So This is What Easter is All About...Got it.

I just read a short article by Madeleine Morgenstern on The Blaze explaining a little bit about the Easter message that the was given at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. This church, of course, is known as the "Church of the Presidents" and is located across the street from the White House. It was this service that the Obama family attended on Sunday morning, the day we celebrate political and racial division and hatred in our country. Oh wait...no...that's not what Easter is about, is it?

Few things disgust me more than using faith as a political tool. Sadly, this is what has been done for who knows how long. As long as I can remember politicians have pandered to people of faith, and in our nation that specifically means Christians. Our current president is only the most recent example of this, and a shining one at that. During his initial campaign in 2008 Senator Obama, at the time, tried to make it clear that he was a Christian. This may have gone over well with the uneducated and willfully ignorant but for the true Christian  this was an easy masquerade to uncover. First of all, the pastor whom President Obama sat under for many years, Jeremiah Wright, is understood by most to be on the fringe of Christianity. He is a vocal proponent of Black Liberation Theology which, if examined closely, has little to do with orthodox Christianity. Rev. Wright was unceremoniously tossed onto the national scene with his now famous statement that instead of "God bless America" it should be "God d*&# America." Now, I could go on for pages about this statement but it would be unedifying.

On top of attending a church that fails to represent Biblical Christianity we have the President's own waffling positions on clear-cut doctrines of the faith. His Chinese-fire-drill-like shifts in belief should come as no surprise because that is what politicians do. They claim to agree with certain points of faith to the degree that it will help them get elected and appease the populace. Leading up to the 2013 inauguration an invitation to pray was extended to a prominent evangelical pastor, Louie Giglio. This invitation was quickly retracted once it was discovered that Giglio was...a Christian. The claim from the administration was that his beliefs and convictions did not effectively mesh with the President's vision for the nation. From what I have read, heard and know about Giglio his theology is about as othodox as you're going to get. He preaches and teaches from the Bible and he does it in a way that is extraordinarily appealing to many Christians of various denominations.

As another example, during the 2008 election and the first two years of his administration President Obama was against same-sex marriage. Naturally, this falls in line with the bulk of Christians in the nation. As the midterm election approached and same-sex marriage amendments were on the ballots in some states the President made a 180 degree shift in his beliefs on the issue. Why? Because his previous position was under attack by special interest groups.

Now we have this latest evidence that the President's personal beliefs are so far from orthodox Christianity that any correlation between the two is laughable. From what was written in the aforementioned article the Easter message at St. John's was about everything but the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The message of the resurrection is multifaceted but at the heart of it is hope. Hope that this life is not it. Hope that since Christ rose from the grave our sins have been forgiven and we will, in like manner, be resurrected upon the return of Christ. There is also the distinct idea that no matter what the minor differences are in Christian doctrine we can all find common ground in the same hope of Christ's resurrection.

Instead of this incredible message the congregation of St. John's was treated to a political tirade against the "religious right." Meanwhile, that same religious right was celebrating the greatest day in history with joy, love and fellowship. If one were to truly grasp the resurrection of Christ it would be clear that the message transcends history, race and political affiliation. It is the greatest message of hope and change the world has ever known. In our day in age, however, it has been perverted and used to sooth the itching ears of those who hear.

In reading about this I cannot help but be reminded of a message I heard during my first year in seminary. Bill Moyers had been invited to speak at our chapel service one day and he mounted the stage and opened by saying that he hated it when preachers used the pulpit as a political forum. He then proceeded to use the next 45 minutes behind the pulpit as a political forum. This fact was not lost on my friends and I as we tried not to wretch in our seats. The formula is always the same. The left will always demonize conservatives for one thing and in the next moment do exactly what they have just preached against. Friends, there will always be political ramifications to the Gospel but it should never be used as a political tool. God is not a politician, He knows no political party, He is neither "right" nor "left" He simply is. He will not be mocked and He will not stand for the perversion of His Gospel or using the death and resurrection of His Son as a platform for evil gains.

