CWNews

Boy Scouts Overturn Ban on Gay Members

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP) -- Delegates to the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Thursday (May 23) approved new membership guidelines which open the ranks of the organization to homosexual members. Young men who openly claim to be homosexual may now participate as Scouts.

The decision, the BSA leadership said in a statement, was based on "growing input from within the Scouting family." That input led to a national review of policy, or a "comprehensive listening exercise," resulting in a resolution to remove the restriction "denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone."

Some 1,400 delegates to the National Council approved the change in membership standards by a margin of 61-39 percent, but changes to the adult leadership policy of the organization, which forbids homosexual Scout leaders, was not up for vote and remains in place. Rules on sexual misconduct, heterosexual and homosexual, also remain in place for Scouts and Scout leaders.

John Stemberger, who has waged a national campaign to keep the ban on homosexual Scouts in place through the website OnMyHonor.net, said the "most influential youth organization in America had turned a sad corner."

"The Boy Scouts of America have demonstrated that values are not timeless," Stemberger said in a statement after the vote. "The Boy Scouts are now teaching kids that when your values are no longer popular, change them."

Stemberger added that BSA leaders had succumbed to the pressure of special interest groups by making the change to the membership policy. "The leaders of the Boy Scouts of America," he said, "make decisions like politicians placing their fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing."

Stemberger add that Thursday was the last day he would wear a Boy Scouts of American uniform. He said he plans to call a coalition together to discuss creating a new youth organization centered on biblical values, a call echoed by many religious leaders.

"We had hoped to keep sex and politics out of Scouting," Stemberger said. "We grieve today not because we are leaving the Boy Scouts of America, but because the Boy Scouts left us." He believes the BSA can expect to lose no fewer than 200,000 members and $30 million in funding.

Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee president Frank Page, who had met with Scouting leaders and had urged them to maintain the current policy, said he was "deeply saddened" that the BSA overturned its "constitutionally protected expressive message that homosexual behavior is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the Scout Oath and Scout Law.

"We know that the pressures exerted against the voting members of the 1,400 chartered organizations by homosexual activist groups have been unrelenting," Page said. "We are grateful for each voting member who voted in the minority; but our sadness for the Scouting organization as a whole cannot be overstated."

Page said the vote "ushers in a sea-change in the credibility of the Boy Scouts of America as a viable boys' organization for millions of Americans who believe strongly in the principles of biblical morality. To claim that the Boys Scouts is the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training suddenly rings hollow."

"We continue to pray for our country. We believe we are in desperate need of a genuine spiritual awakening that will transform lives through the power of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," Page said.

Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land predicted a mass exodus of religious groups from the organization.

"Frankly, I can't imagine a Southern Baptist pastor who would continue to allow his church to sponsor a Boy Scout troop under these new rules," said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. "I predict there will be a mass exodus of Southern Baptists and other conservative Christians from the Boy Scouts."

The "supposed compromise" satisfies no one and signals the BSA will only become more inclusive of gays, Land said.

"The supposed compromise takes away their best defense. In the year 2000, the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts did not have to have homosexual Scout masters because the homosexual lifestyle was contrary to the core values of Scouts. If you're going to allow opening gay Scouts to participate in Scouting, then it's no longer a core value," Land said. "And so what we're going to see now is a flood of litigation by pro-homosexual groups arguing that the continuing ban on gay Scout Masters is … prejudice and they will win. They will win, because the Boy Scouts have stripped themselves of their defense the Supreme Court used."

Land advised Southern Baptist churches to withdraw their support of Scout troops and support the Royal Ambassadors ministry to boys.

The statement from the BSA leadership said the new membership policy is effective Jan. 1, 2014, allowing the organization enough time to implement the policy and communicate it to its 116,000 units. The statement also said the organization would not be distracted from its mission by a "single, divisive and unresolved societal issue." Leaders said there are no plans to review the issue further.

