Ever since I have been blogging on City Business I have always spoken out against charismatic "leaders" who use Christ as a platform to gain attention to themselves.  I just can't get past the hypocrisy of preaching Jesus, who represents humility and servanthood, while intentionally trying to become rich and   famous from the pulpit.  Well this week I have come across a few articles about "pastors" who have been caught in some sticky situations.  Todd Bentley has stepped down after cheating on his wife and is now separated from her, an Australian pastor associated with Hillsong has been caught faking cancer, and some rough rider California pastor has been arrested on attempted murder.  Add these incidences to the very public divorces of Juanita Bynum and Paula White along with the Senator Grassley investigation, and I begin to wonder what God is up to these days?  Now I have nothing against being rich or being a celebrity, but I wish these people would stop working under the guise of ministry to do so.  If a person wants to live a large and public life, then by all means pursue that life, but please go do it in the real world and stop using a church as cover.  It's shameful.  Thus, I for one am glad to see God lifting the sheets on what's really going on.

My guess is no.

Our friends and Burnside Writers Collective, delve a little deaper.

I'm running in the Hood-to-Coast relay this weekend with some friends and family, and thus won't be blogging much for the next several days.  I'm both excited and horrified at the prospect of running from Mt. Hood to Seaside, Oregon. But I subscribe to the theory that you only get one life and everybody dies, so you might as well challenge yourself, try new things and see what happens. (and by "see what happens", I mean, regret ever signing up for this thing)

In the meantime, let me leave you with this fun little article sent in by reader, FICM. The article from Christian Post proposes the theory that everytime we watch television or movies in our home, we allow terrorists to visit our family. It's a classic, why people think Christians are Crazy, article. And I certainly heard similar sermons when I was a child. It's so ridiculous, I like it.  

Best quote:

Take the practical steps to remove these terrorists from your home. Limit T.V. viewing. Screen the media your kids want to engage in before you let them do so. This includes T.V., movies, and music. Be careful not to let them have T.V.’s in their bedrooms. Instead of family movie night, have family game night. Not only can you do that, but you must. It is the only hope your children have in the midst of a culture that is bombarding them with missiles of deadly assault at a velocity once unthinkable but now a bitter reality.

Love it!

A reader writes:  

"I was attending the City Church downtown which was run by Judah Smith's father Wendell Smith. Judah ran a group called Young Professionals and I attended this group for a couple of months. I do not attend this church any more because the members and Smith are insane.

Last Saturday I listened to Smith make a remark that Islam is a religion that only focuses on converting people and is intolerant. He then declared that Christianity is the only belief system that does not do this. I'm a history major and an educated person and know that Islam is a tolerant religion. Also, when it comes to extremism, any religion can be a religion of the sword.

After the service I went and talked with another member of the City Church (not Smith), explaining that Islam is not a bad religion and that Jews, Christians, and Muslims should live together in peace. This member blew up at me and accused me of having Satan in me and that other religions living together in peace are the work of the devil. 

His father on telecasts makes these absurd claims that God has appeared to him in visions and that he has appeared to people and healed them. I was wondering if you know anyway that these people can be exposed as frauds or investigated." 

This weekend Obama and McCain participated in a civil forum at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA., moderated by Rick Warren (a man who seems to be increasingly in need of the spotlight).  I watched the replay on CNN and have to say that I was impressed by both men.  McCain played to the crowd and received more cheers then Obama, but it stilled seemed like there were quite a few who liked what Obama was saying.  Abortion and gay marriage continue to dominate the Christian agenda, but I think for the first time in a long time those WASP types aren't simply voting the issues or along party lines.  A CNN/Opinion Research poll taken July 27-29 showed that among white, born-again or evangelical voters, 67 percent are for McCain, with 24 percent for Obama.  That's 11 percentage points behind what Bush had in the 2004 election when he beat Kerry 78 percent to 21 percent among these voters.  It seems like more and more people (even evangelicals) want the kind of change in America's social structure that Obama preaches.

On another note, I am surprised at how big an issue faith has become in this election.  It seems like the mingling of religion and politics has lost some of its taboo and is becoming more mainstream.  Both presidential candidates have repeatedly professed their faith and commitment to Christ.  It will be interesting to see how it plays out but at least the topic is on the table and it's much easier to talk about Jesus during this election.

No.

And here's why: 

Infallible means: "incapable of erring".

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 says,

"If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:

 19Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;

 20And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

 21And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear."

I understand that we no longer live under the law. And that Christ saved us from the law. But even 3000 years ago it was not appropriate to stone your children.  I don't care if God said to do it or not. That's not acceptable behavior.

