The Christ-numerator churches and the dangers thereof

How Long Will Your Church Survive Under a Clinton Presidency?

Excerpt:

Just how long will it take for the church that you currently attend to either knuckle under to the new way of conducting “church business” or face punishment in Hillary’s America?

That all depends on the type of church you now attend. The way I see it, there are presently two types of Christian churches in our country: a church where Jesus Christ is in the denominator or one where Christ is in the numerator.

As in mathematics, the denominator and the numerator have two very different meanings. The denominator affects every number above the line. For purposes of this demonstration, the numerator can be a lot of different numbers, but the denominator is a constant.

However, if that denominator changes, all the different numbers above the line in the numerator are affected. A Christ-denominator church preaches that Jesus is Lord and what He says through Holy Scripture dictates how you and the church conducts itself privately and in public. Your personal feelings are trumped by Bible doctrines. Cultural fashions may change but what’s written in the Bible doesn’t.

A Christ-denominator church preaches biblical principles in season and out of season – it does not matter which way the cultural wind is blowing.

A Christ-numerator church may also preach that Jesus is Lord. But what’s going on in the world is given full consideration as to how the message of the Bible is delivered. In other words, “the world” is in the denominator.

A Christ-numerator church will talk about “social justice” and “saving the planet from man-made climate change,” for example. In a Christ-denominator church, everything in a person’s life is affected by following Christ: how he thinks, who he dates or marries, what job he will take, and on and on. All these things are part of that person’s numerator, since following Jesus is in his denominator.

However, in a Christ-numerator church, making the world a better place is in the denominator. That means, faith in Christ (even personal salvation) is just one of a number of other important things that are in the numerator. All things that a person believes are affected by the foundational question: “How can I make the world a better place?”

To people on the outside of the Christian religion altogether, members of a Christ-denominator church might appear narrow-minded, exclusive, self-righteous, and uncaring about the world and its problems. That certainly can be a pitfall of a Christ-denominator believer.

However, since Christ came to “set the captives free” and “make all things new again,” Christ-denominator believers follow His lead. They don’t make things up because “it feels right” or to “go along to get along.” Under a Clinton presidency, as under the Obama administration, believers in Christ-denominator churches will continue to be pressured and punished – with an acceleration and intensity not yet experienced.

By the end of Hillary’s first four years, Christ-denominators may very well be completely marginalized and “silenced.” And what about the Christ-numerator churches? Right now, they’re playing Hillary and Obama’s game.

In fact, if it wasn’t for these kind of churches, Obama would never have been elected. Christians, whether Protestant or Catholic, make a formidable, even overwhelming, voting bloc. And Christ-numerators are about to hand Clinton the presidency, as they did Obama in 2008 and 2012.

But, the tide will eventually turn against Christ-numerators -- it has to. The state will not tolerate dissenters; the Christ-numerator churches will become dissenters by default simply because Christ has at least a fraction of influence. In eight years, when Hillary’s second term grinds to an end, Christ-numerators will either join the already vilified Christ-denominators in retreat, or drop out of the ranks of church membership altogether.

Comment: Be a Christ-as-Denominator Christian!

Updated with the image below: Taxes (or more specifically the tax-advantaged privileges that churches enjoy) will separate the wheat from the chaff.

Another test of religious liberty?

Bible-Dispensing Family Arrested At Pride Festival

Excerpt:

The Pride Festival kicked off in Loring Park Saturday. There were live bands, food and thousands of people. It's now the third-largest gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender celebration in the country.

But there was some trouble there Saturday night.

Minneapolis Police arrested three people from Hayward, Wis. for trespassing. An amateur photographer named Aaron Bogle gave WCCO-TV video of a father, mother and son being arrested.

For 11 years, Brian and Doris Johnson have passed out free Bibles at the festival.

This year, they were not allowed to have a booth. Pride paid to rent the whole park and that gave them the right to choose which vendors they allowed in.

The Johnsons said they are born-again Christians and they believe homosexuality is a sin.

Comment: I haven't sorted this out. The three arrested were on public property (Loring Park), but the whole park had been rented out for a private event.