Russell Moore, president-elect of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said the decision lands the "sexual revolution's onward march" square in the middle of Scouting.

"Few, if any, are suggesting the Boy Scouts kick out boys based on their particular temptations. We don't, and shouldn't do that in our churches, much less in the Scouts," Moore told Baptist Press. "But this change is more than this. It doesn't speak in terms of temptations but in terms of the claiming of a sexually politicized identity as morally neutral."

Local Scouting troops sponsored by evangelical, Roman Catholic or Latter-day Saints congregations, Moore said, "will be pressured to mute a definition of 'morally straight' that includes a sexuality intended only for the lifelong one-flesh union of a man and a woman in marriage."

"Depending on how radically the BSA applies this new policy to local troops, I suspect many will be seeking an alternative to the Boy Scouts to train up boys toward a life of virtue," Moore said.

The revision of the membership policy "highlights how important it is for churches to speak clearly of both our love for all people, including our gay and lesbian neighbors, and the importance of God's design for human sexuality for human flourishing," Moore said. "The Gospel doesn't define us, as the culture does, in terms of our wants and desires. The Gospel addresses us, all of us, as sinners and calls us to a life of freedom and cross-bearing sacrifice."

The culture is confused, Moore said, as it always is in a fallen world.

"Our voluntary associations, even the most venerable of them, are increasingly ambiguous about what it means to live a good life rooted in the permanent things," Moore said. "Our churches cannot, and will not, share that ambiguity."

The BSA statement ended by acknowledging the different opinions held on the matter of homosexuality, but said children were "better off when they are in Scouting."

To view the Boy Scouts of America statement in full, go to http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/MembershipStandards/Resolution/results.aspx.

c. 2013 Baptist Press. Used with permission.

Publication date: May 23, 2013

Pastor's Tornado Tweets Stir Up Theological Debate

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

(RNS) -- Oklahoma’s devastating tornado stirred up a theological debate that was set off from a series of deleted tweets referencing the Book of Job.

Popular evangelical author and speaker John Piper regularly tweets Bible verses, but two verses tweeted after the tornado struck some as at best insensitive and at worst bad theology:

“Your sons and daughters were eating and a great wind struck the house, and it fell upon them, and they are dead” (Job 1:19).

“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped” (Job 1:20).

In the Book of Job, God allows Satan to afflict “blameless” Job, killing his 10 children, livestock and servants. While Piper’s tweets didn’t mention the tornado by name, critics said it was too close, and inappropriate.

Piper, who recently retired from the pulpit of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, is a leading theologian of the neo-Calvinist movement that’s sweeping many evangelical churches. In essence, Desiring God staffer Tony Reinke wrote, Piper was highlighting God’s sovereignty and that he is still worthy of worship in the midst of suffering and tragedy.

In response, popular evangelical writer Rachel Held Evans blasted Piper’s “abusive theology of ‘deserved’ tragedy,” and said Christians have to stop the idea of responding to tragedy by suggesting God is inflicting his judgment.

“The only thing we need to tell them is, ‘I don’t know why this happened but God is good and God loves us,’” she said in an interview.

However, she apologized in a follow-up post. “Piper’s tweet was vague enough that I don’t know that he was necessarily saying this point this time. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to call him out.”

Piper, who has nearly a half a million followers, was unavailable for comment but he tweeted a brief explanation, saying in part: “My hope and prayer for Oklahoma is that the raw realism of Job’s losses will point us all to his God ‘compassionate and merciful.’”

“John realized last night pretty quickly that what gives him comfort in the wake of tragedy is not what resonates with everyone,” David Mathis, executive director of Piper’s Desiring God ministry, wrote in an email on Tuesday (May 21).

Idaho pastor and blogger Doug Wilson came to Piper’s defense, saying that the theological issues are logically simple but emotionally complex.

“The Christian church has to return to a robust understanding of who God is,” Wilson said in an interview. “If we do, we won’t have to hash through this with every tragedy.”

