Listening to Each Other (Updated)

(In response to OneMom’s comment, I did rewrite my conclusion to make sure that I was clear, and didn’t manage to contradict my entire point.)

This post is more or less directed just to Christians, though I suppose that the principle applies to other people, as well. It’s also going to reprise a number of other conversations I’ve had, including a number of posts here and comments on other people’s blogs.

There are times when honest Christians disagree with each other. I think something, another believer disagrees with me. Because of some of the issues I’m going to discuss in this post, I want to make sure that all of my biases are revealed up front. Consider it “full disclosure,” as the real reporters like to say.

My church is part of the Conservative Baptist denomination. We have a contemporary worship style (for those who don’t know, that means that we have guitars, drums, a keyboard, etc., and the worship songs we use are very different from traditional hymns). Not only does my church use a projector to put song lyrics on a screen in the front of the worship center, I am one of the people who operates that projector and runs the computer tied into it.

Christian Carnival CCXXX

Apparently dodging technical catastrophe, the 230th Christian Carnival has been posted at Thinking Christian.

I encourage anyone who’s interested in seeing what Christian bloggers are saying to check it out.

Listening to Trumpkin

I’m wrestling with a serious moral issue right now, and I’m not at all sure how this is going to wind up.

Some time in the near future, I’m going to share more about that. For the moment, though, there’s a little something that strikes me. It has to do with how Christians make decisions and what resources we use to make those decisions. We rely on quite a lot of information, and often it is a kind that we can’t trust.

I’m speaking, of course, of secular information. Often, when we are called to make moral decisions, we look for facts and other people’s ideas. Sometimes, these ideas are entirely secular in origin. This is a mistake.

I’m reminded of C. S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian. Lucy (the youngest of the Pevensie children, in case you don’t know … and if you don’t know, you MUST read the Narnia Chronicles immediately!) sees Aslan while the Pevensies and the dwarf, Trumpkin, are trying to figure out how to reach the other Narnians. Since she alone sees him, there is a vote to see what they should do.

Pro-Life and He Means It

I’m a bit behind in keeping up with the Joe Schriner news … but here’s his blog post from June 9, as the Schriner family was in Findlay, Ohio. I think it’s impressive to see a Presidential candidate who really means what he says … most pro-life candidates try to dance around their opinions on abortion (there are notable exceptions, of course). How many of them can you picture standing out on street corners with signs?

Buckeye Back Road Tour cont.: We headed into Findlay, Ohio, over the weekend.  Sarah and I stood at the busy intersection of Bright Ave and Rte 224 holding two signs.  They said: ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN; and, LORD, PLEASE FORGIVE OUR NATION…  Some people honked and waved their support, others didn’t… We went to an ultra-new and tremendously expensive St. Michael’s Church for Sunday Mass.  High gloss marble, high expansive ceilings, costly stained glass, central air condidtioning…  One of the prayer intentions this morning was to remember the increasing number of people in the Third World who were hungry because of rising food prices.  I wondered how many millions of meals the cost of this new church would have provided — for the poor?  There is such a phenomenal spiritual disconnect in this country…  We came across a group from the Stoney Ridge Church in Findlay who were walking through the streets praying for their neighbors, and the town in general.  Findlay was devastated by a flood in 2007 and the group told us that their church and some 17 other churches in the area had set about praying for the town, and the souls of their neighbors.

Vice Presidential Candidate Dale Way!

Joe Schriner, independent candidate for President and the man for whom I am going to vote, has announced his running mate! Dale Way of Cossopolis, MI has a long list of community activities, and his role as a Methodist minister for his credentials. His stated purpose for what he does? You’ve got to love it …

“For me, the choices I make come down to following the only two commandments that Jesus gave: ‘Love God. And love your neighbor. I have spent a lifetime trying to define [and live out] those terms.”

Yeah … I wouldn’t mind have a President who subscribes to a Consistent Life Ethic and a Vice-President whose main goal in life is to live up to the “Love God and love your neighbor” standard.

Shaking My Head

Two hat tips on this one …

First, to maidensong of the Huckabee Alliance for her post, which I read this morning. She made mention of the outrages being committed by Republicans, against which Mike Huckabee spoke. (By the way, her post is great, you should really check it out.) One of them was:

How about telling that to the Texas republicans at their convention who wore buttons saying ‘If Obama wins the white house, will it still be called the white house?”

Chrisitian Carnival CCXXIX

The 229th Christian Carnival is up at RodneyOlsen.net … which is not a blog that I frequent, so I’m going to have to check it out. As I’ve said before, the Carnival is a great way to find some of the great Christian blogs that you might not happen to find otherwise. I’ve been very glad to have found out about it, and I’d encourage you to check it out.

Stopping Obama

I’ve got four heavyweight posts in my drafts right now, I’m working on them. I’ve also got another two or three that I’d like to write based on my pastor’s sermon yesterday … but I need to comment on the latest asinine e-mail rumor I heard about Barack Obama. This one links him to the Kenyan election riots. Of course, it is alleged to have come from the head of the DEA, who is well known to some much-earlier recipient of the e-mail. And, of course, spending 10 seconds on snopes.com provides a rebuttal of the paranoid rant.

Here’s my concern, and more or less what I sent back to my friend:

Christian Carnival CCXXVIII

The 228th Christian Carnival has been posted at Chasing the Wind. I’ve participated for two weeks in a row, which might be a new record for me … sigh …

Anyway, I’d encourage you to check it out, as always. The Carnival is always interesting reading and provides a lot of food for thought.

Evangelicals for Obama?

I had considered putting up a post about the latest nonsense from Bill Keller, who just has to push buttons.

In fact, I had been writing it in my head most of the day … but then I came home and read OneMom’s comment on my previous post, and had to agree with her. To say the least, I don’t want to be mistaken for an Obama supporter. I think that I’ve made that clear. So, instead, I’m going to talk about Frank Schaeffer and his comments about Sen. Obama’s candidacy.

I have to say that I appreciated one of his articles, talking about the Jeremiah Wright controversy. Frank Schaeffer breaks with his father, and even his own record, in his more-recent accusations of the Religious Right. I admire that about him. Frankly, I’m right there with him in a lot of ways. Like him, I’m not a Republican. I do not appreciate the intellectual inconsistency of those who moralize about homosexuality and Harry Potter books but bristle at the moment we talk about caring for the poor or being responsible stewards of Creation.