This past weekend, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama both spoke to a crowd in Pennsylvania about faith issues. Besides the verbal sparring, which we can expect to continue, one cliché came out of Senator Clinton’s mouth that I’m tired of hearing: “Safe, legal, and rare.”

Of course, she was talking about abortion, but only one those three words can accurately describe abortion in the United States, and the other makes the combination an oxymoron.

The first, safe, is inherently an oxymoron. When asked whether life begins at conception, she showed her ignorance (giving her the benefit of the doubt) by saying, “I believe the potential for life begins at conception.” OK, how do we define “alive”? Well, I’ll give you a hint. When a stillbirth occurs, that fetus (Latin for “baby”) is dead. Something cannot be dead unless it was once alive. “Dead” does not mean, “Not alive.” Rather, it means, “No longer alive.” This is common sense. But to answer with science, the common traits of living things from the dictionary definition: the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally. The embryo does every one of these things. If blue-green algae, which doesn’t even have a cell nucleus, is alive, then certainly so is an unborn human child, who has a complete set of human chromosomes.

So abortion is, by definition, unsafe for the baby, as its goal is that child’s death. But neither is it safe for the mother. Abortion facilities are notorious for their dirty standards and even have lower cleanliness standards, by law, than a standard hospital. There’s nothing safe about that. Does making the facility legal make it safer? Given how many more women are subjecting themselves to them instead of abortion alternatives like adoption, no. The “coat hanger” argument makes a rule out of the exception, as self-inflicted-abortion was extremely rare before abortion was legalized.

This of course leads to the final word, “rare.” She says she wants to keep it “rare”. How does she define rare if she considers the status quo to be “rare”? Every day, about 3,300 babies are aborted. That’s more than 1 every 30 seconds, and yes, that’s just in the United States. Now if I tapped you on the shoulder once every 30 seconds 24/7/365, would you consider that “rare”? But of course, we’re not talking about tapping shoulders. We’re talking about ending human lives. And just so we’re clear on “rare,” the birth rate in the United States is about 4 million per year. The abortion rate is 1.2 million per year. That means that 23% of births are intentionally prevented in our country. How is that rare? And furthermore, what has any politician who speaks that mantra ever done to increase the safety standards of abortion facilities or to limit the number of abortions performed? I’m sure the legislation and voting records are out there, but I have seen very little actions to back up those words.

On Easter 2008, we mourned the 4,000th American soldier killed in Iraq over the past 5 years, but nearly that many babies, none of whom made the valiant decision to put their lives in danger to protect the ideals of this country, are killed daily.

Thank God that He made that same decision, that He gave up His life on the cross to pay for all those sins, as well as my own.

CrossFeedNews.com has been blocked by the Great Firewall of China pretty much since its inception, yet until recently, our podcast feeds have been able to get through thanks to the redirection provided by FeedBurner.com and Podtrac.com, but while I wasn’t looking, they closed the hole. Now, without using a workaround, our listeners in China can no longer tune in to our incessant rambling.

Not only does this keep a wealth of information out, including most podcasts, this also keeps rss feeds from getting in, so even blogs are blocked for the most part. Not only does this keep out many ideas that would be critical of the Chinese government, it is one more evangelism avenue that the government has closed. Until early September or late August, even though Chinese people couldn’t attend a real Christian church without fear and secrecy, they now can no longer hear the Gospel as delivered by podcasts to their own homes.

The Chinese government has even gone so far as to block other podcast sites like podcastready.com, podshow.com, libsyn.com, and a host of others that allow podcasts to be played from the site, thus circumventing the system.

Yes, persecution still continues today, and there’s a reason that some countries are escaped from, while others are escaped to. Even though we don’t always agree with our governments’ decisions, if you can read this, thank God for your freedom.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last night, I was up until 2 A.M. finishing reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I got to the end of the book, so engaging was the tale, so if I were going to lie awake wondering how it ended, I might as well stay up and finish it.

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you haven’t finished the book, bookmark this and read it later. I’ll be discussing the end at length. If you haven’t read the books or only seen the movies, stop now and go read the books. They’re a great read.

I need to preface this by explaining how I was introduced to Harry Potter. Having young daughters who love to read, my wife and I knew they’d want to read this series, so we checked the first book out from the library. We’d heard the controversy surrounding the series, so we wanted to make an informed decision as to whether they would be appropriate for our girls to read. Once we’d both read the first book, our response was, “That was a well-written fairy tale.” By the time we’d read the third book, which was the last one published at the time, we were hooked by the intricate plot and fascinating characters.

“But what about the sorcery?” Yes, God forbids sorcery in the Bible–no question about it. That said, ask a Wiccan or ancient historian about Harry Potter, and most will tell you that the sorcery in Harry Potter is, as I believe Jim said in a previous episode of our podcast, like comparing Barney to a T-Rex. Yes, there’s a definite resemblance, but they’re not the same thing. In Harry Potter’s world, wizards are born with special abilities as much as the mutants in X-Men. Those who object to Harry Potter must also object to Gandalf, Cinderella’s fairy godmother, Mary Poppins, and Sleeping Beauty to be consistent.