Author Philip Yancey said that the worst thing Christians could do is to be like Job’s friends, who tried to explain why God allowed tragedy to strike Job’s family.

“God endorses the confusion and even outrage that we feel when mysterious things happen,” Yancey said. “When suffering happens, it forces us to confront life in a different way than we normally do.”

Megachurch pastor Rick Warren tweeted a few days after the tornado, “In deep pain, people don’t need logic, advice, encouragement, or even Scripture. They just need you to show up and shut up.#Love.”

This is not the first time Piper has generated theological debate through Twitter. After blogger Justin Taylor suggested Rob Bell’s Love Wins book was universalist, Piper tweeted “Farewell Rob Bell” with a link to the post.

Piper also came under fire after suggesting in a blog post that a small tornado during a conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America was a “gentle but firm warning” as it debated its position on homosexuality.

c. 2013 Religion News Service. Used with permission.

Publication date: May 24, 2013

What's Hot? 5/24/13

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Trending Today on Twitter - 5/24/13
     1. #TheHangover
     2. #GMAMariah
     3. #WhenIGetMarried
     4. #MemorialDay
     5. #TGIF
     6. I-5
     7. #indy500
     8. Mariah Carey
     9. iPad
    10. Amanda Bynes
Source: Twitter

Popular Today on Bing - 5/24/13
    1. Soldier Beheaded in London
    2. Dancing With The Stars 2013
    3. Chris Brown
    4. Marilyn Monroe Photos Stolen
    5. NBA Draft
    6. Linkin Park Frontman
    7. Jodi Arias Trial Live Stream
    8. Zach Sobiech
Source: Bing

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 5/24/13
     1. Clouds - Zach Sobiech
     2. Can't Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton) - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
     3. Blurred Lines (feat. T.J. & Pharrell) - Robin Thicke
     4. Just Give Me a Reason (feat. Nate Ruess) - Pink
     5. Come & Get It - Selena Gomez
     6. Get Lucky (Radio Edit) - (feat. Pharrell Williams) - Daft Punk
     7. Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
     8. Mirrors - Justin Timberlake
     9. Cruise (Remix) (feat. Nelly) - Florida Georgia Line
    10. I Love It (feat. Charli XCX) - Icona Pop
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 5/19/13
     1. NCIS
     2. The Big Bang Theory
     3. American Idol - Thurs.
     4. NCIS: Los Angeles
     5. Dancing with the Stars
     6. American Idol - Wed.
     7. Dancing with the Stars Results
     8. The Big Bang Theory Special
     9. Voice - Mon.
    10. Castle
Source: Nielsen Co

Top YouTube Videos - 13-17-Year-Olds - Today - 5/24/13
    1. My Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech
    2. Convos With My 2 Year Old - Episode 1
    3. Van Halen - Eruption Guitar Cover
    4. Official Call of Duty: Ghosts Reveal Trailer
    5. Hayley Erbert Audition So You Think You Can Dance
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
    1. Star Trek Into Darkness
    2. Iron Man 3
    3. The Great Gatsby
    4. Pain and Gain
    5. The Croods
Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Teach Them Why They Died So That We Might Live 2013

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it said several hundred times:

It’s difficult to raise a child these days.

There’s the sliding culture to deal with, of course, and the loss of a unified Christian ethos, of a government attempting to force us to violate our conscience on numerous levels.

There are the practical demands of parenting, many of which seem more acute these days. Our neighborhoods don’t feel as safe or secure as they did when we were kids. At the age of six, I was riding my bike everywhere without a care in the world, but today, we’re reluctant to let our boys and girls peddle beyond our block.

And there are so many things to teach our children these days, from being careful on the Internet to making wise choices in music and television. Back in my day, watching too much TV may have turned minds mushy, but an overdose of Gilligan’s Island didn’t compromise morals like much of the fare threatens to do to kids today.

