Meet the Robinsons

Sounds like a good movie title...

Durand and Ruth Robinson are missionaries with GEM. We met Durand two years ago on our visit to Dublin. He oversees a ministry called Creative Works that is in the business of helping fellowships in Europe think creatively in their approaches to ministry. Ruth is I guess what you would call GEM's current affairs expert. She writes monthly the "Ambassador's Briefing" and "In Context", which highlight what's happening in European society and brings it into perspective from a Christian viewpoint.

Durand and Ruth are in the States near the end of a year of Home Ministry Assignment (HMA), which is sometimes called "furlough". In short, this is time spent away from the mission field, reconnecting with friends and supporters and bolstering one's financial support.

They were in New Orleans over the weekend and decided to visit us on their way back to Birmingham. So they showed up midday Monday and spent the night before driving on.

When we first met Durand, the thing that stuck out was how much he and I have in common. We now have discovered that Beth and Ruth have an awful lot in common as well.

We had a wonderful visit with the Robinsons and now can look forward to spending much more time with them once we move to Ireland, as they recently realized that God is calling them back to Ireland. It will be exciting to see how God uses us in ministry together over the ensuing years.

St. Paddy

Here's to the man, humble as he was, who changed the face of Ireland forever by simply living an uncompromising life of faith before the people of that island nation. Ah, the power that is found through weakness!

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!

(Happy St. Patrick's Day)

Challenged by a bumper sticker

"I like your Christ.
I don't like your Christians.
They are so unlike your Christ."
Ghandi

It hit me as if I had stepped in front of the F150 to which it was attached.

Ghandi's theology and any errant ideas as to the true nature of Christ aside, I had to do some soul-searching when I read it. Was there a possibility that this could apply to me? Absolutely. It was a stark reality I was facing.

I have encountered this attitude from non-Christians time and again. It must be founded in truth to a certain degree, don't you think? How did it get to this point? How is it that enough individuals who have professed faith in Christ and claim to be His disciples have engaged in such activity so as to persuade so much of the rest of the world that they would rather not have anything to do with Christianity?

I get so frustrated when I see Christians tactlessly dealing with non-believers with this attitude that somehow the non-believer is on a lower plane -- that "I have it and you obviously don't", self righteous, unloving, (dare I say it?) judgemental position that is so off-putting that there is no hope that they will ever convince the non-believer of the validity of a loving, gracious God who humbly chose to be the servant of all by laying down His rights as King of the Universe and becoming a sacrifice for all humanity.

Then I look to myself. How often have I been motivated by self-gratification or self-righteousness or some "Christian" tradition that has nothing to do with the love of Christ? How many times have I turned a blind eye to someone in need, just because it was inconvenient at the time?

So how do we overcome this perception of Christians? How do we approach someone who possesses the philosophy that if someone claims to be a Christian they must not be much like Christ?

It must begin with each of us individually. We must each make a conscious effort to live out a life which honors Christ in all that we do -- to allow our words to be peppered with grace and our attitudes bathed in humility. We need to purpose in our hearts that we will treat each and every person with whom we come in contact as Christ would, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts, words and attitudes.

Let's start now to change the mind of the skeptic and show him Christ, shall we?

If you agree with this and want to make this your goal as a follower of Christ, leave a comment on this blog as a sign of your commitment.

Dangers of Disparaging Religion

This is an interesting article found in the Irish Times this week. The Teoiseach ('Tee shuk) is Ireland's prime minister, Bertie Ahern. It's rather surprising to find this kind of discourse in the public forum these days.

Dangers of Disparaging Religion

Mon, Mar 05, 2007

Probably the most interesting speech by a politician for years was delivered last week by the Taoiseach when he warned of the dangers of "aggressive secularism", writes John Waters

Speaking in Dublin Castle at the opening of a "structured dialogue with churches, faith communities and non-confessional bodies", Mr Ahern touched on the most dangerous trend in modern societies: the tendency of public discourse to sideline or disparage religion as something outmoded or dangerous. "So much of what is happening within our society and in the wider world is bound up with questions of religion, religious identity and religious belief," he said, "that governments which refuse or fail to engage with religious communities and religious identities risk failing in their fundamental duties to their citizens." This, considering the secularised nature of the discourse into which the Taoiseach was seeking to advance his analysis, was radical stuff. Usually when we hear talk in the public square about a "right" to religious belief, it is in the context of the need for public "tolerance" of faith and religious practice.

