Chief Justice Roberts: Consensus Builder

Confirm Them has an interesting posting on how effective the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, has been at developing consensus so far this year. Now that the Supreme Court has moved in a more conservative direction this is all the more important. The abortion precedents of the Supreme Court are going to be substantially dismantled. In order to accomplish this, the conservative side of the court will need to persuade the moderate Justice Kennedy to get on board. These consensus building skills of Justice Roberts are critical to getting Justice Kennedy on board.

(Posted by Trask)

Soul Force’s Equality Ride Targets Christian Colleges

Christianity Today has an article on how various Christian colleges are dealing with an expected uninvited visit from a gay rights group.

For the next seven weeks, the group Soulforce will test the hospitality of Christian colleges. Some schools have decided withdraw the welcome mat for the national pro-gay activist group, while others are accommodating the protesters with housing and events.

Sixteen Christian colleges are preparing for the uninvited guests from what Soulforce is calling Equality Ride. The seven-week bus tour launching today will take 35 gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and straight 18- to 28-year-olds to colleges with behavior codes that Soulforce calls discriminatory.

The religious schools Soulforce is protesting specifically ban homosexual behavior along with other non-marital sexual activity.

These Christian colleges should be very skeptical toward this protest group. This equality ride is nothing more than a publicity stunt. The policies of Christian colleges should be that they are open to holding debates on their campuses over the issue of homosexuality, but they should not allow this group to come on campus just so that it can make a scene. Some people just cannot get over the 60s and do not understand that it is possible to persuade without violating the law. There are situations where civil disobedience is necessary like, for example, the state enforced violations of civil liberties that historically existed in the south. But this group is literally going to private religious colleges looking for trouble. Ninety-five percent of colleges in the United States have already caved into the gay movement and have affirmative action policies for GLBT in admissions and faculty hiring. The last five percent who uphold the traditional family are hardly a threat. Additionally, the level of discrimination at these traditional colleges is very low anyway since they basically prohibit all non-marital sexual activity whether homosexual or heterosexual anyway.

(Posted by Trask)

Evangelical Social Action During the 19th Century

Christianity Today has an interesting interview with John Wolffe on evangelical social action during the 19th century:

19th-century evangelicals, when they saw a problem, believed they could do something about it. They knew they weren’t going to get instant success, but they had a sense of divine calling to address the problem. In the contemporary world, I sense more defeatism; problems are just too big. But these British evangelicals teach us that individuals with vision and leadership skills can respond to the call of God and make a difference.

(Posted by Trask)

Women Die From Abortion Pill

The New York Times is reporting today that two new women have died from taking the abortion pill.

After receiving reports that two more women died after taking abortion pills, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, announced today that it would immediately change the way it gives the medicines.

The change resolves a long-running dispute between Planned Parenthood and the Food and Drug Administration over the safest way to provide pill-based abortions.

The F.D.A. has now received reports that six women in the United States died after taking RU-486, or Mifeprex. Federal officials do not yet know the cause of the latest two deaths. Planned Parenthood announced in a statement that one woman died within days of undergoing a pill-based abortion while the other died within five weeks of the procedure.

(Posted by Trask)

Seminary Students Seeking Degrees for Non-Ministry Purposes

The New York Times has an interesting article today on how increasing percentages of seminary students are attending seminary with plans of pursuing non-ministry related careers.

Across the country, enrollment is up at Protestant seminaries, but a shrinking portion of the graduates will ascend the pulpit. These seminarians, particularly the young ones, are less interested in making a career of religion than in taking their religion into other careers.

Those from mainline denominations are being drawn to a wide range of fields from academia to social service to hospital chaplaincy, said the Rev. Daniel O. Aleshire, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Students who are evangelical Protestants, meanwhile, often end up at advocacy groups, sometimes called parachurches, which have defined the priorities and solidified the influence of conservative Christians.

Only about half of those graduating with a Master in Divinity now enter parish ministry, Mr. Aleshire said. The portion has fallen sharply in a generation, he said, and declined 10 to 15 percentage points in the last five years alone.

