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Published on Leave a comment on I’ve got a question

Dale Neumann

A man accused of killing his 11-year-old diabetic daughter by praying instead of seeking medical care has been found guilty of second-degree reckless homicide. 

Dale Neumann, 47, was convicted over the March 23, 2008, death of his daughter, Madeline, from undiagnosed diabetes.

Prosecutors argued he should have rushed the girl to a hospital because she could not walk, talk, eat or drink.  Instead, Madeline died on the floor of the family's rural home as people surrounded her and prayed. Someone called an ambulance when she stopped breathing.

Neumann stared at the jury as the verdict was read out in the courtroom in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Defence lawyer Jay Kronenwetter said they will appeal against the verdict.

Neumann, who once studied to be a Pentecostal minister, testified that he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die. God promises in the Bible to heal, he said.

"If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God," Neumann testified. "I am not believing what he said he would do."  (As reported here)

Why is it lack of faith to call a doctor but not lack of faith to use a lawyer??
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 Pray for these parents.  And renounce this theology.

Published on Leave a comment on "My Body Hell"

Last night I caught the end of a wonderful documentary about Marlie Casseus from Haiti.  She suffers from a rare disease called Polysostotic Fibrous Dysplasia.  A 16-pound growth overwhelmed her whole face to point she could barely breathe and was about to go blind.

She was ostracized by her community - many considering her to be demon-possessed. (Some websites I've read have made much of this "primitive" reaction to her).  But, by contrast, she has been well loved by her family and her church.  And Marlie loves Jesus - she was able to speak about her faith a number of times.  It was very moving.

A Christian charity arranged for her to fly to Miami to receive life-changing if not life-saving surgery.  Here are the results:

Marlie's new face

 

Here's what I found so incredibly awful though.

In the commercial breaks there were adverts for the show that went on immediately prior to this documentary. The title of this other show was: “My Body Hell”, suggesting a similarly sobering subject.  Not so!  This other programme dealt with the ‘living hell’ of nipple hair and relative breast size. Apparently such concerns can have devastating implications for one’s date-ablility index. 

It was indeed truly hellish. But not in the way the programme makers intended.

It got me thinking about those 'primitive' Haitians who demonized Marlie for her physical deformity.  They've got nothing on the body Nazis of the West.  We'll demonize anyone's physical imperfections, beginning with our own.

A sense of perspective please.  And a sense of hope that the Christian community can be different.

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Published on Leave a comment on “My Body Hell”

Last night I caught the end of a wonderful documentary about Marlie Casseus from Haiti.  She suffers from a rare disease called Polysostotic Fibrous Dysplasia.  A 16-pound growth overwhelmed her whole face to point she could barely breathe and was about to go blind.

She was ostracized by her community - many considering her to be demon-possessed. (Some websites I've read have made much of this "primitive" reaction to her).  But, by contrast, she has been well loved by her family and her church.  And Marlie loves Jesus - she was able to speak about her faith a number of times.  It was very moving.

A Christian charity arranged for her to fly to Miami to receive life-changing if not life-saving surgery.  Here are the results:

Marlie's new face

 

Here's what I found so incredibly awful though.

In the commercial breaks there were adverts for the show that went on immediately prior to this documentary. The title of this other show was: “My Body Hell”, suggesting a similarly sobering subject.  Not so!  This other programme dealt with the ‘living hell’ of nipple hair and relative breast size. Apparently such concerns can have devastating implications for one’s date-ablility index. 

It was indeed truly hellish. But not in the way the programme makers intended.

It got me thinking about those 'primitive' Haitians who demonized Marlie for her physical deformity.  They've got nothing on the body Nazis of the West.  We'll demonize anyone's physical imperfections, beginning with our own.

A sense of perspective please.  And a sense of hope that the Christian community can be different.

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Published on Leave a comment on How to sum up evangelicalism worldwide

John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge describe the spreading evangel in their Saturday Times article:  "God is back: How Ned Flanders won the evangelical crusade".

Virtually everywhere in the developing world fiery preachers are preaching a faith that would appeal to Ned Flanders: live your life according to God's law, read the Bible as the literal word of Truth, treat your neighbour as yourself.

The sad thing is, that might be a fair summation.

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Published on 9 Comments on Comedy leftovers – Self lightly, God seriously

god-seriously-self-lightly-21

 

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Here's the audio of my talk on the subject

All this began here.

Then I had some initial thoughts on the usefulness of comedy here

There's an excellent CS Lewis quote here

Here is a very expanded early version of the talk: part one, part two, part three, part four.

Then some follow up thoughts on blasphemy here and here.

