This, proof that attending Harvard does not make you smart, will be our last “unbelievable” for a while. I’d like to be there when Schafly has lunch with the KJV-only guy.

New Conservative Bible will eliminate ‘liberal’ text: Version removes adultery story

If Andy Schafly has his way, there will be no socialists or snake handlers in the Bible. No woman caught in adultery. And, definitely, no Stephen Colbert.

Schlafly, founder of Conservapedia.com, wants to save the Scriptures from liberals with his latest venture, the Conservative Bible Project. He says translations like the New International Version have added socialist ideals to the Good Book. But his rewrite of the Bible has drawn criticism from biblical scholars, liberals and conservatives.

Schlafly, son of national political activist Phyllis Schlafly, says a conservative Bible should be masculine, for example, using the words mankind and man rather than more inclusive language. It also should shun terms like laborer or comrade. It also should put a free market spin on the sayings of Jesus.

Take Mark 10:25, where the King James Version says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Liberals have used that passage to attack the wealthy, Schafly said. The Conservative Bible substitutes “a man who cares only for money” for rich man.

“I don’t think Jesus is saying, ‘Let’s all be lazy so we can get to heaven.’ That’s not the message. And, if you translate the word rich as simply rich, some people are going to get the message that ‘I am going to be lazy so I can get to heaven easier,’” said Schlafly, who graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science and from Harvard Law School as an attorney, according to his Web site.

Click here to read the rest from a recent front-page story in The Tennessean—which is proof that Nashville needs a better newspaper.

Amazing Grace Baptist Church to Burn Bibles, Other Books for Halloween: King James Bible ‘Only True Word of God’

The pastor of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina plans to celebrate Halloween by leading his fourteen member congregation by burning Bibles. Pastor Marc Grizzard is not a Satan worshiper or a militant atheist.

Pastor Grizzard says that he is a Christian. However it seems that the Amazing Grace Baptist Church believes that only the King James Version of the Bible is the true word of God and that all other versions are “perversions” and “Satanic.” Along those same principles, Pastor Grizzard intends to burn books written by Christian authors such as Billy Graham and Rick Warren.

Click here to read the rest…

10/25/09: An update: “We are not burning Bibles written in other languages that are based on the Textus Receptus. We are not burning the Wycliffe, Tyndale, Geneva or other translations that are based on the Textus Receptus. We will be serving bar-b-que chicken, fried chicken and all the sides.”

I would rather scrub toilets than work on most church staffs. I’d even prefer cleaning the bathrooms at the church. But I might change my mind if Church of the Incarnation came calling.

This new congregation just held its first services this past Sunday at St. Matthew and St. Timothy church, an Episcopal congregation near Central Park. (You’d know all this if you received the CS enews. Sign up here.)

In keeping with the more formal (and beautiful) worship space there, Church of the Incarnation has adapted a liturgical service style. Of course, this is also user-friendly to the many unchurched New Yorkers with Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican backgrounds. Services combine prayers of confession and responsive readings with songs from a variety of time periods. You can find examples of their liturgies here.

“The new church has an old name for a specific reason,” says Orchard Group, the church planting organization that helped to start COTI. “First, ‘Incarnation’ ties the community and its vision to the heart of the good news in Scripture—God taking on flesh in Jesus Christ in order to renew all of creation. Second, ‘Incarnation’ ties the community and its style to practices of worship shared by the ancient church. New churches in the city who are more contemporary in feel are healthy and effective. Yet Incarnation is taking a different approach by retrieving a range of ancient practices in the hopes of providing a hospitable environment for New Yorkers who might not gravitate towards more contemporary expressions of faith and worship.”

I love this, and I can’t decide if I’m more envious of Rhesa Storms, who plans the weekly services, or Jonathan Williams, who organizes service projects, book clubs and movie groups. If you guys need any help, give me a call. Bathrooms are negotiable.

Two weeks ago today, I and 20,000 of my closest friends spent hours watching segments of “The Nines,” 9+ hours—beginning at 9:09 am on 09/09/09—of videos from some of the evangelical world’s most influential voices. Each “speaker” had just nine minutes to answer the question, “If you could say one thing to Christian leaders, what would it be?”

Of course, some went over nine minutes, and there was a lot of alliteration and three-part outlines. But my favorite was this simple but powerful one by Skye Jethani, the managing editor of Leadership Journal. If someone asked me the question, I’d probably just reply, “What Skye said.” He has three points, but they’re good ones—and only eight minutes, too!

David and Nancy Guthrie are two more Friends I Think You Should Know. In 1998 the Guthries welcomed a new baby, Hope, who was born with the very rare Zellweger Syndrome and lived only seven months. Despite taking medical steps to prevent future pregnancies, the couple again beat the odds and conceived Gabriel who was born in 2001—again, with Zellwegers. He lived six months.

