Dunker Journal

BRF HAS RECEIVED requests that the Brethren New Testament Commentary be issued in electronic format. This has been one of the goals from the start. The question is, “What format should it be?”  This may not be as easy as it seems. For example, some older works were published in the [now unsupported] STEP format. If you have preferences or suggestions, please contact BRF here.

RESEARCH FINDS repressed memories don’t exist.

Professor Richard McNally from Harvard University described the theory of repressed memory as “the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry”.

Seven points on whether to leave or stay in a Sardian church.

Sardis has specific relevance to our current situation in our denomination.

Sardis was living in the past, not realizing their own deadness. Application to our Anabaptist history.

TONIGHT, Bro. Shirk looks at the church of Sardis. “In this message, the Word of God is coming home (to the conservative Churches of the Brethren).”

THE CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN CAMP MEETING IS going well. The camp ground staff is expecting around a thousand folks to attend this weekend. Bro. Paul Shirk is well preaching the Word of God. Maybe we will see you there!

THERE IS a special blessing for those who maintain the distinction between the man and the woman in teaching ministry of the church.-Bro. Paul Shirk

PLURALISM, liberalism, and feminism are an intimate part of a subtle, Satanic plan against the Overcomers.- Bro. Paul Shirk.

The problem in Thyatira was that they venerated a female leader, in contrast to the New Testament teaching of 1 Timothy 2:11-12.

“WHERE pluralism, liberalism, and feminism have taken hold in the church, humanitarianism and social justice become predominant. The problem is that these are associated with a false gospel, and even become the gospel itself.” -Bro. Paul Shirk, at the Brethren Camp Meeting.

THE THEME SONG of the Brethren Camp Meeting this year is “the Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It was chosen for the Biblical imagery–not for the title or the feminist-Unitarian beliefs of its author.

“Toleration of sin opens the door to Satanic worship.”–Bro. Paul Shirk.

When folks say “We need to recognize the good in other religions,” they are saying, “We need to recognize the good in Satanic worship.” –Bro. Paul Shirk, preaching at the Church of the Brethren Camp Meeting at Rhodes Grove Camp, this evening.

The Internal Revenue Service is warning that small nonprofit organizations may be at risk of losing tax-exempt status if they have not filed required returns for the last three years (2007 through 2009). Churches are not required to file, but some nonprofits connected to churches may fall under this requirement, put in place with the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Organizations can preserve tax-exempt status by filing returns by Oct. 15 in a one-time relief program. The IRS lists organizations at risk of losing tax-exempt status at www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=225889,00.html . “Check this list to see whether your organization is at risk of automatic revocation and can avoid this consequence by following IRS guidance,” an IRS release recommends.

Some Brethren-related organizations on the list include: the Lancaster Church of the Brethren, Lancaster, PA; the Montgomery Church of the Brethren Cemetery Association (Western PA District); Brethren Church Great Commission Charitable Foundation (Ashland, Ohio); Cemetery Association of the Arcadia Church of the Brethren (S/C Indiana District); and Church of the Brethren Benefit Trust in Elgin (!).

If you are a part of a small nonprofit organization, it would do you well to check the list.

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN RAISED Dick Armey (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma) praises Glenn Beck for his serious, scholarly work in presenting American history. Mr. Armey was formerly the Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives in the 1990′s.

THE BBC EXONERATES ISRAEL in the Palestinian flotilla incident of some weeks back.

THE 58th ANNUAL CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN CAMP MEETING WILL BE August 28 – September 5, 2010, at the Rhodes Grove Camp between Greencastle and Chambersburg, PA.  Bro. Paul Shirk, of the Pleasant Hill Church of the Brethren, Spring Grove, PA, will be the main speaker and morning Bible Study teacher.  Bro. Shirk’s emphasis through the evening meetings will be on the seven churches of Revelation. His morning Bible Study will be an exposition of the book of Ephesians.

GEORGE SOROS’S Evangelicals.

Wallis’s Sojourners group, during Wallis’s transformation into the purported voice of centrist evangelicals tired of Republicans, had climbed from receipts of $1,601,171 in 2001-2002 to $5,283,650 in 2008-2009…

NEW LUTHERAN DENOMINATION BEING BORN this weekend in Ohio.

THE LAST REFUGE of a liberal.

What’s a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument.

I expect that when the dust settles down from the current issue of homosexuality in the Church of the Brethren, a number of people will be bemoaning the narrow-minded “homophobia” that will be exhibited during the District hearings and the Annual Conference discussion in Grand Rapids next year.

AFTER ACCUSING Marvin Olasky of World magazine of lying for a living, Jim Wallis of Sojourners now comes clean and admits that Sojourners has received significant funding from billionaire George Soros. Olasky had exposed the Soros-Wallis financial connection.

A LOOK AT Double standards in Presidential religion.

AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO A PH.D.

MR. OBAMA’S PLEDGE TO SHUT DOWN Guantanamo Bay will not be honored until at least a year after the President’s self-imposed deadline – and may not be completed in his first administration.  And it is interesting that some in the press are calling for George W. Bush to ride to Mr. Obama’s rescue.

Answers in Genesis is coming to Blue River Church of the Brethren this coming Sunday and Monday!

Tommy Mitchell, M.D., will speak at the church at 3040 E 700 North, Columbia City, Indiana.

Tommy, a speaker with Answers in Genesis since mid-2005, has spoken to thousands of adults, youth, and children in a variety of settings, clearly communicating reasons to trust the Bible and the Creator Christ who wrote it.

Books and resources from Answers in Genesis will be available.

The tentative schedule is:

Sunday, August 15

9 a.m. Why Can’t a Day Mean a Day?
10 a.m. Why Genesis Matters
7 p.m. Noahs Ark and the Global Flood

Monday, August 16

7 p.m. Jurassic Prank: A Dinosaur Tale

Blue River Church of the Brethren is located on the Noble-Whitley County Line Road, 2 miles west of U.S. 33 and 1.5 miles east of State Road 9. For more information, call 260-691-2605, or see the church’s website at www.blueriverchurch.org. Pastor Craig Alan Myers invites the community to these services. Childcare will be provided up through age 5.

ED WHELAN DECLARES that Judge Vaughn Walker gave The Most Egregious Performance Ever by a Federal District Judge in the California Proposition 8 case.

ROGER J. LANDRY:

The dangers posed by Judge Walker’s decision, therefore, go beyond what constitutes marriage and family and which understanding of marriage and family needs to be promoted and protected for individual flourishing and the common good. They include perils to religious freedom as well as to the fundamental underpinnings of our constitutional republic, when the opinion of one conflicted judge fabricating constitutional violations takes on greater weight than the vote of seven million of his fellow citizens. It cannot be overturned on appeal fast enough.

NEW ITEM SPOTTED on an application:

Are you in a same-sex marriage, civil union, polygamist, or related domestic arrangement? Yes No

WHEW! THAT’S A RELIEF!  My college degree is not one of the 20 worst-paying degrees. But then, it’s not on this list, either.