Song of the Week: "In Like a Lion" by Al Petteway & Amy White

With all these cold fronts, and the calendar turning to March this week, it's time for "In Like a Lion" by Al Petteway & Amy White

Does Having Biological Roots to Our Attractions Justify Acting On Them?

In an opinion piece for the LA Times, Dean Hamer and Michael Rosbash say that, since homosexuality is based in biology, “fundamental rights” naturally follow, including, they say, gay marriage.

Is this the logical inference, though? The same field of study unearthing a biological basis for homosexuality is exposing a biological basis for things like alcoholism and aggressive behavior. Simply identifying the biological contributions to our impulses and attractions doesn’t really settle the question of the rightness of acting on our impulses and attractions.

I’d love to know your thoughts and reactions at Get Anchored’s Facebook fan page.

The Literature an Author Immersed in Calvin Can Produce

Marilynn Robinson, author of Housekeeping, the celebrated Gilead, and Home, says that three insights from John Calvin’s thought guide her work. Thomas Gardner of CT summarizes them:

* The glory of humanity: Made as we are in the image of God, “the great energy that rips galaxies apart also animates our slightest thoughts.”

* The fallenness of humanity: All of us turn away from God's presence, failing “to acknowledge what ought to be obvious.” She calls Calvin’s exposition of fundamental human corruption the “counterweight to Calvin's rapturous humanism.”

* The election of humanity in Christ: True perception—”the radical understanding of the presence of God, and of his nature as manifest in Christ”—is something God must grant a person. It is not natural to our fallen state.

Interesting. For my part, the Pulitzer-prizewinning Gilead sits near the top of the list of my favorite books, Housekeeping (written 25 years before Gilead) disappointed me, and Home is on my to-read list.

At Cross-Purposes

Chris Tomlinson explains “Why The Cross Matters”:

At the cross…

…We see God’s sovereignty—reigning with absolute control over humanity’s greatest sin.

…We see God’s purpose—making known the mystery of His will prepared before time.

…We see God’s plan—to unite all things, on heaven and on earth, in Him.

…We see God’s judgment—requiring recompense for guilt.

…We see God’s holiness—demanding the perfect sacrifice.

…We see God’s power—crushing the Son of God according to the purpose of His will.

…We see God’s wrath—punishing the wretchedness of sin.

…We see God’s sorrow—wailing as only a forsaken son can.

…We see God’s mystery—the Son, as God, separated from the Father, committing His Spirit to God.

…We see God’s compassion—pleading to the Father to forgive the ignorant.

…We see God’s gift—His one and only Son, bruised and broken on our behalf.

…We see God’s mercy—making unrighteous sinners righteous.

…We see God’s love—Christ dying for sinners.

…We see God’s rescue operation—delivering us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of His Son.

…We see God’s proposal—pledging Himself to His bride forever.

…We see God’s revelation—the Word of God speaking His last so He might speak on behalf of many.

…We see God’s victory—disarming His enemies, putting them to shame, and triumphing over them.

…We see God’s glory—the name of the Father being magnified for the sake of all peoples.

For four Sundays in March at Hillcrest we’ll work through a sermon series called Cross-Purposes: Four Reasons Why Jesus Died For Me. Pray as I prep for that.

LeaderLines: Examining the Impact of Our Leadership

As a pastor I’m often honored to provide a “letter of reference” for someone’s application process. But it’s interesting to read what Paul considered a leader’s real reference letter. He said it was the spiritual maturity of those we’ve been leading. Paul reminded the Corinthians, “You yourselves are our letter [of recommendation], written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry” (2 Cor. 3:2-3).

If you’re a leader at Hillcrest, take a few minutes to reflect on what our leadership is producing within the Hillcrest family.

Timmy Brister posted “21 Questions I’ve Been Asking (Myself) Lately” on his blog. I want to highlight some of the questions that made me pause.

If our church would cease to exist in our city, would it be noticed and missed?

Is our church known more for what we are not/against than what we are/for?

These are questions of how our church is perceived in our city. We’re to lead our congregation to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7).

If all the [church staff was] tragically killed in a car accident, would the church’s ministry cease or fall apart?

How many people know and are discharging their spiritual gifts in active service and building up of the body of Christ?

These are questions of equipping. Pastors are God’s gifts to the church “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

If the only possible means of connecting with unbelievers were through the missionary living of our church members, how much would we grow? (I ask this because the early church did not have signs, websites, ads, marketing, etc.)

Are the people we are reaching more religious or pagan?

What can we learn about our evangelism practices by the kind of people are being reached with the gospel?

How many people do I know (and more importantly know me) on a first name basis in my community and city who do not attend our church?

These are questions to probe how far the Hillcrest INVITE Strategy has worked its way into the daily living of the Hillcrest Family.

If our members had 60 seconds to explain to an unbeliever what our church is like, what would you want them to say? How many do you think are saying that?

This is a question of how clearly our people grasp the vision of our church, which is to be a community where people can find and follow Jesus together.

In what ways have we acted or planned in unbelief instead of faith?

If money and space were not an issue, what is one thing we ought to dream for God to do in our midst where it is impossible for anyone to get the credit except for the omnipotent hand of God?

These are questions to probe the bigness of our faith in the context of our decisions. Our congregation will receive the renovation recommendations from our First Impressions Team in a couple of months, and this will be a big test on the bigness of our Family’s faith.

How would you answer these questions? And how are you doing as a partner in the Hillcrest leadership to ensure that we raise up a church that makes God smile?

_______________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: No More Hermit Holes

“God told me it was time to come out of the hole. But I don't know if I have the energy.”

I love that line.

It comes from an old Boston Globe story about Thomas Johnson, an ex-con and drug addict. For 10 years he avoided society by wandering deep into a Boy Scout campground on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts and burrowing 8 feet underground.

Then a deer hunter stumbled over his stovepipe jutting out of the ground, and soon federal agents and state health officials were demanding he abandon his unauthorized hideaway.

