outcome in mind. In fact, this system assumes opposing sides in a dispute may even be willing to withhold relevant information or even cheat in an attempt to gain an advantage. In other words, the adversarial system is set up for interaction that cannot be based on trust.

Since the adversarial system is designed to overcome or at least provide for mistrust, it should not be the primary model used in some settings. It certainly does not belong in family relations or in the church.

“Does God exist?” This question was the theme of the day Tuesday at Senior High 2 camp at Glen Lake last week. I was the preacher at worship that evening, and was to preach on the theme. I confess I have some difficulty using the standard proofs of God’s existence. It isn’t that I don’t believe them or can’t follow their logic.

There are two reasons I have some difficulty with the standard proofs of God’s existence. The first I will deal with here, the second next. My first problem is I don’t think strict logic and clear reasoning will convince all unbelievers.

For example, one argument that seems flawless to many Christians is the argument from creation. Paul expresses this argument in Romans 1, and it appears elsewhere in scripture as well. A simplified form of the argument is that a look around at the beauty, intricacy, and variety in the world would require a Maker to have brought it into being.

This is closely related to the argument from causation; every effect has a cause, and there must have been some ultimate First Cause that began the chain reaction of effects and causes that gave us the world we have today.

The difficulty of using these “proofs” to conclusively convince unbelievers is simple. These proofs work for us because we believe in a Creator or First Cause. In other words, before we articulate these arguments for God’s existence, we already believe.

There are many unbelievers who look at the same beautiful sunsets I do, who are as in awe of the splendor of nature as I am, yet who do not attribute such beauty and splendor to God.

If we truly want to convert others to our perspective, to believe in the God in whom we believe, we must first be able to understand things from their perspective. When we have done so, we earn the right with them to be heard from our own perspective.

Led by our youth pastor, Tim Ruland, the church spend over a year renovating an old feed store building to be used as our youth building. Not being one of those churches with millions to play with, Tim used his creativity, some grant money and hundreds of hours put in by his whole family, the youth group and others in the community to make the building a place for youth ministry. The grand opening was in early February, and since then the youth have had a great time meeting and hanging out in there.

This morning at 6 we got a call that the Feed Store was on fire. I rushed down to the church. The Pittsburg Fire Department was already there, but (as I heard later) had been unable to get the nearest hydrant to work, and were only pumping a small amount of water on the fire. By the time they were able to get real water flow on the building – almost 30 minutes later – it was too late. we give thanks that no one was hurt and that the fire didn’t spread to other buildings (our other buildings are very close – one only three feet away). But we have a long way to go to get our dream for a youth ministry facility back on track.

Since we have old buildings (including a beautiful hundred year old sanctuary that was just renovated – which we’re still paying for – not to mention the pipe organ and windows) that demand lots of money and attention I’ve often told the people that we’re not in the building business but the people business. Right now the people are hurting inside. Tons of labor went up in smoke. But in the end it’s a building. We’re out to build people. So pray for us.

UPDATE: The state Fire Marshall and peopel from ATF are investigating the remains this morning. We don’t have any reason to suspect arson, but it’s certainly worth checking out.
Also – KLTV in Tyler/Longview sent a camera man out to interview Tim Ruland our youth pastor. If you’re in the region watch their newscasts tonight.

I’ve uploaded an MP3 of today’s message, “How Much is Enough?” It’s based on Luke 14:25-35 and asks how much prayer, bible engagement, giving, forgiving, love and commitment are enough. My suggestion is that before we answer these questions for ourselves we note that when Jesus asked that question of the Father in relation to us, it cost him his life.

Marlin Jeschke writes in Christianity Today about the loss of discipline in the church. More than just a function of church size, more than a revivalistic attitude that cares mostly about one’s salvation, this loss of discipline is due to Constantinianism: an acceptance of the State as the legitimate arbiter of morality, of right and wrong.

We Methodists used to be a disciplined people. We still call the book that orders our life The Book of Discipline. But this discipline is usually allowed rein only in the abstract and institutional. When it comes to personal discipline, we’re afraid to do it. Since the Golden Rule is often our highest understanding of social morality, and we ourselves do not wish to be disciplined, we do not extend discipline to others. Evidently, then, if we are to recover discipline in the church, we will have to start with our own willingness to receive discipline – to be disciplined. Some of this “being disciplined” will be our own effort – like the athelete seeks to be disciplined in practice and preparation. Some, however, will come from outside us and will be contrary to our immediate will. But this only shows what we need: to submit out immediate will to God’s will accepted as our own. God wills that we be holy – that we exhibit the character of Jesus. When we take this desire of God’s as our own will – our own quest – then we will subordinate our immediate will and desires in particular instances to this greater desire.

Now it may be that those who wish to discipline us are not inspired by a vision of the Holy God but by legalism or a simple will to power. In the long term, these mistaken disciplined will be resolved in the course of mutual discipline – not merely the one accountable to and disciplined by another, but all accountable and disciplined by all, since all are pursuing the same quest.

When I first saw the headline, “Methodism Needed in Madness of Poverty,” my first thought was that this was a creative translation from a foreign news source. Foreign it is – The Globe and Mailis a Canadian paper – but it really is talking about Methodism, or at least John Wesley’s teaching on money. Based on a World Bank report on poverty, the article suggest Welsey’s admonition to “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can” as a much neglected solution to world poverty. Noting the apparent failure of many years of country to country assistance (too often siphoned off to the overseas accounts of the country’s elites), economic reform that allows the hard work of the poor to be productive for them – and not just for the bottom line of Western companies that thrive on their low costs – would be a good, and Methodist, solution to world poverty.

I learned at the last minute that we’d be having workshops each day of camp. I happened to have my MP3 player/recorder with me, so I thought I’d do a workshop on podcasting. Had I ever done one before? Nope. Did I know how to get one online? Nope. But I figured it couldn’t be too difficult. I was surprised, however, when I learned that none of the kids (Senior High) knew what podcasting was – or had even heard of it. No matter – I plunged on ahead.

My suggestion to the kids was to let their creative juices flow. Through sharing a testimony, a short skit, an interview or an original song (who wants to mess with copyright issues?) they could get the Word out to the nations – well at least those who speak english. Apart from the technology, it would challenge the kids regarding their ability to articulate their faith. Even if this articulation only reached the level of asking or raising questions it would be a plus.

I discovered that a few of the kids were able to turn on their creativity pretty quick. Others couldn’t think of anything to do. What I did with these kids – and some others – turned out to work pretty well. I picked a subject I thought they’d know something about and interviewed them. It worked fine.

Each podcast works out to just a minute or two – with more planning and practice we could do more.

To listen to the results you can check in here:
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.cosuuk.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.cevele.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.ihaaxu.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.bawapy.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.pexamy.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.myovut.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.vepoda.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.tasapu.mp3
http://rizzn.net/scripts/podcast/podcasts/rheyduck.cyyoru.mp3