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#Post#: 24920--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: February 8, 2021, 10:10 pm
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/121956.png?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2021/february/evangelical-christians-must-take-action-to-love-thy-neighbo.html
Evangelical Christians Must Take Action to Love Thy Neighbor
Extending grace can be a powerful public witness for
Evangelicals today.
The events of this past summer were a wake-up call for
Christians, including Evangelicals. From acknowledging
centuries-old, endemic racial inequality from the pulpit, calls
to prayer, protest, and action, many are trying to find ways to
step from the sidelines to the playing field in the pursuit of
justice.
Indeed, our faith calls us to action and accountability as God’s
people. The Old and New Testaments of the Bible express a
preoccupation with justice. For example, biblical teaching found
in Isaiah, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression”
and Hebrews, “… remember those in prison as if you were together
with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you
yourselves were suffering” are just two examples of the ancient
Judeo-Christian witness to a God with unwavering commitment to
justice.
Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship®, prioritized the
Hebrews mandate to come alongside those affected by crime and
incarcerated. We believe God created humanity in God’s own
image, and no life is beyond God’s redemptive touch. Our faith
drives us to work to bring the restorative justice envisioned
and empowered by God and His Word into the broken lives,
relationships, and communities we serve.
Redeeming systems as well as souls
Along the way, we have witnessed firsthand racial disparities in
the criminal justice system.
Stark racial imbalances at every stage of the nation’s criminal
justice system confront people of color, particularly Black
Americans. For example, at the arrest stage, while only 13% of
Americans are Black, 27% of those arrested are Black.[1]
Similarly, the 2018 adult probation population was composed of
55% white individuals but 30% Black individuals. The remaining
probation population included 13% Hispanic, 1% American
Indian/Alaska Native, 1% Asian, less than 1% Native
Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and less than 1% individuals
who identify as two or more races.[2]
Communities of color are subject to higher-than-average rates of
traffic stops and police searches, and African Americans are
more likely than white Americans to be subject to the threat or
actual use of force by police.[3] African Americans are
significantly more likely to be arrested for a drug crime, even
though rates of drug use and trafficking are roughly equal
across all races.[4] Further, federal sentencing data indicate
that when convicted, Black males are often subjected to
harsher-than-average sentences and less likely to receive any
form of reduced sentence, charge, or plea agreement, when
compared to similarly situated individuals of non-African
American descent.[5]
Historically, evangelical Christianity has greatly emphasized an
individual faith commitment that transforms the whole person.
Not surprisingly, Barna found 93% of evangelicals agreed their
values make caring for prisoners important (compared to 75% of
Americans generally).
In our focus on the individual, evangelical Christians—including
me—sometimes lose sight of the Gospel’s community implications.
Not only do souls require redemption but so do societal systems
and structures. Yes, we should “visit the prisoner,” but we must
also ask ourselves whether or not it is just that they’re there
in the first place, or for so long. Further, in the U.S., some
44,000 legal barriers to housing, employment, and other
opportunities prevent people with a criminal record from
flourishing. While we share with incarcerated men and women that
all things are possible through Christ, we cannot be complacent
about a system that, upon their release, holds them back.
Living faith—inside and out
Matthew Charles spent decades caught in the disparities of the
system. Arrested in 1995 for selling crack cocaine, Matthew
received a 35-year sentence in federal prison. Not long after
his arrest, another incarcerated man gave him a Gideon Bible.
After reading it cover to cover, Matthew gave his life to
Christ. “From that point on, things just started dramatically
changing for the better in my life. It was just amazing,” he
said.
But while Matthew experienced personal transformation, the
system that imprisoned him was slow to change. The
disproportionate sentencing that mandated higher prison terms
for crack than powdered cocaine kept Matthew in prison 16 years
for his nonviolent crime. And though his term eventually was
reduced, and Matthew left prison in June 2016 under the Fair
Sentencing Act of in 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice won an
appeal claiming that he was ineligible for early release.
Matthew then was sent back to prison in May 2018, on the grounds
the law could not be applied retroactively.
Matthew’s story caught the nation’s attention. Thousands
demanded his release. Then, on January 3, 2019, Matthew Charles
became one of the very first people set free under the
bipartisan FIRST STEP Act (FSA), which Prison Fellowship helped
craft and supported alongside an extraordinary range of
partners. And we continue the work of creating constructive
culture for the restoration of incarcerated men and women, but
we can’t stop there.
Charles Colson often repeated Abraham Kuyper’s words: “There is
not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence
over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry,
Mine!” This includes the criminal justice system. Concerned
Christian advocates must help transform our system with biblical
values like fairness and restoration. According to the Barna
poll, communities of color—those most adversely impacted by the
systems’ failings—already know this and are, unsurprisingly,
more likely to agree the Church should support second chance
reforms and to consider elected officials’ positions on justice
when voting.
Toward a more just society
According to Barna polling, most Christians already believe the
primary purpose of the criminal justice system should be
restoration. They believe in redemption and second chances. At
this time when the tide is turning toward racial equality,
Christians must not let anything, including a lack of
knowledge—both about America’s current state of criminal justice
and about how to apply what the Bible says about justice—hinder
taking action on our beliefs.
The changes we need to make are not abstract but readily within
our grasp. Church leaders can educate themselves on the state of
the criminal justice system and how to use biblical values to
address its current ills, including racial injustice. They can
lead their congregations to embrace second chances as a public
expression of grace.
After all, it’s not a new calling but a fuller realization of
our oldest one—to love God and our neighbors as ourselves.
[1] U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates, U.S. Census
Bureau, (April 2020),
HTML https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219;<br
/>Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the U.S., 2018:
Arrests by Race and Ethnicity, 2018, Table 43A, Uniform Criminal
Reporting,:
HTML https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/table-43;.
[2] U.S. Department of Justice, Probation and Parole in the
United States, 2017-2018, Appendix Table 4, By Danielle Kaeble,
Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
August. 2020,
HTML https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus1718.pdf
.
[3] U.S. Department of Justice, Contacts Between the Policy and
the Public, Table 1, By Elizabeth Davis, Anthony Whyde, Lynn
Langton Ph.D, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, Nov. 2018,
HTML https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpp15.pdf.
[4] Results obtained by calculated data obtained from, Federal
Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the U.S., 2018: Arrests by
Race and Ethnicity, 2018, Table 43A, Uniform Criminal Reporting:
HTML https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/crime-in-the-u.s.-2018/tables/table-43;.
[5] United States Sentencing Commission, Demographic Differences
in Sentencing, at p. 2, Nov. 2017,
HTML https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171114_Demographics.pdf.
If you’re interested in getting involved with the work of Prison
Fellowship and other pursuing similar goals, consider these
opportunities:
Sign the Justice Declaration at justicedeclaration.org: The
Justice Declaration is a statement proclaiming the unique
responsibility and capacity of the Church to address crime and
overincarceration.
Complete the Outrageous Justice® small-group study with a free
copy : Developed by Prison Fellowship, Outrageous Justice is a
free small-group study that explores the criminal justice system
and pursuing restoration.
Host a Second Chance® Sunday: Every April, Prison Fellowship
raises awareness on the issues discussed above through Second
Chance® Month. You and your church can get involved with the
toolkit.
Heather Rice-Minus is the senior vice president of advocacy and
church mobilization at Prison Fellowship. Founded by the late
Charles Colson, Prison Fellowship is the nation’s largest
Christian nonprofit serving prisoners, former prisoners, and
their families, and a leading voice for restorative criminal
justice reform.
