Finding my cultural and religious identity (1)

I've been meaning to share a personal story about my identity in post-apartheid South Africa for quite a while now. So, here goes.

I am an Afrikaner. I cannot deny this fact, nor do I want to. I grew up in the dying years of apartheid in a small town - in what was formerly known as the north western Transvaal - in a social context that, at best, can be described as contradictory.

My grandfather (my mother's dad) was a four year old boy when he and his family was taken to a British concentration camp during the Anglo Boer War. As a young teenager he later ran away from home to join the South African forces in the First World War. His mother wrote to the then prime minister to ask for her son back, and received a letter from him stating that she should rather be proud of her son.

Then grandpa did another abhorring thing: He married an English girl. My grandmother was the granddaughter of an Irishman who came to South Africa as a young boy along with his older brother and wife in the 1820's as part of the British resettlement program in the eastern Cape. My grandfather subsequently fell out of grace with his sisters because of his "treason." They only became reconciled on their death beds. In the 1940's Grandpa fought in the Second World War as well, returning to his farm in the northern Transvaal after the war. He later was disowned so that his farm can become part of the apartheid homeland of Lebowa. The family then moved to Benoni and grandpa worked for the government as a translator since he could speak 7 different languages, three of which were African. Grandpa Pieters died in 1974. I remember him vaguely as I was only four years old when he passed away.

My father's family has its roots proudly in the Cape Winelands. My grandmother Marais studied to become a teacher in the 1920's. She married a policeman (my grandfather) from the Karoo. He died very young - my father was only three years old - forcing my grandmother to raise three young children in difficult and often very poor circumstances. She had to quit teaching and start working in a butchery as this job paid better, for instance.

My father joined the police force as young man. Not long after my birth he fell out of grace with his station commander when he exposed corruption at that particular police station and was rewarded with an insubordination hearing in return. He quit the police and joined the department of justice as state prosecutor, having studied law through UNISA. He never completed his LLB, however, as he also died at a young age.

One of my father's personal friends in our home town of Rustenburg was a Muslim Indian doctor in the apartheid-based Indian township. They became friends through a legal case in which my father was the prosecutor and the doctor one of the witnesses. The week of my dad's death I contracted a children's ailment. My mother arranged that I would be taken to him. It was the natural thing to do as we didn't have to wait for an appointment with him. But, by way of contrast, my mother didn't approve of my father's friendship with him, as she was very uneasy with the idea of people from another colour coming into her house. My father just ignored her.

My father's funeral caused a commotion in the community as we asked our local church board's permission to allow non whites to attend the funeral. The uproar resulted in that very conservative congregation (even to today) becoming the first Dutch Reformed Church in the Transvaal with a decision in principle that people of colour is welcome at all funerals. This may sound trivial today, but remember the date: it was 1980. The Dutch Reformed Church only declared itself open to people of all races in 1987 and confessed that apartheid was a sin in 1990. The Belhar Confession didn't exist yet. Afrikaner nationalism was still a strong force. And it was before P.W. Botha's reform program.

In my matric year I was recruited into party politics as a youth leader for the right-wing politcal Conservative Party. I was only involved that one year and thereafter never again in politics. It was 1987 and that year saw the first whites-only general election in six years, quite a bit overdue as the then-president, PW Botha, tried to circumvent the constitution for his own gain. This was the general perception among common people about his refusal to call for a general election.

The town where I was born (Rustenburg) had a very large grouping of supporters of the HNP (an ultra right wing political group who still exists today and participates in every general election with the slogan, "Stay away - Don't vote." They refuse to accept the authority of the new South Africa and try to convince all white people to be the same. Nobody votes for them, however, since they don't partake in any elections). This large support base meant that the Rustenburg of my youth viewed the governing National Party as left-wing and the Democratic Party as communist. That left the Conservative Party as alternative. (Ironically, in 1987 the NP retained its seat in Rustenburg, as the right wing vote was divided between the CP and the HNP.)

Quite a few white people really believed the NP was about to hand the country over to the communists of Russia. Thanks to the political rhetoric of the day all black activists were branded as communists and as enemies to democracy and as enemies to Afrikaner identity. It wasn't hatred, it was fear. I remember from 1987 that a story did the rounds among white people how black people will choose a day on which they all will kill one white child each and then rape one white woman. Twenty years on, this story is still circulating but as the "night of the long knives" story that will take place when Nelson Mandela dies.

