Vacation Church

         We are one of those families that looks forward to its summer vacation. Usually its one of the beaches on the East Coast. We seem to always check in on Saturday and then it's look for a church to go on the Lord's Day. This is always a challenge. There's usually at least one church that is trying to convey the message to Internet surfers, that they are a Bible believing church. The typical American church likes to advertise as a family church, or friendly church. Most have some sort of contemporary service. Maybe they'll let you know about the food banks or senior citizen care and certainly the nursery.
         Oh for the day when I click on a church website and Christ Is Preached Here is the first thing I see! I can usually find a PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) which is the more conservative branch of Presbyterianism but they most likely will have contemporary worship which I try to avoid. I've found small Baptist churches that proclaim the gospel and that's probably why they are small.
         This weeks search was typical of other vacations. There was a Southern Baptist church listed so the question was only are they the conservative or liberal Southern Baptists. John Piper's name was on page one so that question was settled. These beach churches we attend always seem to have a very friendly congregation that recognizes a vacationer and welcomes them. Being Memorial Day Weekend, this service was much more patriotic than even normal churches in America today. The Star Spangled Banner, God Bless America and the Battle Hymn Of The Republic were sung. There was one overhead screen praise song, one piano solo and a modern hymn too close to contemporary Christian music. I couldn't bring myself to sing even one song today. The pastor started off with a story about a new reality show where men are trying to get a spot on the Dallas Cowboy's preseason roster.
         I didn't even blink, I've heard the references to sports so many times that it is almost expected. The message was application towards motivation to work harder for the goals of the Christian but in amongst this, there was Christ and also the gospel. The pastor's parting prayer was very telling in that it showed that he understands the difficulties of quoting Paul one minute, where Paul says that he is not trying to use his speaking abilities to persuade anyone, rather he is preaching Christ...and... realizing that using his own abilities to persuade is just what he (the pastor) was trying to do. His admitting this made the difference to me. I don't agree with the method but at least he did not think, as so many pastors do, that a motivational sermon is preaching Christ simply because Christ's name is mentioned as the object of the motivation.
          It's not application that I recoil from, for I need applicatory preaching in my life, it's the failure to preach Christ, His cross and our condition before applying that which receives it's strength to change, from what happened on the cross and in the tomb. I don't sing praise songs because I did so for ten years and came to see that the music and the moment was the essence of the service, and also the lyrics and choruses tend to be either centered on the singer (me) or so repetitive that I might as well be giving a chant. I take the prayers seriously when I attend these vacation services and consider it a privilege to pray for their small and large ailments, a privilege to even be among fellow Christians, and probably the weakest one in attendance in spite of recognizing the modern day ailment in the church and its preaching. In this beach community, these believers did not seem to have sacrificed their faith to the sun and surf but I still look forward to going home (Lord willing) and hearing Christ preached and singing Psalms where even I would have difficulty messing up.

Slow Down!