#Post#: 25182--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: February 13, 2021, 8:57 am
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/121863.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/ravi-zacharias-rzim-investigation-sexual-abuse-sexting-rape.html
Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During
Massages, and a Rape Allegation
His ministry, preparing to downsize in the wake of a new
investigation, expresses regret for “misplaced trust” in a
leader who used his esteem to conceal his sexual misconduct.
A four-month investigation found the late Ravi Zacharias
leveraged his reputation as a world-famous Christian apologist
to abuse massage therapists in the United States and abroad over
more than a decade while the ministry led by his family members
and loyal allies failed to hold him accountable.
He used his need for massage and frequent overseas travel to
hide his abusive behavior, luring victims by building trust
through spiritual conversations and offering funds straight from
his ministry.
A 12-page report released Thursday by Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries (RZIM) confirms abuse by Zacharias at
day spas he owned in Atlanta and uncovers five additional
victims in the US, as well as evidence of sexual abuse in
Thailand, India, and Malaysia.
Even a limited review of Zacharias’s old devices revealed
contacts for more than 200 massage therapists in the US and Asia
and hundreds of images of young women, including some that
showed the women naked. Zacharias solicited and received photos
until a few months before his death in May 2020 at age 74.
Zacharias used tens of thousands of dollars of ministry funds
dedicated to a “humanitarian effort” to pay four massage
therapists, providing them housing, schooling, and monthly
support for extended periods of time, according to
investigators.
One woman told the investigators that “after he arranged for the
ministry to provide her with financial support, he required sex
from her.” She called it rape.
She said Zacharias “made her pray with him to thank God for the
‘opportunity’ they both received” and, as with other victims,
“called her his ‘reward’ for living a life of service to God,”
the report says. Zacharias warned the woman—a fellow believer—if
she ever spoke out against him, she would be responsible for
millions of souls lost when his reputation was damaged.
The findings, alongside details revealed over months of internal
reckoning at RZIM, challenge the picture many have had of
Zacharias.
When he died in May, he was praised for his faithful witness,
his commitment to the truth, and his personal integrity. Now it
is clear that, offstage, the man so long admired by Christians
around the world abused numerous women and manipulated those
around him to turn a blind eye.
Miller & Martin attorneys Lynsey Barron and William Eiselstein,
hired by RZIM to investigate, interviewed 50 witnesses and
examined phones Zacharias used from 2014 to 2018. In the end,
the lawyers said “we are confident that we uncovered sufficient
evidence to conclude that Mr. Zacharias engaged in sexual
misconduct,” though the investigation was not exhaustive.
The RZIM board released a statement alongside the investigation
expressing regret and taking some responsibility:
“Ravi engaged in a series of extensive measures to conceal his
behavior from his family, colleagues, and friends. However, we
also recognize that in situations of prolonged abuse, there
often exist significant structural, policy, and cultural
problems. ... We were trusted by our staff, our donors, and the
public to mentor, oversee, and ensure the accountability of Ravi
Zacharias, and in this we have failed.”
RZIM hired Miller & Martin after a September 2020 Christianity
Today report on allegations of abuse by three women who worked
at Zacharias’s spas. Initially, the ministry leadership stated
it did not believe the women. Today that has changed.
“We believe not only the women who made their allegations public
but also additional women who had not previously made public
allegations against Ravi but whose identities and stories were
uncovered during the investigation,” the statement said.
In a span of eight months, RZIM has gone from having to
reimagine the work of its global ministry following the death of
its renowned namesake to having to restructure entirely, as
Christians inside and outside the organization lost trust in its
longtime leader.
Multiple speakers and RZIM staff members left the ministry
during the course of the investigation, concerned about top
officials’ initial response to the allegations. RZIM’s Canadian
branch suspended fundraising efforts and donation collection
through April, while the UK-based Zacharias Trust is threatening
to split if RZIM does not apologize to victims and institute
major reforms. (Update: The day after the report was released
the UK board voted unanimously to separate from RZIM and choose
a new name.)
Even before the report’s release on Thursday evening, RZIM
leadership had shifted to reduce the involvement of the
Zacharias family. Margie Zacharias, Ravi’s widow, resigned from
the board and the ministry in January, while her daughter Sarah
Davis stepped down as board chair but remains CEO.
Staff members inside RZIM say the ministry—the largest
apologetics organization in the world—plans to dramatically
downsize to as few as 10 US apologists and a few international
speakers, supported by a small staff.
Investigation limited by NDA
In addition to confirming previous reports of abuse at
Zacharias’s spas, the new report corroborated four-year-old
allegations by Lori Anne Thompson, the Canadian woman who says
Zacharias manipulated her into sending him sexually explicit
texts and photos. Her case was the first sexual scandal related
to Zacharias to go public, and it inspired other victims to come
forward.
Zacharias had sued Thompson in 2017, claiming that her lawyer’s
letter to the RZIM board alleging sexual abuse was actually an
elaborate attempt at extortion. The board wrote on Thursday that
“we believe Lori Anne Thompson has told the truth about the
nature of her relationship with Ravi Zacharias.”
Investigators interviewed other witnesses who “recounted similar
conduct” as Thompson’s allegations and found a six-year-long
pattern of text messaging with other women before and after her.
Yet Thompson and her husband, Brad, were unable to participate
in the recent investigation themselves. The late apologist’s
estate refused investigators’ requests to lift a nondisclosure
agreement (NDA) to allow the Thompsons to speak about what
happened. Their attorney, Basyle Tchividjian, told investigators
that with everything that has come to light, the fact that the
Thompsons are still bound by an NDA is “reprehensible.”
Davis wrote in a ministry-wide email that RZIM “asked for a
modification to the NDA for the purpose of the investigation,”
but the organization has no authority over the estate, which is
controlled by her mother, Margie Zacharias. The estate also
refused to have Zacharias’s personal attorneys hand over any
evidence collected from his devices at the time, leaving a gap
in the record examined by Miller & Martin.
According to the investigative report, however, Zacharias
continued soliciting sexual images of women as he settled the
case with the Thompsons, defended himself publicly, and assured
the RZIM leadership and staff he did nothing wrong and there was
no need to investigate.
“While he told his staff that his real mistake in the Thompson
matter was not alerting someone that he was receiving
photographs of another woman, we have no indication that he ever
went to RZIM management or its Board on the more than 200
occasions he received photographs of women during and after the
Thompson matter,” the report says.
In fact, one day after Zacharias publicly stated in 2017 that he
had learned a “difficult and painful lesson” over his
communication with Lori Anne Thompson, he received more
photographs from another woman, investigators found. That woman
went on to send him nude pictures as well.
One thing did change, though. After the Thompson case, the
investigators noticed that Zacharias did a better job of
deleting his messages in ways that could not be detected or
uncovered.
In its statement released with the report, the RZIM board
acknowledged the failure and apologized to Lori Anne Thompson.
“We were wrong,” the statement says. “It is with profound grief
that we recognize that because we did not believe the Thompsons
and both privately and publicly perpetuated a false narrative,
they were slandered for years and their suffering was greatly
prolonged and intensified. This leaves us heartbroken and
ashamed.”
‘He was able to hide his misconduct in plain sight’
Much of the abuse uncovered by investigators took place around
massage, which Zacharias relied on to treat a chronic back
injury. He regularly traveled with a personal masseuse and
criticized a fellow RZIM staff member who questioned the
“appearance of impropriety” for doing so.
While the report did not interview sources abroad, investigators
uncovered evidence that Zacharias routinely met massage
therapists when he traveled.