It would be easy to ask why, to question God, and to lose faith in His goodness, and the Guthries have certainly done their share of wrestling. But eight years later they’ve transformed this pain into resources that help others, including the books Holding on to Hope: A pathway through suffering to the heart of God and Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow.

This past weekend David and Nancy added another tool for grieving parents with their first Respite retreat. Parents from around the country who have lost a child gathered at a retreat center north of Nashville for several days of remembering, sharing, praying, and connecting with others who understand their pain. Many of the attendees wrote the Guthries this week admitting their initial reluctance to participate in the experience and the huge blessing they ended up receiving. “Being in a room with trees as tall as the sky all around us and voices being lifted up to our Lord in worship brought great healing and peace,” said one. “The Lord met us in that place as we shared our painful stories. We could lift our sorrows, our questions, and our hopes to the Father who continues to carry us in these days.”

David and Nancy have been “movers and shakers” in the publishing and music industries, but that’s not why I’m glad to know them or why I want you to. They’re Friends I Think You Should Know because they know God in deep ways and have struggled with questions most of us would rather avoid.

They have four spots open for their next Respite retreat; if you or someone you know is dealing with the loss of a child you can find out more here. And don’t miss the really excellent Time magazine article about their journey that was published July 16, 2001—the day their second child with Zellwegers entered the world.

I’m sure you don’t struggle with this, but I look at innovators in technology, business, church planting, leadership, the arts, and many other fields and think one of two things: either…….

a) they make it look so easy, and here I am beating my head against the green walls of my office seeking just one halfway decent solution to one eighth of one problem – or -

b) I could totally do what they’re doing–why haven’t I received the opportunity?

As Dean Kamen charmingly and kindly reminds us in this short video from bigthink.com, both assumptions are incorrect. It’s not easy, and it’s not (usually) about being handed opportunities to shine—it’s almost always about hard work and failing a lot lot lot. Check it out.

Last Sunday I heard the best sermon of all time on baptism and communion. Well, okay, I don’t actually know about “all time”—it’s possible an even better one was preached at some point, somewhere—but if so, I haven’t heard it.

Jeff Cary, Assistant Professor of Theology at Lubbock Christian University, is a good friend of our senior minister, Dean Barham, and he shared the message at Dean’s invitation. Here are some key points from my notes, but if you work in a church, belong to a church, or care about the future of the church you owe it to yourself to listen to the whole thing. You can do so by clicking below, or by downloading the podcast here. Then let me know if you think it’s the best of all time.

We talk a lot about the next generation leaving the church; ironically, despite our adverseness to preaching and talking about these sacraments, an understanding of their theology and purpose can keep people in church.

They aren’t about my personal relationship with Jesus, primarily, with others there just to encourage me; they’re about mutual giving and being part of the body of Christ. Keys: they’re about a lifestyle of giving out to others, not receiving, and they’re places where Jesus meets us in this world.

Asked church members at his home church, many of them mature Christians: “I could go weeks or months without communion and not miss it.” “We never teach on these things.” “I’ve never really understood communion.”

Kids are leaving church because we haven’t challenged enough the individualism and consumerism of our culture; even the practices of baptism and communion have become about what I get from it, my relationship with God. But Corinthians–we are baptized into one body. Baptism should be a teaching moment for the church–we’re not just united with Christ but with all the people sitting there staring at us getting wet!

We also need to be consistently teaching that Jesus is present in the Lord’s Supper. Again, not about a generic feeling of togetherness; the main thing is the kind of togetherness, which takes its shape from the life and resurrection of Jesus. “The Peace of Jesus be with you”—not just about my personal remembrance, but about my willingness to make and to be peace in the body of Christ.

Kids aren’t buying the importance of sacramental communion because they haven’t seen that it matters.

Relevance is a consequence of kingdom living, not its cause.–Rick McKinley. Great quote. Authentic living out of the church as God intended it will always be “relevant” and compelling.

We need to make it hard for kids to leave, and they need to understand what they’re walking away from: a community of sacrificial gift, where Jesus shows up.

Moving day, more than any other day, makes you keenly aware of how much junk you really own.

On Saturday my mom and dad and some good friends helped me (finally) move into my new house, a process that involved carrying roughly 3,267 boxes of stuff plus two couches, three chairs, a desk, four bookshelves, an iron bed frame and the heaviest dining room table ever made. As I do every time I move (this was the fifth one in eleven years), I found myself amazed at how much I’ve accumulated—14 antique china place settings and three matching salad plates (Grandma was prone to dropping things). Dozens of books I fully intend to read. Half-used hair products. Barbie dolls with complete outfits. The original packaging for Standard’s 1984 VBS craft kit featuring my smiling face.

So, some seriously good stuff. 

And I wondered again, for at least the fifth time, if it’s wrong to have so much when most of the world has so little.