         It has been over ten years since we've been to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Duck is our preferred area. There are new beach houses everywhere but that's the only change Iv'e noticed so far (8 hrs). I like travelling, even the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I remember one of my first experiences with it. I put the top down and packed up my MG, put on my blue and white polka dot driving cap and headed north from Fort Bragg after getting out of the army. I drove under the speed limit afraid that bags would be bouncing out of the car if I went faster. It seemed to take forever! It was September but hot and I was cooked by the time I got to Breezewood. I got on the Turnpike and wasn't sure if I was going east or west. I turned around, where I shouldn't have, and after a few miles, I was still unsure of my direction. Now this is one time that I would have gladly conceded my American Male Syndrome and asked directions but there was no one to ask. Finally, 9 months of training and a year and a half of experience as an analyst of military movements kicked in. The sun is there and so are the hills. I must be going in the right direction; I guess I made it home, I really don't remember much after that.
          Driving 64 after leaving 95 was just a wee bit surreal. It was evening and the mass of red tail lights, travelling at least the speed limit were moving but gave no appearance, in the distance, as such. It was one long fiber optic being pulled along the highway. We thankfully saw only one accident on the way; three vehicles, the first with a crushed rear bumper and the next two with hoods pushed in. This is the problem with travelling at a higher speed with insufficient room between cars. If a vehicle, for whatever reason, breaks the car behind bears the onus of having to react. If five cars are behind the car that breaks, all five have to react and the probability of reacting quickly is far lower. No great insight here, I know, but does the same principle show up in other areas of life?
          Right now, the current administration is moving at breakneck speed on many issues, vehicle MPG requirements being the latest. The administration has already hit the breaks on a few issues merely sending supporters swerving a bit. On foreign policy it's a little bit more dangerous as lumbering issues such as Iran's nukes, Israel's defense, Cuba, China, Russia, the economy and our defense spending are moving fast and close.
          I watched a little bit of the Penguin playoff game tonight. It's an awesome thing to see when an NHL team has full momentum. Unlike most sports, the entire game is being played at the opponents goal. It's a major success to swat the puck up ice just to get a breather. Our culture is a ramblin wreck as every agenda that has tried to upend traditional American beliefs is flying like hornets around the goal. Those of us trying to halt this impending avalanche (appropriate name for a hockey team-Colorado) must first attempt to slow down the government. Whether it's bailouts, auto emissions, Cap and Trade, Supreme Court nominations or other hot items in the news, we need to get in front on these issues and slowly reduce the speed of these policy decisions and legislation. Hopefully, just like vacationers to the coast, in a week, they will be heading home again.

.Cap And Trade

         We are about to have a corporate/political/ideological scam cast upon us. No, it's not man made global warming, that's just an ideological scam. I'm referring to Cap and Trade Legislation. Those who, for ideological reasons, want to drastically reduce CO2 emissions need a vehicle for they cannot accomplish this with the evidence alone. They can't even get Al Gore to park his jet with the evidence alone. Cap and Trade is the vehicle. Enter Corporate America, If your going to do this there has to be something in it for us. The response, Well we're not going to give you anything, and if you are going to be able to get anything, there is only one place to go for it, the people, but we can't call it a tax. Corporate America just wants profits.
          When legislation is made, corporations set to work immediately to find ways to make it benefit them. This is a very busy time for lobbyists and lawyers. The official debate is starting in Congress. Under the legislation, energy companies will get credits for the greenhouse gasses they emit. They can use, buy or sell them. Fossil fuels will not produce as much energy but the price per megawatt will increase greatly, thus increasing profits. Ideology gets what it wants, as do the politicians, as do the corporations that would be effected. Profits come in the form of rate increases that are essentially a tax. We may be able to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse with this one if we follow this debate, read, analyze, consider possible consequences and let our Representatives know how we fell about it. A knowledgeable public, no longer gullible, is anathema to the behind closed doors, "We'll let you know what to think" type of politics.

Renewing Your Mind

          Well, tonight is the finale of 24 and millions of people will be glued to their sets. This started out as a Conservative's dream where the bad guys were actually the bad guys. Rush Limbaugh hyped the show. Does he still? I don't know if there is nefarious goings on or not with those who develop the plots. I do believe that big money talks and when it appears that an audience can be doubled then that path is the one that will be taken.
         We have had similar topics in America in the past. Black Sunday, made in 1979 and directed by John Frankenheimer was about a terrorist plot on the Super Bowl. Frankenheimer also directed The Manchurian Candidate in 1962. Television joined in in 1983 with The Day After as America experienced a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union, and there have been other films where the very existence of America was endangered by fanatics of one sort or another. Last year 24 gave us a nuclear explosion on an American city and this year saw a fire fight and explosions in the White House. I have no idea how this current 24 will end. Maybe Jack Bauer will die, maybe not.           
         My concern is not only with 24 but with the entire genre of movies, books, television and even computer games that saturates us with violence, and conditions us. I don't know in what way we are being conditioned. If this nation does sustain an attack, how will we view it...as an extension of how our entertainment programs us? Would we want it handled as a Jack Bauer would? Have we become so confused as to what is right and what is wrong, who is good and who is bad, that we would essentially be rendered incapacitated? All of this works against a normally functioning mind. This is one reason why I have mentioned a la carte cable television so many times in this blog. If we are ever given an opportunity to choose the cable stations, and only the stations, that we want in our homes, we not only can extricate ourselves from this influence but we can influence programming itself, for... big money talks. We are susceptible, as humans, we fall for charlatans, despots, celebrity, and deceivers and deceptions of all types. One Scripture verse covers this problem. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this wo
         rld, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul follows this with a caveat I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (ESV) In a different cultural phenomenon, that caveat speaks to the blogger (me) who purports to give advice to another. Having said this. let me give a piece of advice that deals with Renewing Your Mind. It is R. C. Sproul's teaching ministry in books, tapes, and a radio broadcast that has been more effective than any other in renewing the mind of Christians today. You can find this at http://www.ligonier.org/

