Posted in Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Parenting & Education, tagged children, Christianity, Islam, Jesus Christ, Sharia Law on March 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »
When I look at the photos of children in the Middle East, I wonder:
What if we knew we had one year left of Christian freedom in this country?
What would we most want our children and grandchildren to know…
…and what would we be willing to do about it?
Posted in Faith & Practice, Identity, tagged Barack Obama, Christianity, faith, Islam, mentors, worldview on September 26, 2012| 1 Comment »
Identity matters. Knowing whose we are and how to live accordingly makes a difference not just for us, but for those around us.
This in mind, I’m concerned that Barack Obama may be struggling with his identity.
Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum. He is a specialist on Islam. In recent commentaries, he writes that President Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, has stated: “My whole family was Muslim.” Pipes continues with a quote from Barack’s half-brother George Hussein Onyango Obama to an interviewer in March 2009. George said, “He may be behaving differently due to the position he is in, but on the inside, Barack Obama is Muslim.”
Pipes also quotes from the American Muslim writer Asma Gull Hasan. In My Muslim President Obama, Ms. Hasan writes, “. . . In a very unscientific oral poll, ranging from family members to Muslim acquaintances, many of us feel . . . that we have our first American Muslim president in Barack Hussein Obama . . . ”
“If Muslims get these vibes,” writes Pipes, “not surprisingly, so does the American public. Pipes notes “an even split between those who say Mr. Obama is a Christian and those who do not.”
Openness and honesty is important for any candidate running for office. But, writes Pipes, “Mr. Obama remains the mystery candidate with an autobiography full of gaps and even fabrications.” Pipes cites several examples. “Mr. Obama claimed that he ‘was born in Kenya.’ He lied about never having been a member and candidate of the 1990s Chicago socialist New Party. When Stanley Kurtz produced evidence to establish that he was a member, Mr. Obama’s flacks smeared and dismissed Mr. Kurtz.” Pipes references many inaccuracies and falsehoods in Obama’s 1995 autobiography, Dreams From My Father. But, what about Obama’s faith?
Here’s the account according to Pipes. In March 2004, Obama was asked, “Have you always been a Christian?” Obama replied, “I was raised more by my mother and my mother was a Christian.” In December 2007, Obama gave a different answer. “My mother was a Christian from Kansas. . . . I was raised by my mother. So, I’ve always been a Christian.” In February 2009, he offered, notes Pipes, a completely different answer: “I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion. I didn’t become a Christian until . . . I moved to the South Side of Chicago after college.”
When someone asks me, “Have you always been a Christian?,” my answer is consistently the same. “Yes, I became a child of God through Christ at my Baptism.”
But, for some reason, our current President has difficulty sticking to the same story. Pipes is curious. “Mr. Obama appears to be hiding something. Was he the religious child of irreligious parents? Or was he always a Christian? A Muslim? Or was he, in fact, something of his own creation — a Christian Muslim?”
A person who sees himself capable of being my President should have nothing to hide. Answers to questions — “From where do you come? What do you believe? Who are your mentors? In what direction do you want to move this country? — should be consistent. If he subscribes to a particular faith — be it Christianity or Islam or Mormonism or theism or atheism — he should claim it with confidence and be able to give reason why.
Obama, writes Pipes, says that he affirmed his “Christian faith” by answering an altar call at Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street in the Southside of Chicago. But, explains Pipes, when his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was asked by author Edward Klein in his book The Amateur (p. 40), “Did you convert Obama from Islam to Christianity?” Mr. Wright replied, “That’s hard to tell.” Hard to tell?
Sure and certain identity matters. It matters because knowing who we are affects what we do.
Quotes from Daniel Pipes: “Muslims believe Obama is one of them”
and “Despite his denials, the evidence is compelling,”
The Washington Times, Monday, Sept 17, 2012
Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged Bible, chaos, Christianity, hope, Islam, morality, parents, Quran, sanctity of life, sovereignty of God on August 12, 2011| 3 Comments »
The sun has gone to bed. So should I. My mind wanders. I tap the keyboard, then delete. Somehow, I want to put into words what my eyes and ears see and hear. So that maybe, just maybe, one person out there will be encouraged to take the high ground and stay the course.
