Dunker Journal

TODAY IS Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday! Paul Kengor tells a heartwarming story about the Gipper here.

WHY ARE liberals so condescending?

PRESIDENT BUSH COULDN’T SAY “nuclear”; President Obama can’t say “corpsman.” Interesting.

SO, MR. OBAMA RECEIVES his religion by Blackberry. While it’s disturbing that he takes his cues from Jim Wallis of Sojourners, it’s also not surprising that Wallis and others rush to defend the President not going to church. Wasn’t this the same crowd who, back in the 1980s, carped that President Reagan didn’t go to church?  Just sayin…  This article indicates that Mr. Obama uses the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. If it is the current one, that’s bad news, as it is a politically correct mash-up which reflects little of the majesty of even the 1928 edition, let alone the 1662 edition.

LEFT-WING PAPER CALLS for heads to roll in the Climategate scandal in Great Britain. What’s amazing is that outfits such as the New Community Project continue to promote the idea of man-made global warming.

Also, Penn State University is continuing its probe of a global warming advocate in its ranks.

PROTESTANT PASTORS NAME Graham Most Influential Living Preacher.

CBS URGED to scrap Super Bowl ad with Tebow, mom. Aren’t these protest groups the same ones who, a few years ago, promoted the discredited notion that Super Bowl Sunday was the worst day for violence against women? This protest shows that the feminist groups really aren’t pro-choice, they are pro-abortion. Also, that they protest with the ad unseen–merely because it is paid for by Focus on the Family–shows their true colors.

Enjoying the Bible So Far in 2010?

SHILOH CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN PLANS to Rebuild

A MAJOR EARTHQUAKE HAS HIT Haiti; Magnitude 7.0. Sister Evelyn Dick, Church of the Brethren member and director of The Vine Ministry in Haiti, e-mails:

I cannot get a phone call through to Pastor Joel [St. Amour, pastor of the Vine Church in Port au Prince] so I don’t know about their safety nor the condition of the church building. My main concern is that on Tuesdays at 5:00 PM there is always a church service at Vine Church so I pray especially that the church held up particularly if there were people in it.

I was able to get a call through to the people I live with and they are all at home and fine.

Thank you so much for your prayers and concern.

On her Facebook page, Evelyn writes:

hearing from lots of my friends and they are OK but have had walls collapse and lots of things broken.

Sister Evelyn is planning on returning to Haiti on January 20 to be a chauffeur and interpreter for a Brethren Disaster Team that will be building houses in Gonaives. Looks like they might have more acute work ahead of them than planned.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to our Orthodox friends!

FROM THE LATEST TOUCHSTONE MAGAZINE, comments by Peter J. Leithart:

Gender-neutral names for God look so innocuous. What could be wrong with baptizing in the name of “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier”?

As Paul would say, much in every way. To name the First Person as “Creator” is to name him in relation to the world, and so too with “Redeemer” and “Sanctifier” for the Second and Third Person. But God isn’t defined by the creation. He’s defined by himself, which is why the First Person must be named in relation to One who is also God.

Gender-neutral names deny the freedom of God; they attack the God-ness of God, and as such, they are idolatrous.

NEW HEALTH RULE: Quit Worrying About Your Health

OUR CONDOLENCES ARE EXTENDED to the Shiloh Church of the Brethren family, in Barbour County, West Virginia (West Marva District). Its church building burned yesterday, and was a total loss. Our best wishes to Pastor Garry Clem and the congregation.

UPDATE: The intrepid reporter at the Brethren News Services has more on the Shiloh fire.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Welcome, 2010, in the name of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour, Lord, and Head of the Church!

ROBIN OF BERKELEY WRITES ON The Hypocrisy of the Left.

Checking out churches online, I found almost none that offered political neutrality. Most heralded their progressive credentials, welcoming the transgendered, but not conservatives.

I was pleased to find an Episcopal church whose website focused on religion, not ObamaCare. I left a message for the priest that I was looking for a church that didn’t press a political agenda because I wasn’t a liberal.

I received an icy reply from the priest, the Reverend Lucy, who said with barely-contained disgust, “I don’t think you should check us out.”

Her response left me shaken and angry. I understand that leftists despise conservatives. I have seen that creepy look of pure hatred when I naïvely told a leftist friend about my political conversion.

But an Episcopal priest rejecting me during the holiest time of year? Isn’t anything or anyone sacred?

In shunning me, the Reverend Lucy exposed not only her own hypocrisy, but the duplicity of the left itself. She unveiled the left’s dirty little secret — that their doctrines are as bogus as global warming.

As displayed by the Reverend Lucy, this is a spiritually vacuous ideology. While they fashion themselves as human saviors, they clearly don’t like people very much, and they despise conservatives.

I’ve experienced that “icy stare.” One time it was at Long Beach, when Bob Faus introduced me to a lady with a prominent Middle Pennsylvania Brethren name. When she heard Bob say my name, her eyes instantly transformed into a look of daggers. One of the not-so-best-kept-secrets of liberal church folks is that, for many, their talk of compassion and respect for diversity is just that: talk. They really are some of the most close-minded people I have ever run across.