He surrendered to the inevitable. “God told me it was time to come out of the hole,” he told the Boston Globe with a shrug, adding, “But I don't know if I have the energy.”

Like Thomas Johnson, believers are tempted to burrow down into bunkers in escape from the world around us. But God has told us its time to come out of our holes. He has told us to go into the world to make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20), to fish for people (Matthew 4:19), and to be preserving salt (Matthew 5:13).

At Hillcrest, the acronym I.N.V.I.T.E. helps us remember the steps we should take to accomplish this. Across the last 5 weeks we’ve looked at each of those steps in turn, and this Sunday we wrap up the series. This week we’ll share a very simple explanation of the gospel that you can use to communicate the message of the cross with your friends.

We should always hope that our friends will get to the same point that the Samaritan woman’s friends got to in John 4. There we read of a woman’s encounter with Jesus at a well. By the end of their conversation, she became convinced that he was the hoped-for Messiah, and ran into town to tell those she knew. After the Samaritans spent 2 days with Jesus, they told the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

Isn’t that what you hope to hear from your friends?

I hope this Sunday morning series has been helpful to you. We all need a fresh reminder to come out of our hermit hole and re-engage with the world for the sake of the good news we have to offer!

________________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

"A Better Chance of Keeping the Doors Open to the Kind of Old-School Communication That Matters Most"

Gary Ledbetter:

Just because we can impulsively tell our rapt audience we're having Spam for breakfast or that we strongly dislike the governor is no reason that we must tell them. If we'll run counter to the stated purposes of some communications tools, if we'll think half a tick about our readers and our priorities before hitting "send," we stand a better chance of keeping the doors open to the kind of old-school communication that matters most. We might find people drawn to what we stand for rather than confused or offended by what we appear to be.

Read the whole thing. It's a warning particularly for pastors and other church leaders, but all of us need rein in our impulse to spout off. That way "we stand a better chance of keeping the doors open to the kind of old-school communication that matters most."

Links to Your World, Tuesday February 23

When a 2-inch LEGO gun gets you kicked out of school, “zero tolerance” has gone too far.


American mothers want the fathers of their children to stick around, help with the kids and go to church. Who knew the formula for being a successful dad was so simple?


9 Ways to Wake Up Ready to Rock


The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World


“An itinerant, footloose army of available and willing retirees in their 60s and 70s is marching through the American outback, looking to stretch retirement dollars by volunteering to work in parks, campgrounds and wildlife sanctuaries, usually in exchange for camping space.” (An article to spark the imagination of an ambling soul)


Off the Coast of India, Another Language Dies. This one caught my heart for some reason.


“Establishing Boundaries With Adult Kids.” Some of the examples may be extreme for your context (then again…). But the advice is still sound. “You can’t paddle another man’s canoe.”


“To maximize on the restorative powers of vacation, people should take multiple short breaks over the course of the work year, instead of saving everything for one long trip” (Time magazine reports on a study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life).


“Get Anchored” Posts Since Last Tuesday:

5 Myths about the Religious Life of Emerging Adults

Someone To Watch Over Me

Song of the Week: "Can I Go With You?" by Bruce Cockburn

How to Turn a Bible Book into an Audio Book

Should Hillcrest be a Friendly Place...Or a Place for Friends?

Terrorists in the Church

LeaderLines: A Place for Seekers

Introverted in an Extroverted World

Good Neighbors and Effective Inviters

Generational Labels

Winning Ways: "Powerless to Shut Up"

Free Audiobook: Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions

5 Myths about the Religious Life of Emerging Adults

Collin Hansen looks at the National Study of Youth and Religion and extracts 5 myths about “emerging adulthood,” the period between the ages of 18 and 29.

Sociologist Christian Smith and Patricia Snell analyzed the National Study in Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, a follow up to the groundbreaking 2005 book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.

Myth #1: Emerging adults serve the common good. “Emerging adults are far less likely than their parents or grandparents to volunteer or contribute to charitable causes. They share no qualms about materialism and long to someday live the American dream with a large salary and large home.”

Myth #2: Emerging adults reject their parents’ religious influence. Most emerging adults fall into their parents’ religious patterns one way or another.

Myth #3: Emerging adults behave similarly, whether seriously committed to religion or not. The good news: This is largely a myth and young adults who take their faith seriously are much less likely to engage in destructive behavior. The bad news: “Only 5 percent of emerging adults are so devoted to their faith that they attend religious services weekly or read scripture as much as once or twice per month. And that group includes Mormons, Muslims, Jews, and all Christian denominations.”

Myth #4: Emerging adults have abandoned liberal Protestantism.

Myth #5: Emerging adults tend to fall away from faith in college. In reality, young adults who do not attend college are more likely to drop out of religious involvement. Why? “There are a greater number of evangelical faculty members who support like-minded students. The modernist enterprise with its secularizing agenda has all but collapsed. And evangelical campus groups flourish.” On the other hand, college ministries are much more successful at retaining a faith that students bring with them than they are at making new disciples on campus.

Read the whole thing.

Someone To Watch Over Me

In Sunday's Los Angeles Times, David Zucchino tells the stories of drone pilots. They patrol the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan, but they live and work in the United States.

7500 miles away, they hear soldiers in need and come to their aid.

We have our equivalents as believers in spiritual warfare. They are called angels. That should serve as comfort as you fight the good fight.

Song of the Week: "Can I Go With You?" by Bruce Cockburn

How come no one's covered this one in all these years. Way back from 1976 here's Bruce Cockburn singing "Can I Go With You" (music player at Get Anchored):



Lyrics:

When you ride out of the shining sky
To claim the ones who love you
Can I go with you?
Can I go with you?

When the angel shouts from the heart of the sun
And the living water flows down
Can I go with you?
Can I go with you?

When the earth and stars melt like ice in the spring
And a million voices sing praise
Can I go with you?
Can I go with you?