“He would often arrange for massage treatments in his hotel room
when he was likely alone,” the report said. “According to his
text messages, at times he would meet the therapists in the
hotel lobby and at other times he would direct them to come
straight to his room.”
In Bangkok, he owned two apartments in the early 2010s, sharing
a building with one of his massage therapists, the investigators
found. The notes app on his phone included Thai and Mandarin
translations of phrases like “I’d like to have a beautiful
memory with you,” “little bit further,” and “your lips are
especially beautiful.”
The massage therapists and the women pictured in Zacharias’s
phone albums were decades younger than him, many in their 20s.
The investigation did not find any evidence that RZIM leadership
or staff knew about Zacharias’s sexual misconduct. It also shows
the ministry provided little to no accountability for its
namesake and founder.
“Because his need for massage treatments was well known and
accepted, he was able to hide his misconduct in plain sight,”
the report says.
Zacharias spoke about the importance of “physical safeguards” to
“protect my integrity,” but the Miller & Martin report notes
that “As the architect of those ‘physical safeguards,’ Mr.
Zacharias well knew how to elude them.”
The investigation confirmed that Zacharias lied about not being
alone with a woman other than his wife or daughters. He also
maintained multiple phones at all times, kept them on a
different wireless plan than RZIM, and never used the wireless
network at the office. Zacharias said this was for security, but
it ensured his communication could not be monitored.
The RZIM board’s statement acknowledges that it has “fallen
gravely short” and expresses regret “that we allowed our
misplaced trust in Ravi to result in him having less oversight
and accountability than would have been wise and loving.”
Each example in the report contrasts with the public witness of
a leader—and a ministry—known for preaching integrity and truth.
“Those of you who have seen me in public have no idea what I’m
like in private,” Zacharias told his supporters in a talk he
gave about a year before he died, in a recording shared with CT.
“God does. God does. And I encourage you today to make that
commitment and say, ‘I’m going to be the man in private who will
receive the divine accolade, “Well done, thou good and faithful
servant.’”
Many who looked up to Zacharias as a mentor, model, and
spiritual father have been trying to grapple with the new
information, their feelings of betrayal, and questions about
their own responsibility.
“I feel disappointed in myself and others who could have pushed
harder against the tides of submissive loyalty to demand better
answers earlier, as there is no part of the evangelical creed
that honours cowardice or sacrifices conscience,” Dan Paterson,
the former head of RZIM in Australia, wrote on Facebook
Wednesday night.
“I feel a profound sense of the fear of the Lord, knowing that
one day I too will give an account, where like the RZ report,
everything done under the shroud of darkness will be made known.
Jesus comes to restore justice through judgment. Oh, how I wish
Ravi repented here!”
Changes coming to RZIM
The board (whose names are not publicly available) and
leadership have been planning for a reckoning since
investigators’ interim report in December prepared RZIM to
expect the worst.
Going into the process in September 2020, the ministry’s
official stance was that the allegations couldn’t be true but
that it would conduct an investigation to clear Zacharias’s
name. At first, RZIM hired the firm of one of the lawyers who
sued the Thompsons. Several people inside the ministry said vice
president Abdu Murray suggested enlisting a “rough” ex-cop to
track down the accusers and uncover information the ministry
could use to discredit them.
RZIM changed course and hired Miller & Martin in early October,
after several speakers said they found the allegations credible
and demanded the ministry do a real and reputable investigation.
“I believe each of us bear a degree of responsibility for what
we’ve all been blind to, what we’ve unwittingly enabled, what
we’ve not spoken against, and what we’ve allowed to go on and
continue,” Sam Allberry, one of the speakers, told colleagues in
the UK.
As CT previously reported, fights over complicity and
accountability roiled the ministry for months as the
investigation continued. At the start of the new year, RZIM was
bracing for a split.
Davis informed staff that some global offices may decide to
separate from RZIM and become independent, national
organizations. Currently, each office has its own articles of
incorporation or national charter as a charity and is associated
with the US-based ministry through an “affiliate agreement.”
This has allowed RZIM to function as a single global ministry.
“We have been able to operate as one organization in practice
for over 35 years, however, in a time of crisis such as ours,
this has caused some of our boards to need to exercise decisions
separate from the HQ and International Board in order to make
what they feel are the best decisions for their entity,” Davis
wrote.
Some senior apologists in RZIM think national separation is the
only way to preserve parts of the ministry that are doing good
work.
John Lennox, a Northern Irish mathematician and apologist who
famously debated Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and
other “new atheists,” has urged the UK branch of RZIM to
separate. Lennox withdrew from all association with RZIM the day
after CT reported the spa allegations, but told British
apologists he would happily work with them if they were to form
an independent organization.
“The current allegations are of such a serious nature that I
cannot be involved in any ongoing activity in the name of RZIM,”
Lennox wrote in a statement to the UK and US boards. “In my
view, a renaming of the organisation and fundamental
restructuring of the organisation and board needs to be done and
done very quickly, if the potential of the marvelous young team
of apologists is to be retained in any collective sense.”
Other national boards are also in the process of disentangling
themselves from the US headquarters, according to multiple
sources inside the ministry. The Canadian board said in a
statement that “It is clear that this ministry cannot be built
on previous structures” but “must be built on new approaches and
relationships.”
The Canadian apologetics ministry also laid off four team
members, including Daniel Gilman, a speaker who decided he
believed the women who accused Zacharias of sexual abuse and
vocally challenged RZIM leadership to acknowledge complicity.
Gilman told CT he was deeply concerned the ministry he loved
would choose to rebrand but not repent.
Gilman’s severance package included an NDA, which would bar him
from “any action that could reasonably be anticipated to cause
harm to the reputation” of or “negatively reflect” on RZIM.
Gilman protested and the NDA was replaced with an agreement to
keep donor information confidential.
Many more layoffs are expected soon. RZIM employees told CT that
they expect the international ministry, which once boasted 100
speakers and 250 staff members nationwide, will be reduced to a
fraction of that. Davis told staff that layoffs will be
announced in the weeks after the Miller & Martin report is
released.
“This is a very difficult decision necessary only because of the
situation we find ourselves in,” she wrote. “We are profoundly
sorry for this.”
After the staff reductions and national splits, the team that
remains will likely be some of the speakers who were closest to
Zacharias and have well-established relationships with major
donors. People inside RZIM expect the core to include speakers
Michael Ramsden, Abdu Murray, and Vince Vitale, led by Davis.
Davis stepped down as chair of the board, handing the reins over
to Chris Blattner, a retired energy company executive and major
donor from Minnesota. During the crisis, however, Davis has
taken on more of the day-to-day management of RZIM, personally
putting her name to all internal and external communication.
The RZIM board stated Thursday that “In light of the findings of
the investigation and the ongoing evaluation, we are seeking the
Lord’s will regarding the future of this ministry … We will be
spending focused time praying and fasting as we discern how God
is leading, and we will speak to this in the near future.”
RZIM announced it is bringing in victims advocate Rachael
Denhollander to educate the board and leadership on sexual abuse
and advise them on best practices going forward. The ministry
has also hired a management consulting firm to evaluate
“structures, culture, policies, processes, finances, and
practices” and propose reforms.
Answered prayer
The secret of Zacharias’s abuse started to unravel the day of
his funeral in May 2020. One of the massage therapists he
groped, masturbated in front of, and asked for sexually explicit
images watched in shock as the apologist was honored and
celebrated on a livestream. Famous people, including Vice
President Mike Pence and Christian football star Tim Tebow,
spoke of Zacharias in glowing terms.
Has no one come forward? she thought. No one?
She worried about other women who might be out there, hurting.
She prayed that something would happen.
