Last Sunday morning a West Sacramento shelter suffered a devastating fire that officials suspect was arson. An explosion started the blaze, ruining the Broderick Christian Center within minutes. No one was injured because the shelter was closed on Sundays.

Though the fire is suspicious, it's too early to know for sure that it was intentional. But the fire wasn't the first attack on the Center. Twice in the previous week, tires were slashed, windows smashed, and oil was poured on six church-owned buses and vans. Local officers and federal agents are investigating the fire as a possible hate crime.

The shelter provided transitional housing and transportation to substance abuse programs and mental health services. As many as 500 people relied on the Center's twice-daily meals and food boxes. The Center also offered showers, a clothing bank, laundry and mail services, along with childcare and a child development program for homeless families with kids. Supported by the American Baptist Churches USA, Broderick Christian Center has been part of the West Sacramento community for 60 years. The Center's executive director Alvin Lewis says that volunteers will continue to help as best they can. For the time being, other churches will be taking over some of the services the Center provided.

Early evidence has the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigating the fire as arson. Though the vandalism suggests a hate crime, they also are considering the possibility that the arsonist had used the shelter's services and was disgruntled. Okay, a person who's mad about some shelter rules is going to get bomb-making materials, rig an explosion and burn down a place where hundreds of people eat? All the facts aren't in yet, but come on. This is yet another reminder why hate crime laws need to add the homeless to the list of protected groups.

Photo credit: Muffet

In an unusual display of courage and decency, the Supreme Court of Virginia has reversed a lower court decision that would have allowed break away Episcopal parishes to abscond with the property of the Episcopal Church USA. The lower court had embarrassingly based its decision on a Virginia Civil War era statute that had been enacted for the specific purpose of allowing pro-slavery Baptist churches - i.e., those that became part of the Southern Baptist Convention - to seize and keep the property of the anti-slavery American Baptist Church.

Apparently, this ruling based on a racist law that ought to be repealed and removed from the Code of Virginia was too much for the usually spineless Supreme Court of Virginia.

Continue reading "Virginia Supreme Court Rules Against Breakaway Anglicans"...

I was just reading about Jamie Oliver's visit to a Southern Baptist church in Huntington, West Virginia, one of the most obese and "unhealthiest" cities in the USA. Apparently, the visit created a lot of interest from the media but not much from Christians. Although the visit did not go unnoticed by the Baptists who brought some attention to the "Food Revolution" initiated by this unexpected partnership.


Photo of Jamie Oliver and Baptist pastor Steve Willis, lifted discreetly from Baptist Press here. If you have been following my blog this last decade, you have probably heard me talk about gluttony [see my post from 2003] and the church's refusal to deal with it, cruelty-free diets, the slow food movement, the Southern Baptist problem with obesity, and many other issues regarding food and drink. So, as you can imagine, I was VERY VERY HAPPY that Jamie Oliver was welcomed into the Southern Baptist world to help them solve a problem that plagues the whole nation as well as their own denomination - which, btw, ranks highest in obesity than any other denomination in the USA.

Thank God for Jamie Oliver. They [we] can use his help.

I was reading a comment on my blog from 2007, and it seemed vaguely prophetic . . .

"Yes, churches tend to arrange their social engagements around food--cheap food. It's what most people on a limited budget can afford. Unless the church is willing/able to foot the bill for everyone, or unless the church is blessed with an amazing, heart-smart chef who is willing to take on the burden himself/herself (btw, if you're out there and God is speaking to you about using your gifts this way, stand up!) this is what most churches do." "Bryerthorn, comment on TSK, on post - Jerry Falwell remembered in the blogsophere, 2007

Maybe Jamie was that chef?

As I said earlier, thank God for Jamie Oliver. He has a lot to teach the Baptists about food and diet. But I believe the problem lies deeper and will call for a solution that is more holistic than just replacing crap food with healthy food. I believe that real revolution, that is already happening among many, is concerned with loving food in a healthy way, with loving your kitchen and its utensils, with honoring the contract with have had with the animals since the Garden of Eden, with loving our neighbors who gather around our table to enjoy our feasts, with moving beyond guilt-ridden attitudes to eating towards a posture of balance, contentment, celebration and acceptance of our bodies. And I imagine Jamie would agree on these issues also.
"Being overweight in the North American context involves more than a bunch of porkers cleaning out the fridge on a daily basis. . . There are many factors and they all should be dealt with. For some of us, we need to cut our intake and increase our exercise. But for many in deep poverty, hamburger helper and 'comfort foods' are all they have. . . Let's deal with all the issues that are the root of the problem and not just the appearance."
Ted, another commenter on TSK

Glad to see Jamie bury a deep fryer and glad to see him partner with the Baptists to tackle this problem. And yes, I believe God sent him. The next step is to encourage Baptists to throw away their microwaves - something we did 20 years ago. Related on TSK:Grace to Ewe: Our Cruelty-Free Diet

MARION — Since September 2009, the Community Baptist Church of Marion has been participating in the Penny Project, a project of the National Ministries of The American Baptist Churches USA.

Here's a story about the emerging church if anyone cares to listen. Just one of many stories. Its not a very popular one because it doesn't include any famous speakers or horrible heretics or ten ways to transition your church into coolness. There are also no images and no links but you might appreciate it anyway.

This story is about a white guy and a black guy and like many stories, this one actually happened. I was there. Rudy Carrasco was there also. Rudy and I were part of a fantastic group in USA called Young Leaders. There were about a dozen of us initially but most of the guys had more typical Sunday service kinds of churches that a lot of pastors could identify with and emulate. Rudy and I were a little different. Rudy's church was an intentional community among the poor in Pasadena. The churches I was helping to start at the time were small organic churches among the alternative cultures of San Francisco - punk, goth, hippie, etc, and eventually around USA. Churches like these dont have salaries, dont require a winsome charismatic stage presence and its leaders don't get famous so churches like these are not very popular on the conference circuit. Even one of the guys in our Young Leaders group told me they were not REAL churches. But that was the 90's and now there are thousands upon thousands of them and I dont feel as much like a freak. Neither does Rudy, I hope.

So, when I was in Pasadena, Rudy invited me to speak at the Harambee Center and I told this story there. But it's interesting because Harambee was the place where this young black guy had found his way into this story. I think his name was Jamal and was a really nice young black guy from a poor background. He was a "fine black man" as a Jewish friend in my church in San Francisco used to say. She actually married a "fine black man". Although he was more West Indies and some other things included. And their kids were a wonderful colorful mixture as you can imagine.

But about Jamal. I didn't think he would connect with the other emerging church people at our meeting, and certainly not with the Colombians. Not because of his color, but because of his culture. I find the culture gap to be a greater barrier than the race or color gap is, but then that's just my experience.

It all happened in Cartagena, Colombia. There were a lot of us from all over and Rudy had brought this young black kid, this fine young black man along. He had those stupid baggy jeans hanging half way down his legs. Why cant they wear a flippin' BELT? Why cant they turn their stupid baseball caps forward? I thought he would choke. I thought the Colombians would assume he was from Mars and his story would have no impact.

But I was very wrong. Jamal was, in fact, a soccer fan, and not only did he appreciate the Colombian soccer team, Jamal could practically list off all the Colombian players. Within seconds the Colombians were talking up a storm with Jamal and had pretty much adopted him as their own. When Jamal finally told his story, they were all ears. Jamal had gone native and I felt like an alien.

So much for my predictions.

Actually, there were other surprises for me as well. And I love surprises! Keep reading . . .

Rudy's community, despite having a lot of hip-hop fans, had a karaoke machine which they sometimes used for worship. I thought the karaoke thing would really impress Mika, who was representing the emerging church in Japan. But actually, the young Japanese believers were not into karaoke at all. Some of them were DJ's and were starting club churches and house parties and others were big on rap and hip-hop. I thought the hip-hop connection would unite them with Pasadena but in fact, it was the Norwegian emerging church that made a pipeline between their country and Japan. Subchurch in Oslo, where I preached a few years later next to the biggest tower of speakers I had ever seen in a church, and the other Norwegian communities, were huge on hard-core and rap and were initiating regular visits to the new churches in Japan. The other funny connection I didn't expect happened when I was in Olso and Morten showed me what the young Norwegians were into - Manga! The biggest Manga comic and hangout space I had ever seen. Another reason to hook up with the Japanese.

Speaking of the Japanese, and i digress here to make an observation about multi-cultural churches. The churches started in Japan over recent years have really been the first churches started by the Japanese and not by foreigners. The older Japanese were excited about these churches because there were NOT multi-cultural. They told me that the churches in Japan were not very Japanese in their style and were attended by the international community, expats, missionaries, Christians from the West etc, but not many Japanese. But the emerging churches were full of Japanese young people and this was something to be celebrated.

Which we did. I did some training events with my friend Olgalvaro in the south of Japan and we had a great time. Olgalvaro, btw, was there at the Colombia event. He has written a book on the emerging church and on ministry to post-modern people. But most people have not read it because it's written in Portuguese. Olgalvaro is from Brazil and they host a yearly gathering event for emerging church leaders from around Latin America. But they are also training Europeans and Americans to start churches. I attended their event in UK - great to see the Brazilians breathe some new life into the European church.

Sometimes when I hear stories about the EC as a Western movement that is now teaching the world, I laugh, and I cringe, and I think of the Tribal Generation from Brazil, now in its second decade, still teaching the nations how to partner with God in his mission.

Anyway, I haven't talked about the white guy yet. Yes, its true that I was white, and still am, and I might have been the only Western caucasian in the meeting, unless the Dutchman Marc Van der Woude from the Connect Europe EC network was there. He probably was. And Wolfgang Fernandez was there who was born in Venezuela but living in USA for much of his life had made him culturally white - he acted and talked and thought and strategized and communicated like a white American guy - an advantage that enabled him to raise enough funds to host this event. That white guy thing has changed a lot now. Wolfgang has been through a lot of things recently and I think he has transitioned into a more holistic global guy and certainly a lot less culturally white. Sorry if that is offensive to you "whiteys". He lives in Asia now, working with the emerging church there but he is quick to say, as many of the people in this story, that the term "emerging church" has not caught up with the kinds of spirited-led missional social enterprise and communities that he is seeing pop up there, and Indonesia before that. I dont think he uses the "Emerging Church" term anymore. I dont blame him. I also stopped using it to describe the new churches we are supporting around the world, which made sense when book sellers kept on pointing to a tiny group of rich American Seminary grads who were angry at the traditional church. That was probably not an accurate description, and it actually set up a patsy that was easy to dismiss, but I know it takes some people a long time to catch up so I am pretty flexible about the term.

OK - the white guy. The white guy I am talking about is Fernando who is from Chile. For some reason, probably a pigment deficiency, his skin was whiter than anyone there. Fernando was a real fireball and a great storyteller. He and his hard-core band called [something in Spanish that means "Run Over Dogs"] had already helped to start a number of churches around Santiago and their festival called "Christock", was getting a few thousand people already. Fabulous guy and great ministry.

I saw Fernando again in Germany a few years later at Freakstock, were about 7000 of us were camping out and listening to all the Christian hardcore and goth bands. The Jesus Freaks are a German movement that started when some teenager punks found Jesus in the mid-nineties and told their friends and pretty soon there were nearly hundred new churches and lots of mohawks and very loud music. And Freakstock is their yearly gathering. Actually, I think I was the one who told Fernando about Freakstock when we were in Colombia, and suggested, since they had so much in common, that they should connect.

So Fernando was there in Germany and he brought some of his people including this one girl who had started a new church in Chile. But it wasn't a hard core church like I was expecting- it was a hip-hop church. Good. Another surprise. Glad to see some diversity in the emerging church. They should really hook up with Rick in Houston - when I met him there he told me that had started 14 hip-hop churches in that city. Very cool.