How to Turn a Bible Book into an Audio Book

If you're someone who likes to listen to audiobooks instead of read the dead tree editions, here's a free way to turn a Bible book into an audiobook for your mp3 player.

I followed this process this morning to turn the Acts of the Apostles into an audiobook. I'm preparing to preach through Acts starting Easter Sunday, so I'm listening to it on my iPhone as I do my morning workouts. I'll hear it 5-10 times before I start preaching through it.

The following can work for an entire Bible book or just selected passages that you want to hear.

First: To find the passage you want in the English Standard Version, search at this website.  If you're copying a long section, I suggest you break it apart. For example, I broke the Acts of the Apostles into sections of 7 or 8 chapters at a time. Here's the page for my first download.

Second: Download the file. Right-click the "Listen" link and follow the instructions on the drop-down menu to save the file as an mp3 on your hard drive. If you're going to break a large section of scripture into smaller portions (like I did with Acts), I suggest you rename the files something that place them in sequential order. For example: "Acts1" then "Acts2" then "Acts3" and so on. This will be important as you take the next step.

Three: Download the free program "Merge MP3" here. This little program will stitch your audio files into a single mp3 file. This isn't absolutely necessary in order to put your files on an mp3 player, but it sure makes it easier to manage. Once you've downloaded the program, follow the directions to stitch your mp3 files into a single mp3 file. For me, that allowed me to have a single audio file of the entire book of Acts in sequential order.

Four: Load your mp3 file into your player.

Five: If you have an iPhone or iPod, you can take an additional step to turn the mp3 file into an audiobook. This makes it much easier to manage: In audiobook format, an audio file will start playing where you last left off instead of starting from the beginning of the file each time you return to it. In iTunes, right-click the mp3 file you want to convert. In the drop-down menu, click "Get Info." Click the "options" tab and look for "Media Kind." It probably says "Music." Click the down arrow and you'll see some options. Click on "Audiobook," then click "OK."  Your file will disappear from your music library and appear on your audiobooks library. When you sync your iPhone or iPod, it will available for listening.

Should Hillcrest be a Friendly Place...Or a Place for Friends?

Mark Galli:

Why are we so taken with the idea that the church should be seen as friendly? Why do we conduct surveys about it and chide ourselves if we are not as friendly as a bar?

Let me put it another way: We all recognize how much cultural cache the church has lost in the last century. The reasons for that are broad and complex, but I wonder if one reason is that too many churches strive to be perceived as friendly.

I heard a wise man say, "People are not looking for a friendly church; they're looking for friends."  There is a difference. Last week's sermon was about involving our seeking friends with us in the life of our church. The point is not to be a "friendly" place but to be a place for friends. As Galli puts it:

More than anything, they want to meet with other people who also struggle with life's deepest questions. They want to be with people who also know they are loved by a God who died for them. They want to join a company whom the Father in Heaven steadily draws closer to himself. They want to join a company of the committed who want to do more than be entertained at church or meet people in bars, who want to give themselves to a hurting world, even if it hurts....In a place where people really belong, they are free to talk about the most uncomfortable things—sin and salvation, hate and forgiveness, suffering and hope, death and life. And they learn the fine art of forbearance and forgiveness. Merely friendly churches avoid such unpleasantness. But churches that take people seriously cannot avoid it.

This is a superb article, and it ties directly into this week's focus in our I.N.V.I.T.E. series.  Read the whole thing.

Terrorists in the Church

Sent via email this week (Thanks, Maedel):

Latest news reports are that five terrorist cell groups have been operating in many of our churches.. They have been identified as: Bin Sleepin, Bin Arguin, Bin Fightin, Bin Complainin, and Bin Missin.

LeaderLines: A Place for Seekers

Last Sunday at Hillcrest we talked about involving your THEMs with your church family in the process of witness. I hope you’re working through the daily devotional material that Herb Ingram prepared for that subject.

Now, how does this truth impact us as church leaders? If our congregation begins to take up the task of involving their THEMs at Hillcrest, what kind of environment are we creating for THEMs to enter into?

You see, a church will fall into one of four categories in its attitude toward spiritual seekers.

I know . . . I know. The word “seeker” has fallen out of fashion like an old tie. Believe me, I’m tempted to drop the word, because it’s been so derided in some circles. Then again, when I read Bible texts such as Acts 15:17 and Acts 17:27, I remember I’m in good company when I try to identify those in my community who seek God.

So, where does our church fall in our relation to seekers? Can you identify your Sunday School class or Common Ground group in the following taxonomy? How about your own approach to non-believers?

Seeker-Hostile: Church groups with this mindset view non-believers as a threat. Most in this mindset, of course, would say that individual believers must be kind to non-believers and look for ways to share the gospel. But they would insist that corporate life of the church is no place to involve a non-believer. Therefore, the study topics, conversations, and even jokes in the Bible study classes or worship services create an environment hostile to a seeker’s questions or objections.

Seeker-Indifferent: Church groups with this mindset are indifferent to the concerns and questions that non-believers have of the faith. They believe the job of the church is simply to provide Bible studies and activities that meet the needs of believers. Churches that are seeker-indifferent may have evangelistic activities and support mission causes, and they may encourage the individual members to witness to non-believers. But it simply doesn’t occur to these churches that they have a responsibility to engage the concerns and questions of spiritual explorers.

Seeker-Sensitive: Church groups with this mindset focus on building believers while connecting with the seekers that believers bring with them. In one sense, the aim of worship services and Bible study groups in these churches is the same as it is in seeker-indifferent churches: That is, the church exists to build a strong community of believers. But seeker-sensitive churches pursue this goal with sensitivity to non-believers who have begun to be attracted to the faith through their friendship with believers.

Seeker-Targeted: Church groups with this mindset direct everything they do toward reaching the non-believing world with the gospel. The music, the sermon topics, the approach to Bible-study... it’s all done with the aim of catching the attention of non-believers and persuading them to embrace the gospel truth.