The woman googled “Ravi Zacharias sex scandal” and found the
blog RaviWatch, run by Steve Baughman, an atheist who had been
tracking and reporting on Zacharias’s “fishy claims” since 2015.
Baughman blogged on Zacharias’s false statements about academic
credentials, the sexting allegations, and the subsequent
lawsuit. When the woman read about what happened to Lori Anne
Thompson, she recognized what had happened to that woman was
what had happened to her.
As far as she could tell, this atheist blogger was the only one
who cared that Zacharias had sexually abused people and gotten
away with it. She reached out to Baughman and then eventually
spoke to Christianity Today about Zacharias’s spas, the women
who worked there, and the abuse that happened behind closed
doors.
The woman from the spas told CT she didn’t expect anything from
RZIM. Not an acknowledgement. Certainly not an apology. A
multimillion-dollar ministry built in one man’s name and on his
reputation would never admit the truth of his secrets, she
thought.
She only spoke out because she wanted other women—women hurt by
Zacharias, and women victimized by other famous and celebrated
Christians—to know the truth. She wanted them to know that they
weren’t alone.
This week, she believes God answered her prayer.
“I think it happened in God’s perfect time,” she said. “It’s in
his time; it’s in his way. The Lord is doing this, and what will
be left over is what God wants to be left over.”
#Post#: 25185--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: February 13, 2021, 9:02 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/122082.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/ravi-zacharias-books-harper-collins-lee-strobel-rzim-report.html
Ravi Zacharias’s Books Pulled by HarperCollins After RZIM
Investigative Report
Author Lee Strobel also plans to revise his “Case for Faith” to
remove the late apologist.
The biggest Christian publisher in the United States will no
longer offer resources by the late Ravi Zacharias following the
final report of an investigation confirming his years-long
pattern of abuse, and is working with at least one prominent
author to remove Zacharias from other works.
HarperCollins Christian Publishing—which includes Zondervan and
Thomas Nelson—had published more than 20 titles authored,
coauthored, or edited by Zacharias over a 26-year span,
including Can Man Live Without God?, which had been released in
21 languages.
“In September, when the most-recent sexual misconduct
allegations against the late Ravi Zacharias surfaced,
HarperCollins Christian Publishing immediately suspended all
projects and shipments of his work,” said Casey Francis Harrell,
vice president of corporate communications.
“Following the findings in the independent report, the company
will immediately take all his publications out of print. We are
deeply saddened, and we mourn for the victims.”
The HarperCollins site listed 16 English titles authored by
Zacharias, which totaled more than 2 million copies in sales by
the time of his death in May 2020. One was a marriage book
offering “biblical wisdom” for “lasting love.”
The month before Zacharias died, Zondervan had published Seeing
Jesus from the East, which the apologist co-authored with Abdu
Murray, and the book ranked No. 6 on the Evangelical Christian
Publishers Association bestseller list last July. Other
bestsellers included Who Made God? (2003) and The Logic of God
(2019).
Jesus for You, Zacharias’s forthcoming book with Vince Vitale
through Thomas Nelson, will no longer be released, blogger Steve
Baughman confirmed last month.
Lee Strobel announced on Twitter on Friday that he and Zondervan
decided to halt printings of his book The Case for Faith, which
featured Zacharias, and would publish a revised version instead.
Strobel interviewed Zacharias more than 20 years ago. The
interview spans 19 pages in the book, with Strobel describing
the apologist as “gentle-spirited but with razor-sharp
intellect” as he responds to questions about the exclusive
claims of Christianity.
Zacharias is the latest Christian leader whose abuse revelations
or other sinful behavior have caused followers to reconsider
whether or not to keep using their teachings. Publishers have
likewise pulled titles by leaders such as Bill Hybels, James
MacDonald, and Mark Driscoll after they were forced from their
leadership positions.
Jeff Crosby, the publisher of InterVarsity Press, previously
told CT, “as a publisher, when a pastor-author has been credibly
accused of or acknowledged wrong-doing in her or his leadership
context, in particular, I believe we have an obligation to take
the time to carefully and thoughtfully discern whether the
published works should continue to be made available and act on
what we discern even if it means lost revenue.”
The RZIM board statement did not indicate how the ministry will
address promoting or sharing resources by Zacharias going
forward; however, the apologist’s work has become less prominent
on parts of its own site.
Zacharias’s titles Can Man Live Without God? and Beyond Opinion:
Living the Faith We Defend, which appeared on RZIM’s list of
“Recommended Reading” in Christian apologetics as recently as
last fall, no longer appear on the page.
The board wrote in its statement Thursday that “we remain
passionate about seeing the gospel preached through the
questions of culture,” but that it would be “seeking the Lord’s
will regarding the future of this ministry.”
#Post#: 25192--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: guest8 Date: February 13, 2021, 7:06 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=889.msg25185#msg25185
date=1613228528]
[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/122082.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/ravi-zacharias-books-harper-collins-lee-strobel-rzim-report.html
Ravi Zacharias’s Books Pulled by HarperCollins After RZIM
Investigative Report
Author Lee Strobel also plans to revise his “Case for Faith” to
remove the late apologist.
The biggest Christian publisher in the United States will no
longer offer resources by the late Ravi Zacharias following the
final report of an investigation confirming his years-long
pattern of abuse, and is working with at least one prominent
author to remove Zacharias from other works.
HarperCollins Christian Publishing—which includes Zondervan and
Thomas Nelson—had published more than 20 titles authored,
coauthored, or edited by Zacharias over a 26-year span,
including Can Man Live Without God?, which had been released in
21 languages.
“In September, when the most-recent sexual misconduct
allegations against the late Ravi Zacharias surfaced,
HarperCollins Christian Publishing immediately suspended all
projects and shipments of his work,” said Casey Francis Harrell,
vice president of corporate communications.
“Following the findings in the independent report, the company
will immediately take all his publications out of print. We are
deeply saddened, and we mourn for the victims.”
The HarperCollins site listed 16 English titles authored by
Zacharias, which totaled more than 2 million copies in sales by
the time of his death in May 2020. One was a marriage book
offering “biblical wisdom” for “lasting love.”
The month before Zacharias died, Zondervan had published Seeing
Jesus from the East, which the apologist co-authored with Abdu
Murray, and the book ranked No. 6 on the Evangelical Christian
Publishers Association bestseller list last July. Other
bestsellers included Who Made God? (2003) and The Logic of God
(2019).
Jesus for You, Zacharias’s forthcoming book with Vince Vitale
through Thomas Nelson, will no longer be released, blogger Steve
Baughman confirmed last month.
Lee Strobel announced on Twitter on Friday that he and Zondervan
decided to halt printings of his book The Case for Faith, which
featured Zacharias, and would publish a revised version instead.
Strobel interviewed Zacharias more than 20 years ago. The
interview spans 19 pages in the book, with Strobel describing
the apologist as “gentle-spirited but with razor-sharp
intellect” as he responds to questions about the exclusive
claims of Christianity.
Zacharias is the latest Christian leader whose abuse revelations
or other sinful behavior have caused followers to reconsider
whether or not to keep using their teachings. Publishers have
likewise pulled titles by leaders such as Bill Hybels, James
MacDonald, and Mark Driscoll after they were forced from their
leadership positions.
Jeff Crosby, the publisher of InterVarsity Press, previously
told CT, “as a publisher, when a pastor-author has been credibly
accused of or acknowledged wrong-doing in her or his leadership
context, in particular, I believe we have an obligation to take
the time to carefully and thoughtfully discern whether the
published works should continue to be made available and act on
what we discern even if it means lost revenue.”