The other major complaint I’ve heard about Harry Potter, especially this final book, is that he’s not a very good Christ figure. And while Ms. Rowling has intimated that the book reflects her Christian beliefs, at no time has she said that the book is an allegory. It’s the difference between Narnia and Middle Earth. While Tolkien‘s beliefs are reflected in his writings, Lewis actually wrote the Narnia Chronicles to answer the question, “What if there were a world of talking animals and satyrs, and God set out to redeem that world? How would He do it?” While not an allegory, the resemblance is unmistakable. Rowling’s series falls somewhere in the middle of the two, but it leans more in the direction of Tolkien on the allegory scale. That critics have questioned the effectiveness of Harry as a Christ figure is a hostile witness to the Christian content of the series.

So objections aside, what do we find in “The Boy Who Lived”? We find the running theme throughout the series that true power is not found when we look for it, but rather is given when we need it. We find that self-sacrifice to save others is not only the height of nobility, but that upon which we all depend–the sacrifice of the One called on to save us all. And finally, that evil cannot understand love, not the emotion of affection we often confuse with love, but love in the Biblical sense–self-sacrifice. In Harry Potter, we learn that love is truly love when consciously put into action for the loved one. (Would that more divorced couples understood this before they “fell out of love”.)

These same themes are the core elements of the Bible: God’s love put into action to save His people, whether from Egypt, the Philistines, or ultimately, from ourselves and our sin. He did so by willingly sacrificing His life because it was the only way. And finally, that salvation is not something we can seek to find, but rather, that God seeks us, finds us, and gives us saving faith.

Is Harry Potter about Jesus? No. It never claimed to be. But do parts of it remind me of His great love for me and willingness to pay for my life and soul. Yes, but that’s not why I read and enjoyed the series. It was fun and engaging, and except for a study of little Teddy’s biology and a bit more on the subsequent relationship between Draco and Harry, she seems to have neatly wrapped up the plotlines. Then again, the Pensieve served as an effective plot device to explain to us what Harry wouldn’t have otherwise known.   Two more movies to go, after which we look to fan fiction and hopefully “Expanded Universe” novels to get our fix. And of course, we can go back and reread them! Enjoy.

Comments welcome.

Concordia Publishing House has a new downloadable resource called Jesus’ Place in MySpace. And while MySpace has been replaced among the under 30 set by Facebook, the principles remain the same, and while I haven’t read the ebook (It likely wouldn’t be anything new for me.), it ties in with a ministry opportunity that entered my inbox a couple weeks ago.

It started with a Facebook invite from one of our members, who happens to be older than me, so I was surprised to see it coming from her, but her daughter just graduated from college and got married, so I’m guessing that had something to do with it.

But as I set up my Facebook profile, I realized that this would be a great way to stay in touch with some of our members, especially those going off to college or even as a day-to-day contact with the locals, especially those in high school.

Now let me make it clear that this is no substitute for more personal contact and can never replace visits and phone calls, but through online social networking sites, I can connect with people on a much more frequent basis than I could otherwise, and I see frequent contact with that age group as crucial, not only because it can be infrequent as other commitments and opportunities present themselves, but also because at that point, more than any other, youth define themselves and determine their priorities. Frequent friendly contact from their pastor can have a great impact that process.

Along those lines, because a church is not just a pastor, I can also see advantages of networking members with each other, so they not only have contact with their pastor, but other sheep from the same flock who can encourage them and remind them of their identity as children of God.

This week, eight people were “detained” (That’s politically correct for “imprisoned”.) in China for distributing materials for a “dangerous cult.” What cult were they associated with? The Mormons? Scientologists? Branch Davidians? No, they’re Christians.

This kind of thing happens all the time in China, almost weekly, yet we never hear about it on TV or the radio. Why is that? When an American paints graffiti while visiting another country, any threat of punishment becomes an international incident, but when Christians are imprisoned repeatedly and sometimes killed by the government, that’s not newsworthy–not even worth a page 37 paragraph.

Realistically, since it happens so often, it’s not considered newsworthy just because it happens so often. Christians persecuted in China? The sky is blue again today, too. So what’s new?

Yet by not reporting on and thus not hearing about this persecution, we become unaware of the persecution. Those lives and families torn apart for the sake of the Gospel become yet another number, if that. Were you aware that the official Chinese Christian Church is not allowed to teach that we are saved solely by Jesus? Anyone who teaches such “heresy” will stand before a human judge, even though they’re doing the will of the Judge of all.

Yet at the same time, Christianity continues to grow in China, because the church thrives under persecution. Meanwhile, in the United States, the bastion of “Freedom of Religion,” churches continue to decline in numbers. Some, because they’ve abandoned the Word of God and thus lost their relevance,  are shrinking quickly. For others, the slope is more gradual. But every church has members on their roster who have no real connection with their church besides a place to host their funeral.

Complacency plagues the church and kills more souls than hoaxes like The Da Vinci Code or “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” ever could, because hoaxes not only pass away quickly along with the latest fads, but they also fall apart in the light of Scriptural Truth. Apathy, on the other hand, is a slow killer, like a little bit of arsenic each day.