San Diego: on second thought .... Home Bible studies OK!

San Diego County Formally Apologizes to Local Pastor

Excerpt:

County Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard sent a letter, dated Wednesday, to Pastor David Jones rescinding the citation and stating that a permit is not required to hold Bible studies at home.

“Christians should not be punished simply for holding a Bible study in their home, so we are very encouraged by the county’s response and their commitment to immediate corrective action,” said Dean Broyles, president of the Western Center for Law & Policy and Jones' attorney.

“We are confident that, as a result of the county’s statements, Bible studies and prayer meetings held in homes throughout San Diego County will be free from government regulation, as is guaranteed by the First Amendment,” he added.

In April, a code enforcement officer issued Jones a citation, ordering him to stop hosting the weekly Bible study – which the officer considered a "religious assembly" – or face fines upwards of $1,000. Jones was told that he needed to obtain a major use permit in order to continue the religious gathering.

When the news was revealed across several major media outlets, the San Diego County was flooded with complaints and accused of attempting to "muzzle religious expression."

Last week, Ekard expressed regret over the situation and stressed that religious intolerance is not and never will be allowed in San Diego County government. He further underscored his own commitment to the freedom of religious expression and said the Bible studies in Jones' home may continue while he reviews the matter.

Jones, however, wanted something more concrete than a public statement.

"We don't have anything in writing. We want something very clearly that states people can pray in homes and have friends over and read Bible together and study a bit," Jones, pastor of South Bay Community Church, told the local 10News, which first reported the incident.

According to 10News, Jones is satisfied with Wednesday's letter.

Comment: Followup to San Diego: Home Bible study illegal? . Thanks to Larry N who sent me the link!

The Maldives: the world's least religiously free places

Muslim and Maldivian

Excerpts:

... the constitution also states that "a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives," and "No law contrary to any tenet of Islam shall be enacted in the Maldives." That strips 3,000 non-Muslims of their citizenship. They will be allowed to remain in the country and to work, but all rights afforded citizens -- speech, movement, even habeas corpus -- can be curtailed. Freedoms enjoyed by Shiite Muslims may also be at risk, given that the government enforces a strict version of Sunni Islam.

...

The Maldives may be not be a big country, but the example it sets for other Muslim-majority nations matters. Richard Boucher, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said recently that the Maldives has "a tradition of being a moderate country" that's "open to the world." Restricting religious freedom doesn't square with that.

Comment: Religious freedom and Islam are not compatible philosophies!

Free speech sometimes does offend

Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech

Excerpt:

A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article’s tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United States do not say every day without fear of legal reprisal.

Things are different [there]. The magazine is on trial.


Comment: Freedom of speech and religious freedom go hand in hand.

I changed the "here" to a "there" because the Byline location is Canada!

Those who "who cut Christ’s robes like bandits"

At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church

Excerpt:

Here in Stary Oskol, 300 miles south of Moscow, the police evicted a Seventh-day Adventist congregation from its meeting hall, forcing it to hold services in a ramshackle home next to a construction site. Evangelical Baptists were barred from renting a theater for a Christian music festival, and were not even allowed to hand out toys at an orphanage. A Lutheran minister said he moved away for a few years because he feared for his life. He has returned, but keeps a low profile.

On local television last month, the city’s chief Russian Orthodox priest, who is a confidant of the region’s most powerful politicians, gave a sermon that was repeated every few hours. His theme: Protestant heretics.

“We deplore those who are led astray — those Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ’s robes like bandits, who are like the soldiers who crucified Christ, who ripped apart Christ’s holy coat,” declared the priest, the Rev. Aleksei D. Zorin.

Such language is familiar to Protestants in Stary Oskol, who number about 2,000 in a city of 225,000.

The Rev. Vladimir Pakhomov, the minister of the Methodist church, recalled a warning from an F.S.B. officer to one of his parishioners: “ ‘Protestantism is facing difficult times — or maybe its end.’ ”

Comment: Sad to see! Remember Georgy Vins?!