The RZIM board statement did not indicate how the ministry will
address promoting or sharing resources by Zacharias going
forward; however, the apologist’s work has become less prominent
on parts of its own site.
Zacharias’s titles Can Man Live Without God? and Beyond Opinion:
Living the Faith We Defend, which appeared on RZIM’s list of
“Recommended Reading” in Christian apologetics as recently as
last fall, no longer appear on the page.
The board wrote in its statement Thursday that “we remain
passionate about seeing the gospel preached through the
questions of culture,” but that it would be “seeking the Lord’s
will regarding the future of this ministry.”
[/quote]
Cancel society strikes again....so Sad for them!....I bet it
made their day and May be it was the best day they will have...
Blade
#Post#: 26354--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: March 5, 2021, 7:39 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/122399.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/march/conservative-umc-split-postponed-global-methodist-church.html
Conservative United Methodists Plan Breakaway Denomination
The new Global Methodist Church will leave the UMC regardless of
the General Conference decision, which has been delayed until
2022.
Conservative United Methodists have chosen a name for the
denomination they plan to form if a proposal to split the United
Methodist Church is successful: The Global Methodist Church.
The Global Methodist Church unveiled its new name, logo, and
website on Monday, days after the United Methodist Church
announced it was once again postponing the May 2020 meeting that
was set to consider the proposal to split.
That puts the likely launch of the planned denomination at least
a year and a half away.
“Over the past year the council members, and hundreds of people
who have informed their work, have faithfully and thoughtfully
arrived at this point,” the Rev. Keith Boyette, president of the
Wesleyan Covenant Association and chair of the Transitional
Leadership Council that is guiding the creation of the Global
Methodist Church, said in a post on the WCA website.
“They are happy to share with others a wealth of information
about a church they believe will be steeped in the lifegiving
confessions of the Christian faith.”
The United Methodist Church’s General Conference, its global
decision-making body, is now scheduled to meet August 29 to
September 6, 2022, at the Minneapolis Convention Center in
Minneapolis.
Delegates are expected to take up a proposal to split the
denomination called the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace
Through Separation.
The proposal negotiated by 16 United Methodist bishops and
advocacy group leaders from across theological divides, would
create a new conservative “traditionalist” Methodist
denomination—that’s the Global Methodist Church—that would
receive $25 million over the next four years. Individual
churches and annual conferences could choose to join the new
entity; otherwise, they’ll remain in the existing denomination
by default.
Calls to split one of the largest denominations in the United
States have grown since a 2019 special session of the General
Conference approved the so-called Traditional Plan strengthening
its bans on the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ United
Methodists.
At the time of the 2019 special session, Boyette’s WCA made
clear it planned to split from the United Methodist Church if
delegates to the special session had not approved Traditional
Plan.
On its website, the Global Methodist Church says it similarly
would move forward with a split if delegates to the General
Conference meeting in 2022 do not approve the proposed protocol
— or if support for the protocol wanes in the intervening year
and a half.
The website describes the planned denomination as a “new church
rooted in Scripture and the historic and life giving teachings
of the Christian faith” and emphasizes its desire to be a global
church.
It also includes downloadable versions of a proposed
Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline in multiple
languages.
“True to our roots, we’re a patient and methodical people,”
Boyette said on the WCA website.
“We want to do our very best to help theologically conservative
local churches, laity, and pastors navigate the transitional
period as smoothly as possible. And then we look forward to the
Global Methodist Church’s convening General Conference where we
hope the duly elected delegates will find what we have done to
be helpful. It will be their great task and responsibility to
discern God’s will and so help all its local churches and people
live fully into the body of Christ.”
Already, one group of progressive United Methodists has
announced it isn’t waiting for a vote to form its own
denomination.
The Liberation Methodist Connexion launched last November with a
virtual worship service and introductory presentation. The
LMX—which doesn’t expect members to leave their current
denominations or faiths to join—stresses action over doctrine
and emphasizes the full inclusion of people of all gender
expressions and sexual identities, races and ethnicities, mental
and physical abilities, sizes and ages.
#Post#: 26434--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: guest8 Date: March 6, 2021, 6:03 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote author=patrick jane link=topic=889.msg26354#msg26354
date=1614951568]
[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/122399.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/march/conservative-umc-split-postponed-global-methodist-church.html
Conservative United Methodists Plan Breakaway Denomination
The new Global Methodist Church will leave the UMC regardless of
the General Conference decision, which has been delayed until
2022.
Conservative United Methodists have chosen a name for the
denomination they plan to form if a proposal to split the United
Methodist Church is successful: The Global Methodist Church.
The Global Methodist Church unveiled its new name, logo, and
website on Monday, days after the United Methodist Church
announced it was once again postponing the May 2020 meeting that
was set to consider the proposal to split.
That puts the likely launch of the planned denomination at least
a year and a half away.
“Over the past year the council members, and hundreds of people
who have informed their work, have faithfully and thoughtfully
arrived at this point,” the Rev. Keith Boyette, president of the
Wesleyan Covenant Association and chair of the Transitional
Leadership Council that is guiding the creation of the Global
Methodist Church, said in a post on the WCA website.
“They are happy to share with others a wealth of information
about a church they believe will be steeped in the lifegiving
confessions of the Christian faith.”
The United Methodist Church’s General Conference, its global
decision-making body, is now scheduled to meet August 29 to
September 6, 2022, at the Minneapolis Convention Center in
Minneapolis.
Delegates are expected to take up a proposal to split the
denomination called the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace
Through Separation.
The proposal negotiated by 16 United Methodist bishops and
advocacy group leaders from across theological divides, would
create a new conservative “traditionalist” Methodist
denomination—that’s the Global Methodist Church—that would
receive $25 million over the next four years. Individual
churches and annual conferences could choose to join the new
entity; otherwise, they’ll remain in the existing denomination
by default.
Calls to split one of the largest denominations in the United
States have grown since a 2019 special session of the General
Conference approved the so-called Traditional Plan strengthening
its bans on the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ United
Methodists.
At the time of the 2019 special session, Boyette’s WCA made
clear it planned to split from the United Methodist Church if
delegates to the special session had not approved Traditional
Plan.
On its website, the Global Methodist Church says it similarly
would move forward with a split if delegates to the General
Conference meeting in 2022 do not approve the proposed protocol
— or if support for the protocol wanes in the intervening year
and a half.
The website describes the planned denomination as a “new church
rooted in Scripture and the historic and life giving teachings
of the Christian faith” and emphasizes its desire to be a global
church.
It also includes downloadable versions of a proposed
Transitional Book of Doctrines and Discipline in multiple
languages.
“True to our roots, we’re a patient and methodical people,”
Boyette said on the WCA website.
“We want to do our very best to help theologically conservative
local churches, laity, and pastors navigate the transitional
period as smoothly as possible. And then we look forward to the
Global Methodist Church’s convening General Conference where we
hope the duly elected delegates will find what we have done to
be helpful. It will be their great task and responsibility to
discern God’s will and so help all its local churches and people
live fully into the body of Christ.”
Already, one group of progressive United Methodists has
announced it isn’t waiting for a vote to form its own
denomination.
The Liberation Methodist Connexion launched last November with a
virtual worship service and introductory presentation. The
LMX—which doesn’t expect members to leave their current
denominations or faiths to join—stresses action over doctrine
and emphasizes the full inclusion of people of all gender
expressions and sexual identities, races and ethnicities, mental
and physical abilities, sizes and ages.
[/quote]
The Methodist have long been called "Dead" regardless of their
association with the UMC. Almost too little too late unless
they radically change.