I want us to be a seeker-sensitive church. I do not believe that we should ignore non-believers as we conduct our worship services, but neither do I believe that the main reason for a worship service is to connect with non-believers. At Hillcrest, worship services exist to build believers, but they also exist to connect with earnest seekers that believers bring with them. I believe we should be a place where people find and follow Jesus together.

Among several of the speakers and writers I enjoy, the word for this kind of church is “missional,” and maybe I should keep up with the times by adopting the new label. Still, whether a church is labeled “seeker-sensitive” or “missional” isn’t nearly as important as whether the church deserves the label! Let’s make sure that what we do as Hillcrest leaders will contribute to the salvation of spiritual seekers in our community.

____________________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Introverted in an Extroverted World

Adam McHugh:

Churches sometimes unintentionally equate faithfulness with extroversion; we draw up a composite sketch of the "ideal" Christian--gregarious, with an overt passion and enthusiasm, eager to participate in a wide variety of activities, shares their faith with strangers regularly, assumes leadership positions quickly, opens up their home to others often--and this ideal person starts sounding suspiciously like an extrovert. Add on top of that the talkative, mingling informality of many churches and you've produced an environment that is intimidating to many introverts, who may find these settings distracting for developing their spirituality.

I can identify, being a bit of an introvert myself. I'm grateful that, though the evangelical culture tends to expect extroversion as the ideal, God doesn't use a cookie cutter when he creates us for his uses. Again, McHugh:

I find the fact that God uses people of all different sorts of gifts, abilities, and temperaments, incredibly comforting. Introversion is not a category in the Bible, but the patriarch Jacob was called "a quiet man" and the great prophet Moses protested God's call by saying he was "heavy-mouthed" and ineloquent on a public stage, something that some of us can relate to. Jesus' mother Mary was deeply introspective and reflective. And God clearly did great things through those biblical characters.

(Adam McHugh is the author of Introverts in the Church. You can read more about him at Sophia Dembling's blog, hosted at Psychology Today.

Good Neighbors and Effective Inviters

 

Tim Keller:

How do Christians relate to Muslims when we live side by side in the same society? How can Christians be at the very same time a) good neighbors, seeking their good whether they convert or not, and still b) attractively and effectively invite Muslims to consider the gospel?

These are the two questions behind the project I'm developing for April called "The Neighboring Faiths Interviews."  And these two questions aren't just in relation to Muslims but also in relation to Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists who are our neighbors and coworkers. We want to be (a) good neighbors and (b) attractive and effective  at inviting them to consider the gospel.

Find out more about the Neighboring Faiths Interviews here.

By the way, Tim Keller's question about relating to Muslims comes from his blog post, "The Big Issues Facing the Western Church." He outlines five "big issues"--

1. The opportunity for extensive culture-making in the U.S.

2. The rise of Islam.

3. The new non-western Global Christianity.

4. The growing cultural remoteness of the gospel.

5. The end of prosperity?

It would be worth your while to review his brief post.

Generational Labels

Someone was curious about the label "Generation Jones" to describe those between "Boomers" and "Generation X" in Tuesday's Links to Your World.

You can learn more here.

Winning Ways: "Powerless to Shut Up"

“I don't respect people who don't proselytize.”

Sure, you’d expect to hear something like that from a Baptist pastor. But that statement was made by an atheist.

Penn Jillette is the outspoken half of the performing duo, “Penn and Teller.” At his video blog, “Penn Says,” he recalls a man who came to him after a show, gave Penn a Bible, and offered to explain the gospel to him:

It was really wonderful. I believe he knew that I was an atheist. But he was not defensive and he looked me right in the eyes and he was truly complimentary. It did not seem like empty flattery. He was really kind, and nice, and sane, and looked me in the eyes and talked to me. Then he gave me this Bible.

I've always said I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward--and atheists who think people shouldn't proselytize and who say just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself--how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?

I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn't believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.

Mind you, so far Penn remains unconvinced of the gospel. But he understands the implications of the gospel message better than many who claim to believe it.

My heart is captured by a single line from Acts 4:20--“We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” That line is actually a double negative in the Greek language. You could translate it, “We cannot not speak.” The key word is a variation of the Greek word for power—dunameis--where we get the word “dynamite.” These guys were saying, “When it comes to the stories of what God has done for us, we just don’t have the power to shut up!”

This Sunday @ 10, we’re going to examine that text and discover how to have that kind of powerlessness, too!

_____________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Free Audiobook: Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions

Until the end of February you can download a Mark Driscoll book for free at christianaudio.  In Religion Saves: And 9 Other Misconceptions, the Seattle pastor addresses questions he is most-often asked about his influential (and often controversial) ministry. The ten topics include:

• Birth Control
• Humor (specifically, the appropriateness of humor in the pulpit)
• Predestination
• Grace
• Sexual Sin
• Faith and Works
• Dating
• The Emerging Church
• The Regulative Principle (i.e., what belongs in a worship service)

The chapter on humor is worth your time if you don't have time to listen to any other part of the book.

The only downside: Driscoll recorded his own audiobook, and the longer he read the stranger his cadence became, putting pauses and emphasis in the wrong places in the sentences. It was sometimes exhausting to follow his train of thought when he fell into those odd rhythms of reading. 

But download the book and give it a listen: It's an entertaining way to get introduced to some important subjects.

Links to Your World, Tuesday February 16

Boomers are retiring, Generation Jones is getting the kids to leave the nest, Gen X is discovering how to parent teens. The Millennials are getting married and starting families. And behind the Millennial generation, whose older members are turning 30, there is a new generation now in their teens. Some are calling it the iGeneration.


Prosthetics expert rapped for giving elderly patient two left feet


Kenneth Starr to be Baylor University’s Next President.


World may not be warming, say scientists (Times of London)


Questioning the argument against early marriages


Posts at “Get Anchored” Since Last Tuesday:

Can a Minister "Opt Out" of Rendering Under Caesar?