And if you believe that no matter what, when God tells you to do something, you should do it.  And that something is killing your children. Well then, you're crazy.  That is a bad Bible verse. It doesn't negate the Truths of the Bible, but does keep it from remaining infallible. 

Obama has finally launched his new project to attract Evangelical Christian voters, and he's calling it the Matthew-25 Project. 

(I'm using safari as my browser now, and for some reason I can't use any of the tools provided in WordPress, so you're just gonna get my thoughts here.) 

Originally, it was reported that Obama was going to call this new outreach, the Joshua Generation Project, which I thought sounded about as cliche as any Generation Church youthgroup.  I wasn't impressed. So, while I like the sound of "Matthew-25 Network", I still don't think it's going to make a difference. 

If you read the material it sounds and looks good. The videos hit all the right notes, and the material is strong. But I still think Obama is going to get the same percentage of Evangelical vote that Kerry got.  It will probably be a little higher, putting him over the top, but it's not going to be significantly higher.  

Evangelicals care about the same things non-Evangelicals care about. Which is security, economic wealth, health care, experience and some social issues. And my guess is that this is going to translate to a slightly higher vote for Obama, but ultimately many of the Evangelicals who voted for George Bush will vote for McCain, because they trust Republicans and they think McCain will do a better job protecting the country.

They'd be wrong. But whatever.

Anyway, I'm interested to see what some of you think of the Matthew-25 Network. Is it persuasive? Or just more political pandering? 

www.matthew25.org

Just want to point out a nice little blog by Erik Kowalker:

http://kowalkerjourney.com/

This is what a blog looks like when the author actually cares. 

Anyway, he has an interesting take on why people aren't bringing their Bible to Church. 

"In visiting quite a bit of churches over the past several years, I can attest to what Oregonian journalist Nancy Haught observed. What ever happened to people bringing their Bibles to church?!?!I think their are two main reasons why people do not bring their Bible to church: The Bible verses for the sermon are either in the church bulletin or on the PowerPoint screen on the stage. My gut tells me that over the course of time, this practice of showing a verse here and there via somewhere else other than the context of the Bible book, just might hurt rather than help people in learning the Bible. So, next Sunday, keep your Bible home…you won’t need it."

Here at City Business we have a a lot of ex-PBCer's, and regardless of your thoughts on the place, I don't think anyone can deny that PBC has created a lot of controversy over the years.  It is a very polarizing place.  On one side you have zealots who say PBC is the best place to learn the Bible and on the other side you have those who hate the place for ruining their lives.  A regular poster recently had this to say:

"I attended PBC wanting to get a basic understanding of theology, religion and the bible. I wanted it to be a foundation for the rest of my life. I’m a bit pissed off towards those who told me PBC was a good place to be for that. That is a lie!  After entering PBC, I found out that it was the opposite.  PBC is more like an internship for those who want to be full-time pastors/leaders at MFI type of churches…If I knew this was the case, I would have only taken a couple of classes.  I feel that I wasted my time there.  I went there out of zeal and because I was encouraged to pursue my “calling.”  Now I regret going there."

I personally never went to PBC.  They tried to push me that direction, but thankfully God spared me from that life lesson.  My wife on the other hand was one of those who was duped into attending.  She grew up at City Bible and it was always assumed that she would go.  So after transferring from her public school to attend City Christian, she went to PBC straight out of high school (which she claims were two of the biggest mistakes of her life).  After one semester of crying almost everyday she got out.  She says that her few months there were some of the works times in her life.  She felt trapped and lied to.  There was nothing educational about it.  And to make matters worse, when she transferred to a real college, they wouldn't accept any of her PBC credits.

To me PBC is simply a place to indoctrinate young, impressionable minds into the MFI, works-based, legalistic, way of thinking.  It perpetuates a false gospel.  And I find it sad that so many 20 somethings who are suppose to be in the freest time of their lives (before full-time jobs, marriage and kids) are completely wrapped up in something that will add very little benefit to their futures.

I would love to hear what some of you current and former PBCer's think?

Heh. That's a slightly misleading title. But somewhat the truth.

A Federal Court judge recently ruled that California Universities can deny credit to students who take courses where the Bible is treated as infallible:

Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking.

I like the part about failing to teach "critical thinking". But ultimately, this isn't really that big of a deal. Most colleges will accept the Bible as a historical scholarly document. But if you start claiming that there are no contradictions and everything in the Bible is literally true, well then you're kind of crazy.