Blade
#Post#: 27035--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: March 17, 2021, 6:45 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/122130.jpg?w=940[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/march/matthew-barrett-simply-trinity-evangelical-revisionist.html
Evangelical Thinking on the Trinity Is Often Remarkably
Revisionist
Theologian Matthew Barrett diagnoses our drift away from an
orthodox understanding of Father, Son, and Spirit.
By and large, American evangelical Christians have conservative
views of Scripture and morality. According to theologian Matthew
Barrett, however, their most basic claims about God are often
remarkably revisionist.
Barrett, professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
and executive editor of Credo Magazine, is the author of Simply
Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit. The book—a
follow-up to his 2019 work None Greater: The Undomesticated
Attributes of God—does two things. First, it shows how a good
portion of evangelical theology on the Trinity has drifted from
the classical Christian tradition. Second, it recruits a
veritable “dream team” of teachers from across that tradition to
lead readers back to the safe harbor of biblical orthodoxy. The
tone is accessible, but the sources are deep.
How has evangelicalism gone wrong in its understanding of the
Trinity? Barrett ranges broadly, but he fixes on the
development, in recent theology, of what he calls “social
trinitarianism.” Proponents of this view, which is more of a
common posture than a monolithic school, tend to conceive of the
oneness of God as a community of persons. Barrett introduces
some of its major figures, including liberal theologians like
Jürgen Moltmann and Leonardo Boff and American conservative
counterparts like Wayne Grudem and Bruce Ware.
The hallmark of social Trinitarianism is its willingness to
appropriate the relationships between the persons of the Trinity
as a model for various social projects. For liberals like
Moltmann and Boff, this can mean invoking the equal status of
Father, Son, and Spirit to advance an egalitarian vision of
society. Conservatives like Grudem and Ware sometimes point to
supposed hierarchies within the Trinity—namely, what they call
the Son’s “eternal submission” to the Father—as grounds for
their complementarian views on gender roles. (Plenty of
complementarians disagree. Liam Goligher, pastor of Tenth
Presbyterian Church, raised the alarm several years ago in a
viral blog post accusing Grudem and Ware of undermining the
unity that exists between Father, Son, and Spirit.) Simply
Trinity provides a thorough analysis of how revisionist trends
in Trinitarian theology have settled into the seemingly
conservative world of American evangelicalism.
What’s the way home? In part two of his book, Barrett retrieves
classical Trinitarian teachings, addressing the relationship of
eternity and history while affirming the oneness and simplicity
of God. The doctrines he covers—the “eternal generation” of the
Son, the “eternal procession” of the Spirit, and the
“inseparable operations” of the triune God—can sound rather
elevated, but Barrett explains them with ease and clarity.
Amid these chapters, Barrett also offers a single chapter
examining the claim by Grudem, Ware, and others that the Son is
“eternally subordinate” to the Father. He rightly shows that the
relations of origin between Father, Son, and Spirit profoundly
affect our understanding of salvation.
The book isn’t perfect. Barrett doesn’t always go deep enough in
addressing either the root causes of recent revisionism or the
glories of classical Christian understandings of the Trinity.
And he fails to locate the work of Trinitarian reflection within
larger questions of Christian spiritual formation, which
restricts the book’s focus mainly to matters of intellectual
debate and biblical interpretation.
This doesn’t quite match the mode of classical Christian
thought. Take the fourth-century church father Gregory of
Nazianzus, for example. In his Five Theological Orations, he
certainly addresses Bible passages about the Father, Son, and
Spirit—but only after reflecting on the spiritual preparation
needed for Trinitarian conversation.
In his Confessions, Augustine demonstrates that God, as
characterized in Scripture, is a person unlike any other. But
Social Trinitarianisms, of the left or the right, tend to make
the mistake of drawing false analogies between God and other
people. Unless we address that root malady, we’ll continuing
seeing symptoms of theological error pop up from time to time.
Still, Simply Trinity goes a long way toward identifying and
excising some of these harmful tendencies. For anyone who has
read confusing blog posts about the Trinity in recent years, the
book will help you regain your theological bearings. And for
anyone seeking to recover the riches of worshiping one God in
three persons, Barrett will prove a more than able guide.
Michael Allen is the John Dyer Trimble Professor of Systematic
Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.
He is a co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Reformed Theology.
#Post#: 27949--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: March 31, 2021, 12:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/122923.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/march/archegos-capital-bill-hwang-grace-and-mercy-foundation-evan.html
Wall Street Crisis Could Cost Evangelical Orgs
The CEO of Archegos Capital, now making financial headlines for
risky trading, is also known for his generous commitment to
Christian ministries.
It’s not often that a Wall Street Journal article on the latest
stock market shakeup includes a line describing a Greek
reference to Jesus from the New Testament.
The hedge fund at the center of massive selloffs in the market
last week was the Christian-owned Archegos Capital
Management—named for
ἀρχηγός, the Greek word used
to describe Christ as the “author” of our salvation (Heb. 2:10)
and the “prince” of life (Acts 3:15).
Archegos has dominated the financial headlines over the past few
days. The fund placed outsized bets on media stocks using money
borrowed from banks, and when the lenders put a check on its
high-risk trading, it had to sell off huge blocks of shares,
sending the market into a frenzy.
Major corporations and banks lost billions, enough to “impact
everyday Americans’ retirement accounts,” CNN Business reported.
While investors and shareholders are bracing for the damage, the
move could potentially impact evangelical ministries as well.
Archegos CEO Bill Hwang is also the co-founder of the Grace and
Mercy Foundation, which shares an office with his New York-based
firm and distributes millions in grants to Christian nonprofits
every year. So far, it’s unclear how much the financial
situation will affect the foundation and its beneficiaries.
Grace and Mercy’s 2018 tax filing (the most recent year
available) listed $5.5 million to the Fuller Foundation, $2
million to Fuller Theological Seminary, where Hwang is a
trustee, and $1.2 million to the Museum of the Bible, in
addition to six-figure donations to A Rocha, International
Justice Mission, Luis Palau Association, Prison Fellowship, Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries, The King’s College, and
Young Life.
Annual giving totaled $16.6 million over 63 organizations,
including many New York churches and ministries, like City
Seminary of New York, Manhattan Christian Academy, and the
Bowery Mission.
Though giving by individuals remains the largest source of
funding for charities overall, foundations are becoming a bigger
player in the landscape.
“We’ve seen a consistent and growing trend in giving by
foundations comprising a larger share of total giving than it
did 15 years ago,” Amir Pasic, dean of Indiana University’s
Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, told Ministry Watch last
year. “This change may reflect larger trends such as in the
distribution of wealth and in asset growth across a decade of
stock market expansion.”
Grant-giving private foundations is also subject to market
forces. As Giving USA researcher Anna Pruitt explained:
Private foundations are required by law to give 5% of the
average value of their assets, often held in an endowment. When
the financial markets fare well, the assets foundations hold
grow–and that 5% of their total value gets larger too. The
opposite happens during downturns.
The Grace and Mercy Foundation distributed $79 million over a
10-year span, with its grant amounts increasing in recent years,
and the highest levels given in 2017 and 2018. Forbes wrote,
“It’s hard to know for sure to what extent Hwang’s hidden
fortune was battered last week, though his charity’s filings in
future years will show how much the crisis impacts his
generosity.”
Hwang is part of a new “evangelical donor-class,” who are less
concerned with using their wealth to advance political causes,
as covered in The Atlantic in 2019. These newer players in the
giving landscape include Asian American Christians who “aren’t
necessarily beholden to the culture wars of the past,” Josh
Kwan, president of the Christian philanthropic network called
The Gathering, told the magazine.