Winter Quarters

         Just as two Civil War armies would recuperate from the past campaign and gear up over the winter for the battles that would surely come in spring, both political parties are preparing for the campaigns of 2010...but in different ways. The Republicans are debating switching strategies much as the Vietnam War went from search and destroy under Westmoreland to capture territory and protect it under Abrams, and just as General Petraeus switched to a surge in Iraq. They have time and they can keep up a continual attack to keep the Democrats on the defensive. The Democrats, on the other hand, have to defend accusations against their destructive policies, which are many and well-deserved; at the same time they have to produce results.
         Today, even George Will in his op-ed piece has apparently had enough of the lawlessness of President Obama in pummelling the Constitution and bullying everyone in his way to repay political debts. The Democrat blue dogs are starting to bark. Somewhere in the war rooms are maps, graphs and slogans plastered to the walls. In an imperfect world, this would suffice nicely for one could plan your work and work your plan. But this is a perfect world in that it is perfectly chaotic and unpredictable where events have formed into a perfect storm. In other words, short term plans may still be viable but long term plans have to be made in consideration of the only slow but discernable movement we have, that being the public consciousness.
          Terrorism is too far along to adjust its strategy from victory in war to victory through coerced submission because a Barack Obama is in the White House. The bailouts and stimulus have all but guaranteed (no pun intended) economic turmoil should there be significant future terrorist attacks. The Republicans would be wise to analyze one question, Is the American public becoming more God-fearing, or less. If God should move upon our collective heart, the moderate wing of the Republican Party will be fighting it's own constituency. Wise Democrats....well...there's an oxymoron for you...anyway they would be wise to listen to their blue dogs, thus says Special Dog anyway.

Wednesday.....Culture.....Dragnet

I'll tell you a little bit of my evening and finish it by leading into the topic I already had in mind. I sat down to write this and received a call from my wife from the tennis courts. One of the ladies had found a Golden Retriever wandering by an industrial plant. The dog looked to be about six years old. It had a collar but no tags. That's why they called me. The conversation went like this:

Me: Where did you find the dog ma'am?

Lady: Over by the industrial plant. It's such a beautiful dog...

Me: Just the facts Ma'am.

Me: Tags?

Lady: What

Me: Does the dog have tags?

Lady: No.

Me: Where is the dog Ma'am?

Lady: In my car.

She knew I meant business now. I transferred the dog to my CRV and set out to find the owner. As I pulled out, this lady who obviously loved dogs was yelling and waving to the dog:

Lady: Goodbye! I'll miss you!

Me: I'll miss you too!

You have to have humor in a job like this. I tried various names to see if the dog responded, Rover! Red! Buster! Barack! I knew it was a male because it didn't seem to be listening. I've seen situations like this before: overweight dog, not a whole lot of slobber. It hadn't travelled very far. There was a hill on the right and a hot dog shop on the left. If it had come from the left, it never would have passed the hot dogs. You pick things like this up over the years. First, I went to the station to let the locals know I was on the case, and then up on the hill stopping at one run down crack house after another, Did you lose a Golden Retriever? They knew I wasn't just a good neighbor. It was getting dark and I had already missed the first period of the Penguin game on radio. I had it on in the car but I think the dog was a Capital fan so I turned it off. The Pens were leading 5 zip. No use upsetting it more than it already was. One lady I questioned kept going on and on about her wonderful Dachshund Lab mix. Just the facts Ma'am. She kept on going. There's not a lot of respect for authority anymore. As I was leaving she asked me if I saw the movie Marley yet.