So there are a lot of new things to teach our children. Important things. Critical things. But I would urge every parent to teach their children one more thing this weekend and emphasize it all the year through:

Teach them about the meaning behind Memorial Day.

Teach them about the men and women who died so that all of us could live in freedom.

Teach them that what we have in America is rare, an all-volunteer military who willingly risks everything on our behalf.

Teach them that Memorial Day is more than the traditional start of summer. It’s a day to remember that over one million Americans have died in wars on behalf of those in this nation. These numbers are astounding, but even more sobering is the reality that behind every number is a name, and an entire world that was changed when that soldier didn’t come home.

This coming weekend the Dalys will be remembering and giving thanks to God for the men and who fought and died so that we might live and be free.

Follow me on Twitter @Dalyfocus

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Gosnell's Defense Attorney Says U.S. Needs 17-Week Abortion Ban, Yearly Clinic Inspections

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Jack McMahon, defense attorney for abortionist and convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell, shocked America Wednesday during his first live cable news interview since the jury's verdict in his client's case, the Christian Post reports. McMahon twice spoke the words "Thank God" and revealed to Fox News host Megyn Kelly that he believes banning abortion after 17 weeks should become law and all abortion clinics must be inspected annually. "I've come out of this case realizing that 24 weeks is a bad determiner," he said. "It should be like 16, 17 weeks. That would be a far better thing, and I think the law should be changed to that. I think there will still be the right to choose, but they've got to choose quicker. I think that's something that should come out of this. I think more regulations should come out of these locations." McMahon also partially blamed lax regulations of abortion clinics for the horrific conditions found in Gosnell's Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia. "I'm not going to tell you that things didn't get out of hand at that location," he said. "There was no oversight for over 18 years, and no one came and looked at that location."

Catholic Church Explains Pope's Comment on Atheists Receiving Salvation

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

After Pope Francis' comments during Wednesday Mass in Rome that God redeems nonbelievers, a number of people were left asking whether the Catholic leader believes atheists and agnostics go to heaven. The Vatican on Thursday issued an "explanatory note on the meaning to 'salvation,'" CNN reports. The Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said that people who are aware of the Catholic Church "cannot be saved" if they "refuse to enter her or remain in her." At the same time, Rosica said, "every man or woman, whatever their situation, can be saved. Even non-Christians can respond to this saving action of the Spirit. No person is excluded from salvation simply because of so-called original sin." Rosica also said that Francis had "no intention of provoking a theological debate on the nature of salvation."

'Fetal Pain' Abortion Bans Face Court Scrutiny

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

As abortion laws in states such as North Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas and Kansas have become more restrictive, critics have taken the new "fetal pain" restrictions to court, Christianity Today reports. In one of the first rulings by a federal appeals court on such bans, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down Arizona's ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The court cited "40 years of Supreme Court precedents that allow a woman to terminate her pregnancy if the fetus is not yet viable," according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Nine other states have similar bans on abortions before 20 weeks of pregnancy -- the point at which a fetus is thought to be able to feel pain. Idaho's fetal pain law was the first to be struck down, but at the district and not appellate level. Arkansas faces an injunction against its newly passed ban on abortions after 12 weeks; meanwhile, North Dakota's only abortion clinic has also filed suit after the state approved a bill to ban some abortions as soon as six weeks into pregnancy.

Christian, Jewish Persecution Up in Muslim Nations

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 shows persecution against Christians and Jews is on the rise, especially in Muslim countries, CBN News reports. Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia are among the many countries where non-Muslims are suffering persecution. Saudi Arabia prohibits any religion except Islam and enforces state restrictions on religious freedom. In Sudan, Muslim rioters burned down an evangelical church compound; in Libya, terrorists bombed an Orthodox church; and in Nigeria, Muslim radicals murdered hundreds of Christians. The report also devotes a section to the ongoing global increase in anti-Semitism, citing Venezuela, Egypt and Iran as countries with political and religious leaders who openly espouse Holocaust denial and anti-Israel rhetoric.