The Moral Sense is Factory-Installed, Not After-Market

Warning of Information Overload...from 1565

Song of the Week: "Shelter" by Ray Lamontagne

LeaderLines: Rediscovering the Value of ‘Church’

Winning Ways: Why Church-Going and Evangelism Belong Together

Can a Minister "Opt Out" of Rendering Under Caesar?

Russell Moore gives good advice on whether a minister should "opt out" of paying Social Security taxes.

As a pastor, I pay twice what most of you pay in Social Security. Unless you're self-employed, your employer pays the other half of your S.S. obligation. While the IRS treats pastors as employees for income tax purposes, they treat pastors as self-employed for Social Security tax purposes.

It's a big bite of my income that I'd love to avoid. And I had a choice to "opt out" of paying Social Security at the start of my ministry years. Ministers can do so only if they have a religious opposition to the program. Its like conscientious objectors being allowed to opt out of a military draft. Moore, writing to a young minister who wants to opt out, says:

As you make this decision, ask yourself whether you plan to preach and teach your people that participating in Social Security (as payer or recipient) is a sin against God. If the “opt out” provision were revoked, would you willingly go to prison rather than pay the tax? And, would your prison time be because you saw the choice as between Christianity and idolatry?

If the answer to these questions is “no” (as it seems from your question), then you are not a conscientious objector to Social Security taxes. To then “opt out” of paying them would be to refuse to do precisely what Jesus commands us to do: pay taxes. It would also give reason for offense to the mission field you’re attempting to engage with the gospel. And, by turning a protection of conscience into a political statement or a pragmatic economic benefit, it would imperil religious liberty provisions for your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Social Security may or may not be around when you retire. I don’t know. I do know this: your money definitely won’t be around when you’re dead. So why waste your religious liberty on holding on to a little bit more of it for a little while longer?

The Moral Sense is Factory-Installed, Not After-Market

People who have no religion know right from wrong just as well as regular worshippers, according to a study published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences. London’s Telegraph reported on the study under the headline “Atheists ‘just as ethical as churchgoers.’”

On her blog at USA Today Cathy Lynn Grossman asked readers if they felt that “good-without-God” studies were a threat to their religious faith.

For biblically-informed believers the answer should be “Of course not.”

Scripture is clear that even among those who have not been taught the law [i.e., right-from-wrong as revealed in Scripture], “the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” (Romans 2:15). The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis would be a good place to start if you’ve never thought about the fact that right-from-wrong is part of being human.

It’s factory-installed, not after-market.

Besides, learning to “be good” isn’t the real distinction that religion offers—at least the religion of Jesus, who promised rest for those who were weary and heavy-laden from trying to “be good.” When we discover that, like all of humanity, we have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God, we gladly trade the pursuit of being good for the grace of Christ:

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22-24).

_________________________

(The study Grossman referenced isn’t primarily about atheists being just as good as believers. The study is part of the debate over the origin of religion among evolutionary theorists. But the part of the study that generated the media buzz was the contention that non-believers have a moral compass as do believers. It’s that contention I’m addressing in this post)

Warning of Information Overload...from 1565

From Vaughan Bell at Slate:

A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind....It's worth noting that Gessner, for his part, never once used e-mail and was completely ignorant about computers. That's not because he was a technophobe but because he died in 1565. His warnings referred to the seemingly unmanageable flood of information unleashed by the printing press.

There's more history of media technology scares, from the printing press to Facebook, at the post. As Bell points out, "The writer Douglas Adams observed how technology that existed when we were born seems normal, anything that is developed before we turn 35 is exciting, and whatever comes after that is treated with suspicion."

It would be wrong to conclude that there's nothing to worry about in newer technology. In fact, kids still need parents to shepherd them through the wise use of new media and adults still need to exercise self-discipline themselves. But the article reminds us that there's really nothing new under the sun, as the Preacher in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes told us.

Song of the Week: "Shelter" by Ray Lamontagne

Good one--Listen here:

LeaderLines: Rediscovering the Value of ‘Church’

“With jaw-dropping vigor, ignorance, and at times unblushing gall, increasing sectors of the evangelical world are abandoning two thousand years of ecclesiology in the erroneous opinion that the church is some malleable human construct that can be shaped, altered, redefined or even disposed of as desired.”

So says James Emery White in an issue of his newsletter, Serious Times. Most of you who receive LeaderLines are in leadership at Hillcrest. Let’s take a moment to appreciate all over again what God has said about the organization he called us to lead.

When Jesus said he would build his church—a force that would be so powerful that the gates of hell would not stand against it—what was he talking about? Well, it’s not a brick building you go to or a program you attend. But some Christians, eager to demolish that false notion have substituted a number of ideas for “church” that aren’t any better. A recent survey of American Christians found that the majority deemed each of the following to be “a complete and biblically valid” way for someone who does not participate in a conventional church to experience and express their faith in God in place of the church:

• engaging in faith activities at home
• watching a religious television program
• listening to a religious radio broadcast
• attending a special ministry event, such as a concert or community service activity
• participating in a marketplace ministry

In response to these substitutes—to borrow the tag line of a rental car company—I’d have to say: “There’s “church’ and there’s ‘not exactly’.”

In his article, White points out that in the Bible the most common understanding of Christ’s church is “a defined bodies of believers that were gathered with both intent and order.” White suggests five “C’s” of a genuine church:

Community. To be a church, you must be a true community of faith. There is no sense that this community was to be segmented in any way, whether by race, ethnicity, gender or age. It is to have clear entry and exit points, making it clear (as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians) that there are those “inside” the church and those “outside” the church.

Confession. The second dynamic which constitutes the church involves confession. The idea of “confession,” in the sense being suggested here, is related to the Greek homologeo, which means “to say the same thing” or “to agree.” For the church to be the church, it must be a place where the Word of God as put forward in Scripture is proclaimed in its fullness.