Me: Does the dog die in the end?

Lady: Yes.

Me: I won't see it then. Old Yeller ruined me for life.

This has been a true story about my night tonight. Only the names and facts have been changed. I found the owner. I stopped a man on the main street and he was one of the biggest lawyers in town. No lie. He made some calls gave me a lead about a dog named Sinbad that breaks out once in a while. It was him. When I got to the house, the family was just pulling in...soccer all night. I hate that game.

My topic for the blog was going to be the influence that television has had on us over the years. I wrote a blog about 24 a while back on how I don't' like the concept of television producers being a primary influence on how we handle terror. Leave it To Beaver, Ozzie And Harriet, Andy Griffith and other family comedies are what I grew up with. I don't think I can ever remember an instance where God was acknowledged. Bonanza certainly did not refer to God and Twilight Zone went the other way. I'm not going to beat a dead horse here but television influenced me in many ways. It told me what was cool. Everybody Loves Raymond has already eliminated me from being of any benefit to humanity. In the 70s , M.A.S.H educated us on how both sides in a war are mad. This naivety continues to plague us today. All In The Family sent us on our way with the mind numbing dialogue of the politcally correct. The 80s gave us Dallas which must have given Tarantino some Postmodern ideas as Bobby Ewing was killed in a car wreck but returned the next season as ratings determined that the wreck would all be a dream of Bobby's wife. Happy Days was perfect as not only did it talk about the 50s but that's about as far back as the people were capable of going without getting bored. Are today's Reality Shows, reality or not? I say they are, and that is quite unfortunate. The latest and lowest of multimedia education is Two And A Half Men. Now, conceivably I could be persuaded to backtrack on any of these comments except this one. When you throw a child into a comedy of this nature, you have gone too far. We all have made decisions in life and that is our responsibility and ours alone, but a child depends on others. This is the key issue in the same sex marriage controversy. By granting the legitimacy of this union and forcing it's acceptance, we would be leaving an entire generation of children defenseless as to God's commands on marriage. His long suffering and patience with us has been this nation's hope. If this agenda succeeds, we are without hope.

The search for the dog's home was real but I did change a few things. Sinbad is not the dog's name. Yes, it was an industrial plant but the surrounding area is beautiful. The conversation with the lady about her Dachshund Lab was very enjoyable and it also was a beautiful dog. I doubt that the Golden was a Caps fan. I don't hate soccer. Unfortunately, the part about Everybody Loves Raymond is probably true.

Persecuted Christians

         Hebrews 13: 3 (ESV) tells us Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. The book of Hebrews seems very clearly to be a sermon but is it a model for all sermons? Christ is the essence of the message and once that has been proclaimed, the listeners are encouraged in various ways. This is my personal belief but not the topic of this post.
         Certainly I must have a weak constitution in some ways. News items of suffering affect me to varying degrees. Many times, I will arrive at work and open the newspaper before the day starts, and come across a news story that temporarily incapacitates me. A stronger Christian may be able to compartmentalize this knowing full well that Christ has everything under control, even though I believe this also!         
         It's my hope that this is what forms my political beliefs. I don't believe that the leftist agenda will help anyone but those who gain power through it. In fact, it is a recipe for more suffering! My passion in the political arena is for the people of this nation and the world or I have failed miserably. Back to this verse from Hebrews, It was said by Tertullian that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. I need to look no further than my own life to see that prosperity draws me away from where I should be.         
        This is our nature. Christians around the world are suffering in ways Americans can hardly imagine. These brothers and sisters in Christ should never be far from our minds. Even in America, Christians are mistreated because of their faith. Some suffer from family that disparages them for their belief, some are ridiculed at their workplace. It's not a stretch to say that if their is no mistreatment or persecution in a Christian's life, then something is not right. Missionaries have forsaken a life of comfort that might have been theirs had they not chosen to serve Christ. They are the true heroes! Voice Of The Martyrs (http://www.persecution.com/) is a ministry started by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand who suffered persecution in a Communist prison for 14 years.
         It would be well worth it to add this site to your favorites and keep abreast of Christians around the world that are suffering for their faith at this very minute. My occasional attempts at humor are but needed respites from the realities of this world and the true nature of the pilgrimage we are on. Even so, I let those in need of prayer down all too often. Should the book of Hebrews indeed be a model that pastors should fashion their sermons after, we should take very seriously the addition of this command to Remember those who are in prison...