In those days Eugene Terre'blance told everybody who would listen that the Afrikaner was called by God to carry the white light of Christendom into dark Africa, playing on the cultural-religious consciousness of the corporate psyche of terrified people. People really believed this stuff as the truth.

Then I went to study theology in Pretoria. I was convinced of my calling to be in full-time ministry for God. I almost left the Dutch Reformed Church to join the whites-only Afrikaans Protestant Church, under the influence of my ere-time political mentors. This is the church that split from the DRC in 1987 because of the DRC's decision to be open to people of all races. At the end of my second year on university I became convinced that it would be wrong for me to leave the DRC. It is not what God wanted for my life, first, and I did not agree with the notion of a culturally defined church, second. (At that stage I already agreed that the church is to be defined by faith in Christ alone and not from some cultural definition added by subsequent generations.) Thridly, my weekly reading of Vrye Weekblad started to create questions in my mind about the quasi-political belief system I was indoctrinated with, which I accepte duncritically up to that point in time.

Today I am extremely glad I did not make this mistake.

My first year at Tukkies (1988) was the first year that the university was opened up to students of all races. That was the time of "Voëlvry" - the banned alternative Afrikaans rock music concert tour of Johannes Kerkorrel and his friends. Every Afrikaans white campus from the Cape to the north refused to host this concert. Out of curiosity I bought the album (just before it was banned) - it is still in my possession. It was also the time of Vrye Weekblad, Max du Preez's newspaper aimed at exposing the corruption of the apartheid regime. I bought a copy to see what this "tainted" newspaper was all about and almost as a natural consequence turned into one of its regular weekly readers up to its demise as newspaper.

I was also surrounded with quite a few male Afrikaans students who made a decision to continue with their studies until they won't be called up for military service in some way, believing it will come to an end soon. They didn't join the end conscription campaign as their decision wasn't ideological but pragmatic. There was a large group of them (us?) who didn't want to waste their time in a lost war with the risk of being killed after they completed their studies, therefore wasting all the time and money spent.

I hesitantly include myself in this group, as I didn't intentionally refuse to go to the army after school. I just made the decision to pursue my studies first, so I can place myself in a better position of service for when I eventually have to join the army. During the course of my studies I did start to share the idea that military service is a waste of time, especially after Namibia became independent. In my final year of theological studies the announcement was made that conscription will be discontinued with immediate effect.

In my third year (1990) I was elected as leader of the student congregation's ecumenical commission. Our first project was to organise an interdenominational camp. For this we reached out the the coloured branch of the Dutch Reformed Church family (viewing relations with the so-called "daughter churches" as ecumenism rather than a family affair) and arranged a camp with the congregation in Eersterust. Their youth leader proposed that we take reconciliation as theme. We ended the camp with a service in which we washed each other's feet (ha ha: I predate Adriaan Vlok with more than a decade on this one!).

I vividly remember how I difficult it was to find an appropriate camp site that would be willing to accommodate a mixed group. All camp sites of that time were for whites only. I really found it strange, since the camp had nothing to do with politics - it was, after all, only a church camp!

It took me almost twenty years to grasp the significance of that camp. There I was, organising a church camp with non white people on the theme of reconciliation. The social context of that time was laden with unrest and conflict and prejudice. Nelson Mandela was not yet free, although it was announced. De Klerk unbanned the ANC and removed the SA Army from Namibia. The members of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church could refuse to camp with us. They could use the camp to attack our racism. They could share their stories of suffering during the struggle. Instead, they wanted to speak about reconciliation. I would never be the same.

This is my story. Yet it is not finished.

Video Clip: Debating whether Jesus rose from the Dead

Lee Strobel hosted a debate about Jesus resurrection and extra-biblical resurrection myths. It provides some interesting viewing!

Cartoon: Oops! Too late!

Some remarkable insight as shown by The Naked Pastor.

Apostles' Creed (in Latin)

Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem,
Creatorem caeli et terrae,

et in Iesum Christum,
Filium Eius unicum, Dominum nostrum,
qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto,
natus ex Maria Virgine,
passus sub Pontio Pilato,
crucifixus,
mortuus,
et sepultus,
descendit ad ínferos,
tertia die resurrexit a mortuis,
ascendit ad caelos,
sedet ad dexteram Patris omnipotentis,
inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos.

Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,
sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam,
sanctorum communionem,
remissionem peccatorum,
carnis resurrectionem,
vitam aeternam.

Amen.

Why Young People Leave the Church after High School

I found this interesting perspective HERE.

By Sue Bohlin

The Youth Transition Network has released the results of research about why 70% of students in high school youth groups have left the church within a year after high school graduation.

One big reason is the unrealistic expectations that our young people sense from parents and church authority figures. When asked, “What does it mean to be a good Christian,” students responded with a long list of do’s and don’ts, always and nevers:

No sex
No secular music
No fun
No profanity
No bad attitudes
Be perfect
Be a virgin
Be wholly devoted to God
Be righteous
Be a role model
Don’t doubt
Have all the spiritual answers
Always be positive
Always be in a good mood
Wear proper clothing
Go to church all the time
Always read your Bible
Always be praying
Know the whole Bible
Get along with everyone
Always be happy
Never talk back
Do not fail
Do not fail
Do not fail

Wow. And that’s a PARTIAL list! If someone said to you, “This is what it means to be a Christian,” would you want to sign up?

What’s also heartbreaking is what ISN’T on the list:

Reveling in God’s love for me
Appreciating His gifts of grace and mercy
Loving God back because I am so moved by His tender love for me

No wonder so many students live a “goody-two-shoes” Christian life on Sundays and Wednesday nights, and a completely other, separate life the rest of the week! No wonder they don’t see the point of staying connected to a church once their parents stop making them go.

So many of our students feel that they can’t be successful Christians. They think it’s hopeless to live up to the expectations they sense. They think that being a Christian is just too hard.

Sounds like they need to be introduced to what grace looks like. Sounds like they need to have it modeled to them. Sounds like the rest of us need to embrace it ourselves and live it out so they can see it up close and personal, and see why following Jesus is so much more than checking off the boxes on our spiritual report cards!

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

This article was originally written by Ben Witherington, New Testament scholar. Although the celebration of Halloween is not that widespread in the world (South Africans do not go trick or treating on 31 Oct as a general practice for instance - I'm not even sure if that is the correct date!), the fact of the matter is that our interactive culture gave everyone access to this festival, thus necessitating some discussion on this blog.

Also, I recently received several emails warning against the dangers of Halloween, further prompting consideration of this "American thing." These warnings mainly stemmed from the supposed demonic underpinnings of the festival.

Thirdly, I had to answer some questions about Halloween asked by my sons, aged 8 & 6. My initial reply was to tell about the Americans doing the trick or treat thing and that we do not celebrate Halloween in SA, or in our house.

The only people I know who celebrate Halloween in SA, are Wiccans or expatriate Americans, therefore causing some unnecessary prejudice to the facts - Halloween is perceived as a secular American festival and not part of our cultural heritage, so why should we participate?

But the fact that adherents of the paganistic faith also participate in this festival, introduces a religious scope outside the boundaries of Christian religious tradition into the discussion. I do not think that Wiccans go about conjuring demons or spirits or some supernatural stuff - their faith system seemingly being a combination of pre-Christian European superstitious myths. I am, however, uneasy to participate in ceremonies that explicitly form part of another religion's belief system as if I agree with the underlying assumptions of this belief system. Incidentally, I also shared this perspective with my boys in a simplistic way by saying: "Christians don't celebrate Halloween."

Although we are entitled to our own opinion and conviction on the matter, we should be careful not to be judgemental about something that is important to somebody of another religious persuasion, as this biased approach diminishes the opportunity to authentically testify about the truth in Christ.

Without further ado, let me introduce prof Witherington's view on the matter. The original place where this article was published can be found HERE.




Ghosts and Goblins, tricks and treats, houses of horror and costumed heroes and villains. Should Christians have anything to do with such practices, or is it just harmless fun? Believe it or not, Christians are about equally divided on this issue. Perhaps a little history is in order to help us decide this matter.

In the first place, the term Halloween is in fact a modified form of All Hallow's Eve, that is the day in the Christian calendar before All Saints Day. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the British celebration of Guy Fawkes Day (i.e. a celebration of the attempt to blow up Parliament) or the modern or more ancient practices of Bonfire Night, which may or may not derive from the ancient Celtic celebration of Harvest Night or Samhain.