God and Sandy (2013)

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

(Editor’s Note: This blog originally released in 2012. We thought it was appropriate to share again, following the devastation in Oklahoma.)

It has been deemed the most destructive storm, hitting the most densely populated areas of our country, in decades. At the time of this writing, over fifty deaths have been reported. Damage is estimated to be in the $20 billion range. Over 8 million have been without power in 17 states.

So where was God?

Some would say this proves there isn’t a God, or at least a loving, benevolent God. If there was, He would have intervened. So either He wouldn’t (a bad God) or He couldn’t (a weak God).

Others, with equal determination, claim that this is just another example of God’s sovereignty. There was a Sandy because God wanted there to be a Sandy. So take that, New Jersey.

A CNN survey of social media found four main themes running through our cultural psyche: “God Bless,” “Thank God,” “God’s Wrath,” and “God Does Not Exist.”

So who is right?

The only way to answer that is to go back to the very beginning of our existence.

God made us in order to love us. We were tenderly crafted and designed, each as an individual, for the purpose of being related to, known, and deeply cherished. Yet this meant that we were also given the freedom to make choices with our life, to live as fully conscious, self-determining beings.

Even to the point of whether we were going to respond to the Creator’s love.

God did not choose to force Himself upon us against our will. Instead, He determined to woo us, knowing that in so doing, we might very well spurn His love. But this was the only way to have relationship be relationship.

This is the dynamic at the heart of human existence. God could have made me love Him, but if He had, His relationship with me – and mine with Him – would have been meaningless. God wanted my relationship with Him, and with others, to be real. So when He created me, He had to take the risk of setting me free.

The first use of this freedom to love was, as you might expect, made by the first humans, Adam and Eve. The tree in the middle of the garden stood as the great authenticator that the love between the first humans and God was real.

Then they chose to eat the fruit.

The Lover was spurned.

And all hell broke loose.

The decision the first humans made to reject God's leadership and an ongoing intimacy within a relationship with Him radically altered God's original design for how the world would operate and how life would be lived. Theologians have termed this “the fall," and talk about how we now live in a "fallen" world.

In other words, we live in a world that is not the way God intended it to be. When Satan told Eve that if she ate of the fruit in the garden that she would not die, he lied. It was the day death and dying was born in to the human race. They had chosen to sleep with another on the night of the honeymoon, and forever stained the relationship of loving intimacy that had been intended for eternity within the Lover’s heart.

Langdon Gilkey observes that few of us find it easy to believe that one act of disobedience brought about a fall for the whole race that is now continued in us by inheritance. Yet reflecting on his experience in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, where prisoners representing a cross-section of humanity were forced to participate in a living laboratory of community, Gilkey noted that the theological idea of a pervasive warping of our wills is the most accurate description of the reality of life. “What the doctrine of sin has said about man’s present state,” Gilkey concluded, “seemed to fit the facts as I found them.”

The results of our collective choice to turn away from God run so deep that it isn't just moral sin and evil that we face, but natural evil as well.

The whole world is sick.

In the Bible, we’re told that: “...the whole creation has been groaning” (Romans 8:22, NIV). Which is why we have earthquakes and tidal waves, volcanoes and mudslides, wild-fires and birth defects, famine and AIDS.

And, yes, hurricanes named Sandy.

Our world is "The Stained Planet," writes Philip Yancey. The pain and suffering and heartache is a huge cosmic "scream...that something is wrong...that the entire human condition is out of whack." These are far from original insights, much less contemporary ones. The medieval Christian philosopher Boethius aptly noted that “evil is not so much an infliction as a deep set infection.”

Which raises a provocative point - that God is not behind what is tragic with this world, much less responsible for it – people are. Or as G.K. Chesterton once wrote to the editor in response to a request by the London Times for an essay on the topic, “What’s Wrong with the World,”

“Dear Sir:

In response to your article, ‘What’s wrong with the world’

– I am.