F in Art ... but A in Civics

Student Sues Wisconsin School After Getting a Zero for Religious Drawing

Excerpt:

A Tomah High School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference.

The lawsuit alleges other students were allowed to draw "demonic" images and asks a judge to declare a class policy prohibiting religion in art unconstitutional.

"We hear so much today about tolerance," said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group representing the student. "But where is the tolerance for religious beliefs? The whole purpose of art is to reflect your own personal experience. To tell a student his religious beliefs can legally be censored sends the wrong message."

Tomah School District Business Manager Greg Gaarder said the district hadn't seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.

According to the lawsuit, the student's art teacher asked his class in February to draw landscapes. The student, a senior identified in the lawsuit by the initials A.P., added a cross and the words "John 3:16 A sign of love" in his drawing.

His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.


Comment: He will get an A in Civics! The Alliance Defense Fund is involved. More here:

A copy of the drawing created by the student is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/APDrawing.pdf. Copies of artwork depicting demonic images created by other students in the class are available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/DemonicDrawing1.pdf and www.telladf.org/UserDocs/DemonicDrawing2.pdf.

Comment: Links are active in the Alliance Defense Fund press release.

Professor Wichman's email

Professor Indrek Wichman email to Muslim students

Excerpt:

The story begins at Michigan State University with a mechanical engineering professor named Indrek Wichman. Wichman sent an e-mail to the Muslim Student's Association. The e-mail was in response to the students' protest of the Danish cartoons that portrayed the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. The group had complained the cartoons were "hate speech." Enter Professor Wichman.

In his e-mail, he said the following:

Dear Moslem Association:

As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey ), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt , the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris, France. This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Muslims to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests." If you do not like the values of the West - see the 1st Amendment - you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.

Cordially, I. S. Wichman

Professor of Mechanical Engineering


Comment: Sent to me by Pastor Dennis G. Link above is to Snopes.com.

Kerfuffle over the 'Mosque' at Normandale

Comments: This interests me on several levels: My Son attends Normandale, it is a local story, it deals with religious tolerance and religious liberty, I sensed perhaps a Christian overreaction, and the ACLU is involved. This post documents what I see of the kerfuffle (I like this word!).


Katherine Kersten: Normandale's 'meditation room' is home to a single faith

Excerpt:

Last week, I visited a Muslim place of worship. A schedule for Islam's five daily prayers was posted at the entrance, near a sign requesting that shoes be removed. Inside, a barrier divided men's and women's prayer space, an arrow informed worshippers of the direction of Mecca, and literature urged women to cover their faces.

Sound like a mosque?

The place I'm describing is the "meditation room" at Normandale Community College, a 9,200-student public institution in Bloomington.

Until recently, the room was the school's only usable racquetball court. College administrators converted the court into a meditation room when construction forced closure of the previous meditation room.



Worldnetdaily: BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS - 'Mosque' uncovered on college campus


Terry Hagedorn thread: 'Mosque' Uncovered on College Campus

Minnsota Sun Sailor: Normandale intended meditation space for all faiths, college president says


Minnesota ACLU: ACLU-MN inquires into Normandale Community College Meditation Room

Quote:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota announced today that it is investigating Normandale Community College's meditation room after receiving complaints of improper use. The ACLU-MN is concerned that way the prayer room is currently structured may violate the establishment clause, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

The ACLU-MN sent a letter yesterday to Normandale Community College asking for more information about how exactly the prayer room is used, and explaining what the current laws say about reasonable accommodation. ACLU-MN does not oppose allowing students a space to pray but the school must allow students of all denominations equal access to space. In the letter to Normandale Community College we urge that if the allegations are indeed true that Normandale must take immediate action to remedy the problem.

"The wisdom of our founding fathers on the entanglement of religion and government is as important today as it was 200 years ago," said Charles Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU Minnesota.

Comment: A kefuffle indeed! ... life goes on! Best not to overreact! (The ACLU has sometimes been criticized by Christians: eg. when school prayer was ruled unconstitutional by the Supremed Court (The ACLU represented Engle in Engle v Vitale (1962))