The Wikipedia article on the subject suggests the following conclusions----
"
Many Christians ascribe no negative significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular holiday devoted to celebrating "imaginary spooks" and handing out candy. Halloween celebrations are common among Roman Catholic parochial schools throughout North America and in Ireland. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church sees Halloween as having a Christian connection. Father Gabriele Amorth, a Vatican-appointed exorcist in Rome, has said, "[I]f English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year that is not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm in that."^[1] Most Christians hold the view that the tradition is far from being "satanic" in origin or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality, and the ways of the Celtic ancestors actually being a valuable life lesson and a part of many of their parishioners' heritage. Other Christians feel concerned about Halloween, and reject the holiday because they believe it trivializes (and celebrates) "the occult" and what they perceive as evil. A response among some fundamentalists in recent years has been the use of Hell houses or themed pamphlets (such as those of Jack T. Chick) which attempt to make use of Halloween as an opportunity for evangelism. Some consider Halloween to be completely incompatible with the Christian faith due to its origin as a pagan "Festival of the Dead." In more recent years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has organized a "Saint Fest" on the holiday. Many contemporary Protestant churches view Halloween as a fun event for children, holding events in their churches where children and their parents can dress up, play games, and get candy. Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Halloween for they believe anything that originated from a pagan holiday should not be celebrated by true Christians."

It is not a surprise that the bringing of the practice of celebrating Halloween in America is credited to the Irish Catholics, since they in particular had a robust celebration of the saints--- for example St. Patrick's Day. The practice of celebrating All Hallow's Eve is especially associated historically with the Catholic tradition for another reason as well.

In Catholic tradition (cf. the various Orthodox Church traditions) there are the spirits of some dead persons in purgatory and some in limbo. It is understandable that the notion that there are spirits out there who are neither in heaven or hell, but in an unresolved state, perhaps in Sheol or the land of the dead would eventually be connected with All Hallow's Eve, the day those spirits wander the earth longing for the resolution of their eternal fate.

All Saint's Day by contrast celebrates the saints who in fact have made it to heaven and obtained the beatific vision. In neither case does the celebration of these days have anything to do with the occult, or with the glorification of evil, Satan, demons, or the like. If one wants to read a creative interpretation of All Hallow's Eve by a conservative Protestant writer, Charles Williams novel All Hallow's Eve is the ghost story for you.

It is of course true that most persons, including most American Christians by now do not celebrate All Hallow's Eve or All Saint's Day as a holy day, but rather merely as a holiday, a day for children to dress up and go trick or treating. The earlier Christian celebration is either forgotten, ignored, or its meaning neglected.

Conservative Protestants might well object to the practice of Halloween on the grounds that it offers up a theology of the afterlife they do not agree with (i.e. they do not believe in purgatory or limbo), but it would be well if they evaluated the practice on the proper historical grounds, and not make the mistake of thinking the practice originally had purely pagan much less demonic origins, which is not in fact true. Some churches today in fact have used the occasion to teach children about the saints in heaven and how they got there, especially focusing on the martyrs and the book of Revelation.

There are however other reasons for Christians to pause before simply indulging the cultural celebration of Halloween, not the least of which is that the message children actually get out of the practice is that if they dress up in costume someone will give them sweets and treats that are in fact generally of no nutritional value, if they are not positively bad for their health and dental hygiene.

But lest I be accused of being the Grinch that stole Halloween, may I just quietly suggest that Halloween could be used as a time that children could bear witness to their faith--- dressing up in costumes representing the heroes of faith, chronicled in texts like Hebrews 11. In so doing, they could use the occasion of a holiday, to remember once more a holy day-- the celebration of all the saints who have gone into the living presence of God who one day will return with Christ to reign on earth, as that great hymn "For All the Saints" reminds us.

Cartoons: A new meaning to prayor warrior

Thanks to Tim Walburg for this piece of humour.

Found on the internet: Christians need to love each other more

Brett McCracken is not a theologian. He works in the media industry instead and does, among other things, movie reviews from a Christian perspective. He is an ordinary Christian with an interest in searching for life as God intended it to be.

He recently posted this insightful take on Christians' attitudes towards each other. I truly think we should explore this discussion more seriously.

The original blogpost is available HERE.

Christians Need to Love Each Other More

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is one of the last things Jesus said (John 13:34-35) to his disciples on the night before he was crucified. He told them to love one another in the same way that he had loved them.