The implication is seldom far from the surface of such platitudes that, of course, whereas those who engage in such superstitions are to be "tolerated", they are also to be regarded as engaging in a near-obsolescent and unmodern activity. Our society seems merely to put up with people who believe in God because such "tolerance" is part of our liberal ideology .

It is some time since I heard a public figure identify precisely why this is such a dangerous trend. We are suffering at present, the Taoiseach said, from "a form of aggressive secularism which would have the State and State institutions ignore the importance of the religious dimension. They argue that the State and public policy should become intolerant of religious belief and preference, and confine it, at best, to the purely private and personal, without rights or a role within the pubic domain. Such illiberal voices would diminish our democracy. They would deny a crucial dimension of the dignity of every person and their rights to live out their spiritual code within a framework of lawful practice which is respectful of the dignity and rights of all citizens. It would be a betrayal of the best traditions of Irish republicanism to create such an environment."

Mr Ahern here expressed something that no politician or public figure has articulated for a generation, and few clergymen have managed to say so well. Usually when the subject of religion is broached in public it is either by way of pious invocation or derisory dismissal.

Catholic bishops, for example, frequently speak about the importance of religious faith, but they tend, in doing so, to suggest that faith and religion should be embraced as a kind of duty, perhaps even a duty to them and their church, or, in the personal context, a guarantor of goodness. The Taoiseach was saying something altogether more interesting and profound: that human beings have a deep need for what religion offers, and that the right to practice is therefore a fundamental human entitlement. Although the current fashionability of atheism, agnosticism and secularism tends to convey that religion is merely a hangover from outmoded tradition, there is considerable evidence that it is, in fact, a natural and essential element of the human psyche.

The mood of the present tends to dismiss what our forebears took for granted: that we are born with a longing for what is "beyond", and that this longing is as real in us as the sexual instinct or the sense of smell.

Disparaged it may be, but tradition knew something about us that we seek to deny: there is a religious dimension inherent in the human being, faith comes from within, and without these we are less than human. This surely tells us that the importance of religion goes far beyond issues of morality and identity, extending also to hope, meaning and freedom.

The world on its own does not offer sufficient hope to carry the average human being through an average life. The baubles of the marketplace do not for long serve to quiet the longing in the human heart. And the promise of earthly freedom fails to address the issue of how we are to free ourselves from our instincts, our weaknesses, our egos and our selfishness.

As we observe our society plunging into the secular paradise promised by the liberal ideologues who triumphed over the custodians of tradition, we observe also the manifestation of the many baneful symptoms of this shift. Alcohol, drugs, rampant consumerism, sex crimes and countless related phenomena tell us that there is something in the human being that is voided by secular, material society.

Increasingly, our society manifests an erosion of hope, a misdefinition of freedom and a collapse of meaning, and all of these phenomena are directly related to the disappearance from our culture of what we know of as religion.

This is not simply because the Catholic Church has lost the authority to tell us what to do, but because, in the absence of a religious consciousness, there is, ultimately, no hope, no meaning and no freedom.

© 2007 The Irish Times

Comfort Foods

I've been convalescing at home the last couple of days with an upper respiratory infection. I'm fine and that's not what I want to talk about.

I've been reading a bit, sleeping a lot. But in between, in my boredom I've been watching a lot of cooking shows. Yeah, whatever.

But here's the thing. Some of the gourmet chefs who host these shows often talk about "comfort foods". Now for me that means fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetable or tomato soup, mac and cheese, peanut butter and crackers... Right?

So here's Paula Deen cooking her "comfort food" -- chicken chowder with hot poblano chili peppers.

And then there's Rachel Ray cooking pasta with sardines sauteed in olive oil and making mashed sweet potatoes with mint and rum and telling us that these are her "comfort foods".

Maybe my upbringing was more boring than I thought.