Unity and Truth

My mother and I have an ongoing conversation about unity and truth. It is obvious that unity among believers is a biblical principle. But unity has to be around something. Something more than being able to tolerate one another's company while listening to sermons. Unity has to do with a purpose. It would seem pretty obvious from scripture that the purpose would be the Great Commission: making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe Jesus' commands. All of these things involve truth. For people to work together in a unified way on these things, they have to agree on some basics. For example, you have to agree on either infant or believer baptism.

I think that many churches try to stand for as few truths as possible so that they can be unified with as many people as possible. They usually summarized them as Statements of Faith. This is a super-condensed version of my church's:

1. There is one true God having three persons (God the Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit).
2. God loved us so much that he sent his son, Jesus. Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died, and was raised again. In his death, he took on the sins of the world so that God's justice and mercy could remain intact.
3. At the point of salvation, each Christian is physically indwelled by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps the Christian make righteous choices and transforms us into a new person.
4. The Bible is without error and full of truth. It is God-breathed.
5. We are created in the spiritual likeness or image of God, but he allows us to choose to love him and act according to his commands. The first man, Adam, chose to sin, and now every person lives in a marred creation with a marred spiritual nature. As a result, every person will eventually choose to sin and subsequently become separated from God.
6. Salvation is a gift of God and cannot be accomplished by works. When we decide to trust God, we obey Jesus' command being immersed in water and demonstrating Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.
7. The church is the body of Christ and the family of believers. As such it is our duty to love others and share the Gospel to win as many as possible.
8. Those who follow Jesus will spend eternity in Heaven with him. Those who reject Jesus' will spend eternity in Hell without him.

While these eight things are all well and good, they don't address many issues. For example, can you tell from this if we have women elders or deacons? Can you tell what our position on evolution or do we even have one? The list could go on.

Some people would say that since these are not "salvation" issues that it isn't worth taking a firm stand on them. So that is my question. . . What is worth taking a stand over?

The Lutheran denomination is wrestling with this issue right now. Some congregations are separating from the ELCA because they believe that ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians is something that they cannot be a party to. I agree with them. But some would say this is wrong because unity is more important.

And is separating from one another necessarily disunity? My mother pointed out that Paul and Barnabas separated over John Mark. But were they bringing about disunity? They basically went their own way and REMAINED FRIENDS. That is often lacking when congregations part ways.

I, for one, wish that my church would take a stronger stand on many things. For example, pro-life issues, the biblical role of government, and creationism. But if they did, many people would leave. Others might come. How important is staying in the same congregation? How important is standing for the truth? Any thoughts?

Kay Granger Fact Hunting

I got this e-mail from my Representative, Kay Granger. I thought it was worth sharing with you.

Dear Friend,

As news reports continue to break about the flawed job numbers coming out of President Obama’s Recovery.gov stimulus website, I thought it would be interesting to see for myself how the government’s $18 million website is reporting the number of jobs “created or saved” in Texas from the trillion dollar stimulus that I voted against.

What I found was surprising:

According to Recovery.gov, $191,727,818 in stimulus money has been spent in the 12th district to “create or save” 625.5 jobs at a cost of $306,764 per job. But that’s not all. Recovery.gov also reports 30 jobs were “saved or created” in Texas’ 91^stcongressional district. 45 jobs were saved for $3,659,964 in district 58, and 1 job was saved in the 68th district for $310,963. The problem is there are only 32 congressional districts in Texas.

When asked to explain why the stimulus information listed congressional districts that don’t exist, Ed Pound, spokesman for Recovery.gov, said, “Who knows, man? Who really knows?”

How can we expect the administration to lead our economy into recovery when they take credit for spending $14,717,592 in congressional districts that don’t even exist?

Seriously?! $14.7 MILLION in a fictitious place?!! And how many other states have similar reports? Maybe not fictitious places, but they probably do have the $300,000+ per job. I would bet that there are loads of bull corn all over the place that most of the nation is ignoring. I am glad at least my Rep. is checking into these things.

The Other Take Overs

It is interesting to me to see how many people are deeply concerned about the possibility of government taking over health care. My question is: How many people are equally concerned about the government take-overs of the past?