This is a verse that gets a lot of play in many churches today. The necessity of love is increasingly heard from pulpits, Christian books, radio shows and so on. Churches and Christians everywhere are scrambling to love the world and serve it selflessly. And that is a wonderful thing. I’m glad to see love making a comeback.

But what about Christians loving one another? Are we as good at this as we are at loving those outside the church? In the Christian world of feuding factions and denominations, theological catfights, and near constant bickering, I sometimes wonder.

Read the words of Jesus again. He doesn’t say people will know we are Christians because we have so much love for the world. He says people will know we are Christians because we have love for one another.

Perhaps Jesus did mean something more human and universal when he said “one another.” But it almost makes more sense if he was talking specifically about the church loving its own members—his disciples loving each other. Why? Because an unconditional love between people of such diverse backgrounds (Jew, Gentile, poor, rich, black, white) bound only by a common allegiance to Christ IS the most noticeable kind of love. There aren’t many circumstances in this life where people of every sort of class, race, circumstance and struggle are unified and bound by unconditional, unearthly love. But this is what Christianity is supposed to be. And when it IS this way, it is such a powerful witness.

Christianity is about becoming a community of disparate believers who nevertheless fuse together under the auspices of that most binding and barrier-breaking of all sealants: Christ’s all surpassing love. It is only natural that this will look countercultural to a world that more often than not divides itself along whatever lines (ethnic, class, gender, nationality) it can come up with. The Christian church distinguishes itself (ideally) by putting aside these arbitrary dividing lines. As D.A. Carson famously described in Love in Hard Places, we are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus’ sake:

The church itself is not made up of natural “friends.” It is made up of natural enemies. What binds us together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together, not because they form a natural collocation, but because they have all been saved by Jesus Christ and owe him a common allegiance.

Christians loving each other may prove to be the most difficult love of all (because heaven knows we are all so broken and annoying and stubborn), but in the end I think it proves to be the best witness.

I’m sort of tired of Christians fighting with each other so much, tearing each other down, etc. If from the outside, Christian communities look as petty and unkind as anyone else in the world (or worse), why should anyone be interested in Christianity? But if Christians love each other with the sort of unconditional, self-effacing altruism that Christ modeled for us, we will live up to our namesake and people will know we are Christians just by looking.

So let’s put aside our differences, look to Christ, and love each other more.

CROSSING RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES: New Stats on the Worldwide Muslim Population

Nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide is Muslim, report says

The original place for this post can be found HERE.

By Richard Allen Greene
CNN
(CNN) -- Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim -- and they are not necessarily where you might think, according to an extensive new study that aims to map the global Muslim population.
Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as Egypt.

China has more Muslims than Syria.

Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.

And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.

Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one in five of the world's Muslims, trail a very distant second.

There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report, "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total global population of 6.8 billion.

There are about 2.25 billion Christians, based on projections from the 2005 World Religions Database.

Brian Grim, the senior researcher on the Pew Forum project, was slightly surprised at the number of Muslims in the world, he told CNN.

"Overall, the number is higher than I expected," he said, noting that earlier estimates of the global Muslim population have ranged from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.

The report can -- and should -- have implications for United States policy, said Reza Aslan, the best-selling Iranian-American author of "No God but God."

"Increasingly, the people of the Middle East are making up a smaller and smaller percentage of the worldwide Muslim community," he told CNN by phone.

"When it comes to issues of outreach to the Muslim world, these numbers will indicate that outreach cannot be focused so narrowly on the Middle East," he said.

"If the goal is to create better understanding between the United States and the Muslim world, our focus should be on south and southeast Asia, not the Middle East," he said.

He spoke to CNN before the report was published and without having seen its contents, but was familiar with the general trends the report identified.

The team at the Pew Forum spent nearly three years analyzing "the best available data" from 232 countries and territories, Grim said.

Their aim was to get the most comprehensive snapshot ever assembled of the world's Muslim population at a given moment in time.

So they took the data they gathered from national censuses and surveys, and projected it forward based on what they knew about population growth in each country.

They describe the resulting report as "the largest project of its kind to date."

It's full of details that even the researchers found surprising.

"There are these countries that we don't think of as Muslim at all, and yet they have very sizable numbers of Muslims," said Alan Cooperman, the associate director of research for the Pew Forum, naming India, Russia and China.

One in five of the world's Muslims lives in a country where Muslims are a minority.

