Dunker Journal

NEARLY TWO-DOZEN conservative Christian leaders have signed a letter to the Senate Finance Committee questioning an investigation into six large ministries that preach a gospel of prosperity.

At another place on the Internet, some are questioning whether Senator Grassley is conducting a stealthy theological war in taxman’s clothing. Grassley, a Baptist, would have definite theological differences with the charismatic/Pentecostal ministries he is attempting to investigate, and from some of the language of his letters to the ministries, seems to approach the ministries through his own theological lens.

Christianity Today pointed this out back in January:

But churches—even ones that spout heresies like the health-and-wealth gospel—are protected by the First Amendment in ways that the Nature Conservancy and Smithsonian are not. Grassley was on dangerous ground when he told reporters, “Jesus comes into the city on a simple mule, and you got people today expanding his gospel in corporate jets. Somebody ought to raise questions about [whether] it’s right or wrong.” There’s an important theological question here, but a Senate investigation is not the place to ask it. There’s an important legal question here, too (are pastors properly using ministry-owned cars and jets in church-related work?), but Grassley undercuts the legitimacy of his own question.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.) CONFESSES its recent anti-Semitism.

ISN’T IT AMAZING that religious extremism has become acceptable to liberals?

IN YESTERDAY’S MAIL, with plenty of thoughtful reading: The American, and Touchstone. Touchstone has an interesting article titled, “The Way We Weren’t: Churches in the Fifties Were Filled, But Were They Faithful?” William Murchison writes,

If you have the impression that the 1950s constituted some kind of last frontier of religious conviction and inspiration in the United States, you might wish to reexamine that impression with dispatch.

*****

The fifties were not the summum bonum. They were an episode—a highly instructive one, I might add, full of dangers as well as satisfactions. We really don’t want to bring them back. We want something better, which is to learn from them.

THE PULPIT VACANCY LIST HAS BEEN CHANGED, slightly.

Christianity without Christ–No creeds, no miracles, no Resurrection: Minister preaches faith without the symbolism. Talk about an open circle.

Without Christ, there is no Christianity. And no, this minister and those who think according to her lines, are not Christians. But, I suspect they already know that, but rather don’t like that those of us who are Christians are pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. It is no wonder that churches like hers are on the decline, and that many folks think that the Christian faith has no spiritual power. “Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.”

JEREMIAH WRIGHT IS DIVORCED and remarried. Why is that not surprising?  Also, Why Oprah Winfrey left Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church.

THE ASSOCIATION FOR CHURCH RENEWAL HAS a new website. Very good!  ACR is an alliance of evangelical renewal groups within the mainline denominations. Thanks to David Runnion-Bareford for his efforts in making this new website and new ACR emphasis a reality.

THE PULPIT VACANCY LIST has been updated.

PEGGY NOONAN on Jeremiah Wright:

I disagree with and disapprove of the things he says. The U.S. government did not spread AIDS among the black community, 9/11 was not the chickens coming home to roost, etc. He seems like a bright man, warm, humorous and compelling, but also needful and demanding of the spotlight, a showman prone to crackpottery, and I have to wonder how much respect he has for his congregation. He shows a lot of fury and does a lot of yelling for a leader of the followers of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

I LIKE kangaroos…I think they’re delicious!

INTERESTING…a few weeks ago, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ran a piece on black pastors in Fort Wayne, in which they, to a man, defended Mr. Wright and said his remarks were par for the course in the black church. Now the Los Angeles Times has done a similar thing, but black pastors are preaching a different sermon now.

Kerman Maddox, a member of First AME church in Los Angeles, said that he had listened to hundreds of sermons in black churches nationwide as part of his political and community work, and that Wright’s messages did “not represent mainstream black thought on Sunday morning.”

He said he had never heard pastors curse America or proclaim, as Wright had, that the U.S. government caused AIDS among blacks. He said the common pulpit themes had long been unity, personal responsibility, loving your neighbor and improving your neighborhoods.

TODAY IS the National Day of Prayer. I’ve already been to our county’s prayer breakfast, and at noon, I’ll be at our Courthouse Square to share in the prayer season led by our county ministerial association.  Won’t you pray for our rulers, that we might live quiet and peaceable lives?

DANIEL HENNINGER WONDERS, “Where were Obama’s Friends?”

At Barack Obama’s darkest hour, not one prominent ally came forward to support him. Everyone abandoned Everyman.

No prominent black clergyman came forth to make even the simple point that Jeremiah Wright’s notion of the “black church” is but one point on a spectrum of faith. Rev. Wright, now written off as a virtual nut case, got more support from black clergymen than did Obama.

LEHMAN BROTHERS COMPANY WARNS that oil boom will deflate. There seems to be a lot of disaster thinking out there. This article tempers that.

ON MR. WRIGHT BEING a “spiritual advisor” to Mr. Obama:

• Mr. Obama said yesterday that Mr. Wright was never his spiritual advisor. However, a long train of statements by Mr. Obama indicate that he did consider him his spiritual advisor or mentor.
• Aren’t pastors supposed to be spiritual advisors?  Isn’t that what a pastor is?  Am I missing something here?
• Mr. Wright was right in saying “the chickens come home to roost.” Except in this case, it is to Mr. Obama.