All too often, we need persecution to wake us up to the reality that the promises of the world can’t hold a candle to the promises of God. The world can give us sleep and fun, but Jesus has given us peace of mind, answers to life’s questions, and eternal life.

Being a Christian and living in the Gospel will not always make you popular. You may well be ridiculed and experience some small level of persecution, but…

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, lie, and say all kinds of evil things about you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because you have a great reward in heaven! The prophets who lived before you were persecuted in these ways. (Matthew 5:11-12, GWV)

In a lot of homes, I see a family Bible. In days past, this Bible contained records of marriages, births, and other important dates and events. Maybe yours still does.
But what condition is your family Bible in? Does it still crack a bit when you open it, even though it’s 100 years old? The idea of putting these important dates in the Bible is to keep them at your fingertips, because the Bible is to be the center of the family, but what if the Bible falls into disuse? What happens to the people whose names are written in the front pages of it?

Often, these Bibles can be fancy, with ornate pictures and an engraved cover, and you might be afraid of ruining the craftsmanship, but no Bible ever printed was intended to be stored away. The greater craftsmanship is found not in the binding, but in the words on the page, because contained in those pages, however fancy or simple, you will find the product of the pen of God Himself. Who could possibly outdo His hand?

And more than just a literary masterpiece and best seller, the Bible contains the secret of the universe: its origins and its end, yet neither of these are the pivotal moment in history. That pivotal moment is the center of the Bible, when God became the man Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe in a single cell, Who grew to become the man Who would save the world from sin. The pivotal moment of all history finds that same God-man hanging on a cross crying out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” because at that time, He was carrying our sin and being punished for us, but also crying, “It is finished.” And the conclusion we find on the third day of His ordeal at the empty tomb, our destiny.

This Easter season, know that God has forgiven all your sin by His death on the cross, even the sin of neglecting His Word, and by His resurrection, He has paved the road for your own resurrection that you may live forever just as Christ lives forever.

That old dusty book on your shelf will not last forever, but the message it contains, and you by having heard that message, will live for eternity.

HE IS RISEN!

When tragedies happen like the shooting at Virginia Tech University yesterday, many people often ask, “Where was God? Why did He allow this to happen?” And ironically, He allowed this tragedy because of His love for us.

That doesn’t make sense, does it? Allow me to explain. Were God to cut off the hand of every thief before she picked a pocket or kill every murderer before the gun fired, we would all be handless and dead, because God says that we are guilty of a sin as soon as we consider it. (Matthew 5:27,28; 1 John 3:15)

But according to His mercy, God is patient with us in our sin, whether that sin be road rage, unwillingness to help a neighbor in need, or mass murder–God considers them all murder and worthy of hell. But this Easter season, we are also reminded that God allows these things because He has already solved the problem of death. By Jesus’ unfair death, which God not only allowed, but planned before creation, even the sins of a murdering gunman were paid for, and had he repented before his death (We can’t see his heart, so we can’t know for sure where his soul will finally reside.), he would today be with Jesus in paradise. This promise is for you as well.

But God’s solution for death is more than just heaven. He promises resurrection for all of us. Just as Jesus rose from the grave, He has promised that we will rise the same way, never again to die. Until that day, we will continue to see tragedy, because God loves us, and another day means more hearing the Good News of God’s love in Christ and being added to His Book of Life, but on the last day, death itself will die forever, and those victims will rise and stand before God alongside us. Meanwhile, Jesus is with you always, to the end of the age.

In the Womb (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tonight, my wife and I watched In The Womb: Multiples in the National Geographic Channel. Wow. That was so cool. But besides the wonder of human development and modern technology, both medical and computer imagery, I continued to notice a recurring theme: everything I saw concurred with the Bible and my understanding of theology.

I have to begin with one frustration: they referred to a fetus’s gills and tail, a remnant from evolution. This is based on the theory of recapitulation, or “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” the idea that a fetus’s development goes through its evolutionary stages. But while evolutionists see some connection, the “gills and tail” idea was refuted years ago.

That said, just considering the fact that unborn babies can cuddle, fight, and play games together, is there any question of whether these are people? We saw how one can dominate over another who flees for comfort, how they play games with each other, and yet society has said these are not people and can be killed for no reason. We know that unborn babies can even have faith before birth, as seen in John the Baptist, so these other abilities comes as no surprise.

And as I mentioned, one of the activities multiples can engage in is fighting, even dominance. Were they older, this would be battery, and while this behavior is often just exercise and unintentional, they showed that the aggression is often intentional with twins, and the behavior extends beyond the womb. If there’s such a thing as scientific proof of original sin, this is it. You don’t have to teach children to be bad. They have that figured out before birth. “In sin, my mother conceived me.”

Speaking of wrestling in the womb, I guess modern technology has just proven the plausibility of Jacob and Esau literally wrestling in the womb. They even showed one fetus grasping another’s heel! It’s not just kicking, it’s aggression.

But all in all, what I got most out of this program is the truth that we are fearfully & wonderfully made.