Corporate. The third mark of the church is corporate. The Bible speaks of defined organizational roles, such as pastors (a term which is used synonymously and interchangeably with the terms “elder” and “bishop”) and deacons, as well as corporate roles related to spiritual gifts such as teachers, administers, and, of course, leaders (Rom. 12; I Cor. 12; Eph. 4; I Pet. 4). These corporate dynamics allowed money to flow from one group to another (II Corinthians 8); decisions to be made by leaders as to doctrine and practice (Acts 15); and the setting apart of some individuals for appointed tasks, mission and church plants (Acts 13).

Celebration. The fourth dynamic of the local church is celebration. The church was to gather for public worship as a unified community of faith, including the stewarding of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, for these were far from being “public domain.” In the New Testament, believers were to “come together” for the Supper, and its proper administration fell under apostolic teaching and direction which was then delegated to pastors to oversee.

Cause. The final mark of the local church relates to cause. The church is on a very specific mission, given to it by Jesus Himself, to reach out to a deeply fallen world and call it back to God. According to the Bible, this involves active evangelism with subsequent discipleship, coupled with strategic service to those in need, such as the poor.

Without apology, this is what we call people into when we call them into the Hillcrest Family. It’s not a social club or a service organization, it’s not an optional accessory for Christian discipleship—and there’s no substitute for it in the world!

_____________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Winning Ways: Why Church-Going and Evangelism Belong Together

The way you think about “church” is broken if you think getting someone to attend your church is a hindrance to evangelism.

In a lot of church leadership blogs I read, the writers dismiss the so-called “attactional” approach to outreach and advocate what they call a “missional” approach. They contend that we abandon all efforts to invite people to experience the life and worship of a church body (“attractional”) and instead simply live an authentic Christian life in our workplace and neighborhood (“missional”).

It’s either-or, according to many: Either compel the community to “come and see” or compel the church to “go and tell.”

Um...am I the only one who sees this as a false dichotomy? People veer off course in the whole “missional versus attractional” debate the moment they actually think the word “versus” belongs between those two words.

Should I build a genuine relationship with my neighbors? Yep. Should I live an authentic Christian life in their presence? Yep. Should I serve them? Yep.

But now, keep going: Should I bring my neighbors to sit in with my Bible study group and listen to us believers wrestle with the implications of the text? Yep. Should I pray and work toward the time my neighbors begin to sit with me in a service where real worship is taking place? Yep. Should I enlist my neighbors’ help on a church mission trip? Yep.

If you think involving people with your church family will hinder your efforts at commending Christ to them, the solution isn’t to quit inviting them to church. No, the solution is to fix what’s broken in your understanding of “church.”

Listen, if we have a church where people are doing all the stuff that a real church ought to be doing -- praying for each other, serving each other, forbearing each other, worshipping God, challenging each other with the Word -- well, wouldn’t that be absolutely the best environment for the spiritually curious to see the life-changing difference Christ makes?

This Sunday at 10, come learn why “church-going” should be part of your outreach efforts. Because, when it comes to the question of whether Jesus wants us “out there” with people or if he wants us bringing people into the Christian community where we share life together, the answer is “yes.”

_______________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday February 9

“Where Feet, Fist and Faith Collide”


Police thank suspect for Facebook info


“How much life could you find in one cubic foot? That's a hunk of ecosystem small enough to fit in your lap. To answer the question, photographer David Liittschwager took a green metal frame, a 12-inch cube, to disparate environments—land and water, tropical and temperate. At each locale he set down the cube and started watching, counting, and photographing with the help of his assistant and many biologists.” Find out at National Geographic online.


“The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling ‘My Way’ in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the ‘My Way Killings.’” (NYT)


The latest stats on iPhone apps, beautifully displayed.


WFAA-TV in Dallas investigates Ed Young of Fellowship Church in an unflattering report. What to make of this? The tell-all witness in the burqua cracked me up, but exposure of a minister’s lavish living was sad.


Voodoo priest's son leads Haitians to Christ


How to Sound Smarter: The Reader's Digest Version of those rules for talking and writing--the ones you missed in high school


“Since last September, a group of women have been on a fashion fast, refusing to buy any article of clothing for 12 months. What have they learned so far from The Great American Apparel Diet, as the experiment is called?” (Find out here)


More Global Warming Shenanigans


David Brooks at the NYT: One of the keys to healthy aging is what George Vaillant of Harvard calls ‘generativity’ — providing for future generations. Seniors who perform service for the young have more positive lives and better marriages than those who don’t. As Vaillant writes in his book Aging Well, ‘Biology flows downhill.’ We are naturally inclined to serve those who come after and thrive when performing that role.”


‘Men at Work’ Stole Most Famous Tune


Posts since last Tuesday:

Too Many Happy Returns

"What's The Use of Stories That Aren't Even True?"

Heading Off Radicalization

Song of the Week: "Fugitive" by David Gray

Oh How I Miss This Guy's Work

Step Away from the Mouse...

When the U.N. Opposes Religious Liberty

Fatherhood Lost

Peer Pressure and Christian Belief

Winning Ways: "Lost: It’s More Than a TV Show"

"What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?"

Too Many Happy Returns

Oh iPhone, your return
Key on the on-
Screen keyboard needs to
Be smaller or your space
Bar should be longer. I
Hit the return key way
Too often when I
Type.

"What's The Use of Stories That Aren't Even True?"

Okay, I'm a geeky sucker for sticking with Lost across 5, now 6, seasons. Then again, what other TV show gets people talking about such important subjects? Case in point, from Entertainment Weekly:

Desmond Hume reads the darndest books. When we first met him in season 2, the moony marooner ran off into the jungle carrying a copy of The Third Policeman, a perversely playful work with a twisted plot that mirrors the most despairing of Lost theories: that our fallen castaways are stuck in an eternal cycle of damnation, their looping hell managed by morally ambiguous enforcers. In ''LA X,'' [the opener for Season 6] Desmond was reading Rushdie's Haroun And The Sea of Stories. Like Policeman, Haroun functions as commentary and critique on storytelling, but otherwise couldn't be more different. The plot concerns a boy who all but curses his father in a moment of despair by saying, cynically, ''What's the use of stories that aren't even true?'' As a consequence, the father becomes heartbroken, and loses his storytelling mojo. Haroun then embarks on a fantastic adventure to save the enchanted ''Ocean of the Steam of Story'' from villains who would corrupt it. By taking that journey and saving that enchanted place, Haroun restores his father's life and power by giving him the tale of his own adventure, which, when told, rouses a hopeless town to rebel against exploitive, oppressive forces. What might Haroun have to say to us about season 6? Mostly, I'm thinking of Jack and his relationship to his father. But more than anything, I'm fascinated by Desmond's progression from the surreal cynicism of Policeman to the redemptive fable of Haroun. I've certainly seen a lot of Policeman in Lost. In season 6, perhaps we'll see more Haroun.