Now is the time...

         King Charles I was ruling England without calling a Parliament, the people's representatives. Taxation, questionable financial dealings and forced loans were some of the issues of contention between the king and his opponents. One advisor, the Earl of Essex, was accused of tyranny. Another advisor, Bishop Laud, came down with a hammer on dissent and attempted to enforce a state controlled church upon the people. The situation deteriorated and the First English Civil War followed.
          At this time, Oliver Cromwell arose out of obscurity in Parliament. Love him or hate him, he is considered one of the greatest military leaders in history. The leader of Parliament's army in the beginning was the Earl of Manchester. Manchester was a moderate and Cromwell was unsure if his heart was in this conflict. Manchester criticized Cromwell for bringing too many of the common people into service of the cause. Cromwell's response was If you choose godly, honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them...I would rather have a plain russet-coated captain who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else.
         There should be some obvious similarities to what is going on in America today. There is an egregious attempt under way to quash dissent. Financial dealings are being thrust upon at a breathtaking rate. The American whose Christianity is biblical and traditional is considered very lowbrow. Our civil conflict today is being waged in the legislatures, the courts, the media, literature and conversations around dinner tables, lunch rooms and card tables of America. I don't think that it is a purge of commoners that Republican moderates are after, rather a purge of commoners in leadership. I remember daily practice in Brother Michael's freshman typing class in high school, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country, now is the time.....

Choice

         At least once a month I like to review the topic of a al carte cable television. I know that sounds boring but please bear with me. I may not be a Luddite but I'm far from a techno geek. We receive 16 channels on our television and the cable has to be strung across the floor every time we turn it on. Consequently, I only see Fox News or any other cable channels when on vacation. I have dial up for Internet. I do have an Iphone but it is the original model and other than taking an occasional picture or watching a YouTube, I've never experienced the numerous capabilities that it has. XM Radio and a GPS are the only treats that I have given myself. This limited television has probably had an effect on me but I won't speculate on what it might be.
        
        
         I will say this though. I believe that television has more of an influence on us that we might realize. I know that it does with me. I waste time. I watch nonsense and I can chortle like a blithering idiot while watching Everybody Loves Raymond. I'm not happy with my own habits but this actually reinforces the concept that I'm about to talk about. Mark Noll wrote a terrific book a few years back on today's Christian culture called The Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind. (isbn 0802841805) We can be passionate about issues, we can read a lot and our churches can be busy places but we do not have a rigorous mind when addressing many issues. This is a symbiotic relationship with the whole culture. Respected theologian J. I. Packer was once asked about the Puritan giants of the past. Packer responded that it was not that the Puritans were giants, it is rather that we are Pygmies. We don't like to hear things like this. So, back to television.         
         We are captive to an enormous amount of stations that we have to accept if we want popular channels like ESPN, The History Channel, and cable news networks unless we settle for the basic networks package. The question that I am posing here is, does the availability of so much entertainment lure us into 1) wasting our time and 2) offering our minds up to subtle teaching sources like 24 or 60 Minutes? The standard response is "Just don't watch them!" Well, thanks for the encouragement. I can't even give up Raymond! It was much easier for me to just subscribe to only 16 channels. I think that I would fail miserably with 100 stations. There has been legislative attempts to give the public a la carte, or a choice where we can pick only the channels that we want but there is a lot of opposition as some cable networks would suffer.
          Those in favor of this, are so because they believe that it would lower our cable bills. I believe that James Dobson has come out for a la carte so I'm not the only one thinking that this would be a blessing on the American mind. It might take a few years to see results but we can speak with a powerful voice to networks if they see that no more do we bring their product into our homes. They just might change! I've said this before, please consider how this option might stymie this postmodern onslaught on our minds. Admittedly, there is no momentum here but the Republicans want new ideas,well here's one, a la carte cable, not for financial gain but freedom of choice in television and the power to tell the entertainment and news industry that their grasp on our minds has been broken!!!

