For you baseball fans

Bekki Kearns sent me a link for a really cool article about Cecil Cooper of the Astros and a little bit about his background. The article is from the Christian Chronicle website.

The last part of the article especially interests me when it talks about how, on the road, a church came to the team at a hotel to have church. Interesting idea, frankly, not just for a baseball team, but for anyone who can't be a part of services like they want to. Maybe it's something we could think about...

Ryan

Here is the article

The proverbial papal foot in the mouth

Do you like keeping up with current events? I do, to a certain extent. Some I really don't care about or, frankly, know much about. Like with oil prices: I don't care if oil is $50 a barrel, or $850 a barrel, just let me know when gas is going to drop back below $2 a gallon. All I know is that there are people in the Middle East and Venezuela and Alaska who are a lot smarter than I making those decisions.

But the other day I came across a story online that peaked my interest, and I imagine many of you have heard about this or saw it on the news or something. It involves Pope Benedict XVI and some comments he made in his home country of Germany on Sept. 12 about the religion of Islam. I will provide a link to a story later, but basically he was speaking about Muslims and quoted a Byzantine book written in the 14th century. In this book, there is a conversation between Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar where they are discussing the "truths" of Christianity and Islam.

Benedict's direct quote from the book was:

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, or holy war. He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'"

These remarks came the day after Sept. 11 and seven months after Danish cartoons were published that depicted ridiculous charicatures of Muhammad, so the timing is obviously and ostensibly horrible.

The story I read from the AP said that "the pope did not intend the remarks...to be offensive...Benedict did not explicitly agree with the statement or repudiate it." He later apologized for the remarks. So, it is my belief that at least some of this is being taken out of context as I have not seen the entire transcript of the speech. However, the question I have is not was he intentionally offensive (you and I both know how many advisors and speech writers the pope must have, and they are not idiots), but why? Why say this and why use that exact quote? Is it just poor planning, an error no one caught, or is there another reason?

While I do not believe that Benedict feels that all Muslims follow this path, the motivation behind quoting it is what baffles me. That is what got me thinking - this story and about a hundred other conversations that I have had where people asked things like;

"How do you know your religion/God is right?"

"Why do you believe that all other religions are wrong?"

"Why do Christians have no tolerance for other belief systems?"

So, last month I asked the question about the situation with the homeless and poor in Houston and got your feedback. This month, I have a different question. Basically, it is this: how are we as Christ-followers to respond to people who implicity ask us questions like these? What should we say when we are given the opportunity to speak about the beliefs of others like Benedict was?

Should we take the route of "Well, yes we are the only ones who are right and it's just too bad if you don't believe what I do?" Should we be more politically correct and respond with "well I believe any religion is fine for a person and as long as they live a moral life, it's OK?"

1 Peter 3:15 says that we should "set apart Christ as Lord," and "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Now we have all heard that before, but it opens up a couple of cans of worms in this situation.

First, we are to proclaim that Christ is our Lord. So, by definition, no one else can be our lord. What do we say in repsonse to those questions, then? Telling people straight out of the chute that following Jehovah God is the only way to go will offend the majority of people you are talking to, won't it?

Second, we are to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have. Well the reasons I have hope and where that hope comes from may not be good enough for the agnostic or atheist who want to know why we Christians always think we are better than everyone else.

You see my point? It's a hard line to walk.

Basically, I just want to hear from you. When you have been asked these questions, what has worked? What hasn't worked? How did you respond? How should we respond? When you have been asked not just to give an answer for your hope, but how you can sit back and "know" you are right, what did you say?

Leave a comment for all to read and I look forward to hearing from you.

(A link to a good story about the incident with the pope can be found here)

Ryan

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There is still a new Wednesday night class that will begin shortly at 7:00 PM. Keep an eye and ear out for Mr. Gibson as he can give more information about this and all the details.

Appreciation ideas for Matt Laas

Like I mentioned on Sunday, Matt is coming home soon from his second tour in Iraq. Steven Gardner had a great idea to not let this go unnoticed and that we should do something to show our appreciation for him. So here is where all of you can give us your ideas. Should we buy something for him? Get him some sort of award? A bible with something in it? Let me know what you think and we can all chip in and get it done before he is back. Post a comment by this weekend and we will discuss.

We can also do this for Jacob Mobley when he returns as well.

Ryan