True, lasting and authentic hope and change is what Easter is all about.

Semper Libertas,
RV

Florida Atlantic, Only One Example of Academia Going Down the Toilet.

It is becoming more evident by the second that we have come completely detached from our moral moorings in this nation. Recently, as many of you may have heard, a class at Florida Atlantic University was told to write the name "Jesus" in large letters on a piece of paper. Once that difficult assignment was completed they were to place the paper on the floor and stomp on it. For a moment lets imagine that the same assignment was given, only the name of Jesus was replaced with Muhammad or Allah. I dare say there would be terrorists on the way to blow something up right about now. This story does end on a positive note because one student, Ryan Rotela, was courageous enough to stand up to the professor and their ludicrous request. The trouble was, Rotela was the one who almost got expelled! Initially, the university was going to bring him up on charges of violating the student code of conduct because he reported the professor.

In the interest of doing at least some research on the matter I consulted the FAU Student Conduct manual to see for myself what the charges may have been. I admit that I only briefly skimmed the manual because it is lengthy. However, I did find this in the opening material.

(2) Principles
     (b). Respect for Self and Others: Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner which exemplifies respect for people of all races, religions, and ethnic groups, and to adhere to one's personal values without unduly imposing them on others. Respect for one's own mind and body, is essential. In interpersonal relationships, students are expected to respect the rights of others, particularly their right to refuse to participate in any activity. Students should take responsibility to serve as leaders in promoting compassion for others and challenging prejudice.


Now, I may be misreading this but is sounds to me like Rotela was upholding the highest standards of this code of conduct. He is a committed Mormon so he was adhering to his own personal values and it appears that he was not telling anyone else not to stomp on the paper. Furthermore, the students are expected to respect everyone's right to refuse to participate in any activity but it seems this does not apply to the faculty. Finally, Rotela was following through with the final statement and challenging prejudice against Christians.

I am glad to report that Rotela will not be facing any charges from the university and it sounds like they have been more than apologetic. The question that will probably remain unanswered is whether or not the university is truly sorry that this happened or sorry that they got caught and felt the weight of public outcry.

Let me move on to another troublesome subject. It seems that over the past few months events called "Sex Week" have become popular on college campuses around the nation. Of course, at some institutions every week is a sex week but now they have morphed into college sponsored events. TIME Magazine's NewsFeed has posted an interesting piece on the University of Tennessee's refusal to allow state dollars to fund this event. In this article it lists some of the activities and forums planned for the week:

- "How many licks does it take?"
- Golden condom scavenger hunt
- A lesbian bondage expert

I want to believe this is some kind of joke, but is isn't. Even some of the most hallowed academic institutions in our country are participating, including Yale and Harvard. The only thought running through my mind is, "What is the world coming to?" Let us not forget that Harvard was founded as a seminary for the training of ministers and missionaries. These places do resemble something from the Bible...Sodom and Gomorrah. This is not only an example of the moral degeneration of our society but it is also propelling us down the road of depravity. We are now teaching the next generation that it is, indeed, all about their own personal pleasure.

Both of these example, Florida Atlantic and Sex Weeks, fly in the face of Christian values and the moral framework upon which our nation was founded. Religious freedom is being eroded right along with moral purity. How can we possibly expect to maintain a position of greatness in the world when we are rotting away from the inside. If we expect people to be tolerant of other religions why are we teaching them to stomp on the name of Jesus? If we want people to respect the act of sexual intimacy and the bodies of others why are we teaching them how to pervert it? This kind of philosophical treason and moral rot should be an outrage to us all. This, I dare say, is not what higher education is supposed to be. God save us.

Semper Libertas,

RV

Dangerous Thoughts on a Hot Topic

An interesting, but not shocking, article appeared on my Facebook news feed this afternoon.

NC Church vows to stop weddings until same-sex marriages are allowed.