And while most people think of the Muslim population of Europe is being composed of immigrants, that's only true in western Europe, Cooperman said.

"In the rest of Europe -- Russia, Albania, Kosovo, those places -- Muslims are an indigenous population," he said. "More than half of the Muslims in Europe are indigenous."

The researchers also were surprised to find the Muslim population of sub-Saharan Africa to be as low as they concluded, Cooperman said.

It has only about 240 million Muslims -- about 15 percent of all the world's Muslims.

Islam is thought to be growing fast in the region, with countries such as Nigeria, which has large populations of both Christians and Muslims, seeing violence between the two groups.

The Pew researchers concluded that Nigeria is just over half Muslim, making it the sixth most populous Muslim country in the world.

Roughly nine out of 10 Muslims worldwide are Sunni, and about one in 10 is Shiite, they estimated.

They warned they were less confident of those numbers than of the general population figures because sectarian data is harder to come by. "Only one or two censuses in the world ... have ever asked the sectarian question," said Grim. "Among Muslims it's a very sensitive question. If asked, large numbers will say I am just a Muslim -- not that they don't know, but it is a sensitive question in many places," he said. One in three of the world's Shiite Muslims lives in Iran, which is one of only four countries with a Shiite majority, he said. The others are Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain. Huge as the project of mapping the world's Muslim population is, it is only the first step in a Pew Forum undertaking.

Next year, the think tank intends to release a report projecting Muslim population growth into the future, and then the researchers intend to do the whole thing over again with Christians, followed by other faith groups. "We don't care only about Muslims," Grim said. They're also digging into what people believe and practice, since the current analysis doesn't analyze that. "This is no way reflects the religiosity of people, only their self-identification," Grim said. "We're trying to get the overall picture of religion in the world."

Humour: Anecdotes of stupidity

These stories could be true, and then .. it couldn't. No reflection is intended on the companies mentioned in the anecdotes. In any case, it is REALLY FUNNY.

Enjoy!

***

Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets.
I asked for a half dozen nuggets.
'We don't have half dozen nuggets,' said the teenager at the counter.
'You don't?' I replied.
'We only have six, nine, or twelve,' was the reply.
'So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?'
'That's right.'
So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.

***

I was checking out at the local Woolworths with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those 'dividers' that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed.
After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the 'divider', looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it.
Not finding the bar code, she said to me, 'Do you know how much this is?'
I said to her 'I've changed my mind; I don't think I'll buy that today.'
She said 'OK,' and I paid her for the things and left.
She had no clue to what had just happened.

***

A woman at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM 'thingy.'

***

I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. 'Do you need some help?' I asked. She replied, 'I knew I! should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?'
'Hmmm, I don't know. Do you have an alarm, too?' I asked.
'No, just this remote thingy,' she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, 'Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk....'

***

Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, 'I'm almost out of typing paper. What do I do?' 'Just use paper from the photocopier', the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five 'blank' copies.

***

A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the emergency room, the kid had eaten ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and he should be fine, the mother says, 'I just gave him some ant killer......'
Dispatcher: 'Rush him in to emergency!'

Video Clip: Lee Strobel hosts a debate with an Islamic Clergyman

I've read quite a few of Lee Strobel's books. He is a thorough apologetic for Christianity's case. He has a good sense of humour, too. He hosted a television programme for a while, asking tough questions on faith and inviting persons with opposing views to debate each other on these questions. This clip is from one such broadcast. It's also avalaible on Youtube. Just search under Lee Strobel.

WHEN IS AN APOLOGY ACCEPTABLE?

I am prepared to offer an apology. It's address is the lady of the website at Discerning the World. The reason is the week-long anguish I observe she is experiencing because of my blogpost on Sunday. In my apology I do not wish to retract any of my views, however. It is rather based on the biblical commandment of love and the example of Jesus showing us to rather practice the ministry of reconciliation.

Therefore, let me offer some perspective that, perhaps, could enable interested followers of the debate to see things in another light.

When I first received the RSS-feed of DTW's post on the Seven Chakras, some time on Saturday morning, it really did not include the paragraph on how these meditation techniques can destroy Christians. As she stated herself, that paragraph was initially placed after her table that explains the Chakras. Read like that (with the paragraph actually missing), DTW opened herself up to serious misunderstanding about the aim and purpose of her writing, especially as it gave no explanation of intent (remember, presented to me as her post was without this paragraph or any explanatory remarks).