Thanks to Lost, I already have Flannery O'Conner's Everything That Rises Must Converge on my Amazon Wish List. Now I've added Haroun as well. Hopeless, hopeless geek.

Heading Off Radicalization

I always appreciate Eileen Flynn's work.  Yesterday she reported in the Statesman on efforts within the Muslim community to head off radicalization among young men. One local imam she talked with is Islam Mossaad of the North Austin Muslim Community Center.

Over coffee a couple of months ago I asked Imam Islam about this very issue. It will be one area we'll cover when I interview him at Hillcrest during the "Neighboring Faiths Interviews."  Find out more here.

Song of the Week: "Fugitive" by David Gray

It's baaack: The every-Sunday "Song of the Week" feature has been on hiatus. We return with David Gray's "Fugitive." It's about reaching out to a loved one who's withdrawing from life.

Oh How I Miss This Guy's Work

How soon after the U.S. Postal Service issues the Calvin stamp will you send a letter with one on the envelope?

Immediately. I'm going to get in my horse and buggy and snail-mail a check for my newspaper subscription.

Bill Waterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes

 

Oh, how I miss Waterson's work. CJ Mahaney of Sovereign Grace ministries has called the comic series "a must read for every pastor." Amen.

Step Away from the Mouse...

"A new study from researchers at the University of Leeds finds that people who compulsively browse, chat and play online have higher rates of moderate to severe depression than people who aren't compulsively driven to use the internet." (Time)

So, make this your last post you read for a while and get outside, or meet a friend, or serve someone in need.

When the U.N. Opposes Religious Liberty

Erich Bridges:

Nearly seven of every 10 people live in countries that significantly restrict religious faith and practice — through laws, social pressure or both....Christians are by no means the only targets of such restrictions, but they are the most widespread on a global scale. In many places — primarily but not exclusively communist and Muslim-majority lands — Christians continue to pay in blood for their faith, particularly if they dare to lead others to follow Jesus.

Bridges writes that the U.N.'s endorsement of resolutions against "defaming" a religion provide cover for this:

At the urging of the 56 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference — including some of the most notorious abusers of religious rights in their own countries — the assembly endorsed a resolution in December against the so-called “defamation of religion.”

The controversial, non-binding resolution passed with less support than in previous years. But it passed, providing continuing philosophical aid and comfort to those who seek to silence free religious expression.

“Essentially the resolution [seeks] to criminalize words or actions that are deemed to be against a particular religion, namely, Islam,” said Lindsay Vessey, director of advocacy for Open Doors, an international ministry that supports persecuted Christians. Wherever the resolution gains the force of law, Vessey warned, citizens won’t be “free to preach the Gospel [or] to say what they believe, even if they’re not trying to evangelize. But it’s also going to impact missionaries and foreign workers who go into these countries to evangelize.”

Fatherhood Lost

Paul Asay for Plugged In points out the impact of dads--for better and worse--in the hit show Lost:

After five seasons viewers aren't completely sure what the island even is. (Theories range from Eden to Limbo to a rejiggered Island of Misfit Toys.) Lost is a potpourri of engrossing characters, literary references, time-travel tropes and thought-provoking musings about the interplay of religion and science, of fate and free will, of good and evil and the gray in between.

But at its core, Lost is really about a subject near and dear to Plugged In's core: family. Strip away all the white rabbits and mysterious hatches, and you're left with an island full of sons and daughters, lost and hurting because their relationships with their parents—particularly their fathers—aren't all they should be.

"I think father issues are very much a part of the show," Lost producer Carlton Cuse said at Comic-Con 2006, according to Lostpedia. "Dramatically, that is something that we deal with extensively. And if you look at the characters on the show, a lot of the characters have 'daddy issues.'"

...

"In my opinion there are only two important themes [in Lost]," writes Entertainment Weekly blogger Jeff Jensen: "1. Science vs. Religion (or Reason vs. Faith); and 2. The Failure of the Father Figure."

Peer Pressure and Christian Belief

You'd think someone with a book entitled "The Age of American Unreason" would be able to identify weak links in her own writing. 

Susan Jacoby opens her new column in the On Faith website, "The Spirited Atheist," with 5 myths about atheism. Writing about "Myth #2: Atheists think all religious believers are stupid," she acknowledges that believers can be quite intelligent, yet-- 

there is a strong correlation between simplistic fundamentalist beliefs, relying on a literal interpretation of sacred texts, and lack of education. As the level of education rises, the number of people who believe in materially impossible tales such as the creation of the universe in six days; the literal resurrection of the dead; and the Virgin Birth diminishes. That is why fundamentalists have been tireless in their efforts to inject religious teaching into public schools. So it is generally true (although there are of course many exceptions) that the less people have learned about science, history, and different belief systems, the more likely they are to cling to a rigid form of faith.

At least she simply identified the factors of strong faith and poor education as correlation and not causation. But by letting the reader know that the correlation is "strong" and offering no range of possibilities as to why the correlation exists, Jacoby may as well have used the word "causation."  As a result, though she objects as myth that atheists think all religious believers are stupid, she reinforces the myth by acknowledging that a few smart believers exist, defying the odds and holding to a faith incongruous to the level of their IQ.