Beyond his $500-million foundation’s investments in American
ministries, Hwang sees his career in finance as led by God,
saying, “I invest with God’s perspective, according to his
timing,” when talking to a Korean audience about faith and work.
This is not Hwang’s first time at the center of a controversy
over his financial strategy. Back in 2012, when he ran Tiger
Asia Management, he was penalized by regulators in the US and
Asia and ultimately had to shut down his firm, pleading guilty
to wire fraud and fined over charges of insider trading.
When he shares his story, Hwang points to this time as a period
where “money and connection couldn’t really help” and he had to
turn to Scripture.
After struggling his whole life as a Christian to get into a
habit of Bible reading, he finally was awakened to the power of
hearing the Bible read out loud and in community. It was
transformative enough that through the Grace and Mercy
Foundation he has launched resources for Christians to gather to
listen to Scripture together in-person or online.
Hwang has also spoken of how he sees his investment activity as
a way to further God’s work in the world, both by serving as a
Christian witness in Wall Street and supporting companies that
build God-honoring culture and help human society advance.
“I’m like a little child thinking, ‘What can I do today, where
can I invest to please our God?’” he said in a conversation with
Fuller Studio. “Remember Jesus saying, ‘My Father is working,
therefore I’m working’? God is working, Jesus is working, and
I’m working—I’m not going to retire until he pulls me back.”
#Post#: 28811--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: May 5, 2021, 8:24 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
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HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2021/may/20-truths-no-longer-strangers.html
20 Truths: No Longer Strangers
20 Truths from Eugene Cho and Samira Izadi Page's latest
release, ‘No Longer Strangers.’
1. "The editors of this volume and the contributors believe
wholeheartedly that evangelism is a necessary and beautiful part
of our discipleship. However, while the book affirms the
important commitment of evangelism, we highlight the dangers
when North American Christians, in particular, underestimate how
their education, race, language mastery, and other factors
impact their ability to love and express the gospel (in word and
deed) to refugees and immigrants coming from backgrounds that
include trauma, oppression, colonialism, persecution, etc."
Eugene Cho and Samira Izadi Page (1)
2. "This book, . . . will guide churches, individuals, and
Christian leaders in the ways of healthy discipleship and
instruct them in how to avoid evangelism that causes harm to
immigrants through abuses of power dynamics and intercultural
blind spots." Eugene Cho and Samira Izadi (2)
3. "[The church] at times feels like it's lost its footing in
the chaos and craziness of our polarized, political world where
it seems as if more and more Christians are in a space where
their politics inform their theology rather than our biblically
rooted theology informing our politics." Eugene Cho and Samira
Izadi (5)
4. "What we are seeing now is a new work of the Spirit. While
the pattern of migration and refugee resettlement can be
explained factually using social and political sciences, the
Christian must look above and beyond and seek the purposes of
God amidst these facts. In light of the sovereignty of God, why
are refugees and immigrants brought to our doorstops?" Eugene
Cho and Samira Izadi (6)
5. "We are in the midst of the largest mass migration in human
history. . . there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people in
the world. . . . What is God up to? How can I be a part of it?"
Eugene Cho and Samira Izadi (8)
6. "Evangelism means sharing the good news, and people who are
traumatized are in desperate need of good news that brings them
healing and restoration." Issan Smeir (36)
7. "But can a faith journey with God in the form of a personal
relationship bring healing and restoration to those who have
been traumatized? The answer in the literature is yes." Issan
Smeir (37)
8. "Evangelism and sharing the good news can bring healing and
restoration; however, as we reach out to those who are hurting,
we must be aware that their vulnerable status might make them
prone to coercion and manipulation. Those who faced recent
trauma are more sensitive to any influence or pressure from
others. Pressuring people who are hurting to make a quick
decision to follow God or luting them by making false promises
is immoral, ineffective, and harmful." Issan Smeir (37)
9. "Church was meant to be the safest place on Earth. Jesus
always demonstrated his love before telling people who he was.
He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and comforted those who were
hurting. He cried with them. Evangelism should always be
conducted with compassion." Issan Smeir (44)
10. "The first lesson we learned about service is that proximity
changes everything. We didn't have to look across the world for
the poor, the marginalized, the immigrants, and orphans. We only
had to look across the street. They were right there next to
us." Laurie Beshore (48).
11. "People don't want a handout, they want dignity." Laurie
Beshore (51).
12. "Compassion is always a safe topic; justice is challenging."
Laurie Beshore (60).
13. "Evangelism in a Western context has been seen as
communicating truths. Biblical witness is about operating in a
way that shows the transformative reality of Jesus." Sandra
Maria Van Opstal (81).
14. "Speaking up and telling the truth about refugees as
individuals made in the image of God who deserve our dignity and
respect is the first way we can remind people of our common
humanity." Jenny Yang (92).
15. "Advocacy can be carried out in three ways: (1) by the
poor––empowerment; (2) with the poor––accompaniment/partnership;
and (3) for the poor––representation." Jenny Yang (96).
16. "Because God is allowing refugees to be brought to America
in the twenty-first century, I believe Westerners traveling
overseas for evangelism must begin in their neighborhood." Torli
H. Krua (107).
17. "Most Americans are unaware that refugees don't come to
America to live and die; many receive everlasting life and
return to their homelands a business and civic leaders and as
Christian leaders who bring the Word of God to their own people
in their native language and cultural settings." Torli H. Krua
(112).
18. "Many of us have treated the Great Commission as if it were
the only thing Jesus said, and we have reduced it to a mere call
for evangelism. This reductionism can lead to methodologies that
prioritize isolated evangelism, often at the expense of loving
our neighbors. This then becomes our metric for measuring
obedience, and sometimes even maturity. We seem to forget that
Jesus also said that loving our neighbor is part of the great
commandment and explains all the rest of the Bible." K.J. Hill
(131).
19. "One side [of justice] is retributive, which means people
receive the punishment they deserve for doing wrong. The other
side is restorative, which is actually the more common usage in
the Bible and means making sure people have what they need to
flourish. So, one side of justice is stopping people from doing
wrong, as in Leviticus 24 (eye for an eye, etc.), while the
other side is ensuring that the weak and vulnerable have what
they need, as in Proverbs 31:9." K.J. Hill (134).
20. "The connection from the Great Concern (Mic. 6:8) to the
Great Commandment (Luke 10) is the same thread that runs from
the beginning of the Bible to the end, from Abraham through the
church." K.J. Hill (135).
The Exchange is a part of CT's Blog Forum. Support the work of
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The views of the blogger do not necessarily reflect those of
Christianity Today.
#Post#: 28975--------------------------------------------------
Re: The fearless evangelist
By: patrick jane Date: May 7, 2021, 3:19 pm
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White Evangelical Pastors Hesitant to Preach Vaccines
Advocates say more subtle approaches and one-on-one engagement
may actually do more to inform the unvaccinated without further
dividing the faithful.
As COVID-19 vaccination rates slowed this spring, Americans’
attention turned toward the groups less likely to get the shot,
including white evangelicals.
Black Protestants were initially among the most skeptical toward
the vaccine, but they grew significantly more open to it during
the first few months of the year, while white evangelicals’
hesitancy held steady.
With African Americans, many credit robust campaigns targeting
Black neighborhoods, launching vaccination clinics in Black
churches, and convening discussions featuring prominent Black
Christian voices for reducing rates of hesitancy. So for those
eager to see higher levels of vaccination, the question became:
Are white evangelical leaders doing enough to engage their own?