Athletics

         
         One of the things that helps to bind the world communities together is sports, especially the Olympics but not limited to those games. I have commented a few times on sports and it may seem that I'm, in some way, opposed to athletic competition but that's not the case. I spent a lot of time at Pitt Stadium and joined the revelers in downtown Pittsburgh after Super Bowl victories. A glass can contain only so much liquid and my glass was probably 30% full of sports at the time as my life was in disarray. I still enjoy the Pittsburgh Penguins but it's limited to the sports sections of newspapers and an occasional third period on radio, or television in the playoffs.
          It's not the Penguins I want to talk about, or their playoff chances against the Washington Capitols. Rather it is challenges that show up in most endeavors of our lives . The Pens are down two zip to the Caps right now. This is where my modest following of them seems to perk up. The situation they find themselves in is akin to the pilgrimage we are on in this life.
         The Christian is indeed on a journey and this journey is, apart from Scripture, nowhere better described than in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great 19th century London preacher claims to have read this book over 100 times. I believe it for I have been through it often myself, listened to it many times on tape with my wife and son as we made our 45 minute trip to church on Sundays and just bought and watched the film,
          a modest and not the most literally accurate but still enjoyable movie. It seems as if the Christian is often down two zip and this is good for there is nothing that takes intensity away as easily as failure to realize the dangers we face. The Penguins may come back and win this series or not but the real excitement to me is the opportunity to for them to display what man, many times, has proven capable of. The determination that many Americans have shown from Plymouth Rock to 9/11 has been granted by God to them for a reason. We may have already fulfilled our purpose in God's plan but in my 59 years, there has been no clarion call as intense for us to press on as their is now. Tyranny has jimmied the lock on the back door and that cold October 1917 breeze is filling the house.
          On the surface it does not look good. What should be our chief source of news and information, the mainstream media is pie-eyed over Barack Obama. England followed a similar path with their moderates in the 1930s until a curmudgeonly, portly, bald, parliamentary voice from their radical right, Winston Churchill reminded them of what their history was. Churchill told them, never, never, never give up! The Duke of Wellington may have never said that the Battle of Waterloo was won of the fields of Eton but the point is taken that athletics has built character in many. The British Academy Award Best Picture Chariots Of Fire remains my favorite movie. The efforts of an athlete who acknowledges that his ability is from God, an astronomer who marvels at God's creation through his telescope, a composer who inscribes his works with Soli Deo Gloria, a physician who realizes that it is a God of mercy that provides the scientific knowledge of medicine and a king who acknowledges one that is higher than he is when moderation can be suspended. When moderation, such as is being put forth by many Republicans now, does not acknowledge God and his Word, it is in reality, efforts toward self autonomy.