So I havent seen the white guy Fernando in quite some time. No one has much money these days to bring these global leaders together, unless they all live in the USA which is where Americans prefer to spend their money on events which keeps the stories close to home but, unfortunately, keeps the stories very provincial and not at all a reflection of what is really going on out there. Which is why we, in our little ministry that hides it name, ["it" that shall not be named] switched over to a "lets bring the party to them" approach which has us driving around the world to gather leaders in much smaller, less impressive but more sustainable and WAY more relational events. But the real reason I have lost contact with Fernando, and why the world has not really heard of him, even though they damn well should, is because he has not learned English very well.

Not being critical here, because my Spanish has also not progressed since our last meeting. But here is a massive barrier that divides us all. Language. We English speakers are establishing new forms of colonization through language, especially on the internet which we rule with an iron thumb.

Ahhhhh yes. The internet. The web. Where colonization happens daily and a new divide emerges between the connected and the not-connected. There are plenty more things that divide us, as well as these, like which country we live in, if we have white-collar or blue-collar mannerisms, what color our skin is, whether we wear trousers or a skirt, whether we have been denominationalized [is that a word?] in the right group or the wrong group. In this list of things of , i am both a victim and a perpetrator. I am too rich and I am too poor. I am a web-connected semi-geek who can speak HTML and has had just enough theological training to speak the language of evangelical Zion and that puts me in the "in" group where it sometimes counts. But in other ways I am also an outsider, living in the wrong countries and having the wrong friends. I am a Southern Baptist who likes a glass of wine with his dinner. I am a minister who did not finish his degree, and don't really see a need to finish it. I preach in Pentecostal churches and I preach in liberal churches and I preach in fundamentalist churches. I am an evangelical but yesterday I accepted an invitation to pray in a mosque. All these things makes me an outsider in some communities where I long to tell my stories.

I think, when it comes to division, all of us, in some ways, are both victim and perpetrators at the same time.

----------------------------------------------

Story by Tall Skinny Kiwi, blogging from my house-truck, through a very slow and unreliable GSM connection, here in beautiful North Africa.

Thanks to Jarrod, my Aussie mate, who inspired me to write out this story this sunny April morning when he said our critiques of movements must be based primarily embodied, and not just blogged. Jarrod's article is called "This is what the emerging church looks like?" I hope I embodied a little bit more of this incredibly diverse and colorful movement that is impacting every country in different ways.

Beck:

I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church web site," Beck urged his audience. "If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

Jesus [Matthew 25]:

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me....

We'll get to the rest of what Jesus has to say below, in the last section.  But first, a word from His churches....
The Anglicans:

Anti-Racism and Gender Equality

The election of the first black President of the United States was an historic event in our nation???s history, but this singular occasion, although a celebration of equality, does not eliminate racism. In a way, it exposed just how deeply the issue of race is still ingrained in the country and that racism still exists in our society. Because it has existed for centuries, many of us are unaware how the history of racism affects how we all think, live and behave even today. In order to become more aware of our actions???personally, interpersonally and institutionally???and move toward a church without racism that openly welcomes all races, The General Convention of the Episcopal Church named racism a sin and has mandated anti-racism training for all church leaders, both ordained and lay.

If your parish, diocese, seminary, commission, committee, agency or board is actively seeking to join the Gospel work of working against racism as well as other related oppressions, the Advocacy Center will work with you in achieving that goal. We???re offering to facilitate training events, train members of your group to become certified anti-racism trainers, and provide relevant and motivational materials and resources for conventions and other events. We also have an expansive list of recommended books, articles, videos and websites that can be used to learn more about how we can all join together to eliminate racism in our church and society.

The American Baptist Churches:

ABCUSA [American Baptist Churches, USA] Vision Statement

Through the cross of Christ we embrace the world as neighbor. Our vision for mission energizes a multitude of servant ministries of evangelism, discipleship, leadership, new church development, social justice, healing, peacemaking, economic development and education. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we work together in mutual submission, humility, love, and giving that the gospel might be preached and lived in all the world.

The United Methodists:

The United Methodist Church has a long history of concern for social justice. Its members have often taken forthright positions on controversial issues involving Christian principles. Early Methodists expressed their opposition to the slave trade, to smuggling, and to the cruel treatment of prisoners.

A social creed was adopted by The Methodist Episcopal Church (North) in 1908. Within the next decade similar statements were adopted by The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and by The Methodist Protestant Church. The Evangelical United Brethren Church adopted a statement of social principles in 1946 at the time of the uniting of the United Brethren and The Evangelical Church. In 1972, four years after the uniting in 1968 of The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church, the General Conference of The United Methodist Church adopted a new statement of Social Principles, which was revised in 1976 (and by each successive General Conference).

The Social Principles are a prayerful and thoughtful effort on the part of the General Conference to speak to the human issues in the contemporary world from a sound biblical and theological foundation as historically demonstrated in United Methodist traditions. They are a call to faithfulness and are intended to be instructive and persuasive in the best of the prophetic spirit; however, they are not church law.  The Social Principles are a call to all members of The United Methodist Church to a prayerful, studied dialogue of faith and practice. (See ? 509.)

The Catholics:

PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE
MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
CHAPTER TWO
THE HUMAN COMMUNION
ARTICLE 3
SOCIAL JUSTICE
1928 Society ensures social justice when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and their vocation. Social justice is linked to the common good and the exercise of authority.
I. RESPECT FOR THE HUMAN PERSON
1929 Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. The person represents the ultimate end of society, which is ordered to him:

What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt.35

1930 Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority: by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy.36 If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. It is the Church's role to remind men of good will of these rights and to distinguish them from unwarranted or false claims.
1931 Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self,' above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity."37 No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.
1932 The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."38
1933 This same duty extends to those who think or act differently from us. The teaching of Christ goes so far as to require the forgiveness of offenses. He extends the commandment of love, which is that of the New Law, to all enemies.39 Liberation in the spirit of the Gospel is incompatible with hatred of one's enemy as a person, but not with hatred of the evil that he does as an enemy.
II. EQUALITY AND DIFFERENCES AMONG MEN
1934 Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.
1935 The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:

Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design.40

1936 On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth.41 The "talents" are not distributed equally.42
1937 These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:

I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others. . . . I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one. . . . And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another. . . . I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.43

1938 There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:

Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace.44

III. HUMAN SOLIDARITY
1939 The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of "friendship" or "social charity," is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood.45

An error, "today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origin and by the equality in rational nature of all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity."46

1940 Solidarity is manifested in the first place by the distribution of goods and remuneration for work. It also presupposes the effort for a more just social order where tensions are better able to be reduced and conflicts more readily settled by negotiation.
1941 Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this.
1942 The virtue of solidarity goes beyond material goods. In spreading the spiritual goods of the faith, the Church has promoted, and often opened new paths for, the development of temporal goods as well. And so throughout the centuries has the Lord's saying been verified: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well":47

For two thousand years this sentiment has lived and endured in the soul of the Church, impelling souls then and now to the heroic charity of monastic farmers, liberators of slaves, healers of the sick, and messengers of faith, civilization, and science to all generations and all peoples for the sake of creating the social conditions capable of offering to everyone possible a life worthy of man and of a Christian.48

IN BRIEF
1943 Society ensures social justice by providing the conditions that allow associations and individuals to obtain their due.
1944 Respect for the human person considers the other "another self." It presupposes respect for the fundamental rights that flow from the dignity intrinsic of the person.
1945 The equality of men concerns their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it.
1946 The differences among persons belong to God's plan, who wills that we should need one another. These differences should encourage charity.
1947 The equal dignity of human persons requires the effort to reduce excessive social and economic inequalities. It gives urgency to the elimination of sinful inequalities.
1948 Solidarity is an eminently Christian virtue. It practices the sharing of spiritual goods even more than material ones.

Heck, even the Mormons:

The Book That Built a Better World
By Chris Conkling

....

Some skeptics see the Bible as the enemy of history and science without realizing that, in part, it made science and history possible. Surrounding Israel were religions of accommodation that merely sought to help people survive in, not change, their worlds. In contrast, "Judaism ... affirmed that [history] was a meaningful process leading to the gradual regeneration of humanity." 15 By introducing the concept of linear historical progress-the idea that because history is leading to a millennial state, our actions matter in helping create a better world-the Old Testament inspired great changes in human history. Whereas other religions of the period never "produced a major social revolution fired by a high concept of social justice, ... 'the prophets of Judah were a reforming political force which has never been surpassed.' " 16

And that's just the low-hanging fruit from the websites!

---

Now, remember at the beginning of this post, where I quoted from Matthew 25?  It went like this:

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Well, that's the part that was written for those who would listen.  Next came the part that was written for folks like Glenn Beck:

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Now, I can understand why Beck would want to stir himself up a religious war, since that's always worked out so well in the past just what the religious right has been doing for the last 100 years or more.  By why would he want to so clearly take the side of Satan?

Well, there truly are some things that passeth all understanding.

Thus endeth the lesson.

I love having Saturday night Smartypants quizzes. Gives me something to live for and keeps me off the streets.

Whatever that means.

Here are the answers! I’ll finalize winners over the next hour and will post it down below.

 

1. The Black Death has believed have been spread across the Mediterranean and Europe by:

a. fleas residing on rats
b. tortoises in rivers
c. mice contaminating food supplies
d. ladybugs

ANSWER: a

 
 
 

2. Who wrote Portrait of a Lady?

a. Sir Walter Scott
b. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
c. Henry James
d. Alexandre Dumas

2. c

 
 
 

3. What is equal to 1 milligram?

a. .0001 gram
b. .00001 gram
c. .0000001 gram
d. .001 gram

ANSWER: d

 
 
 

4. Which of the following taglines was used in conjunction with Jaws 2?

a. The waters are no longer quiet
b. The beast is back…and she’s hungry
c. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water
d. Surfing, Interrupted

ANSWER: c

 
 
 

5. What country does this flag represent?

ANSWER: Belgium

 
 
 

6. Ankara is the capital of what country?

ANSWER: Turkey

 
 
 

7. What rock music artist was born with the name Paul Hewson?

ANSWER: Bono

 
 
 

8. Which of the following churches is not considered liturgical?

a. Catholic
b. Lutheran
c. Methodist
d. Episcopalian

ANSWER: c, but this is borderline…uh…borderline. A better choice for c. would have been “Baptist.” If I randomly select a player who answers a, b, or d, I will not disqualify them.

 
 
 

9. In what country can the Hekla volcano be found?

a. Russia
b. Poland
c. Iceland
d. Switzerland

ANSWER: c

 
 
 

10. Who composed Madama Butterfly?

a. Verdi
b. Rossini
c. Vivaldi
d. Puccini

ANSWER: d

 
 
 

11. Who is the oldest woman ever to win the Best Actress Oscar?

ANSWER: Jessica Tandy

 
 
 

12. 1 acre (roughly) equals:

a. .001 Hectares
b. .4047 Hectares
c. .3048 Hectares
d. .3115 Hectares

ANSWER: b

 
 
 

13. What commonly-used Latin phrase roughly translates to “formed for a particular purpose”?

a. Ad infinitum
b. Ad hominem
c. Ad hoc
d. Ad lib

ANSWER: c

 
 
 

14. What happened on this date (March 6) in history?

a. Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg begins
b. Funeral of Marin Luther King
c. Suriname joins the United Nations
d. Miley Cyrus is born

ANSWER: a

 
 
 

15. Identify the notable women known for each of the following things:

a. Wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
b. Saved Captain John Smith’s life
c. Founded the American Red Cross
d. American child star and US Ambassador to Ghana

ANSWER:

a. Harriet Beecher Stowe
b. Pocahontas
c. Clara Barton
d. Shirley Temple

 
 
 

16. Wrest means

a. fight
b. seize
c. journey
d. argue

ANSWER: b (I would like to say that this is one of my favorite words of all time.)