Jacoby actually illustrates at least one reason why there may be a "strong correlation" between lack of faith and higher education.  Though we humans fancy ourselves as independent thinkers, none of really escaped the tractor beam of peer pressure since we first felt its pull in Middle School.  We are instinctively tribal--we are primal joiners.  This means not only are we anxious to identify with those we consider our peers but we are also desperate to distinguish ourselves from those our peers dismiss.  So, a grad student not only adopts the skepticism of his professors and peers but also wants to avoid the suspicion he's like the yahoos who cling to faith. I've found that the more a person feels he's vulnerable to this suspicion among his peers, the harder he feels he has to work at distinguishing himself from the yahoos.

You've never really freed yourself from that force that keeps the herd in line ever since you first felt it in adolescence.  This is true when it comes to the books we say we like, the politics we say we prefer, and the stores we say we patronize. Is peer pressure keeping you from considering the claims of Christ?

Winning Ways: "Lost: It’s More Than a TV Show"

Lots are lost, but not everyone’s lost in the same way. Until we grasp this truth, we won’t be effective at obeying Christ’s command to share the gospel.

In Luke 15, Jesus told three stories about being lost: the lost sheep (verses 3-7), the lost coin (verses 8-10), and the lost son (verses 11-24). Each was lost in different ways.

The sheep got lost through personal carelessness. While feeding in the pasture, the sheep drifted off and soon found itself separated. That’s the way some of our friends are. Through a series of small personal choices they find themselves a long way away from where they need to be spiritually.

Then there’s the lost coin. This represents people who are lost through someone else’s carelessness. A child who is never taken to church, never allowed to participate in church, a child whose parents never have any answers to his spiritual questions—that child is a lost coin. That child becomes a teenager who has no friends to influence him. That teenager goes to a university where biblical faith is belittled. Through the carelessness of others, that person is now a grownup “lost coin.”

Then there’s the lost son who through personal, deliberate, conscious rebellion makes choices that put him a long way from God.

I’ve discovered that I can be more effective at introducing people to the Savior if I pay attention to the manner of a person’s lostness and not just the bare fact of it. Someone with no background in a church may have to be engaged in a different way than someone who has rejected the Christian message through a bad church experience in the past. Someone who has honest intellectual questions shouldn’t be treated the same as someone who’s explored enough and just needs encouragement to cross the line of faith.

This Sunday we’ll learn more about how to verify the spiritual condition of our friends. It will help us commend Christ to them. Join us at 10 for worship, and stay an extra hour to make some friends in one of our small groups!

Tom

By the way, you can get the daily devotionals of our iINVITE campaign delivered to your email inbox. Just write Herb Ingram (herb@hbcaustin.org) and ask him to sign you up for the Daily Cup.

________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

"What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?"

Diane will have to endure another viewing of Groundhog Day today. Jonah Goldberg wrote about the film's appeal in NRO:

In the years since its release the film has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement. Meanwhile, the Internet brims with weighty philosophical treatises on the deep Platonist, Aristotelian, and existentialist themes providing the skin and bones beneath the film's clown makeup. On National Review Online's group blog, The Corner, I asked readers to send in their views on the film. Over 200 e-mails later I had learned that countless professors use it to teach ethics and a host of philosophical approaches. Several pastors sent me excerpts from sermons in which Groundhog Day was the central metaphor. And dozens of committed Christians of all denominations related that it was one of their most cherished movies.

Goldberg suggests some reasons for its appeal in the article.

Links to Your World, Tuesday February 2

5 Fun Things You Didn’t Know About the Super Bowl


One day the lion will lie down with the lamb, but cheetahs playing with a baby antelope is a nice start.


“Some athletes give their life to Jesus Christ as a PR move; some are ripe with hypocrisy; some just say offensive things. Warner always expressed his faith without trivializing it or us.” (Seth Wickersham of ESPN, regarding Kurt Warner’s retirement from the NFL)


A 30-second answer from Ed Stetzer to the question, “What Does It Mean to Be Missional?”


“One can see why Obama might have been overly impressed with himself. Here's a guy who became president of the United States just four years out of the Illinois Senate, and along the way developed a cultlike following. It sounds as though Obama became a follower as well as figurehead of his own cult of personality. He overestimated the degree to which he was special as opposed to lucky--a very human failing” (James Taranto, Best of the Web)


“[Dante's] Inferno is now a video game, with a brawny, armor-clad Dante as its protagonist. Like a fallen soul, it is facing some stern judgments, both from prospective players and Dante scholars who wonder why a classic work of Western literature needed updating at all” (NYT).


“Spike versus Lifetime. Guys versus Gals. XY versus XX.…What do their programs tell us about the sexes? What deep-seated yearnings drive the male of the species? What hopes and fears motivate the female? Is one smarter than the other, and if so, by how much?” The NYT has 4 lessons about the sexes learned from the programming choices of the 2 channels.


*Shudder* “Picture this: AARP says 'sexting' is a hit for the over-50 set”


Singletasking, Not Multitasking: “When’s the last time you sat down to read a book (or, heck, a blog) without simultaneously watching TV or listening to music or texting a friend? When’s the last time you went out for a walk without your cell phone in your pocket? When’s the last time you spent an hour doing just one thing?


Posts since last Tuesday:

America's Favorite Unopened Book
"Partners with the Angels"
"It Was One of the More Raw Moments in My Life"
Zen and Violence
"Some of us experienced World War II in the trenches, and others experienced it by playing Call of Duty on our Xbox."
LeaderLines: Get Ready for "The Neighboring Faiths Interviews"
"Half a God is not God at All"
This Is the Title of a Post Telling You to Read Another Blog Post
"Christian Blogs Fit Into One of Three Categories"
At a Texas Intersection of Faith and Science
Resistance is Fertile
Winning Ways: What Impression Are You Making?

Affirming Abstinence Education

"Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can convince a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark study that could have major implications for the nation's embattled efforts to protect young people against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases."

Read it at the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020102628.html