The latest poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit
research organization focused on health issues, found that as of
the end of April, white evangelicals (54%) were about as likely
to have received the COVID-19 vaccine as the country overall
(56%).
The difference comes with the attitudes among the unvaccinated.
White evangelicals are half as likely as Americans overall to
say they plan to get the shot ASAP, and 20 percent say they
definitely won’t be getting the shot, 7 percentage points lower
than the rest of the country.
Most evangelical churches in the country span a range of
perspectives on vaccination, which makes it difficult for
pastors to know when or how to address the topic.
“I know pastors who won’t even mention masks because people
would leave. I’d say vaccines are even more sensitive,” said Dan
DeWitt, who directs the Center for Biblical Apologetics and
Public Christianity at Cedarville University. “Pastors feel so
constrained. They want to take care of their people, but they
know one careless comment could cost them.”
The issues dividing the country in 2020 divided churches too.
While pastors tried to adapt worship services and continue to
provide spiritual care for the suffering and mourning,
congregational disputes over politics, racial issues, and
COVID-19 responses spiked. Church leaders fielded complaints for
being too cautious or not cautious enough, with members
threatening to leave or simply making the move over reopening
plans.
After a year like that, some don’t feel comfortable publicly
endorsing or rejecting the shot; maybe they would if tensions
weren’t so high. Even pastors who personally trust the vaccine
and would recommend it may worry that it’s not their topic to
preach on or that doing so would unsettle their congregation.
Curtis Chang, the former pastor and Fuller Theological Seminary
senior fellow behind ChristiansAndtheVaccine.com, says pastors
are in a tough position. “They’re really stuck. They’re feeling
paralyzed and muzzled,” he said. He challenges them to think
beyond Sunday sermons to other ways to engage the issue.
Chang’s site and campaign offer a slate of informative videos
for Christians and for pastors in particular. His message to
those leading evangelical congregations: “Don’t feel like you
need to preach on this from the pulpit. Look for other subtle
ways to exercise your influence.”
That’s what Kentucky minister Carl Canterbury did. He told the
Lexington Herald-Leader that he wouldn’t address the vaccine
from the pulpit, but, knowing that vaccine misinformation is
rampant in his small town in east Kentucky, he would talk to
fellow members at Louellen Pentecostal Church about why he went
ahead and got the Johnson & Johnson shot.
“So many people think it’s a conspiracy, and they want to know,
are you getting it? The day I had my shot, I had four members in
our church to stop by and ask, did I take the shot, and I told
them, yes,” Canterbury said, noting that every pastor in the
small town of Closplint had also been vaccinated. “Because I
did, they did.”
What happened at his Pentecostal church, where people changed
their mind after hearing a pastor or church member talk about
why they got the shot, is a promising trend.
And it makes sense. Though many people were eager to immediately
roll up their sleeves for the COVID-19 jab, having questions
about the new vaccines or wanting to wait for others to get the
shot is actually a common, natural response, wrote
epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz.
“It’s also worth reiterating that most of these hesitant people
do eventually get vaccinated. Sometimes they are late, sometimes
they take a while to convince, but most of them are reasonable
people worried about something they don’t yet fully understand,”
he said. “Most can also be reassured with time and adequate
information shared by medical providers.”
PRRI found in March that among churchgoers who are waiting to
see if they’ll get the vaccine, nearly half of white Protestants
said engagement from their faith community—either seeing others
get vaccinated or hosting events like forums or clinics—would
make them more likely to do so.
The poll also found that white evangelical Protestants who
attend church more often are slightly less likely to want to get
the vaccine (in March, 43% said they had done so or planned to
ASAP) than those who attend less often (48%). Among Black
Protestants, it was the opposite; church attendance was
correlated with greater openness to the vaccine.
Chang suggested that the Black church tradition has primed them
to see health as a community issue, and that Black churchgoers
are more likely to trust the model set by their pastors—many of
whom signed up for the vaccine early in public-facing
vaccination campaigns.
As vaccine access expanded in March and April, many prominent
pastors touted their decision to get the vaccine, such as
Southern Baptist Convention president J. D. Greear, who posted a
#sleeveup selfie on Twitter. Others opened their churches as
vaccination sites, such as First Baptist Dallas pastor Robert
Jeffress, a former evangelical adviser to President Trump.
But many white evangelicals see vaccination not as a mandate of
their faith but as a matter of personal conscience. It’s between
them and their families, them and their health care provider, or
them and God.
There are a few who embrace conspiracy theories about the
vaccine and the coronavirus, of the sort promoted by evangelical
leaders such as Eric Metaxas, and some who claim the inoculation
is somehow connected to the “mark of the beast.” More commonly,
though, evangelicals who are hesitant to receive the vaccine
were resisting what they saw as cultural pressure to take away
their freedom to make an individual decision.
Chang said that for some the attitude is, “I made my decision.
Don’t tell me what to do,” or “I prayed about it, God told me
not to take the vaccine, therefore end of discussion.”
Christian messaging around the COVID-19 vaccine has employed a
range of theological reasoning: Vaccination is a way to take
advantage of the blessings and protections God gives us through
science. It’s an expression of love and care for our neighbors,
especially those who are medically vulnerable. It allows us to
participate in God’s healing of the world.
As stances on masking and vaccination become conflated with
ideological positions, evangelicals are also sensitive to how
they talk about the issues in faith terms.
At Madison Baptist Church in Georgia, pastor Griffin Gulledge
models wearing a mask to church and prays during services to
thank God for the vaccine and for effective treatments against
the coronavirus—“That sends a message,” he says—but he also
believes that he’s not a public health expert, and people may
have good reasons for waiting to vaccinate.
“Christ tells us to love your neighbor as yourself, then the
apostle Paul tells us to maintain the unity of the Spirit and
the bond of peace. I think those are two things we need to
balance,” said Gulledge. “I don’t think it is reasonable for
people to say in all cases, universally, to love your neighbor
you must follow this or that precaution and you must get
vaccinated at this time. … These things are complicated.
Reasonable people are going to come to different conclusions.”
Despite assumptions about COVID-19 approaches in the rural
South, 30-year-old Gulledge said the “vast majority” of his
church was eager to get vaccinated, so much that they helped him
find an appointment to get the shot.
Being a pastor and being a part of Christian community has
always involved designating between matters of gospel importance
and individual freedom. Lately, those issues have come up in
particularly visible, fraught ways as the country takes sides on
pandemic responses and vaccines.
DeWitt at Cedarville points out how much tone and perception
matter when it comes to how churches address COVID-19. What some
people see as an act of caring, others see as overreach.
“How do we stay committed to the gospel and committed to this
message that we care for body and soul?” he asked. “If there is
no good evidence that the vaccine is hurtful, and if there is
evidence that the vaccine is helpful, then church leaders should
be vocal—not for virtue-signaling but because it’s an actual
good and leads to flourishing.”
DeWitt also sees the attitudes over coronavirus responses as
tied to deeper issues in the American church, where he worries
too many people are conflating “scriptural identity” and
“political identity.” “We’re in a culture in which things that
are superficial are seen as deeper loyalties,” he said.
The fact that American evangelicalism is so fragmented—that the
big-name ministry leader who inspires one group of evangelicals
may totally turn off another—makes it a challenge to engage the
movement as a whole, even when calling on shared beliefs and
values.
“The recipe here is information plus trust,” said Chang. “We can
provide the information. The trust has to come from a person
who’s sending this along and saying to their friend or their
church or their family, ‘Hey, would you be willing to take a
look?'"
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