Yours truly,

G.K. Chesterton.”

Our hearts shy away from His in light of the pain of our lives, and the pain of the world around us. We feel betrayed, yet fail to see that it is we who have done the betraying.

Now some will say, “Well, if He knew how it was going to turn out, He should have never created us, because everything from cancer to concentration camps just isn’t worth it.”

Yet when we blithely say such things, we betray how little we know of true love. Yes, God took a risk. Yes, the choice He gave each of us has resulted in pain and heartache and even tragedy. Yes, it would be tempting to say that it would have been easier on everyone – including God – never to have endured it.

But that’s not the way love – real love, at least – works.

To remember this, I need only reflect on one of the most defining realities of my life – my own role as a father. I have four children.

My oldest daughter will soon be twenty-six years old. And as her father, as the one who loves her more than anyone, who would lay down his life for her instantly, let me tell you what has never entered my mind.

Never having her.

Never bringing her into the world.

Never going through life with her.

Even though she can reject me, hurt me, turn from me, and tear out my heart by hurting herself as well as others. If someone were to say, “Why did you ever bother?” My only reply would be, “You have obviously never been a father.”

This is why suffering cannot be reduced to mere injustice, much less punishment. As a Time magazine reporter, attempting to understand Christianity’s unique perspective, rightly noted, “it is a harrowing invitation to a higher dialogue.”

That higher dialogue is love.

When one loves, there is risk – risk of suffering, risk of loss, risk of rejection. But without this willingness to be wounded on the deepest of levels, there cannot be authentic relationship on the deepest of levels.

As C.S. Lewis once observed,

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless -it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers...of love is Hell."

So where am I in the potential pain of my daughter’s life - the pain that might come her way, and that might flow back to me because I chose to have her? The same place God is with my pain, and where God is with your pain, and where God is with all of the pain in this world.

Right by her side.

Caring, weeping, and longing to hold her in my arms.

Just as God is longing to hold us. He reaches out to each person, by name. The Bible says that "The Lord is close to those whose hearts are breaking...The good man does not escape all troubles - he has them too. But the Lord helps him in each and every one" (Psalm 34:18-20, LB). And those who have opened up their heart to God's presence and comfort in the midst of their pain have found this to be true.

Some might say, “But why doesn’t God just wipe out all pain and suffering and evil?” Because in doing so, He would be wiping out all opportunity for authentic relationship. Free choice would be meaningless. But further, it would be cruel. If all evil were wiped out at midnight tonight, who among us would live to see the dawn?

I wouldn’t.

No, he endures the pain that comes with the love in order to redeem as many of us who are willing.

But that’s not all.

He’s invested Himself in the process of healing the wounds that have come from our choice by entering into the suffering process with us in order to lift us out of it. God Himself in human form came to earth in the person of Jesus and suffered. He knows about pain. He knows about rejection. He knows about hunger, injustice, and cruelty - because he has experienced it.

First hand.

An ancient graffito on the Palatine shows a crucified figure with a donkey’s head, bearing the inscription “Alexamenos worships his god.” While meant to disparage and even mock, the image rings true. We worship, as German theologian Jurgen Moltmann observed, the crucified God.

Jesus on the cross was God entering into the reality of human suffering, experiencing it just like we do, in order to demonstrate that even when we used our free will to reject him, his love never ended. But this was not suffering for its own sake, but suffering so that we might use our free will and choose again.

And that this time, the choice would be the right one.

Frederick Buechner put it this way: “Like a father saying about his sick child, ‘I’d do anything to make you well,’ God finally calls his own bluff and does it.” The ultimate deliverance, the most significant healing, the most strategic rescue, has come. My greatest and most terrible affliction has been addressed. God has given me the greatest answer to my questions.

He has given me Himself.