INTERESTING…an Ashland Brethren church is becoming a Grace Brethren congregation. That hasn’t happened in a while.

UPDATE: A highly placed Grace Brethren person e-mails, “There’s room for more!”

THIS IS about right. Rich Lowry calls Mr. Wright, “A Christian Farrakhan.”

SOMEHOW, I doubt that Mr. Wright did much to defend Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, or Jimmy Swaggart (to name a few) when their clips of their preaching/teaching/comments were played on the media over and over again, out of context. To say that an attack on Mr. Wright is an attack on the black church is, to say the least, a vast overrating of Mr. Wright’s place there.

UPDATE: Eugene Robinson, the black columnist, says,

The problem is that Wright insists on being seen as something he’s not: an archetypal representative of the African-American church. In fact, he represents one twig of one branch of a very large tree.

*****

Wright claims to represent all these traditions and more, but he does not. He also claims universality for the political aspect of his ministry. It is true that the black church, writ large, has been an instrument of social and political change. But most black churches are far less political than Wright’s — and many concern themselves exclusively with salvation.

MR. WRIGHT’S CALLING for an apology for American slavery rings hollow. For several things:

• He is building a mansion in suburban Chicago that would make the grandest Southern mansion of the late slavery era pale in comparison.

• American slavery, in a sense, was atoned for with the blood shed by hundreds of thousands of Americans during the War Between the States.

• He himself benefits from the continued attention-drawing to the supposed ongoing injustices to some parts of society.

• He emphasizes the notion of race, even while the Bible doesn’t contemplate it and says, in fact, that God has made us all of one race.

MOTIVATED by fear and multiculturalism, too many Westerners are acquiescing to creeping sharia.

WILL METHODISM TILT RIGHT?

POSTED IN the e-mail Newsline today:

The Global Mission Partnerships of the Church of the Brethren General Board seeks a couple or family as part of a lead team to begin a new ministry in Sudan, seeking to rebuild and heal communities after decades of war. As a holistic effort, it will include the formation of churches. A complementary team that includes people bringing one or more of the following skills is preferable: peace and conflict transformation, healthcare, church planting and Christian education, community development preferably with experience in emerging nations, dealing with trauma, and literacy and adult education. Candidates should bring education and experience in their area of specialty, experience in international cross-cultural settings, a team orientation, and grounding in Church of the Brethren identity and practice. Secondary skills in repair and maintenance of computers, household maintenance, or vehicle mechanics is useful. Candidates need to exhibit the following strengths: willingness to work in a strongly different cultural environment; patience in working with people and relationship building; openness to being changed and transformed in the process of doing the work; ability to live in settings that are at times hard to predict and control. Team members participate in raising their own support under General Board oversight. The application deadline for this position has been extended, with interviews and placement occurring during 2008. Request an application form from Karin Krog, Office of Human Resources, at 800-323-8039 ext. 258 or kkrog_gb@brethren.org.

It seems to me that we already had an ideal couple called and engaged in the work, but who received very little in the way of moral support and otherwise from the denominational staff. Would a new couple find the situation any different?

UPDATE: An Alert Reader in Virginia e-mails, “Sure they will…. if they are liberal.”

UPDATE #2: An Alert Reader in Iowa e-mails,

Perhaps–it seems one resignation [Merv Keeney] followed hard on the heels of the first [Jim & Pam Hardenbrook], and would seem to be related, so the new couple would be reporting to a new boss and may well find things very different.

The whole Missions arm of the church seems to be being reorganized–hopefully, the result will be good.

Yes, that is to be prayed for.

SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, enjoys quoting a Bible verse that doesn’t exist. I should think she has staff who ferrets this stuff out.

ALTHOUGH THE FOLLOWING WAS written about 120 years ago, it still speaks. Thank you, Mr. Spurgeon!

==============

The second persecution of the church, in which all the apostles were put into the common prison, was mainly brought about by the sect of the Sadducees. These, as you know, were the Broad School, the liberals, the advanced thinkers, the modern-thought people of the day.

If you want a bitter sneer, a biting sarcasm, or a cruel action, I commend you to these large-minded gentlemen. They are liberal to everybody, except to those who hold the truth; and for those they have a reserve of concentrated bitterness which far excels wormwood and gall.

They are so liberal to their brother errorists, that they have no tolerance to spare for evangelicals.

We are expressly told that “the high priest, and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) were filled with indignation.” That which had been done deserved their admiration, but received their indignation. Such gentlemen as these can be warm at a very short notice, when the doctrine of the cross is spreading, and God the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with signs following. Let them display their indignation, it is according to their nature.

To them the only answer which God gave was spoken by his angel: “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” Argument will be lost upon them; go on with your preaching. They have lost the faculty of believing: go and speak to the people. They are so given over to their doubts, that it is like rolling the stone of Sisyphus to persuade them to faith. They are so eaten up with objections, that to attempt to answer all the questions they raise would be as vain as the labor of filling a bottomless tub.