 
 
 

17. What Greek mathematician is known as the Father of Geometry?

a. Thales
b. Archimedes
c. Pythagoras
d. Euclid

ANSWER: d

 
 
 

18. Identify this former child actor AND her most notable role:

 

ANSWER: Susan Olsen, aka CINDY BRADY!

 
 
 

19. Who is the artist of this painting?

ANSWER: Picasso

 
 
 

20. Identify this breed of dog:

ANSWER: Airedale Terrier

 

WINNERS:

(Posted shortly!)

Forget Billy Graham and Jimmy Swaggart – the most popular and influential pastor in the US is Joel Osteen. On the surface he is modest and quietly spoken, but his belief in the "prosperity gospel" is changing the way people pray

The praise and worship brought me here," says Natalie, sitting beside me in the fifth row of Houston's Lakewood Church – a vast, converted stadium that seats 16,000. "I was raised Catholic, but I don't feel the spirit there like I do here."

Three enormous video screens advertise church groups such as Griefshare: From Mourning to Joy and the Freedom Series. But just as I'm wondering what the Quest for Authentic Manhood involves, the house worship band kicks out the jams. It's 11am exactly and the day's second service has begun. The stage is dominated by an enormous revolving golden globe, in front of which is a rock orchestra flanked on either side by a multiracial gospel choir. Meanwhile, no fewer than nine lead singers are dancing about the stage, praising the Lord. And as if the stage isn't busy enough, down on the floor a small army of serious-looking men dressed in black suits stands alert, ever watchful, communicating with each other through radio mics. Theoretically they're church ushers, but they look more like secret service men guarding a president. Gently but firmly they guide latecomers to their seats, leaving nothing to chance, as if one wrong step could upset the delicate balance that keeps 16,000 evangelical Christians from erupting into violence and anarchy.

Men on wheeled chairs scoot past these special agents, thrusting cameras into the faces of the congregation, while overhead a camera on a crane swoops past, instantly transmitting the action on stage to the giant video screens above. Looking up, I watch as the walls and ceiling periodically change colour, from blue to purple to orange as if we were at an intergalactic disco. Make no mistake: Lakewood is no ordinary church, it's a megachurch. No, let's go further: it's an ultrachurch, the largest in America, with more than 40,000 attending five services weekly and a further 7 million watching in their living rooms. And let's not forget the tens of millions more joining us in 100 countries around the world.

The main draw is Joel Osteen, "America's pastor". He's at the edge of the stage with his glamorous wife and co-pastor, Victoria. I've watched his televised sermons, seen him on the cover of his bestselling books, and observed interviews on TV with megastars such as Larry King, Sean Hannity and Barbara Walters. Powerful politicians from both parties crave to be seen with him, just as in the past they paid homage to Billy Graham (who has endorsed Osteen). The Republican governor of Texas, Rick Perry, made sure to attend the grand opening of Lakewood in July 2005; Osteen in turn led the prayer during Perry's inauguration two years later. But Osteen doesn't pick political favourites; when Houston elected its first openly gay mayor this year (a Democrat), he said the prayer during her inauguration. The Clintons like to be seen worshipping at Lakewood when they're in town, and John McCain was happy to sing the praises of Osteen while campaigning in 2008. And while Obama is yet to pay a visit, last December he found the time to receive Osteen at the White House. These disparate and often opposed politicians recognise one thing: if anybody is the face of evangelical Christianity in America today, it is Joel Osteen.

And what a face it is! The smile is what I notice most of all. Impeccable, white, ultra-regular, it never vanishes: it's the natural setting for his features, the default look to which his face always returns, as if illuminated from within by radiant joy.

The music stops. Joel and Victoria welcome us. In a soft Texan drawl, Joel declares that we're going to take off the heaviness of the week and put on a garment of praise. No matter what has happened, it's in our power to decide we are going to be happy and make progress every day. We are God's people and we're going to be victorious!

"Lakewood was started by my father, John Osteen, in 1959 in a little feed store," says Joel. We are sitting in a meeting room below the church an hour after the service. He negates most stereotypes of the TV preacher: quiet rather than loud, reserved rather than extrovert, perhaps even a little naive. He looks boyish, delicate, much younger than his 46 years.

"Dad had been Southern Baptist," he continues, "but that was before I was born. He left to start Lakewood, partly because he didn't like all these denominations keeping people apart. We were in that remodelled store until I was nine or 10 years old. It held about 150 people, but we started with 90. I didn't realise it was that small. There was a centre aisle and a pew on one side and a pew on the other. So it had 20 rows or something. I just remember going there as a boy and sitting in the front row, listening to my dad. That's where I grew up."

"The talent is incredible," says Natalie, marvelling at the horde of singers and musicians blasting out electrified praise. The worship leader is Israel Houghton: his story is told in Osteen's third and latest New York Times bestseller, It's Your Time. The child of a drug-addicted white mother and absent black father, Houghton ultimately became a Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter.

It's Your Time is a major plank of a media empire that comprises e-votionals, daily podcasts and much else. Osteen's mother, Dodie, also features in the book: she miraculously recovered from terminal cancer in the early 80s. Jesus, Job and King David make appearances. But Osteen mixes in more mischievous examples of God's favour – he is particularly fond of telling us about the Almighty's many intercessions to save Joel from a speeding ticket. His goal is to help us realise God's wonderful plan for "supernatural increase" in our lives, so we stay faithful no matter how bad the odds seem.

Osteen ran his father's television ministry for 17 years behind the scenes. He understands communication – not only the power of the word but also of sound and vision. A perfectionist, he hires only the best. Singing alongside Houghton is Cindy Cruse-Ratcliffe, scion of a famous Christian music dynasty. Every Sunday Lakewood delivers a flawless, high-energy spectacle, precisely the kind of thing that repulses church traditionalists. Yet although it appears ultra-contemporary, this style of worship is a manifestation of ecstatic praise, which is as old as religion itself, and much older than the hymn books and cathedrals which are no less engineered to engender certain effects in congregations.

Osteen, a college dropout, never planned to be a preacher. For years he rebuffed his father's invitations to preach, until in January 1999 he finally accepted. His father was ill at the time. "I didn't want to," he says, "but I just felt inside that I was supposed to. So I spoke that Sunday for the first time. And… that next Friday is when he died. We didn't think he was going to die. But… you know, when I put that together I knew it wasn't a coincidence that I spoke the last Sunday of his life. And then a couple of days after he died I felt that same feeling – that I was supposed to pastor the church. And so I just started."

Osteen was 35, married, a father. The next week, still grieving, he preached again. He hoped to maintain the 8,000-member megachurch his father had built. Instead Joel's uplifting preaching resonated and Lakewood quadrupled its membership. He had to find a new building, and after fighting multiple lawsuits he leased the Compaq Center in downtown Houston for 30 years at a cost of $12m (while agreeing to fund renovations costing $90m). The congregation moved into its new home in 2005. It was destiny.

"And that's why I encourage people… The phrase I use a lot is: 'God's dream for your life is bigger than your own.' You don't know what He has in store if you'll just keep being your best, keep being faithful."

Twenty minutes into the service and people are still flooding into Lakewood. "It was like this at the 8.30 morning service, too," says Natalie. "Every week it's packed."

The video screens show the view from the back of the arena: it looks like a stadium rock gig. But it's not just the size of the crowd that's stunning; it's also its diversity. Eleven o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America, said Martin Luther King – and even today Christians frequently worship in predominantly black churches, white churches, Korean churches, Hispanic churches, Chinese churches. In Lakewood no single group dominates. I see Texas blondes, hair piled high atop their heads; men in dreadlocks; sloppy dudes in T-shirts; black women in their Sunday best; old coots in double-breasted suits. All of them are dissolving together, lost in praise. Decades of government intervention in the name of equality have never come close to achieving the success of Lakewood.

"There are no walls here; nobody judges you," says Natalie. "I feel incredibly free. Sometimes I think this is what heaven is like."

Lakewood was multiracial from the start. For years, sociologists and visiting pastors have tried to understand the phenomenon, but according to Osteen there was never anything conscious about it: his father was simply "for people".

"I wondered when I took over – I'm white and young – will I continue to draw Hispanic, black? Was that just something unique to my father? But I'm amazed even when we go in other cities, it'll be black, white, Hispanic…"

Osteen pauses: "I think now the spirit of the congregation itself is welcoming. It's not only very diverse racially but also socioeconomically. There's some very poor people and some very wealthy people, but I think… One thing about my parents and what we try to do as well… we try to… it's not about… We try to never even think about the race and… I don't know."

Articulate and assured when preaching, Osteen offstage is tentative and freely admits to areas where he lacks expertise. This humility has landed him in trouble: during a 2005 interview with Larry King he prevaricated over whether a non-Christian could enter heaven. It was classic Osteen: polite, nice, nonjudgmental. Cue outrage among fellow evangelicals. The next time Osteen appeared on Larry King he was certain faith in Christ was essential.

Even so, he is still open about his weaknesses: "Billy Graham, his gift was to go out and win people to Christ. It's different being a pastor. I'm trying to teach people – how do you live the abundant life? That's my gift. Some people are good at taking the scripture line by line and talking about how it was written, but that's not my gift… I believe you've got to repent of your sins; you've got to have a relationship with Christ. So I believe all the fundamental things, I just don't focus on that."

The worship ends. Osteen takes centre stage. He invokes God's power, urging the congregation to release negative emotions: "Let go of offence. Let go of fear. Let go of revenge. Don't live angry, let go now!" Some respond with an "Amen!" or "Hallelujah!" Osteen himself eschews traditional "gospel" stylings.

Now he explains the importance not only of thinking positive thoughts, but also speaking them aloud – for the Bible says that spoken words have power. We must dare to ask God to fulfil our dreams! For He loves us, and His dream for each of us is bigger than we can imagine. Get ready for supernatural increase because… "You're going to be anointed, redeemed, blessed, prosperous, disciplined… You've got a great week coming!"

Osteen is often labelled a preacher of the "prosperity gospel", a movement that dates back more than half a century. It is resolutely worldly, focused on receiving blessings and gifts from God now as well as in the afterlife. According to a Time magazine poll in 2006, 17% of Christians declare themselves adherents, while a total of 61% believe God wants His children to prosper.

But many evangelicals despise the doctrine. Rick Warren, the California megapastor who gave the invocation at Obama's inauguration, told Time magazine: "This idea that God wants everybody to be wealthy? There is a word for that: baloney. It's creating a false idol. You don't measure your self-worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live in poverty. Why isn't everyone in the church a millionaire?"

Many have attacked Osteen personally, pointing to the scarcity of references to Jesus in his books, the absence of a cross on stage, his lack of theological training, his refusal to talk about sin. Michael Horton, a professor of theology, more or less called him a heretic on national TV. Others say he's not a preacher at all, but a secular self-help showman, selling platitudes and false hope.

And then in a whole other league there's the distinguished journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, who included Osteen in her spirited evisceration of America's Oprahfied culture of positive thinking in her recent book Smile or Die. Throwing him in with other prosperity preachers, assorted health gurus, faith healers and new age "philosophers", Ehrenreich accused Osteen and co not only of peddling falsehoods and pseudo-spiritual claptrap, but of contributing to a culture of mass self-delusion that left Americans unable to contemplate negative outcomes and thus led to the great banking collapse of 2008. According to Ehrenreich, the nation's CEOs just could not believe in a world where their desires did not translate into results, while Americans in general just can't believe in the terrible things that are obviously coming down the pipe: they have been conditioned to believe that everything is going to be just grrrreat!