Through this article I discovered that Green Street United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, NC (my beloved birthplace) has decided that it will no longer marry anyone until the United Methodist Church and the state of North Carolina legalize same-sex marriages. While I applaud their courage in taking a stand for what they believe in I cannot condone the issue for which they are standing. Now, before I go any further let me get some preliminary statements out of the way. Number one, while I disagree that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle in God's eyes I do not, in any way, condone hatred towards those who choose to live this way. I believe that they are due the same love and respect that any other human being is. Christ has commanded us to love our neighbor, and homosexuals are our neighbors...period...end of story. However, in loving them as we would any other person we are not required, by the Bible or common sense, to legitimize their lifestyle. In fact, I would argue that not telling them the truth about what God has to say on homosexuality would be the very opposite of love. The problem is, as Christians, we have done a great disservice to Christ and the Gospel in the way we have, heretofore, handled this issue. That, I am afraid, is another topic for another day.

Now on to the topic at hand. The issue of homosexual marriage is multifaceted to say the least. For now, I would like to address two of those facets; is it acceptable according to God, and should it be a legal matter?

1. As for the first question, it is abundantly clear that the Bible is not silent on the issue of homosexuality. Romans 1:24-26 states the following;

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

It would take some pretty fancy hermeneutical acrobatics to read that passage in way that shined a favorable light on same-sex relations. "Degrading passions" and "indecent acts" are not typically the phrases one would use for simply an "alternative lifestyle." Paul is no less clear when he writes to Timothy and categorizes homosexuality right along-side "the unholy and profane," "murderers," "immoral men," "liars" and "kidnappers (I Timothy 1:8-11)." Please understand, my point here is not to elevate homosexuality to a higher level of sin that is somehow more abominable to God than the others. In fact, I think Paul does a marvelous job of letting us know that it falls in with all the others. What we must avoid, however, is the idea that it is not a sin. Then we can begin to address it in an appropriate manner. We don't just write off liars and drunkards. We try to lovingly bring them to a point of conviction over their sin so that Christ can save them from it, just as He has done for we who are believers.

The thing that is ravaging many mainstream denominations in our culture is that they want to explain away the sin known as homosexuality and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why. Green Street UMC has decided to stake their claim on real estate that is decidedly contrary to God's Word. The Gospel of Christ is not that there is no sin to be forgiven of, it is that we all have sin to be forgiven of and Christ paid the price to make that possible. Liberal churches and denominations have stripped the Gospel, and God's Word, of all of its power and most beautiful message. Biblical interpretation is such a lovely tool but it is oh so dangerous when we begin to bypass the truth in an effort to quench our own desires.

2. Let me turn my attention to the second aspect of this issue, should same-sex marriage be a legal issue? The short answer is "yes," and I can already hear the outcry, "Keep your laws out of my panties!" and "You can't legislate morality!" To the first I will simply respond, I'll keep legislation out of your panties when you keep it out of my wallet. Finis.

The really philosophical sounding one is the second, "You can't legislate morality." Au contraire mon ami, I believe you are wrong on that note. If one really looks deeply at all legislation you will find that it is moral in nature. Even economic legislation is based on a moral presupposition. For instance, the new health care act that has come to be called "Obamacare" is rooted in the ideal that it is morally wrong for a country such as ours not to provide health care for its citizens. Our entire Constitution is a commentary on what the Founding Fathers saw as the moral duties and limits of government. Nearly every law on the books has some moral component to it. The real statement that the same-sex marriage proponents should be decrying is, "You can't legislate your morality on me." At least that would be philosophically consistent.

In conclusion I will say this. As Americans we often ask that God bless our nation and this is as it should be. The really terrible thing is that we ask Him to bless it one moment and then in the next, we explain to Him that refuse to abide by any of His commandments. This, my friends, is the utmost foolishness. It is no different than asking our parents to buy us a Ferrari so that we can drive it off of a cliff because that seems like something fun to do.Thankfully God can see through our thin facade and the truth is, as long as we continue down the road we are on, God will not bless America.