Whirled Views with Dan Burrell

Matt Capps hits the nail on the head in THIS article at his Blog.  Warren Smith also addresses this in his book, A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church.  You can also scroll down and see my own feelings regarding Christmas and its schlock in my rant.

If everyone could see for themselves what goes on in the holocaust mills of America’s abortion INDUSTRY, millions more would suddenly realize that what they are observing is cold-blooded murder of a real human life. This is exactly why America’s abortion mills are under-regulated, shrouded in political protection and evidence of the violence committed in them is censored for the American public. We’ll publicize the beating of baby seals or the slaughter of chickens as barbaric, but no one dares show the dismemberment and atrocities of a human abortion.

Read about it HERE.

The issues of “rules” in a Christian day school setting have been discussed for many years.  Now with a full generation or more of “products” since the great explosion of evangelical Christian day schools hit our country in the 70’s and 80’s, many are being forced to admit that most of us would not want to attend the reunions of our graduating classes as we’d feel horrifically out of place.  In other words, the “rules” really didn’t make that much of a difference.

Mike Durning has written a thought-provoking article for those who still think that “rules” and “standards” help produce good Christians.  When I first began raising similar questions nearly twenty years ago, I was considered a renegade and a “liberal”.  Mike does a great job of making his case and if you are part of a school that seems to be “rules-oriented”, may I suggest you read his essay and follow the ones that will be released over the next few days.

You can find it HERE.

As one who has personally experienced the challenges of being called to be the pastor of a high profile church in a major metropolitan area which was founded by someone who had become an icon, I have empathized with what the new pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale (Just a few minutes from where we know live.) is experiencing.  Local residents and some nationally are aware that the family of the founding pastor has risen up against his leadership early in his ministry there.  (Let me pause here to say that was NEVER the case with the church I pastored — in fact, quite the opposite was true and I was blessed by that family.)  To address the controversy, the pastor has written an op-ed piece for the local paper and I think he has done much to rise above the testimony damaging conflict with his honesty and transparency.  If you are interested, you can find the link HERE.

Phil Johnson over at Pyromaniacs has been dealing with the issue of the “sissification” of the evangelical church in a couple of articles and this is his latest article.  It’s thought-provoking and substantive.  Take a look at it HERE.

I’ve weighed in on some of the trends of some of the young emergent pastors and their penchant for thinking that relevancy requires shock therapy, identification with the world and a lack of reverence.  I came across a blog article by Greg Laurie (hardly an example of irrelevant, Bible-thumping militancy) that says what I was thinking better than I probably could have said it.  Take a few moments and read it HERE.

A couple of weeks ago, I put a link here to the first part of an important essay by John Stonestreet on why today’s student doesn’t seem to be “getting it” when it comes to a Biblical Worldview.  If you missed it, click HERE to go back and read it.

John has now posted the second part of his essay and there is some powerful truth in it that I think is worthy of the few minutes it will require of you to read it.  You find it HERE.

This one is going to surprise some of my friends, but here goes….

Today’s headlines are reporting that President Obama is going to “strengthen” the Faith-Based Office and programs that funnel government funds to religious organizations for social and humanitarian projects.  Story HERE.

I have a suggestion…Close the whole program down.  Defund it.  Shutter the doors.  End it.

What?  “But you are in the ministry!”  How could this be?

There are two big lies in the world.  (Well, not just two, but these are big ones.)  “The check is in the mail” and “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

The government has no business being involved in faith-based initiatives or in partnerships with churches and religious organizations.  I opposed this when Bush was in office and I feel no less strongly about it with Obama.  It’s a bad, BAD idea.

With the power to tax comes the power to control.  That’s why I’m against taxing religious charities and churches.

Conversely, when religious charities and churches take government money, they become entangled with the government.  Not smart.  They will become dependent upon it.  Strings will come.  Independence will be ceded in exchange for resources.  It’s just not a good idea.

You know the ol’ cliche’ about the “Golden Rule”?  “He who has the gold gets to make the rules.”  Well, (and I don’t blame them for trying) when the government give money away, they almost always try to get some control with it.  (Wouldn’t you?)  Already, there are those who want to require certain hiring practices among those who are faith-based and take federal money.  In California, that means not being able to discriminate in hiring Gay/Lesbian/Bi-sexual/Transgender folks even if your faith considers that wrong.  The policy is now under review at the federal level.  (See the article above.)

Churches and the government can work in tandem.  On some things like humanitarian crises, they can even work in partnership.  But if we don’t want government intrusion on our religious faith, we need to stay out of the money.  I don’t want my tax dollars supporting Islamic charities or Mormon building projects.  My liberal non-religious friends don’t want their tax dollars building evangelical day schools and supporting Baptist rescue missions either.  That’s fine.

What about my article from yesterday decrying the effort to stop funding for schools that have religious organizations using their facilities?  Different issue.  There is rent involved.  If the Muslims want to rent a school auditorium, I don’t have a problem with that as long as they have to pay the same rate as the Athiests, the Baptists and the Cub Scouts.  You shouldn’t be excluded or given a different rate simply because you are religious.

But we need to be consistent.  The government needs to keep their money and smart faith-based organizations should refuse it.  Our Father owns it all anyway — or so we say.  If we really believe that, then He’ll meet our needs.  We don’t need a Sugar Daddy in Washington helping us out.  Maybe we need to be a lot more like George Mueller and simply pray it in.  Better yet, when the offering plate comes by, put something in it.  What was it James told us about “True Religion”?  We should put our money where our mouth is and where we say our heart is.

Every week, thousands of churches of all kinds meet in the cafeterias, gymnasiums and auditoriums of public schools that are built with the tax dollars of American citizens.  Not only churches, but scout groups, community activist associations, neighborhood programs and other community organizations.  But Nancy Pelosi and her band of liberal extremists have an agenda and that is to punish anyone who would practice their faith in a public school by cutting off federal funding to those schools who RENT their facilities to religious organizations.  (As in, they pay for the privilege of using buildings that are already vacant on that day of the week.)

With all the myriad problems in this country, Nancy, Barney and the libs took the time to specifically threaten and intimidate public schools who would need access to federal bucks and still want to rent their facilities to start-up religious groups.  Read this news report HERE.

This is the bill that Barak Obama wants the Democrat-controlled houses of Congress to pass hurriedly to avoid “catastrophe”.  Or is it because every day of study further reveals what a ridiculous boondoggle this “Stimulus” bill really is?  Either way, leftists everywhere should sleep better tonight knowing that prayers are now excluded from public schools SEVEN days a week if Nancy and Barak and Harry get their way.

Elections have consequences.  Here’s one more example.

Most people who know me know that I’m a bit of a “Worldview” fanatic (hence, the name of my blog).  I’ve been a long time fan of Summit Ministries which was founded by Dr. David Noebel and is a major resource for teaching a Biblical Worldview to young people.  His book, “Understanding the Times” should be a required text for all Christian schools.

Recently, someone sent me a link to an article by the Executive Director of Summit Ministries, John Stonestreet on why today’s Christian student’s “don’t get it” when it comes to the power of their faith and Worldview.  I’d highly recommend that you take a moment and read it.  You can find it HERE.