Osteen is sanguine about criticism, accepting it as a result of his high profile. He doesn't talk about sin because "people have been beaten down enough" and "it's better to encourage than condemn". Nor does he get involved in moral or political controversies. He did not attend Bible college, but points out that he did spend 17 years editing his father's sermons for broadcast. And you don't have to be a Lakewood true believer to think that Ehrenreich is over-egging the pudding with her wilder claims; the banking crisis was a global phenomenon, not just restricted to readers of Osteen's Your Best Life Now. The label of prosperity preacher does sting, however. "It's just the way I grew up. We believed God is good and He wants to bless you and He wants you to be healthy – but when I think of a prosperity preacher, that to me is somebody who's on TV asking for money every second. I don't talk about money."

The first time I watched Osteen on TV I kept waiting for the appeal for cash. It never came. I was confused. This was a decision Joel made at the inception of his father's television ministry in 1983. He wanted to give people as few reasons to turn off as possible, and nothing alienated an audience more than a begging preacher. (Another principle was to keep the message broad, so non-believers would keep watching.)

The strategy works. The church brought in $80m last year. Osteen is personally wealthy: after his first book sold 5m copies, rumours swirled that he received an eight-figure advance for his second. Even tithing 10% still leaves him with an immense chunk of change. Osteen cites Abraham as an example of a wealthy man supported and loved by the Deity. And then there's Malachi: "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse… and try me now in this, if I will not for you open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it."

But Osteen insists that his idea of prosperity is broad: "It's not just money. God wants you to have good relationships, to have healthy children, to have peace in your mind; you know, have friends – that's prosperity. If people know you are sincere, then they will respond to you."

Osteen's only brush with scandal came in December 2005 when Sharon Jones, a flight attendant, accused his wife, Victoria, of assault on a flight from Houston to Vail, Colorado. Jones alleged that Victoria was so enraged by some liquid that had been spilt on her first-class seat that she grabbed her by the shoulders, rammed her against a toilet door and then elbowed her in the chest – as you do – and all this while passengers were still boarding. As a result of the traumatic incident, Jones claimed that she not only lost her faith but also developed a terrible case of piles. Clearly she deserved at least $400,000 in damages.

For nearly three years the lawsuit hung over the Osteens, and when it finally went to trial in August 2008 the national media gleefully descended upon Houston, hoping for some fun with a classic TV evangelist scandal. It was certainly dramatic. Words such as "devil" and "cult" and "racist" were thrown at the Osteens by their accuser. Alas for Jones, a key eyewitness retracted her support of Jones's story in court and with nobody else backing her version of events, the jury tossed the case out after three hours, declaring it "a waste of time". The Osteens were exonerated, although Victoria Osteen did pay a $3,000 fine to the federal aviation authority for "interfering with a crew member". She stressed, however, that she was guilty of no wrongdoing and was only doing so to put the experience behind her.

Osteen is now alone on stage, the golden globe revolving behind him. He is so quiet, so gentle, so modest; his speech stripped down and lacking in rhetorical flourishes – and yet although he is addressing millions, it feels as if he is talking directly to you. This is the miraculous moment. Osteen knows what's going on inside your soul, he sees your frustrations, your loneliness, your hopes, fears; and he knows what you must do.

The theme is: bloom where you're planted. The tone is darker than in the books. Sometimes we don't seem to be fulfilling our dreams; sometimes we suffer for no apparent reason. But look at Joseph, who was tossed in a pit and enslaved. He didn't lose faith and God made him viceroy of Egypt. But victory can be a long time coming – and more often than not God wants to change us, not our situation. Even if you can't see any benefits to your situation, know that God is using you to work in someone else's life. Do your best where you can, when you can. Be a flower among the weeds. God has a plan.

Sixteen thousand souls are sitting in perfect silence. For 25 minutes there is perfect concentration in the stadium. I've never experienced anything like it.

Osteen's greaT AUNT Johnnie Daniels was a good Christian woman. Her door was always open. She provided money, food and shelter to those in need. As a reward for her kindness, she was beaten to death in her home by a crack addict with a claw hammer. She was 86.

"Surely," I say, "when a thing like this happens it's difficult to keep 'living your best life now'?"

But Osteen – unflustered, calm, polite – disagrees. "I don't want to sound like I'm super spiritual or anything but… I don't… I haven't… From the time that I was little I've had a good sense of trust and confidence that God was in control. Even with my great aunt. I believe part of faith is trusting… Maybe this would be a better example. We had a good friend and their 16-year-old boy left one night and he wasn't supposed to take the car. He hit a tree and killed himself. They're still not over it. And you know, they're good people. It's hard to explain, but… I believe that God can keep you… that you won't leave this earth until you're supposed to go. That's kind of my thing now. Now I know it would be hard if someone was taken away tomorrow, but I just think that's the way you have to look at it. You know, God's in control and we don't understand everything. I don't have to understand why my mother got healed and a lot of people, they're in the hospital and they're not going to make it. But I look at them and say this: 'God's got you in the palm of His hand. You won't leave one second before your time. If God wants you to be here, then you're going to be here.' So I try to see it like that."

After the service I tour the complex. I see the Wall of Champions, the study rooms for new believers, the baby rooms, the media centre selling DVDs, CDs, Bible studies and the collected works of Joel and Victoria.

Osteen is signing books. Indefatigable, he will spend an hour posing for photographs, listening to problems, giving advice and blessings. The main hall is filling up for this afternoon's Spanish-language service, led by another Grammy winner, Marcos Witt – 8,000 will attend.

There are more than 300 full- and part-time staff at Lakewood, and approximately 5,000 volunteers. It is a vast, thrumming God-machine. But that metaphor only goes so far, for without the man at its centre – gifted, elusive, open, childlike; the anti-preacher who is the most successful preacher of them all – there would be nothing. Joel Osteen is the brilliant, unquantifiable, animating essence. And after meeting him, while there is much I still don't understand, I do recall Jesus's words to his disciples in Matthew's gospel: Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Joel Osteen will be at the O2 Arena in London on 8 October (theo2.co.uk)

Five major African-American Baptist organizations pledge $50 million in life-sustaining services and facilities to help Haiti and earthquake survivors. CHICAGO, March 2 /PRNewswire/TodaysDrum — The African-American Baptist Mission Collaboration (AABMC) today unveiled plans for a massive $50 million project to help rebuild Haiti and provide aid to Haitian earthquake survivors.  At a press conference held at [...] Related posts:

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Baptist group leader and nanny remain in jail for questioning on earlier visit

Eight American missionaries were freed from a Haitian jail last night, nearly three weeks after being charged with kidnapping for trying to take a group of children out of the country following the devastating earthquakes in January.

The eight – looking bedraggled and sweaty – walked out of the jail in Port-au-Prince escorted by US diplomats just after dusk. They waited until they were safely inside a white van before flashing smiles, waving and giving a thumbs up to reporters.

Hours earlier, the judge, Bernard Saint-Vil, told the Associated Press that eight of the 10 missionaries were free to leave without bail or other conditions after parents testified that they had voluntarily handed their children over to the missionaries.

"The parents of the kids made statements proving that they can be released," he said, adding that he still wanted to question the group's leader, Laura Silsby, and her nanny over a visit to Haiti in December.

The group planned to fly out of Haiti late yesterday, said their attorney Aviol Fleurant. Their destination was not immediately known.

Kimberly Flowers at the US embassy would not confirm that the Americans were leaving on a plane chartered by the US government, citing privacy law. She said that as American citizens, they were entitled to evacuation flights.

The missionaries, most from two Baptist churches in Idaho, are accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on January 29 without proper documents. Their detentions came as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions after the earthquake.

The missionaries say they were on a humanitarian mission to rescue child quake victims by taking them to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic and have denied accusations of trafficking.

Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but reporters found that several of the children were handed over to the group by their parents, who said the hoped the Baptists would give them a better life.

Saint-Vil said he still wants to question Silsby and the nanny, Charisa Coulter, about their visit to Haiti before the earthquake, but he asked for Coulter to be hospitalized because of her diabetes.

Gary Lissade, the attorney for one of the eight freed detainees, Jim Allen, said he expected the charges to be dropped against the eight.

"My faith means everything to me, and I knew this moment would come when the truth would set me free," Allen said in a statement issued by the Liberty Legal Institute in Plano, Texas. "For those whose cases have not been resolved, we will continue to pray for their safe return."

Earlier, the group was embarrassed by revelations that a man who briefly served as their legal adviser and spokesman in the Dominican Republic is wanted on people-smuggling charges in the United States and El Salvador.

Jorge Puello, who is in Panama, told AP he was wrongly accused and will fight the charges.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A Haitian judge said Wednesday he is freeing eight of 10 U.S. Baptists charged with child kidnapping after parents testified they voluntarily handed their children over to the missionaries.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil told The Associated Press that the eight were free to leave Wednesday without bail or other conditions.

"The parents of the kids made statements proving that they can be released," he told AP, explaining that the parents had given up their children voluntarily.

The missionaries, most from two Baptist churches in Idaho, are accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documents. It came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the earthquake.

They say they were on a humanitarian mission to rescue child quake victims by taking them to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic and have denied accusations of trafficking.

Group leader Laura Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but reporters found that several of the children were handed over to the group by their parents, who said the hoped the Baptists would give them a better life.

Saint-Vil said he still wants to question Silsby and her nanny, Charisa Coulter, about their visit to Haiti in December before the earthquake, but he asked for Coulter to be hospitalized because of her diabetes.

Earlier Wednesday, Coulter of Boise, Idaho, briefly received treatment but was then taken back to jail.

The eight others were expected to be released shortly after his order, but it was not clear if they would leave Haiti on Wednesday or Thursday.

"We are very pleased that Paul, Silas, Drew, and Steve have been released by the Haitian court," said Caleb Stegall, a Kansas district attorney who has been helping some of the defendants. "Their families are relieved and anxious to have them safely home, and we are turning all of our energies towards bringing them back as safely and quickly as possible,"

Gary Lissade, the attorney for American Jim Allen, said he expected the charges to be dropped against the eight.

Aviol Fleurant, a lawyer for nine of the defendants, said he had not yet arranged transportation for them.

The group early had been embarrassed by revelations that a man who briefly served as their legal adviser and spokesman in the Dominican Republic is wanted on people-smuggling charges in the United States and El Salvador.

U.S. Marshals say they are hunting for Jorge Puello, who was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police say he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution. He also had an outstanding warrant for a U.S. parole violation.

Puello said he volunteered to help the missionaries after they were jailed and said he never met any of them before they were detained.

Puello – who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the jailed Americans – acknowledged in a phone interview with The Associated Press Tuesday that he is named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States.

He said he is innocent of the accusations.

Puello said he was in Panama and preparing to return to El Salvador to fight the charges against him there. His whereabouts could not be confirmed.

Puello's involvement with the Americans began to unravel when authorities in El Salvador noted his resemblance to the suspect in the sex trafficking case. He acknowledged on Monday that he is in fact the suspect but said he was wrongly accused and will fight the charges.

More on Haiti Earthquake

The attacker is seated in a back row of the church. He's wiping his palms nervously on his jeans. His body is rigid on one side from the effort to conceal a nine-millimeter handgun. He's sweating, fixated on the preacher. All are telltale signs of trouble, but the room is filled with distractions: people coughing, cell phones buzzing, parishioners arriving late. Amid the bustle, the attacker pulls his gun, strides nearly 15 yards to the pulpit, aims dead at the preacher, and pulls the trigger. "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" he screams before the God Squad reacts--four undercover agents. It's supposed to be their job to spot the bad guy and send him off to meet his Maker. Finally, someone yells, "Gun!" One man grabs the weapon while another bear hugs the attacker from behind; the rest dog pile, wrestling him to the ground.