I have to admit, I was intentional in my sarcasm. The saying goes: if you live in a glass house, don't throw stones. I am always left with an uneasy sort of disgust when I read the posts she and her contemporaries produce. Their intention is the destruction of the ministries of Godly men and women (I know, DTW and the others don't see it that way). They literally interpret the Bible differently than I and perhaps 90% of the rest of Christianity do. Moreover, they present themselves as protectors of the faith and therefore feel bound to attack the views and integrity of those persons with which they disagree. That actually makes any fruitful discussion with them totally impossible. All, then, that is left, is sarcasm or a total ignoring of these petty writings.

I chose the former in approaching her "Chakras-post." It was a bit childish of me and I actually stooped to the level of discourse with which DTW is conducting herself.

But my true apology is this. Apparently, DTW's post bumped into technical difficulties of which she was unaware. She said herself that she experienced difficulties with the spacing of that long table in her post. It can therefore be possible that the missing paragraph only got unmissed when she moved it up higher in her post. For an outsider, however, at that stage, it appeared completely missing. In a sense I actually helped her as she wouldn't have known her posting got out weird. Or perhaps not. Somebody else would have picked it up. Thus it is most probably a technical glitch that seems to have created a misunderstanding. My choice to point out the seeming flaw in the argument, and the implications it had on her integrity, was ill-conceived. But let God be the judge of whether it really was a misunderstanding.

Unfortunately, I stand by my views on her way of handling things. I stand by my observation that she needs to be held accountable for the destruction her opinions cause.

For clarity: when I speak of the body of Christ I mean the sum total of all Christians, regardless of their denominational affinity or geography. DTW is writing on the internet. It is open to all. She is therefore subject to the scrutiny of all Christians and their agreeing or disagreeing with her. Being held accountable in this sense therefore means to be subject to critical enquiry on her views and people opposing her views with different arguments. DTW is also supposed to be part of a geographical church community. If she conducted herself in a way that caused them to act on her misconduct, then she should submit herself to that authority. That is how the Bible teaches on the matter. But I doubt her church family disgrees with her views. Let God also be the judge of that.

In the mean time, she must accept that other Christians will call her to task on the heresies she is expounding through public discourse. This is the point: Unfortunately, DTW, you do not hold the truth alone. As Ephesians 4 teaches, we are all one body, serving one God. If you, therefore, argue that I and the other persons you so frequently attack, are serving another God than the One you are serving, you are actually removing yourself from the community God intended. There is only one God and He made Himself known through Jesus. And I serve that God and that God alone. In this body of Christ, people may differ in opinion. They may interpret Scripture from different angles and speak about it. There isn't one infallible truth derived from the Bible that needs to be universally accepted - although sometimes we all wish it could be the case.

All is interpretation. Even your views are clouded by the filters of legalism and propositional theology, being interpretations of what God really meant when He allowed the Bible to be written. You need to practice some humility in your approach.

My "admonishment" is therefore not meant to be understood that a hit squad of some sort will come and smash your house's windows or break your legs. That stuff belongs to the mafia (and even they profess to serve God!). My admonishment is that you should understand that the people who disagree with your views or hold other views that make you feel uneasy, actually are also Christians. You cannot go around attacking them by trying to destroy their professional integrity and then expect all and sundry to believe you.

You actually are exposing yourself to valid criticism. Eventually this can lead to the public rejection of your own credibility if you continue to constantly harper on the same tune in the same way. People will just stop reading your blog, as I am henceforth going to do.

Finally, your emotional reactions over the past week demonstrated to me how damaging this way of discourse actually can become. It doesn't belong in the church. We must not participate in such behaviour.

SHOULD THE CHURCH SELL ALL ITS PROPERTY?

Some comments were made recently on the way churches spend their money. It is the result of a letter published by a pastor of a congregation in Gauteng Province on the practice of congregations to put away surplus money in investment funds. He challenged the churches to sell all their property and give all the money to the poor.

The resulting flood of letters is directed at the address of the pastors of congregations, implying that they are the ones managing their churches' money. Secondly the accusations to the congregations were made that they only spend their money (from the member's tithes) on salaries and administration. It is also said that the congregations' ministers do not do their jobs (the practice of home visitation was specifically mentioned) and none of the income is given to the poor.