 

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Published on 2 Comments on One more thing on blasphemy…

... Interesting that the city clerk of Ephesus did not consider Paul to have blasphemed Artemis, their goddess. (Acts 19:37)  Along with strong and clear proclamation, Paul was obviously respectful in a way that gained the notice of the pagans.

Just something to bear in mind as we speak about other religions.

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Published on Leave a comment on Thoughts on blasphemy

Thirteen thoughts on blasphemy:

  1. Comedy about Christian things is not at all the same as blasphemy.  (E.g. Life of Brian mainly makes fun of Christians not Christ, and much of what it says about Christians is on the money!).
  2. By the same token comedy is not the only nor even the main vehicle for blasphemy - it just happens to be a 'sharper' form of communication and so gets more press.  (E.g. A Muslim may consider it just as blasphemous for a book to link the life and teaching of Mohammed with modern terrorism.  But when the point is made via a comic, it becomes incendiary.)  'Comedy' should not be blamed for blasphemy just because it makes the same points more persuasively.
  3. Jesus died on a blasphemy charge.  The people of God, the religious establishment, the bible guys - they made the blasphemy charge.  But they were wrong.  Really, really wrong.  The heathen Pilate gave Jesus His proper title in death (King of Jews) and the centurion confessed Him rightly (Son of God).  But the religious conservatives, they truly blasphemed the LORD.  It takes the people of God to really blaspheme.  And yet, even in this act Jesus prays 'Father forgive them...'
  4. Heaven and hell depends on blasphemy.  Mark 3:28-39 "'I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.  But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.'  Jesus said this because they were saying 'He has an evil spirit.'"   Every blasphemy will be forgiven a person, but if they continue to reject Jesus (as the Pharisees had been doing) then they blaspheme the Spirit Whose role is to testify to Christ.  This is the ultimate blasphemy.  Obviously you can blaspheme Christ and then repent (as Paul did, 1 Tim 1:13).  But there is an inveterate blaspheming of Christ that takes a person to hell.
  5. If there's one thing a non-Christian can do that should upset us it's blasphemy.  (A couple of times I've told friends they can swear all they like, but don't use mybest friend as a swear word.)  Correcting a non-Christian's moral code won't help a bit.  Correcting their view of Jesus, now that's worthwhile.  It could be a great gospel witness to let everything else slide except His Name.
  6. It's one thing to say blasphemy is wrong - it is!!  But the real question is what we should do when a non-Christian blasphemes Christ.
  7. Your view of the sword is key in this discussion.  By sword I mean the whole apparatus of statehood - the legislature, judiciary and law enforcement.  Should matters of faith be upheld or coerced by the sword?  I don't think so.  Ask yourself - why is blasphemy wrong?  Is it wrong because it's against the law of the land?  Surely we don't get at the evil of blasphemy by calling the cops!
  8. Romans 2:24 is an eye-opener.  Paul, reflecting on both Isaiah and Ezekiel says: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."  Not because of them - those wicked heathen.  Because of you - the people of God!  Why isn't our first response to blasphemy to come before Jesus and confess our part in bringing dishonour to His name?
  9. The blasphemy we receive is a barometer of the gospel we preach.  What has the culture understood of what we reverence?  Wouldn't it be wonderful if today's church was ridiculed for worshipping the crucified God - as in the Alexamenos graffitt??  As it is the culture stumbles over entirely different stones we've placed in their way.  Shame on us.
  10. If it's the church that's ridiculed, the godly thing to do would be to own whatever is true about the accusations, and to seek to address them in contrition and repentance.
  11.  Turning the other cheek would be a radically Christian response - and what a witness.  Is it not what Jesus did on the cross as He is blasphemed, dying under the blasphemy charge!?  To apply this to today - Were there any Christians outside Jerry Springer: The Opera holding up "Jesus loves Lee and Herring"?  (Stewart Lee and Richard Herring wrote it).  Wouldn't that have answered their blasphemy against Christ with the true strength of Jesus?
  12. The whole world was waiting to see how the Muslim world would react to the Mohammed comics.  Those who reacted violently confirmed every fear the comic was based upon.  The whole world also looks to Christians to see how we will respond.  And there is, on some level, an expectation that we will react differently.  There is an expectation that forgiveness will be part of our response.  And that's a good thing.  But some Christians say "That's the problem, these comedians target Christianity because they know we'll put up with things the Muslims never would."  Well yes.  But that weakness is precisely our strength.  May we go on being the only group on the planet that can actually handle ridicule and answer with grace.
  13. Spurgeon's comment on apologetics is greatly applicable here:  "Defend Jesus??  Why I would rather defend a lion.  Let the Lion out of His cage, the Lion will defend Himself!"  We don't respond to blasphemy by calling the cops but by preaching the gospel - the gospel that every blasphemy will be forgiven in the Blasphemed One.

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