Go on with your preaching, you apostles; but address yourselves mainly to the people. Extend as widely as possible the range of the truth, and thus answer the opposition of its adversaries. It is better to evangelize than to controvert. The preaching of the word of life is the best antidote to the doctrine of death.

Clearly enough, if they had known it, and had been capable of seeing it, these blind Sadducees were answered at every point when the apostles were brought out of prison and bore witness to their Lord. Here was the creed of the Sadducees: they said that “there was no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit”; but these apostles stood up and witnessed to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What did they make of that?

An angel had come from heaven and had brought these apostles out of prison. Then there were angels.

As these apostles were set free while the sentries remained standing before the doors, and those doors were afterwards found fastened, if there were no spirit, assuredly materialism had acted in a singular fashion.

Every item of their negative creed had been made to fall like Dagon before the ark. The Lord always arranges Red Seas for Pharaohs. All that the apostles had to do was to go on with their preaching, and this they did; for “daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”

MOST OF MY FRIENDS HAVE BEEN DEAD for over 300 years. This book helps us to know them better.

WAYNE WEBB HAS PUT the old Brethren book, Some Who Led, on the Internet. Thanks, Wayne! From his e-mail posted on the Rootsweb Brethren mailing list:

As part of my ongoing archival project of German Baptist church related material I have posted online a sample of one of the books in my collection. I offer it for your reading pleasure. There are no strings attached but I do offer these words of advice. You may have trouble printing it depending on your computer. I can not control this and offer no solutions to this problem. You will not be able to “right-click” the image and save it to your computer. There may be some other problems that I am not aware of - no warranty comes with the material.

For those of you with dial-up modems you will likely have problems with the images in the film strip at the bottom of the page. I know I did when the site was created. Your web browser will likely time out and not paint all the images. In their stead will be just a place-holder. Clicking on the image still serves the same function - it takes you to that page. Those with a faster connection to the Internet should have no problems. How it would appear on a Web TV I do not know. Web site creation for that crowd offers difficulties.

The book contains the biographies of a sampling of prominent, and some not so well-known, ministers and elders of the German Baptist church of the 19th and early 20th Century. The graphics were scanned individually and then the book in its entirety was typeset. It represents a lot ofd work on the part of myself so I do hope that you enjoy it.

I am looking for a select few individuals willing to help me create keywords, such as shown on the pages. What is needed is the keywords from the individual pages to be typed into the block to the bottom right and then emailed to me. Let us see how many are willing to aid in this and how many just want the book with no effort on their part. Takers and no givers!

This web site is a test bed to see how the technology works and how to set up an aesthetically appealing site. It, with several other works, will hopefully be the start of something that will attract attention so that others of it’s kind can be worked on.

I am looking for critiques on the page. Please do not send an email asking for a serarch engine. Yes, there is no search engine as you may have noticed. You need keywords to create a search engine plus the program that can eventually be obtained to create the search engine. As stated, a few readers can facilitate this by taking the time to email them. One person to take a range of pages and one or several others to take another range of pages and soon it would be done. Then a search engine program can be purchased to create one.

The one thing needed is a Javascript routine to include a “next” & “previous” page button on each page. I do not know how to create such a script as I am not a programmer. To create each page and then include on it these buttons is very time consuming thus requiring a script to accomplish it. You try coding this many pages, and more, and soon you will see what I mean.

If you go to the “Contents” page ( pages 7 and 8 ) you will see an alphabetical listing of the biographies. They are all capable of being clicked with your mouse which will take you to that page. Furthermore, if you scroll using the film strip at the bottom to page 225 there is an index. You can clck on the number and it will take you to that page.

SCIENTISTS MAY NOT KNOW what a kilogram is, but I know what a sinner I am, and how great a Saviour Jesus is.  (Hebrews 13:8).

LISA MILLER:

One could argue that Benedict has been engaged in a lifelong battle against the supremacy of feeling—against the idea, so popular in America today, that feelings about God come from within. “If the church … is viewed as a human construction, the product of our own efforts, even the contents of faith end up assuming an arbitrary character,” Joseph Ratzinger told an interviewer in 1985. For Benedict, God is Truth with a capital T and exists before and outside humans and institutions. That Truth is the only authority, and that authority requires obedience. Benedict’s fans say he is at his most eloquent and inspiring when teaching about that Truth. His theology is hardly radical, but it is orthodox. It’s not that he doesn’t care about people, it’s that he wants people to care more about Jesus.

FROM THE APRIL 2008 DISTRICT HIGHLIGHTS, the newsletter of the Western Pennsylvania District Church of the Brethren:

Here is how we are celebrating the 300th anniversary:
While searching the church for things to put in our newsletter I came across the very first minutes book. So I thought what a great thing to come across with the 300th anniversary coming up. So, in January’s newsletter I included the first page to the book which is dated March 6, 1922. The February newsletter included two entries about buying the ground. The March newsletter included “Glimpses from early Brethren history’” taken from the BRF Witness pamphlet we received. April, May and June will be a continuation of the Brethren history from the BRF Witness pamphlets. If we include anything else I will let you know.
Blessings,
Darlene Rankin
Nanty-Glo Church of the Brethren