NEW RESEARCH FINDS that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

“LIBERAL” EVANGELICALS AND CATHOLICS BACKED abortion funding in the health insurance bill. These included Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, David Neff of Christianity Today, and also Jim Wallis of Sojourners. When will these folks drop the “evangelical” name and simply be who they are, which is “liberal.”

DRINKING COFFEE, decaf and tea regularly associated with a reduced risk of diabetes.

CHRISTIAN TEACHER FIRED fired for offering to pray for sick pupil.  Slowly, but steadily, it seems that darkness is settling over Britain.

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN PASTOR TO HELP in planting churches in Sudan.

Our overarching goal is to plant as many healthy, reproducing churches in Sudan as God directs and allows. Jesus told us, right before He ascended, to go and make disciples. We believe that the local church is what God established to nurture that discipleship process through the worship of Him, the equipping of the saints, and the sending of missionaries. Sudan is worn-torn, ravaged and devastated. …. But we serve the creator, redeemer God. Where disaster strikes, opportunity beckons. To address this issue of leaders, we’ve begun a Bible school to train up the next generation of pastors, missionaries, and church leaders. We also take North Americans on short-term, church-planting mission trips throughout the year. Can God plant a church in a week? Come find out.

It is regrettable in the extreme that the Church of the Brethren missions leadership at the time (2006-2008)  failed to support the planting of Churches of the Brethren in Sudan. My perception is that we make planting churches, whether here in America or overseas, seem much more difficult than it is. It seems to me that we need a plethora of churches started, and however many Christian denominations want to do so, have at it. I am not ashamed of the Church of the Brethren and its beliefs, and I believe it ought to be extended into as many places as possible.

Had the Apostle Paul been operating on the advice of denominational personnel today, he would have never engaged in the missions/church planting program he followed.

“Going to Ephesus, eh? Well, the first thing you need to do is get with the Artemis people and see if we can partner with them, and see the areas in which we can agree can be determined, and work from there. You also need to get the silversmiths on board, and maybe use them for helping to decorate the church buildings…. Don’t bother with Phillippi, there aren’t enough people there to support the work…and make sure you get to Athens as the church would benefit from the intellectual firepower that the people there would provide…”

DEPICTING CHRIST on the Cross can get you sent home from school and a psychological evaluation. Where do they come up with these teachers? Instead of paying for an educational degree, they should buy a clue somewhere.

PROMINENT BRETHREN RACECAR DRIVER (and Freemason) is living out his faith behind the scenes.

SHADES OF 1938: British government wants Jewish-made products labeled as such.

THE BRETHREN PULPIT VACANCY LIST has been updated.

BRETHREN REVIVAL FELLOWSHIP ANNOUNCES the publication of a commentary on Genesis, by Harold S. Martin. It has 304 pages, and the suggested donation is $20.00.  Send your request and donation to Brethren Revival Fellowship, P.O. Box 543, Ephrata, PA  17522-0543.

The Brethren Old Testament Commentary series aims to give a readable explanation of the Old Testament text, with loyalty to Anabaptist and Pietist values.

No book of the Bible is more important than the book of Genesis. In Genesis, God reveals truth about the beginning of all things, and therefore its message is basic to the information set forth in the rest of the Bible. Thus all seekers of truth should study Genesis and fix their hearts and minds on the message it declares.

Reading this study tool is not a substitute for reading the book of Genesis itself, but this volume can be a help to those who read the Bible chapters and check the comments here as they read the Bible text.

The BOTC commentary is not intended to be a detailed or technical guide for advanced Bible students, but in simple terms it seeks to connect the accounts within Genesis to one another. The commentary also attempts to explain the portions of Genesis that are more difficult to understand.

In this study tool, readers will become more familiar with the accounts of creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the patriarchs of Israel.

KEVIN DeYOUNG HAS a good analysis of “The New Gospel” as espoused by such characters as Shane Claiborne.  Mr. Claiborne will be a speaker at the Church of the Brethren National Youth Conference in 2010, and I hear, at the Southern Pennsylvania District Conference in 2010.

Justin Taylor summarizes DeYoung’s points:

[He] explains that this increasingly popular “new gospel” usually has four parts: (1) it starts with an apology; (2) it appeals to God as love; (3) it invites others to join God on his mission; (4) it is ambivalent about eternity.

Why is it so popular? (1) it’s partially true; (2) it deals with strawmen; (3) it leads people to believe wrong things without explicitly stating those wrong things [this is Kevin's most important paragraph, I think]; (4) it’s manageable; (5) it’s inspirational; (6) it’s non-offensive.

My question is, shouldn’t a speaker to our conferences be one who builds up the church, instead of tearing it down? I commented on this phenomenon just a few weeks ago. That Mr. Claiborne is a proponent of the Emergent philosophy/theology is troubling enough, but then to have him address our conferences seems out of order. Are there not any Brethren speakers who could keynote the conferences?

THE FUTURE of Western War is a fascinating article by Victor Davis Hanson.

WALT WILTSCHEK HAS SUBMITTED his resignation as editor of Messenger, where he has been since 2003, effective February 1st, in order to accept a call as the new campus pastor at Manchester College. Wiltschek is well-regarded for his inter-faith mentoring of youth and young adults and was awarded the Manchester College Church-College award in 2009. Wiltschek will join the Student Development team on February 2.