(Posted by Trask)

All Because of You (U2)

I was born a child of grace
Nothing else about the place
Everything was ugly but your beautiful face
And it left me no illusion

I saw you in the curve of the moon
In the shadow cast across my room
You heard me in my tune
When I just heard confusion

All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am… I am

I like the sound of my own voice
I didn’t give anyone else a choice
An intellectual tortoise
Racing with your bullet train

Some people get squashed crossing the tracks
Some people got high rises on their backs
I’m not broke but you can see the cracks
You can make me perfect again

All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am… I am

I’m alive
I’m being born
I just arrived, I’m at the door
Of the place I started out from
And I want back inside

All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am

All Because of You is a great new song on U2’s Atomic Bomb album. The music video for this song can be viewed at YouTube. When one listens to this song for the first time, one gets the impression that this is a love song, and this is an accurate impression. Bono passionately serenades his lover through this song. However, this begs the question, who is Bono’s lover? The natural assumption would be that it must be Ali Hewson, his one and only wife that he married decades ago. A close examination of the song reveals that this is not the case.
 
A close study of the lyrics reveals who Bono serenades. Bono repeats a line in the song a few times, which is “All because of you I am. . . I am.” Why is it that the lyrics repeat the words “I am” twice? In Exodus 3, God charges Moses with a mission to go and free the Israelites from their bondage under the Egyptians. The Bible says that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses at the burning Bush. Some people believe that references to the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament are actually references to Jesus Christ. When Moses received his charge from the Angel of the Lord, he asked God what name he should use to refer to God, if the Israelites ask what God has sent him. “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’” (Exodus 3:14) In Mark, when the High priest asks Jesus if He is the Messiah, Jesus responds by saying, “I am.” (14:62) In John, Jesus says “before Abraham was born, I am!” (8:58) Therefore, there is a theme in the Bible of “I am” being a reference to God.

Who then is Bono serenading? Bono is serenading God or Jesus Christ more specifically. The use of the double “I am” in the song is a direct reference to God. Paul says in Ephesians, “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” (5:31-33) Paul describes the relationship between Christ and the church as being like that of a relationship between a husband and wife.

What does Bono serenade Jesus Christ about? First, Bono praises Jesus for creating him. In light of what I have already discussed, the word “I am” conveys a double meaning. It is saying both “All because of you I am” and “All because of you Jesus.” When one puts these two separate meanings together, one learns that he is thanking God for being the ground of his being. One can accurately translate “All because of you I am. . . I am” as “Jesus, I exist because of you.” Second, Bono thanks Jesus for his salvation. He says, “I was born a child of grace.” Jesus said in John that “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” (3:3) Therefore, being born a child of grace is a reference to his rebirth into salvation. Third, Bono praises Jesus for his beauty by saying “[e]verything was ugly but your beautiful face.” Fourth, Bono praises God for his transcendence and immanence. He says “I saw you in the curve of the moon / In the shadow cast across my room.” He cannot see God because God is transcendent and wholly other. If a person were to see God in His complete glory, that person would die. On the other hand, he sees evidence that God is immanent in his life, which is what he conveys through his reference to the curve of the moon and the shadows. Fifth, he praises God for his omnipotence stating that he is “An intellectual tortoise / Racing with your [God’s] bullet train.”

This song is also a theological depiction of the process of salvation. He states at the beginning of the song that he was born a child of grace. This refers to the beginning of his walk with God where he places his faith in Jesus Christ and receives the justification and forgiveness of sins that comes through Christ’s death on the cross. However, justification is only the beginning of the Christian journey, which is why it is referred to in the first line of the song. After a person is justified, s/he begins an incremental process of becoming holy, but this is a process where there will be bumps in the road along the way since we are still creatures with a sin nature.

Bono talks about his personal selfishness. “I like the sound of my own voice / I didn’t give anyone else a choice / An intellectual tortoise / Racing with your bullet train / Some people get squashed crossing the tracks / Some people got high rises on their backs.” He is talking about how selfishness is part of the sin condition. People often have elevated views of themselves and they feel that they are better than other people and God, but we inevitably get into trouble (or squashed crossing the tracks) when we get into the mindset that we know better than God does. He then says “I’m not broke but you can see the cracks / You can make me perfect again.” In Matthew, Jesus tells us that the standard for human conduct is perfection when he commands us to “[b]e perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (5:48) This is the goal that we as Christians must pursue with all of our being, but we inevitably fall short of this goal, and we get squashed crossing the tracks. However, God is always there with us in our faith journey, and he will make us perfect again.

(Posted by Trask)

Prayer of St. Patrick

Today is St. Patrick’s day. So here is a prayer of his.

PRAYER OF ST. PATRICK: FROM “THE BREASTPLATE PRAYER” 

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me. 

(Signed, Johannes Climacus)