Imagine

Twenty five years ago today, John Lennon was shot and killed by a deranged assassin named Mark David Chapman.  I was never part of the beatlemania, but I enjoyed John Lennon's music, and was embarrassed over the way he was treated by the religious community. His infamous statement about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus Christ haunted him the rest of his life, and in my opinion, quite unfairly. Beatles records were burned and the band was labeled satanic and anti-christ.

What is so ironic about the situation is that John Lennon was making an important observation that was lost in the religious hysteria; He was witnessing idolatry before his very eyes.  The band was being worshipped (or pretty close to it) by the American youth.  The four young boys from Liverpool were mobbed with fanatical zeal that was nervously close to religious adoration.  Mr. Lennon was merely stating the obvious.  

The Church missed a perfect opportunity to commend Mr. Lennon for his astute discernment, and to embark on developing a relationship with one of the most important pop icons of the 20th century.  The Beatles sought refuge from the pressures of youth and fame with drugs and eastern mysticism.  Where else could they turn?  American Christians derided and abandoned them.  We shut the doors of the Kingdom to the seeking Englishmen, and then cursed them because they used drugs and other religions to cope with life.

We had the opportunity of a lifetime and we blew it.  We had a popular man who wanted love and peace, and we threw him in the lions den.  We can never say if we had acted differently that Mr. Lennon would have converted to Christianity, but we can say with out a doubt, that we put up all of the road blocks available to us.  We caused him to stumble with our reckless judgments, and lost a potential ally in the Kingdom of God.  We had the opportunity to introduce Mr. Lennon to the Prince of Peace, and the fountainhead of pure love; instead we burned his music and showed him the door.

We can only imagine what might have been if the Church had shown the same discernment Mr. Lennon had. Let us never miss another opportunity to offer grace and wisdom to any individual seeking peace and love.  Let us strive to see beyond the sound-bites that are distorted and sensationalize, and seek common ground with those we may not understand.

Relativism and Marriage Part 2

If marriage and family can mean anything it means nothing. If marriage can involve any relationship, it no longer has any objective significance. What is so special and redeeming about a man and a woman coming together, and pledging lifelong fidelity and love? There is no doubt that men and women are different. We are different in the way our brain operates, i.e., the way we interact in relationships, and how we communicate. These differences call for patients, sacrifice, forgiveness and grace. These attributes are essential to cultivate, and marriage provides the perfect relationship to perfect these virtues. This is why the stakes are so high in cultivating a healthy marriage.

Broken marriages do not happen without broken men and women. Divorce is not an accident; it is a result of a man and a woman who could not come to terms with the cost of loving each other. Occasionally, divorce is the result of one partner, but usually it takes two to break what was one. A man and a woman possess enough commonality and difference to make for a lifetime of learning and spiritual growth, but often, even with healthy marriages, sin easily entangles and binds them from providing the safety, joy, and comfort they were meant to give each other.

The great divide between men and women can only be overcome by their willingness to overcome the limitations of their biology and become truly spiritual. The bliss of falling in love can never instill the virtues that true and abiding love can. We do not become better people because we are in love; we become better people when we lean to love, when we deny ourselves, when we forgive, when we are patient, and show mercy. The family should be a sanctuary in an impatient, demanding, and unforgiving world.

TOTT

Waking up on Christmas

The war on Christmas is finally being engaged by Christians. It is good to see, but it was too long in coming. It has taken an all out assault on Christmas to awaken Christian sensibilities to the hostility of secularism to our great and precious faith; hostility that even had America's retailers afraid to say Merry Christmas to their customers. There is a sick truth to all of this unfortunately. We have given the humanist significant control of our schools, courts, arts and sciences, and politics, but we will be damned if they rename our favorite holiday! We let them pass out condoms to school kids, we let them remove the ten commandments from our courthouses, and legitimize gay and lesbian relationships, but they better say "Merry Christmas"? I am happy that a sleeping church is awaking, but I am a bit perplexed at what it has taken to open our eyes. We have a long way to go in this war, and we better care more about what is happening than just the assault on Christmas. The west is the battle front for the new millennia. We are at the "Black Gates of Mordor"(final battle in Return of the King). We have the numbers, the message, but we will need the will to engage and fight for the fate of the west and the world. Christianity is the salt and light of this world, and there is no good reason for us to be trampled under the foot of humanism.

Minds and Brains

C.S. Lewis wrote: “If minds are wholly dependent on brains, and brains on biochemistry, and biochemistry (in the long run) on the meaningless flux of the atoms, I cannot understand how the thought of those minds should have any more significance than the sound of the wind in the trees. And this is to me the final test.