Let me reflect on this from my experience as pastor of a congregation.

1. In our congregation the management of our tithes is not done by the pastors. We do not attend the financial meetings, nor do we suggest how much salary we should get paid. Since we are part of a denomination, our church board abides by the salary scale proposed by our regional synod.

The reason why I'm saying this, is to show that the general impression that churches are run by the pastors - especially in these days where the general consensus exists that the church is the sumtotal of all its members (i.e. through the spiritual gifts operating in the body of Christ) - is incorrect. Also the implied argument that most pastors only use the church to enrich themselves materially, is refuted by understanding that in most denominations, mechanisms are in place to decide what an adequate salary for full-time staff members of congregations should be. This obviously excludes a number of independent churches planted and run by their pastors, and who are not accountable to any larger ecclesial body of some sort.

2. In our congregation and community we are actively involved in several member-run ministries. Our church's budget is structured accordingly. To accuse a congregation of paying all its money on the pastors' salaries, is to not really understand how churches function.

Our congregation, for example, also pays the salaries of several help staff - people who serve the members of the church in several capacities. The traditional view of an Afrikaans reformed church with a "tannie in die kerkkantoor" (lady who works in the office) and a financial official has long become redundant.

As a matter of side interest, we pay or contribute to the salaries of several full-time missionaries world wide.

And as missional congregation, we prayerfully plan ahead in terms of what God wants us to do in the community and structure our combined efforts, vision and finances accordingly.

3. I agree with the idea that churches with elaborate buildings and a disproportionate investment of their resources into the upkeep of fancy features are wasting their money on the wrong stuff. Especially if that church only reserves its buildings for its own use and its members proclaimed "ownership" on that facility, I ask serious questions of principle. The church, after all, exists for the redemptive work of God in that community. Its resources are God's.

If a specific congregation think of its building as only for the use of that church, specifically to only conduct its weekly worship service, then, please, sell your stuff, give away your money, and disband.

I also wonder if it is a wise allocation of the resoruces entrusted to your congregation to spend it on the biggest, grandest and best building with gadgets just to show how successful or big you are. This approach may work well in rich first-world countries, but here in South Africa it only communicates that Christians don't really care for the poor, regardless of the attitude and intention of the people who decided to spend their money this way.

4. Fourthly, I want to add my humble voice to the chorus of Christians who plead with Afrikaans-speaking congregations to open their eyes and hearts toward the reality that we are called to ministry in an African context.

Instead of trying to create cultural havens for a minority group, we should be engaging in ministry in our context as a minority group. We are Christians, making us brothers and sisters of Christians in other culture groups. In Christ we are one. If we refuse to open our home (the church) to everybody, if we do not practice hospitality to the stranger (in our case, anybody who does not speak Afrikaans), if we close our hearts to the screams of HIV-pain or the plight of poverty, we are truly pathetic. It obviously doesn't mean we should lay down our cultural identity. I'm only pleading that we should stop using our cultural identity as the filter through which we see our Christian identity. It should actually be the other way around.

A wise theologian (Malan Nel) once said, to a hungry child in the street a plate of food is the message of Christ. We can preach salvation as hard as we want, but for a person who have no place to sleep, no hope in this world, no future, the message is hollow.

We need to rethink our perception that communicating the gospel should  begin with or only be a message, a prayer of repentance and a new life style of abiding to rules and regulations.

5. Finally, I want to make a remark about home visitation by pastors ("Huisbesoek"). Pastors are accused that they do not perform this function anymore.

If home visitation is understood as a formal, structured program by the pastor to yearly visit his/her members in their homes with an appropriate Scripture reading, investigation into the members' lives and finally a prayer, I agree. This form of home visitation does not exist anymore. Nor will I be personally part of such a ministry.

But if you only accuse your pastor of not visiting his/her members, serving them personally with the gospel, you are mistaken. Pastors do home visitation. They visit the sick, pray with the grieving, counsel the confused. They reach out to the morally strayed. In general, pastors who have a personal relationship with their members are more involved in their lives than if they came around on an official church visit and a sermon for the family.

In conjunction with ministries we create in our congregations to activate the ministry of their members to show compassion, love and mutual care, and reach out to the lost, pastors generally have more specialised and difficult responsibility than in the days they visited with people who only endured them in their homes (keeping up all possible appearances) because it is an official visit by the Dominee ("reverend").