It's a scene startlingly similar to the shooting on Feb. 15 in Richmond, Calif., where two gunmen in black hooded sweatshirts burst into the New Gethsemane Church of God in Christ and shot two brothers, 14 and 19, in the leg and shoulder and sent almost 100 parishioners scrambling for cover.

But this time, it's all a simulation. The gun is fake. The bad guy and his subduers are all participants in a program created by Vaughn Baker, who stands aside wearing a black polo adorned with his company's logo--a masked gunman in front of a bulls eye target--and cargo pants. He folds his thick forearms across his chest and barks orders like a drill sergeant. "This is your house. This is your family. If someone comes in here, they are going to have to go through you," he says, rallying his warriors, a congregation of about 30 middle-aged, Middle-American Methodist men, scattered among the pews of a small chapel in rural Missouri.

For now, Baker is just happy no one sprained an ankle. "You aren't going to go from zero to hero in a couple days," he says. "It's a process."

Baker is the president and founder of Kansas City-based Strategos International, a company that combines aggressive tactics with biblical teachings to empower church flocks to become their own security force, able to defend against everything from domestic violence to Jihad to the shocking act in Richmond. For two days in a recent session, the one-time SWAT point man runs the equivalent of a Bible-based boot camp, molding a motley crew of cops, Vietnam vets, and gung-ho construction workers into a security detail physically and spiritually fit to defend a church from assault.

Strategos was founded in 2002 after Baker retired from duty to run special training sessions for military and law enforcement agencies. His original plan was to focus on helping schools avoid the next Columbine--by his estimates, the total number of schools (119,000) was far bigger than the total number of law enforcement agencies (45,000). The problem: State agencies don't pay well. A recent contract with the state of Missouri brought in less than $500,000 to teachers for a four-year gig with 32 training sessions per year. But churches, especially of the Mega variety, are more numerous (375,000 total congregations) and have much deeper coffers.

While he won't release exact financials, Baker says Strategos earns somewhere in the low seven figures, most of it from their religious services, which have grown from nothing in November 2008 to account for more than 35 percent of their business. They run regional seminars ($175 per person per day) as teasers for longer private security boot camps (with group rates) like the one the Methodists signed up for. He estimates they trained 14,000 people at 350 churches in 21 states last year, plus signed more contracts for refresher courses. While he also makes a small dividend from referring congregants to fight gear companies like Tazer, Baker's next theater is the Internet. In January, he launched WorshipSafe, a $399-a-year, subscription-based online security software program that offers templates for designing everything from your protectionist philosophy to blueprint-specific battle plans.

What, exactly, are the chances of a violent attack happening in a house of worship? The FBI doesn't collect statistics on church violence unless it is considered hate crime, so last year Baker launched his own Web site, ChurchSafetyNews to both count and map them. While his own research shows (not surprisingly) that the tide is rising-- six incidents in 2007, 18 in 2008, 51 in 2009--his selling point is that security protocols are just another indispensable form of insurance, albeit physical. "What happens if something occurs and you were not prepared?" he asks. "You want to be remembered for making an impact on the community, not for being impacted because you didn't prepare in advance."

The attack in Richmond hadn't yet happened as this story was first being reported (the choir was singing "Leaning on Jesus" when shots rang out, the choir director told the San Francisco Chronicle, adding, "I couldn't believe this was happening in my church!"), but Baker trots out plenty of other horror stories to prove the need for his company's services. Last May, abortionist George Tiller was gunned down in the foyer of his Wichita, Kansas, church by a pro-life activist. Around the same time a pastor in Maryville, Illinois, was shot point-blank by a man who walked straight up to the pulpit. The pastor's Bible blocked the first shot, but not the next three. (Baker has since trained 75 ushers, greeters, and deacons there.)

When he really wants to hammer home the need for vigilance in a sanctuary, though, he calls on Matthew 10:16:

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Toy guns and droll theatrics are just the first level of Strategos' training. In later sessions, the attack scenarios get quite real. The goal, according to an 80-page company workbook, is to create mock conflicts stressful enough to activate a trainee's "sympathetic nervous system." To help responders keep their cool at all times, the men play war games using paintball guns, firefighter rescue beacons (to disorientate responders), and plastic-pellet Airsoft pistols. Baker, a 42-year old born-again Baptist, and his business partner, Mark Warren, another former police officer, tour with a trailer featuring Baker toting a sub-machine gun. Their corporate philosophy derives from Romans 13:

For he is God's servant, an agent of wrath to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing.

In the case of Dan, the chief administrator of the Methodist congregation--who didn't want his last name or the name of his parish used for this story--the flock's 2,000-person weekend mass was getting just big enough that it was impossible to know everybody. He wanted to put a halt to the sporadic car break-ins and the occasional odd ball lurking about, but uniformed patrols and metal detectors kind of spoiled the sanctuary aesthetic. "There isn't a lot of crime in this area," Dan says. "But you never know."

So Baker teaches the congregation how to recruit a security team of off-duty cops, military folk, and Good Samaritans. The Good Samaritans, acting as greeters or parking lot attendants, become lookouts, using tactical ear pieces to relay suspicious behavior to their colleagues. Once the service begins, the group fans out in tactical formations to monitor the crowd. Baker leaves it up to each parish to decide if and when the security team gets to pack heat. He also offers guidance on the liability issues.

Eric Spacek, a senior risk manager at GuideOne, a church insurance agency, estimates that about 40 percent of his 43,000 clients have some sort of informal security program to manage collection deposits and nursery school background checks. But interest in armed protocol has skyrocketed since 2007 when an off-duty female police officer shot and killed an assailant armed with an AK-47 and 400 rounds of ammo at New Life Episcopal Church in Colorado Springs. Bob Whisman, a retired FBI agent, who started his own security force at the 15,000-head Church of the Resurrection in Overland, Kansas, says he doesn't mind telegraphing to suspicious-looking visitors the fact that his ministry is locked-and-loaded. "We want people to know that if they make threats to this church, whatever they do is at their peril," he says.

The danger of course is becoming too much of an avenging angel. Vaughn Baker readily admits that his passion for force once exceeded his passion for scripture. After earning his police badge in 1988, he says, he began to "backslide," missing Sunday services. When he was on the street collaring crooks and collecting commendations for valor, the notion of turning the other cheek seemed quaint. That all changed when a former SWAT-team-member-turned-pastor invited him to serve on an in-house security force. "I learned that you can be both a Christian and a manís man," he says.

This odd bit of enlightenment has clearly taken hold of the middle-aged Methodists. You can sense the camaraderie building as they begin to rattle off push-ups beneath a 15-foot wooden crucifix and ponder which everyday object might best disarm a would-be assailant--a broomstick, a fire extinguisher, or a chair. Trainee Ron Styer, 32, a sales rep for a motorcycle and ATV parts company, says he was once uncertain that he could be a hero in dark times. "It's not like I would run and hide, but I didn't know what I would do," he says. Now he is more capable, part of a sacrosanct frontline seemingly divined by God. The new crusaders don't exactly ace Baker's final exams, but some diehard converts are almost itching for the reckoning. One insists he saw the gunman get up well before he fired his shots. "If this weren't a simulation," he says, "I would have taken him out."

Fascinating article sharing how some in power are revising history to reflect their biases. Both my children go to public school, attend church and I continue to be disappointed how the work of professional educators gets set aside by fundamentalists, no matter what their religious affiliation.

• How Christian Were the Founders? - NYTimes.com

  • Don McLeroy, a small, vigorous man with a shiny pate and bristling mustache, proposed amendment after amendment on social issues to the document that teams of professional educators had drawn up over 12 months, in what would have to be described as a single-handed display of archconservative political strong-arming.
  • The injection of partisan politics into education went so far that at one point another Republican board member burst out in seemingly embarrassed exasperation, “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!” Nevertheless, most of McLeroy’s proposed amendments passed by a show of hands.
  • The state’s $22 billion education fund is among the largest educational endowments in the country. Texas uses some of that money to buy or distribute a staggering 48 million textbooks annually — which rather strongly inclines educational publishers to tailor their products to fit the standards dictated by the Lone Star State.
  • The cultural roots of the Texas showdown may be said to date to the late 1980s, when, in the wake of his failed presidential effort, the Rev. Pat Robertson founded the Christian Coalition partly on the logic that conservative Christians should focus their energies at the grass-roots level. One strategy was to put candidates forward for state and local school-board elections — Robertson’s protégé, Ralph Reed, once said, “I would rather have a thousand school-board members than one president and no school-board members” — and Texas was a beachhead.
  • “They do vote as a bloc,” Pat Hardy, a board member who considers herself a conservative Republican but who stands apart from the Christian faction, told me. “They work consciously to pull one more vote in with them on an issue so they’ll have a majority.”
  • As Cynthia Dunbar, another Christian activist on the Texas board, put it, “The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.”
  • McLeroy makes no bones about the fact that his professional qualifications have nothing to do with education. “I’m a dentist, not a historian,” he said.
  • “I consider myself a Christian fundamentalist,” he announced
  • “It’s the 21st century, and the rest of the known world accepts the teaching of evolution as science and creationism as religion, yet we continue to have this debate here,” Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group, says. “So the eyes of the nation were on this body, and people saw how ridiculous they appeared.” The State Legislature felt the ridicule. “You have a point of view, and you’re using this bully pulpit to take the rest of the state there,” Eliot Shapleigh, a Democratic state senator, admonished McLeroy during the hearing that led to his ouster. McLeroy remains unbowed and talked cheerfully to me about how, confronted with a statement supporting the validity of evolution that was signed by 800 scientists, he had proudly been able to “stand up to the experts.”
  • The Connecticut Baptists saw Jefferson — an anti-Federalist who was bitterly opposed to the idea of establishment churches — as a friend. “Our constitution of government,” they wrote, “is not specific” with regard to a guarantee of religious freedoms that would protect them. Might the president offer some thoughts that, “like the radiant beams of the sun,” would shed light on the intent of the framers? In his reply, Jefferson said it was not the place of the president to involve himself in religion, and he expressed his belief that the First Amendment’s clauses — that the government must not establish a state religion (the so-called establishment clause) but also that it must ensure the free exercise of religion (what became known as the free-exercise clause) — meant, as far as he was concerned, that there was “a wall of separation between Church & State.”
  • Steven K. Green, director of the Center for Religion, Law and Democracy at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., testified at the board meeting last month in opposition to the board’s approach to bringing religion into history, warning that the Supreme Court has forbidden public schools from “seeking to impress upon students the importance of particular religious values through the curriculum,” and in the process said that the founders “did not draw on Mosaic law, as is mentioned in the standards,” several of the board members seemed dumbstruck.
  • Green countered that the Enlightenment had in fact developed in opposition to reliance on biblical law and said he had done a lengthy study in search of American court cases that referenced Mosaic law. “The record is basically bereft,” he said. Nevertheless, biblical law and Moses remain in the TEKS.
  • To conservative Christians, there is no separation of church and state, and there never was. The concept, they say, is a modern secular fiction. There is no legal justification, therefore, for disallowing crucifixes in government buildings or school prayer.
  • Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Barnard College and writer of the documentary “Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham,” told me: “David Barton has been out there spreading this lie, frankly, that the founders intended America to be a Christian nation. He’s been very effective. But the logic is utterly screwy. He says the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ is not in the Constitution. He’s right about that. But to make that argument work you would have to argue that the phrase is not an accurate summation of the First Amendment. And Thomas Jefferson, who penned it, thought it was.”
  • The founders deliberately left the word ‘God’ out of the Constitution — but not because they were a bunch of atheists and deists,” says Susan Jacoby, author of “Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.” “To them,
  • mixing religion and government meant trouble.”
  • The curious thing is that in trying to bring God into the Constitution, the activists — who say their goal is to follow the original intent of the founders — are ignoring the fact that the founders explicitly avoided religious language in that document.
  • sending children to public school to “throwing them into the enemy’s flames, even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch.”
  • “The more you can associate Christianity with the founding, the more you can sway the future Supreme Court,” Martin Marty says. “That is what Pat Robertson was about years ago. Establish the founders as Christians, and you have it made.”
  • “BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR, What Do You See?” It’s not an especially subversive-sounding title, but the author of this 1967 children’s picture book, Bill Martin Jr., lost his place in the Texas social-studies guidelines at last month’s board meeting due to what was thought to be un-American activity — to be precise, “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.” Martin, the creator of 300 children’s books, was removed from the list of cultural figures approved for study by third graders in the blizzard of amendments offered by board members.
  • What is wrong with the Texas process, according to many observers, is illustrated by the fate of Bill Martin Jr. The board has the power to accept, reject or rewrite the TEKS, and over the past few years, in language arts, science and now social studies, the members have done all of the above. Yet few of these elected overseers are trained in the fields they are reviewing. “In general, the board members don’t know anything at all about content,” Tom Barber, the textbook executive, says. Kathy Miller, the watchdog, who has been monitoring the board for 15 years, says, referring to Don McLeroy and another board member: “It is the most crazy-making thing to sit there and watch a dentist and an insurance salesman rewrite curriculum standards in science and history. Last year, Don McLeroy believed he was smarter than the National Academy of Sciences, and he now believes he’s smarter than professors of American history.” In this case, one board member sent an e-mail message with a reference to “Ethical Marxism,” by Bill Martin, to another board member, who suggested that anyone who wrote a book with such a title did not belong in the TEKS. As it turned out, Bill Martin and Bill Martin Jr. are two different people. But by that time, the author of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” was out.
  • Don McLeroy had a four-inch stack of amendments, and they all just voted on them, whether or not they actually knew the content. What we witnessed in January was a textbook example of how not to develop textbook standards.”
  • Before the January board meeting, one of the social-studies curriculum writers, Judy Brodigan, told me that she was very pleased with the guidelines her team produced. After the meeting, with its 10-hour marathon of amendments by board members, she spoke very differently. “I think they took a very, very good document and weakened it,” she said. “The teachers take their work seriously. I do believe there are board members on the ultraright who have an agenda. They want to make our standards very conservative and fit their viewpoint. Our job is not to take a viewpoint. It’s to present sides fairly. I thought we had done that.”
  • “McLeroy is kind of the spokesman for the social conservatives, and publishers will work with him throughout. The publishers just want to make sure they get their books listed.”
  • “I met with all the publishers,” McLeroy said. “We went out for Mexican food. I told them this is what we want. We want stories with morals, not P.C. stories.” He then showed me an e-mail message from an executive at Pearson, a major educational publisher, indicating the results of his effort: “Hi Don. Thanks for the impact that you have had on the development of Pearson’s Scott Foresman Reading Street series. Attached is a list of some of the Fairy Tales and Fables that we included in the series.”
  • Ratliff told me. “I think the state board of education has lost its way, and the social-studies thing is a prime example. They keep wanting to talk about this being a Christian nation. My attitude is this country was founded by a group of men who were Christians but who didn’t want the government dictating religion, and that’s exactly what McLeroy and his colleagues are trying to do.”
  • Russell Shorto is a contributing writer for the magazine. His most recent book is ‘‘Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason.’’