Ever since my eyes were opened to the holocaust of abortion, I’ve been on the go. It’s as if God’s own Spirit has nudged me: Get involved! Lend a hand! Offer a shoulder! Make a difference while there is light of day! In the midst of it, I heard the whispers: “She’s a bit too intense.” “Why doesn’t she lighten up?”
I remember the older woman who, most kindly, said, “Thank you for your message about abortion, but my children are all grown now and this issue really doesn’t affect me.” My emotion wanted to scream, but my better judgment took control. I sighed, smiled… then tried to explain. Abortion is the slippery slope to euthanasia… and so much more.
Well, it’s so “much more” later. Here we are, mired in a culture that defends government-funded abortion and wonders why acts of violence increase, calls homosexual behavior a civil-rights issue, sexualizes children but bemoans an epidemic of STDS and troubled teens, arrogantly re-defines marriage and family, seriously considers the transfer of American parental rights over to the United Nations, positions itself to deny freedom of religion, and sets up government health care that may judge some of us as “too burdensome.”
Narcissism rules and chaos reigns. Or, does it?
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth,” God asked Job. “Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements . . . or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors . . . and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed?'” (Job 38:4-11).
God, the creator of the universe, has never and will never relinquish control. It would be contrary to His very nature. The God who “binds the chains of the Pleiades” and loosens “the cords of Orion” (v. 31); the God who sends “forth lightenings, that they may go and say to you ‘Here we are’ (v. 35), and the God who put “wisdom in the inward parts” and gave “understanding to the mind” (v. 36) is the God who “provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God for help, and wander about for lack of food . . .” (v. 41).
Does chaos reign? No, there is evidence of order and Truth at work.
I was reminded of this fact while captive on board a gated-plane. Maintenance crews took three hours to service an engine, but captivity turned into opportunity for me to read the observations of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, authors of the book God Is Back. Both agree that Christianity is poised to do well — and better than Islam — in the 21st century. For example, “The Quran can’t be translated into any other language. So most people that Muslims are converting do not understand a word of what they are taught to recite . . .” Contrast that with the fact that the Bible is published in 95% of the languages of the world.
Here’s another example. Have you noticed the growing number of bestsellers by atheists during the past several years? Micklethwait says, “You do not suddenly wake up in a panic about God being bad or terrible if you think you’ve already won the argument. If you went back 10 or 20 years, the idea that Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens could write a bestseller on the subject would have seemed odd, because — certainly in Europe — most of the educated elites would have assumed God was disappearing anyway, so what’s the worry?” (WORLD, June 20, 2009, “Q & A” by Marvin Olasky)
Does chaos reign?
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision'” (Psalm 2:1-4).
“God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne” (Psalm 47:8).
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told . . .” (Habakkuk 1:5).
We may fear that an immoral culture will absorb us. We may feel powerless to resist. Paralyzed. But, while God is doing His work, there is something for us to do, too. We can live. We can live as men and women eager to glorify God while He transforms the culture. God gives us a model for affecting the lives of others. It follows the order of creation and can be found in Titus 2:1-8. A young pastor named Titus used this model to help believing men and women push back against the culture while raising a new generation of hope.
Narcissism may seem to rule. It may appear that our world is spinning out of control. But, did you notice that my fingers aren’t paralyzed anymore? The darkness overpowered me for awhile last night… but the Lord’s compassions are new every morning! Because of His great love, we are not consumed. (Lamentations 3:22-23) Rather, we are re-energized and equipped to re-engage.
Hope rises up in unexpected places. How can it not? Hope is Jesus Christ. He is the Word. And, the Word is at work. Therefore…
Narcissism does not rule. Chaos does not reign. God does.
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