So the real question is whether I will allow the reality of pain and suffering of this world to drive me away from God, or to God, where He can wrap his arms around me and walk with me through its darkest night toward the promise of a brighter tomorrow.

For His will be the final word, and it will be not only good, but best.

I am reminded how the song “40,” based on the 40th Psalm, often marked the end of U2 concerts following the events of September 11, 2001. As the band toured around the world in support of their CD “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” tens of thousands of people nightly could be heard singing the refrain, “How long (to sing this song)”.

Bono, lead singer of the group, reflected, “How long...hunger? How long...hatred? How long until creation grows up and the chaos of its precocious, hell-bent adolescence has been discarded? I thought it odd that the vocalizing of such questions could bring such comfort: to me too.”

But this is precisely what does bring comfort – hope that lives within the now and the not yet. Bold living in light of our falleness, and a frank embrace of the realities of a fallen world, is the mark of faith. It embraces the emotional anguish, but never lets the emotions grow beyond the shadow of the character of God – or the knowledge of the story at hand.

The truth is that God loves passionately, and lives with the pain of that love more than we could ever imagine.

And that is the greater story – the one in which I must place my own.

James Emery White

Sources

Conor Finnegan, “Online conversations around Sandy feature God, prayer and atheism,” CNN, October 30, 2012, read online.

Langdon Gilkey, Shantung Compound.

Philip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts?

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy.

On Chesterton: This is widely attributed to Chesterton without protest, considered to be the basis for his 1910 work, What’s Wrong with the World, and has never been attributed to anyone else. Chestertonians consider it valid, and reflective of his humility and wit (see the official web site of the American Chesterton Society at www.chesterton.org), but alas, there is no documentary evidence.

David Van Biema, “When God Hides His Face,” TIME, July 16, 2001.C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves.

Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking.

Bono, Selections from the Book of Psalms.

Editor’s Note

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which he also served as their fourth president. His newly released book is The Church in an Age of Crisis: 25 New Realities Facing Christianity (Baker Press). To enjoy a free subscription to the Church and Culture blog, log-on to www.churchandculture.org, where you can post your comments on this blog, view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on twitter @JamesEmeryWhite.

Gabrielle Reece's Controversial Conviction

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

You've probably heard of Gabrielle "Gabby" Reece, a former Women's Beach Volleyball League star. But you may not be aware that her marriage was headed for divorce, when, as she calls it, “an old fashioned dynamic” mended the relationship. According to this volleyball star’s critics, the dynamic that saved her marriage set back women’s causes 50 years.

What could she have possibly said to provoke such a strong reaction?

All it took was one line from her newest book: “To be truly feminine means being soft, receptive, and – look out, here it comes – submissive.”

After sharing this perspective on national TV in April, Reece swiftly came under fire.

She told the Wall Street Journal that the overwhelming negative reaction was almost enough to keep her hiding in her hotel room the next day. One friend told her she may as well have said she worships the devil.

In today’s culture, gender roles in marriage is a controversial subject and one that’s easily misunderstood. And, regrettably, some men have used the Bible to demean and control their wives in an unbiblical manner. While this is the exception, the perception is damaging to those of us who uphold biblical womanhood.

But I still find the reaction to Reece’s conviction fascinating. She’s a strong, extremely accomplished athlete and businesswoman. When she describes her marriage, it’s clear there’s mutual respect between her and her husband – I don’t see how anyone could conclude she’s a “doormat.”

She says she’s found a lot of strength and happiness in her role. But even the suggestion that a wife should submit to her husband gets her branded an enemy of women’s rights.

Just last week on the Focus on the Family daily broadcast, we interviewed clinical psychologist Dr. Debbie Cherry about biblical submission. It was a great conversation, and she dispelled a number of common myths about the subject. I’d encourage you to listen to it.

What do you think? If you’re a wife who believes strongly in practicing what Reece calls “an old fashioned dynamic” – what many Christians would call a biblical principle – how would you convince a female friend that God’s design is actually best?

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