Education
God clearly puts education in the family sphere of authority. If families are negligent, education falls to religious leaders. Education was taken over by the government in the 1850's.

Farming
I never realized the extent of the government in farming until I watched King Corn. The government has farmers at their whim via water from dams, subsidies to either produce or not produce, etc. From the beginning, God has placed the raising of food in the hand of individuals. I think that this take-over has taken place so slowly it is hard to recognize. And government doesn't have complete control of farming, but it is not as free as it once was.

Marriage
Throughout the Bible and almost every culture, marriage was the realm of families and/or religions. This take-over occurred in the 1500's or 1600's and is so far behind us that few could imagine a world where government had no say in marriage.

Poor
God expected families, neighbors, and communities to take care of the poor. FDR brought his sector of society under the federal government in his New Deal. Having been one of the "poor" in this country, I can tell you that I ate better than many of you but had no money to pay bills. If I had been at the mercy of my family or my church or my neighbors, the situation would have been different. For one thing, they might have expected me to barter or work or volunteer in return for what they were giving me. I wouldn't have starved, but I wouldn't have had the biggest food budget of my life. There would have been people to hold me accountable and to treat me in a loving and understanding way.

Do any or all of these things bother you? If so, how much?

Stem Cell Cures

I really encourage you all to visit a website that I just discovered. It is StemCellResearchFacts.org. It is a great site that reveals the truth: Great progress is being made with adult stem cells. Adult stems cells come from umbilical cord blood, deciduous teeth, and sometimes even the patients own body. None of these treatments require the killing of a human embryo. The kinds of diseases cured include cancers and multiple sclerosis. The complete treatment list is quite extensive. It is so encouraging to read about these treatments.

Fair Tax Widget

I haven't mentioned the Fair Tax in a while. I still think it is a great idea. I encourage you to try out my new widget to the right. It calculates your tax burden now versus the proposed Fair Tax.

Quotes

I enjoyed these quotes form around the web.

Tammy Drennan from Education Conversation
Here’s a discovery that would really rock our country: Government involvement in education is linked to intellectual mediocrity, moral and cultural decay, destruction of community, and loss of liberty.

Nancy Pelosi in response to "Where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?"
"Are you serious? Are you serious?" This answer was followed up by asking another reporter for a question. You should read this Walter Williams article for more on this topic.

Thomas Sowell
If politicians stopped meddling with things they don't understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates.

Even if this country can survive intact and unharmed after the Obama administration-- or, heaven help us, two terms of Obama-- the gullibility that led to his being elected in the first place will still be there for some other slick demagogue to come along and get the power to put the American way of life, and even our physical safety, at risk again.

More Pro-life Thoughts

Sad and Disgusting
There was much rejoicing among pro-lifers in the DFW area when Aaron's Women's Health Center closed in June of 2008. It was the only late term abortion facility in the area. We were so glad God answered prayers and closed the doors.

Now in a sad and disgusting turn of events, another late term abortion facility has opened. An ordained Baptist minister turned Unitarian has opened an abortion facility in Dallas that will abort babies as far as 24 weeks along. You can click the link and watch Dr. Curtis Boyd admit to killing saying he prays that God will receive the unborn spirit with love. How this man can claim to know God is beyond me!

A 13th Victim
The killing of 12 people and the wounding of 30 others at Fort Hood is a sad tragedy on many counts. Amid all the death our view of life is brought out. According to LifeSiteNews, he will stand trial in military court and face the death penalty. Instead of being tried for 12 murders, it is likely that he will be tried for 13. He is being tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. This set of laws has a Unborn Victims of Violence Act. One of the women Hassan killed was pregnant woman. So he should (morally and under these laws) be tried for 13 murders.

It is strange to me that we have such variation in the respect for life in this country. Abortion is OK, but if you're in the military murdering an unborn baby is murder.

I am glad that the life of this baby will be given the respect of a murder trial. I am sad that the rest of the country doesn't view the baby as a live person.

Stupak Amendment Pro-life?
Caffeinated Thoughts has a good article about the Stupak Amendment. He points out that the amendment isn't as pro-life as many believe it to be. Here are two examples he gives:
Extends funding for Planned Parenthood.
Exempts withholding food and water as part of the definition of assisted suicide or mercy killing.
You should really go read the whole thing.