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

To the Washington Post copy desk:

I know it’s a really busy day, with the blizzard blowing in and all, but I wanted to make sure that your received a copy of the following letter from a strategic leader of the American Baptist Churches/USA. I think I received at least three copies of it by email yesterday and it seems that it was sent to news organizations across the nation.

Read more on On Haiti: Yo, Washington Post copy desk!…

Arrested Americans said they were taking 'abandoned' children to orphanage

A mother in a remote village outside ­Haiti's main earthquake zone has told how she allowed her twin sons to be taken by American missionaries now under investigation for child trafficking, because they promised to provide a life of hope and opportunity for her children.

Maggie Moise, who has eight children, said she was contacted by a local man who works in an orphanage in her village and was told that "some white people" wanted to help her family.

Ten Americans affiliated with two Baptist churches in Idaho were arrested on Friday while trying to take the busload of ­children out of the country without documents or permission.

The group, who are being held at the headquarters of Haiti's judicial police, have not yet been charged, but Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, has described them as "kidnappers" who "knew what they were doing was wrong".

Yesterday, Moise, who lives in the village of Calebasse, an hour and a half's drive from the centre of Port-au-Prince, described how she agreed to let her nine-year-old-twin sons, Volmy and Kimley, leave with the Americans for the Dominican Republic.

"They said they wanted to go with our children and told us 'don't worry, everything will be fine'," she said. "They put the names of the children on a paper and asked me to sign the paper to accept. The white woman told me: 'Don't worry, you will be able to access your children.' They showed me a brochure of the place where the children would be going to live. They told us they were going to help my boys. I gave them my boys because there is nothing for them here."

She identified the woman as Corinna Lankford, one of the Baptists currently being detained in jail, and said a local man named Isaac had acted as a go-between. Neither Isaac nor the orphanage's director, Phillippe Murphy, a Haitian American, were present there today and workers said they knew nothing about the missionaries' activities.

As many as 20 of the children who were with the 10 Americans when they were arrested are thought to come from Calebasse, which is in the Fort Jacques mountains south-east of Port-au-Prince.

The Baptists said they had planned to take abandoned children orphaned in the earthquake and raise them at a new orphanage in the Dominican Republic. But according to locals, none of the children taken from Calebasse were orphans nor even particularly desperate. Few houses in the village have suffered any damage in the quake.

Meanwhile, as medical teams in Haiti today pressed ahead with a major campaign to vaccinate thousands of children, a Swiss court said that at least $4.6m in Swiss bank accounts which had previously been awarded to charities must be returned to the family of Haiti's former dictator, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

The decision was reached hours before the quake, on 12 January, but only publishedtoday, prompting the Swiss government to issue an emergency decree to keep the money frozen in a Swiss bank until a new law can be passed allowing it to be donated to aid groups in Haiti.

MERIDIAN, Idaho — A tearful Idaho congregation heard their pastor warn that church members detained in Haiti after attempting to take 33 children into the Dominican Republic could face child trafficking charges. Then the pastor urged them to pray.

"It should be very obvious, after our team was arrested, that prayer is needed more now than perhaps at any other time," Senior Pastor Clint Henry said during Sunday services at Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, west of Boise.

The 10 detained Americans – five of whom are members of Henry's church – were told they face a possible court hearing in Port-au-Prince on Monday. But Haiti's justice secretary, Amarick Louis, told the AP on Sunday that a commission would meet Monday to determine if the group would go before a judge.

Henry told the congregation that the Americans were trying to rescue the children. But Haitian officials who stopped them at the Dominican border on Friday said the group lacked the proper documents.

The Meridian church became involved with the "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" because the founders of the proposed orphanage for the children, Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter, were members of its congregation, Henry said.

The 500-member church, where signs taped to large bins on Sunday read "Donations for Haiti," gave several thousand dollars toward the mission, Henry said.

"This is something we've been talking about doing for a long time so it wasn't specific to this earthquake," he told reporters at a press conference after church services.

At least three of the 10 detained Americans are members of the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho. Others being held are from Texas and Kansas.

The Idaho churches had elaborate plans before the earthquake to "provide a loving Christian homelike environment" for up to 200 Haitian and Dominican boys and girls in the Magante beach resort, complete with a school and chapel as well as villas and a seaside cafe catering to adoptive U.S. parents.

The mission was organized through the nonprofit New Life Children's Refuge, which Silsby incorporated in Idaho on Nov. 25. A planning document for last week's trip, posted on the East Side Baptist Church's Web site, listed an itinerary for the group and asked for donations and supplies, as well as prayers.

One prayer request sought "discernment of God's will and direction throughout this trip and for Him to prepare the way before us."

Silsby, 40, acknowledged on Sunday that she hadn't obtained the proper Haitian documents for the children, whose names were written on pink tape on their shirts during their bus ride to the border.

Public records show Silsby also owns Personal Shopper Inc., an online shopping assistance company. Incorporation papers for New Life Children's Refuge show they were sent from the company's fax machine.

Silsby's records also show she personally has some unpaid state tax bills dating to 2003 and other debt from civil judgments and state tax liens filed by the state against Personal Shopper Inc. She owes more than $1,300 to the state in back taxes; the biggest civil judgment is for $4,500 in 2009, owed to a Boise law firm.

Henry told reporters Sunday that the organization and the mission is separate from the 25-year-old church, which has been involved in at least 100 different mission trips involving construction projects and assisting in medical relief efforts both in the United States and overseas.

Some of the previous missions were to Haiti. But this was the church's first mission involving the creation of an orphanage, said Drew Ham, an assistant pastor at Central Valley Baptist Church.

Since the Americans were detained, pastors at the church said they've been getting backlash through obscenity laced phone calls and faxes, condemning the group leading the rescue mission.

"People come back and say, 'How could you be stealing children?'" said Drew Ham, an assistant pastor at Central Valley Baptist Church.

Henry told the congregation Sunday that he hoped at least some of those detained will be released Monday.

Another detainee is Drew Culberth, a part-time youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan.

James Keller, the church's pastor, said the church willingly gave him time off to go on the trip since his firefighting experience and EMT training would make him a valuable addition to the mission team. From the group's perspective, they believed they had the proper paperwork, Keller said.

"I am just hoping they will resolve the issue and be able to get back to the mission and come home," he said. "We know God is a big God and he can help us. What more would you ask for?"

___

Associated Press Writer Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.

More on Haiti Earthquake

Ten Baptist workers to appear in Port-au-Prince court after attempting to take youngsters out of country

Ten Americans will appear in court tomorrow in Port-au-Prince after attempting to take 34 children out of Haiti, saying that they were trying to rescue them.

The Baptist aid workers, from the Idaho-based New Life Children's Refuge, were arrested on Friday as they attempted to leave the country for the Dominican Republic, about 45 miles from Port-au-Prince by road. They were reportedly taking the children, aged between three months and 12 years, to a safe house in the Dominican city of Cabarete.

Today the children were being cared for by the Austrian-based charity SOS Children's Villages. It said most of the children were in "a very bad emotional state … Some of the children mentioned that they have parents. According to a 12-year-old girl, she and her family had been told she was going to a boarding school in Dominican Republic."

The charity said a piece of paper with information about New Life promised: "We have a beautiful place for them to live with a soccer field, swimming pool and short walk to the ocean. We have authorisation from the government to bring orphanages children, babies up to 10 years old in the DR. Haitian friends or relatives can come to DR and visit the children and get updates through our website."

A spokeswoman for New Life, Laura Silsby, told Associated Press: "In this chaos the government is in right now we were just trying to do the right thing." She said the group planned to take 100 children by bus to a 45-room hotel at Cabarete that was being converted into an orphanage.

The arrests came amid fears that child traffickers could be taking advantage of the mayhem in Port-au-Prince to snatch children from hospitals or refugee camps. Unaccompanied children are a common sight in the city's streets. Aid workers believe the quake may have created thousands of new orphans who are easy targets for criminal gangs. Unicef's senior child protection adviser in Haiti, Bo Viktor Nylund, said: "We have heard reports that there has been trafficking through the border and flights leaving the country but we have not been able to verify this."