Party of Original Intent

         A viable third political party in America is a difficult proposition to sell. There are dozens of third parties that have fielded candidates in various elections. The Reform Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party of the United States and Constitution Party are but a few. I'm not advocating conservative Republicans depart and form a third party for they are the heart of the party.
         There is an interesting thing going on though in the Presbyterian Church USA, the liberal mainline Presbyterian church. As of today, 1315 congregations with over 434,000 members have joined a movement called the Confessing Church Movement that is essentially signing on to three statements that affirm three of the five sola's of the Reformation, Solus Christus salvation through Christ "alone", Sola Scriptura the doctrinal authority of Scripture "alone", and Soli Deo Gloria to God "alone" be glory. It is shaking up the PCUSA. Whether it eventually results in a split of the denomination is yet to be seen.
         The moderates of the Republican Party are making news today because their views and the views of the mainstream media share the same postmodern bent towards truth being relative and the pragmatism evident in globalization. The Confessing Church Movement is far from a panacea from the liberalism that has ravaged the church in the past century (recommended reading on this subject are Broken Covenant, Signs of a Shattered Communion by Parker T. Williamson, and Defending The Faith, J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America by D. G. Hart but it has wisely returned to the written Word and its original intent by God as made clear to His church. This political wing and change of party nomenclature that I am injecting here can raise the banner of Original Intent! Our Constitution is under attack by those who prefer to see a living document that can be interpreted, in any way, at any time.         
         God's Word to us has been under this same attack for much longer but in this country the higher criticism that came primarily from Germany in the 19th century has helped give us the secular religion that permeates higher education, the media and all the political agendas that have redefined the Democratic Party and threaten to do the same to the Republican Party. A rigidly secular America that fears any acknowledgement of God is pure revisionist history. Original intent is not a political bias rather it is a logical and reasoning method that deserves a seat at the table of political discourse. I don't want to see a Christian Party for a number of reasons, only two of which would be, it would be impossible, for Christians have too many theological differences and it would be unwise, for combining the Christian Faith so intimately within a political party would give serious doubt as to which one would influence the other.
          On the positive side, it would be inclusive without being compromising as the adherents to this wing would have one thing in mind and that is to oppose revisionist history and the eclecticism of postmodernism that could not be forced to call the color red, red, without seeing red. If one cannot see that the Bible opposes abortion or same-gender marriage then one cannot see the intent of Scripture. If one cannot see that the Judiciary interprets the intent of the writers of laws, then one contradicts the meaning of not only our Constitution, but any contractual document, and plants the seeds for chaos and anarchy.

.Perception Of Christians In The Public Square

         We all have opinions. We have different degrees of confidence in these opinions, whether we consider this or not. I have no doubt that I am wrong on some of my opinions. I just do not know what they are. I think that it should be part of our life to 1) never forget that we will be wrong some of the time, and 2) never acknowledge this to the degree that we lack any confidence in entering into the world of ideas. Having said this, the topic of my blog today is an opinion that I am confident enough to write on but not (in my own mind) confident enough not to consider carefully as I write and realize I may someday even have to recant of it.
          It is part of what I have tried to do with this blog. From time to time, Christianity in America has changed, reformed, evolved or whatever word you want to use. In the beginnings of Colonial times it was doctrinal, precise and disciplinarian. Emotion played a large part in the early part of the 19th century (a digression). Dull, formalism usurped the gospel on the elite Eastern seaboard cities after the Civil War, and Christians were ridiculed for their Fundamentalist beliefs (a collapse).
          With Evangelicalism, we moved to the center and developed a persona. The world expects that persona to be evidenced in us and we try to achieve it even if it only an outward display. I'm not criticizing it, in fact at times I wish that I were part of it. I know many Christians who I admire greatly for attaining it. This Christian can be described as gentle, quiet kind and giving, but determined in their faith with a perpetual smile. We have told the world that this is what a Born Again Christian is and it has accepted the definition and therefore demands evidence of it. There are numerous problems with this. One can be kind and giving without being gentle and quiet but this description has been left out of the job description. We can be determined in different ways. One can be determined in being meek but a wash in defending doctrinal truth. We have different personalities and different gifts have been bestowed from God.
          This theme has shown up in a number of my blogs. Living in this world, with our struggles, temptations and weaknesses is difficult. Ultimately, we cannot 1) avoid this struggle or 2) think that we have overcome it by taking the lowest posture. We deal with a very real situation in that the church is divided into the visible church and the invisible church. Multitudes claim Christianity but not all have been born again. We are not charged with identifying those who are not genuine, we are charged with defending doctrines we know to be essential so as not to proliferate the number of unsaved in the church. Martin Luther's personality would be taken to task today by the media and the gentle, quiet, kind and giving Christian would look askance at his antics, yet he was the most formidable force in Christianity since Augustine. John Calvin's personality was much closer to the GQKG type but the two of them helped transform the world.
          In the Public Square, it would benefit the people if they realized that Christianity is more than Evangelicalism and particularly that the church that transformed the Western world in the Reformation would be a much more formidable foe to unbelief than Evangelicalism. It would also benefit them to realize that part of the good news of the gospel is that real people, just like them, have been shown mercy and should they themselves ever come to belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, their personalities will not disappear into a mindless existence and they too will seek other's patience for their weaknesses.