I’ve written about this before, and reading a blog post by Steve Denney stirred up the same questions. He quotes from Peter Singer, who asserts that while all of us would rush into a pond to save a drowning toddler without hesitating to worry about ruining our nice shoes, many of us struggle to metaphorically “wade in” and help save the 10 million children under five who die from poverty each year.

“Prompted by the pages of Singer’s book, it just seems wrong that I buy bottled water when I can get it from the tap,” Steve writes. “That I waste money on coffee.  That I throw away food that I cannot eat (or don’t want to eat).”

I’m reminded of Schindler’s List, when the war ends and Oskar Schindler realizes every belonging he kept—each ring, each car, each suit—could have rescued another Jew from the death camps. When I watch that movie I condemn him; of course he should have sold the gold ring and flashy car to save more people. When lives are at stake, shouldn’t someone give all he can?

Steve’s point is people still die, and we face the same choices. Shouldn’t we give all we can?

But if I get rid of everything, I’ll be poor and others will have to take care of me. So that’s not the answer. Do I keep just enough to live on and give away the rest? Define “live on”—what does that include? Rice and beans and a vitamin pill, or can I have steak and ice cream occasionally? How often? Yes, coffee IS a necessity, but how about soda? One a week?

What about health insurance and retirement savings? I trust God to take care of me, but often He does that by allowing me to plan responsibly.  Is it a sin to live modestly yet keep megabucks in my IRA?

The real question is when “enough” becomes excess. We all spend money on non-essentials, and it’s easy to judge others. Some could see my move as an acquisitional move up, although my new mortgage payment is actually less than my rent and in many ways this purchase was about good stewardship. On the other hand, a few of my friends recently sold their own houses, downsized to rentals or condos, and give the difference to causes they care about.

Like Steve, I have become increasingly aware of just how much money I waste. But with each passing year, each passing move, I also become convinced this is one more gray area in a faith we often prefer black and white. Enough becomes too much when it becomes more important than obedience to Christ, and He asks each of us to sacrifice in different ways. I’m glad He hasn’t asked me to give up coffee yet.

First of all, I’m not questioning your constitutional right to have a gun (although after reading Columbine I’m less convinced than ever that our current system is working—sure, eighteen year olds should be allowed to purchase semi-automatics at a gun show).

What I am questioning is why pastor Ken Pagano recently encouraged his flock at New Bethel Church in Louisville, KY to come to church armed.

This Saturday New Bethel is hosting an “Open Carry Celebration,” featuring videos promoting gun safety, patriotic music, a raffle—and extra security.

“As a Christian pastor I believe that without a deep-seated belief in God and firearms that this country would not be here,” Pagano told ABCNews.com. “I’m not ashamed of that fact. I’m proud of it.”

Evangelical Republicanism, otherwise known as “you can’t kill ‘em but we can” (NO to abortion and stem cell research, YES to capital punishment and war), has many adherents who confuse love of God with love of country. When patriotism = freedom and freedom = guns, you have a conservative who values the 2nd amendment. When patriotism also = Christianity, you get statements like Pagano’s.

And I get heartburn. For one thing, I know plenty of Christians who have enough crazy already, thank you, and don’t need to be attending pentecostal worship services with handguns.

Second, the whole “permissible but not beneficial” thing comes to mind. Is this really the best way to present the Gospel to lost people? I know churches are questioning the whole seeker-sensitive model, but that doesn’t mean we have to become seeker-scary.

And look at the energy New Bethel’s investing to promote, plan, and defend this event. There really wasn’t anything more Kingdom-building to do in Louisville?

Ironically, this story hit just days after George Tiller was killed for performing late-term abortions. He was shot. In a church.

We may differ on the ideal balance between church and state, but can’t we agree on separation of church and ammo?

Some problems are so overwhelmingly big. How can I, just one small person, address the physical, spiritual, and educational needs in Africa? How can I preserve what’s left of the beautiful world God created? How can I get all reality TV off the air?

Human trafficking is another one of these issues. According to Kevin Bales’ book Disposable People, 27 million people around the world endure forced labor as slaves. According to UNICEF, more than 2 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade each year. And according to the U.N., the total market value of human trafficking is over $32 billion. That means slave traders make more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.

So, no, I can’t fix this myself. But as with poverty and AIDS in Africa, the pollution of our oceans, or the new season of Real Housewives, we can all do something: Sponsor a child. Invest in a microloan. Turn off the TV.

And shop! Yesterday Emily Hill launched Stop Traffick Fashion, a site filled with beautiful and very reasonably-priced bags, necklaces and earrings made by adults and children rescued from human trafficking. Your purchase guarantees you a unique accessory while supporting these workers; best of all, a percentage of all sales goes directly to STF’s partners to help rescue others.

Emily reads this blog and has kept me posted about this new initiative. I’m so impressed with her creativity and determination to make the world a better place. And I’m planning a meeting to see if we can do something about Jon & Kate.