He said some abduction reports could probably be explained as well-wishers trying to help, while others could be linked to exploitation for sexual purposes. "Probably more of the first," he said, but added: "Without parents it is a given that you are more vulnerable."

Meanwhile, the suspension of medical evacuation flights by the US military has sparked fears that hundreds of lives could be lost because of inadequate treatment. The military suspended flights to the US on Wednesday after a reported dispute over where victims should be treated.

Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, said that the state's healthcare system was quickly reaching saturation.

The US ambassador in Haiti, Ken Merten, said yesterday that this was "obviously … something we are concerned about" but said he had not heard reports that Florida was refusing to receive Haitian earthquake victims.

Some aid workers in Port-au-Prince are turning their attention to the psychological effects on Haiti's young people.

"They are afraid of what is going to happen," said Pierre Biales, a French doctor, who is setting up sports and cultural activities for displaced children. Trauma could "get more complicated" unless it was addressed quickly, he said.

Port-au-Prince's remaining churches and markets filled with Haitians today as life slowly returned to routine. "Life is not normal, but life goes on," said David Francois, a 33-year-old resident of downtown Port-au-Prince where the stench of death has started to recede and tractors were demolishing fallen buildings.

Tubes of Neosporin and boxes of Benadryl, gauze pads and syringes were stacked in boxes around a conference room at Rush University Medical Center that was transformed into a staging area today for a group of 19 physicians and a nurse headed for Haiti.
 
They unpacked each box, took inventory of what they had, then repacked medicine and tools in plastic bags to more easily store them in bulky luggage and duffel bags for their flight. Each person is trying to bring at least two bags of medicine and equipment, with each bag weighing about 50 pounds each.
 
During a break from their packing, team leaders talked about logistics and doled out advice. No work or play outside when night begins. Everyone stay together. One doctor was appointed the group's counselor should the patients they'll treat and the earthquake-ravaged island they'll call home for a week become too much to bear.

"Really, there's so much unknown," said Stephanie Wang, 42, a Rush internal medicine physician who put the team together.
 
She said the team, a mix of internists, surgeons and anesthesiologists, aims to treat the second wave of problems -- infections and complications from the magnitude-7.0 quake that rocked Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, on Jan. 12. Tens of thousands have died.
 
The team is partnering with Endeavor , a mission outreach group, and plans to sleep in the back yard of a mansion. The refugee camp is about 30 to 45 minutes outside Port-au-Prince.
 
Rush pediatrician Keith Boyd , 49 , bought a wilderness medicine book over the weekend to adapt to his new environment.
 
"We just literally have no idea what to expect," Boyd said. "We even have to wonder if we'll have power or water. It's really like practicing wilderness medicine. We really have to learn to get by with whatever we have."
 
Myriame Casimir, 35, a Rush internist, said treating Haitians has special meaning. Casimir was raised in the island country until she was a teenager, when her family moved to New York .
 
"It tugs on my heart to be able to do this, to go out and help," Casimir said.
 
At a press conference Sunday, a group of pastors announced that about 30 to 40 churches have created a group called Chicago Churches United For Haiti. They and members of Haitian organizations called for African Americans and Haitian-Americans to step up and adopt Haitian orphans and said that years of bad foreign policy and debt hampered Haiti from building sound infrastructure. They also called on the U.S. government to include Haitians and Haitian-Americans when it's time to rebuild the island.
 
"They need to be the ones that are sharing with us how we can best help them and walk beside them, not in front of them, hand in hand with them," said Stephen Thurston , pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church in the city's Chatham neighborhood.
 
U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Illinois, said he plans to investigate why some Haitian-Americans could not immediately return from Haiti to the United States after the earthquake. Some pastors added that groups of Haitian-American physicians and nurses have been denied access to Haiti.

--Kristen Schorsch

A couple of weeks ago, in "Uganda 'kill the gays' story underscores--bearing false witness lies at 'Religious Right's' core", I quoted the following from Rick Warren's belated public rejection of the Ugandan bill that would put gays to death:

5. What did you do when you heard about the proposed Ugandan law?

I wrote to the most influential leader I knew in that country, the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, and shared my opposition and concern. He wrote me back, saying that he, too, was opposed to the death penalty for homosexuals. There are thousands of evil laws enacted around the world that kill people (For instance, last year, 146,000 Christians around the world were killed because of their faith.). In this case, I knew the Archbishop in Uganda, so I did what I could, but my influence in that nation has been greatly exaggerated by the media.

And I went on to write:

So, is Warren saying that 146,000 Christians were killed because of their faith in accord with "evil laws"?  What laws, exactly would those be?

I called his PR organization, hoping to get some clarification.  When they called me back, it was just sort of a "what is it exactly that you want to know?" kind of call.  I talked to them a little about what I discovered myself below, just to push them a bit, and maybe they'll get back to me on Monday with something substantive. But on the face of it, this is simply a bald-faced lie, and there's really no way out.

While there certainly still is widespread religious persecution in the world (a reminder of why America's separation of church and state is a good thing), there is relatively little religious killing as a matter of course.

Open Doors is a decades-old organization identified as "Serving persecuted Christians worldwide." It produces an annual World Watch List of the 50 worst countries in terms of persecuting Christians world-wide, but its literature is remarkably free of any sorts of mass murders on the scale one would need to get anywhere near 146,000 martyrs--as I explained to Warren's PR flack, who at first seemed pleased that I was referring to this site.

Later the next week I received an email reply, not from Warren directly, and after puzzling over it a bit, I've decided to return to the matter, because it's not just Warren.  Apparently, the mythology of mass martyrdom is one of the religious rights' big lies that somehow never gets discussed in polite company.  I kind of think it's time for that to stop.
Here is the email response I received from Karen May, Assistant to A. Larry Ross of A. Larry Ross Communications, Warren's PR person whom I did not identify by name in my original diary:

Larry Ross just heard from Rick Warren's assistant with the answer to your question.  Larry is running to catch a plane and asked me to forward the information to you, hoping that it is in time to meet your deadline.

This is what we can confirm, according to the Open Doors ministry research:  The number of persecuted believers is around 100 million worldwide, and Christians are being persecuted in at least 60 countries worldwide.      

Another source (International Bulletin of Missionary Research) puts the number at 176,000 from mid-2008 to mid-2009.  This, according to the authors, compares to 160,000 martyrs in mid-2000 and 34,400 at the beginning of the 20th century. If current trends continue, it is estimated that by 2025, an average of 210,000 Christians will be martyred annually.  It has been estimated that more Christians were martyred in the 20th Century than in the previous 1,900 years combined.

We are not able to get the exact source where Pastor Warren got his number -- he's traveling in Africa right now - but it appears his number quoted is less than other sources we can find.

These figures are patently bogus--as I will shortly demonstrate.  But they are also, apparently widely believed in the evangelic community.  It helps to notice first of all that there is simply no comparison to executing people for being gay.  Murdering people because of their religious beliefs is utterly heinous, but it is not state action, and not the least bit comparable to the sort of law beingcontemplated by Warren's purpose-driven fans. (Depsite his attempts at distancing, Uganda is only the second African state to declare itself a "purpose-driven" nation.  Their purpose, apparently, is state-sanctioned murder. Aimlessness and slackitude never looked so good.)

The total number of state murders worldwide in 2008 was around 2400, according the NY Times article on Amnesty International's report in March of this year:

Amnesty International said at least 2,390 people were executed worldwide in 2008, compared with its 2007 figure of at least 1,252.

With at least 1,718, China was responsible for 72 percent of all executions in 2008, the report stated. After China were Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the United States (37) and Pakistan (36), according to the group.

"Together they carried out 93 percent of all executions worldwide," the report said.

Nice company we keep, no?  And it's even possible that some of those state murders have a religious component to them.  But martyrdom is something a bit more specific--it's death that results from refusing to renounce one's beliefs.  While it's equally heinous that one should be put to death, say, for publicly observing a forbidden religious practice, that's not quite the same thing--unless, of course, one is told that the death penalty would be dropped, if only one would renounce one's faith.  Because of such subtleties, it's certainly possible that cases of true martyrdom can be found in these numbers.  But there is nothing here comparable to the mass executions of martyrs in olden days.

But--setting aside the whole "bad "laws" question--what about those claims of mass martyrdom more generally?  Well, to begin with, 176,000 murders worldwide is an awful lot of murders.  How many?  Well, according to the UN-derived numbers here, which are about a decade old--the average murder rate is about 1 in 10,000, or approaching almost 700,000 per year.  That means that according to Warren's source, one out of four murders worldwide is a Christian dying for their faith.  And it's not on all the networks 24/7?

Heck, not only is not on all the networks, it's not even on the websites that track the persecution of Christians worldwide.  Open Doors, for example, has a "Christian Martyrs" page which announces:

Hundreds of Christians Martyrs around the globe are dying for their faith.

Not "hundreds of thousands a year", but "hundreds" without any given time-frame.  That's at least three orders of magnitude less than what Warren and the International Bulletin of Missionary Research wildly claim.  But it's probably far less than even that.  After all, if there actually were hundreds of martyrs dying around the world every years, couldn't Open Doors easily find five examples from last year?  But the "Christian Martyrs" page has links to five cases, of which only three happened last year, while one happened in 2007 and another in 2005. What's more, one case from 2009, from Colombia, contains no indication whatsoever marking it as a case of martyrdom.

In short, the best evidence appears to show that martyrdom is, fortunately, a rare, though disturbing event in the world today.  If there really were evidence to the contrary, it should be very easy to produce.  So where is it?

False Martyrs?

There's something even worse than a lack of evidence of widespread martyrdom: evidence of false marytrdom.   Such apparently may have been the case with one of the victims at Columbine, as recounted in a 2008 article in Christian Century, by Jason Byassee, "How martyrs are made: stories of the faithful".  The article begins:

ONE OF THE TEENAGERS killed in Colorado's Columbine High School shootings in 1999 was Cassie Bernall. Soon after her murder, reports emerged about how one of the shooters had found Bernall under a table, pointed a gun at her head and asked, "Do you believe in God?" She said yes and was promptly shot.

Within weeks of that event I heard a sermon at an Episcopal church praising Bernall's witness and urging Christians to imitate her faithfulness. Prognosticators predicted another Great Awakening in American life sparked by Bernall's martyrdom. Billboards appeared that announced, "She Said Yes." Her mother penned a memoir using the phrase as its title, and a Web site started selling "She Said Yes" T-shirts and other merchandise.

There was one problem: the reported exchange between Bernall and her killer may never have happened. Students who were within earshot of the event disputed the account. One survivor claimed that she, not Bernall, had been the one questioned by the shooter. Those who made grand claims for Bernall started backpedaling. Some suggested that the story was important whatever the facts behind it. Elizabeth Castelli, who recounts this history in Martyrdom and Memory, points out that this latter rationalization was an odd one to come from Christians who also adhere to biblical literalism; they would never say the truth behind a biblical story is what counts, whether or not the event happened. Stories like Bernall's suggest some of the reasons to hesitate when confronted with claims to martyrdom.

It's not Byassee's intent to deny Bernall's martyrdom, or to dismiss martyrdom in general, but to unsettle people from their preconceptions. Indeed, his article is a very serious consideration of martyrdom, drawing largely on the non-violent Anabaptist tradition (particularly Mennonites.)  But it is permeated with questioning, and challenges to certainty. For example:

In To Share in the Body: A Theology of Martyrdom for Today's Church (Brazos), Craig Hovey, a Mennonite theologian trained at Fuller and Cambridge, argues that Christianity is a training for martyrdom. Martyrdom is not a tragic mistake, nor is it a historical relic from a bygone age. It is "a gift of God to the church." Christians cannot and should not hope for martyrdom, but they must be prepared for it.

Hovey argues against any utilitarian reading of the martyrs. Martyrdom makes no argument. Martyrs should not be used to argue that someone else's religion is bad or that some other country deserves retribution. In the New Testament "martyrs do not die because they fight for what is right, but precisely because they refuse to fight for what is true."

Of course, the evangelical practice of using martyrs is what got me writing this diary in the first place.  And it's the deeper meaning of the phrase "False Martyrs" that heads this section.  The Anabaptists cited in this article point in a very different direction:

Chris Huebner, another Mennonite theologian (he teaches at Canadian Mennonite University), argues in A Precarious Peace (Herald) that the ambiguity that surrounds claims to martyrdom is all to the good. The truth about martyrs is always something a community must pursue, without claiming to capture or possess it. In fact, arguing about martyrdom is part of the church's growth in holiness. Martyrdom is a "work of memory"--no one can declare herself a martyr, only the community can. "The very designation of martyrdom is a fragile and tenuous one, existing ... between the twin extremes of suicide and victimhood." Huebner grants to Elizabeth Castelli the point that remembrances of martyrs are always constructs, never able securely to capture truth.

The attitude here is strikingly different from the smug self-certainty of the evangelicals, which Byassee does not comment on directly. Early on in the article, however, Byassee does offer the following restrained commentary on claims of mass martyrdom:

An emphasis on mission to a godless world keeps martyrdom, or the possibility of martyrdom, a major theme for evangelicals. Touchstone magazine has a regular section devoted to the topic. Organizations like The Voice of the Martyrs send out magazines, e-mail blasts, and a steady stream of speakers to local churches and radio stations to raise awareness of the number of contemporary Christian martyrs. They often cite data from the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, which forecasts that 175,000 Christians will be martyred worldwide in 2008. That's 480 per day.

Another oft-cited source is the World Christian Encyclopedia, produced by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary outside Boston. It declares there have been some 70 million Christian martyrs in history, and more than 45 million in the 20th century. In evangelical circles one often hears the claim that there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined.

These numbers deserve more scrutiny than can be offered here, but it should be noted that the Encyclopedia treats every victim of Stalin as a Christian martyr and says there were 1 million "Jewish Christian" martyrs in the Holocaust. It also gives some problematic data in listing causes of death: between 1,000 and 10,000 martyrs may have been "quartered," we are told; a similar number were "eaten by piranhas" and as many again "eaten alive." Between 10,000 and 100,000 (notice the broad range) have been "frightened to death," from 1 to 2 million "liquidated" and 4 to 10 million "lowered into sewage." Even more nonspecific: between 500,000 and 1 million were "wiped out."

That the data on martyrdom can be exaggerated does not mean that there are no real martyrs. In recent years, a number of Christian martyrs have made the news. Newspapers covered the story of Gracia and Martin Burnham, Bible translators with an organization called New Tribes in the Philippines, who were kidnapped in May 2001 by Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group aligned with al-Qaeda (see Eliza Griswold's brilliant profile of the Burnhams in the New Republic, June 4, 2007). While being held, the couple apparently treated their captors with sacrificial love. During a rescue effort, Filipino soldiers inadvertently killed Martin. After his death, applications to New Tribes soared. As Tertullian famously said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church--or, nowadays, of the mission agency.

My point in all this is rather simple: Religion is serious business. Martyrdom makes it all the moreso.  In contrast, folks like Rick Warren are shameless charlatans who make a mockery of everything genuine about religion.  Allowing them to become the public face of Christianity is in itself a blasphemous act... or more precisely, a blasphemous failure to act.  The rightwing fanatasy of mass martyrdom is just one more way that the idolatrous religious right seeks to build its moral capital on lies, the better to justify bossing others around... and ultimately, making martyrs of them.

At least when the religious right sets out to crucify the gays, it makes perfectly clear which side it is on.  They cannot speak the truth, any more than they can hide it.

I believe it was a couple of months ago I had posted a message from Jimmy Carter.  He had spoke about the abuse of women within the faith realm.  Recently, I had was reading ibelieve.com and someone posted an article regarding a message he recently again stated.  Jimmy Carter: Abuse of Women? Blame the Catholics and Southern Baptists.  It was amazing to me how not one of the people looked to read the transcript, or even listen to the short audio message the man presented.  They just assumed what the article said was so, and when others posted what was actually said?  His politics were the response.  They wouldn't go near the truth.

I noticed that when some were trying to point out the inaccurate information within the article that those posters were accused of NOT living during the man's time being President.  They were told they didn't understand the man's politics. 

I remember those years very clearly myself.  I had parents on both sides of the political realm, and YES that made for some interesting dinner conversations.  I will mention they did keep it respectful.  I wasn't the type of child (or young adult at that point) to engage with the conversations, but my younger brother just thrived on it.  I remember he had a huge world map that took up his entire one wall in his bedroom, and during the time he literally took a black sharpie marker to remove Iran off it.  He also had an American flags in his bedroom window for each Hostage that was being held.  The intensity of the conversations during that time for dinner?  WELL it was on high alert, and I never was like my brother as he got into the discussions.  He did very well defending his views, but I felt intimidated by whole conversation myself.  It was a very intense time in history, and I remember wondering if I asked a question would it be more like jabbing a stick into a beehive. I wasn't ever really comfortable with politics as a child, but as I grew older I tend to discuss it in small portions at a time.  My brother got another world map AFTER this time, and I noticed he left it alone this time! 

It seems once a person is branded  you just can't look at anything else they have to say within that faith board.  I knew that Mr. Carter had issues with the Southern Baptist or the SBC.  I couldn't believe that he would actually SAY the things the author of the article mentioned.  I searched the speech out, and found the transcript and sure enough that wasn't what he said.  The video presentation was what I sought out first.  Mr. Carter's transcript on what he said is what I searched for next. 

The article in question claimed:

Jimmy Carter has once again blamed traditional religion, particularly Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics, for "creating an environment where violations against women are justified".

I did a search of the transcript for the portion that was quoted. This is what was mentioned:

This view that the Almighty considers women to be inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or tradition. Its influence does not stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue, or temple. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are justified.

The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

The article quoted:

Their continuing choice provides a foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world," said Carter. Carter goes on to list horrific violations against women such as rape, genital mutilation, abortion of female embryos and spousal battery.

What the transcript and video showed he said was:

Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views and set a new course that demands equal rights for women and men, girls and boys.

At their most repugnant, the belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God gives excuses to the brutal husband who beats his wife, the soldier who rapes a woman, the employer who has a lower pay scale for women employees, or parents who decide to abort a female embryo. It also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair and equal access to education, health care, employment, and influence within their own communities.

The quotes caught a few people by surprise, and then of course the SBC or those that are 'Baptist' aren't naive and give dangerous advice to those victims of domestic violence.  I mentioned Paige Patterson's quick little remark about domestic violence, and just to add a bit of sugar gave them a link to the audio of him actually 'uttering' the ignorance they claim their church doesn't endorse.  You remember his advice?

He was approached due to this woman's husband beating her. She was told to go to the end of the bed each night, and when he is about asleep you start to pray for him out loud so he can hear. He told her to get ready, because he might get a little more violent. SURE enough she came to church that Sunday with both eyes black. She was angry at me and said, "I HOPE your HAPPY!" I told her, "Yes Maam I am, but I'm sorry about what happen." What she didn't know is her husband came to church, and he was staying in the back - when I gave the invitation to come to Christ - he came. "My wife has been praying for me, and I can't believe what I did to her! Do you think Christ would want someone like me?" NOW they have a great marriage, and it all came about because of she sought God.

I was told then:

let's not jump from a few idiots to an entire denomination. I know some really obnoxious atheists, but I have enough perspective to realize that not all atheists are like that. I am always mildly amused when people who decry stereotypes left and right try to lump a group of Christians into one stereotype. It's like their own hypocrisy escapes their notice.

They were actually shocked to find out that Paige Patterson isn't just any pastor; he's the president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.   I mentioned what John Piper said about taking verbal abuse for a season, and maybe a smack for the night - then you could come to the church for help.  Once again they stated they had never heard a pastor condone domestic violence from the pulpit.  Then of course the typical comment came:

The last I heard God hates divorce. Why would any christian pastor support it? Maybe, just maybe, these pastors were trying to keep the marriage together. Maybe, just maybe, we don't know all the facts in those supposed situations where pastors counciled women to be "abused" by their husbands.

 Maybe just maybe the church just plain doesn't wish to face that their actions don't line up with their message.

Its like they are taking it as attack due to pride of a denomination, and not looking at the whole picture.  The Christian church ISN'T the only doing this!  You see other faiths such as Jewish or Muslim do the same thing, and justify it in their very own unique flavor of oppression just as the Christians do. 

I realize that men, women and children that are dealing with abuse tend to doubt their reality.  Its not US that are struggling with the reality of domestic violence, but the ones that don't have to when it comes acknowledging it exists and is happening!  When someone mentions that some misbehavior on your behave may have caused another person to abuse you?  Don't listen to the lies!  They are just not strong enough to handle the truth, and find the strength within you to find others that maybe scared as well - but are willing to place their faith towards what they know is right.  When it comes down to it?  We have alot of cowards within our houses of faith.  They may do awesome things in other areas, but when it comes to families NOT so much!  Their cowardly ways of not placing their faith in action towards hurting people show they may not be capable of acknowledging reality.  Don't spend the energy trying to get them to see, but spend your energy finding those that are willing to acknowledge it.  They are like abusers that refuse to hear, and all you do is bang your head against a wall.  Your first priority is your safety and well being.  If the house of faith isn't willing to step up and do what they say they will do - allow the secular world to help instead.  You see their faith can't be all that strong, and their truth can't be truth if they have to manipulate you with guilt.  They can acknowledge that spiritual leaders give rotten advice, but can't acknowledge that some may take that ignorance to heart?  Its not US - its THEM!  If they truly wished to help broken people did we not hand them that opportunity, and did they NOT take it?  They claim they don't know all the facts, and yet:

No, we don't know all the facts, but we do know what they said publicly. According to the descriptions given by the pastors themselves: one said women should be willing to take a smack. Another told her to antagonize a man who was physically violent.

and they claim their churches don't condone violence? Their leaders do, but they don't?  Those leaders are not dealt with, but ignored so is that WHY it doesn't happen to them?

If you place Mr. Carter's personal politics aside, and people bothered to listen to what the man said about faith and domestic violence?  They should be ashamed of themselves, but they aren't it seems.  Its easier to shame abuse victims, and ignore perpetrators of abuse just like their leaders do.  Maybe they can't acknowledge us because then they would have to acknowledge those leaders dangerous advice.  They call those that flee 'worldly', and yet their 'do as I say and not as I do' isn't for some reason.

The Christian faith states we are to be different from those of the world.  How are they different in this case?  Their acts of denial are different, and yet if you think about it - its not so different is it?  If you need help please run if someone is trying to guilt you into staying within a dangerous household.  If you have the church telling you that you can't be right with God if you flee?  Stop and ask yourself if they are willing to put their money where their mouth is!  Chances are they won't.  Those that find you a safe place are those that are safe themselves.  The rest just like spiritual pixie dust, and condone their spiritual leaders and their ignorant advice by NOT SPEAKING OUT AGAINST IT!  They aren't so right with God are they?  To me?  They are the ones that should repent, and yet their denial, pride and arrogance won't allow it.

They say there are two sides to every story!  Take a GOOD LOOK at their side, and let that marinate really well.  Do they stand for faith, truth and love?  To me it looks like cowardly.  They can't stand in faith knowing that truth, and showing love towards the victims as the bible calls them to do.  That's your other side the story!