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In this issue Adam Stout tips his hat to our new president with a look at how the opportunities for public prayer during the inauguration were handled by The Pastor Rick Warren and Rev. Joseph Lowery. Nate Van Denend also looks back to the election season by exploring an almost unnoticed development in the Northwest regarding physician-assisted suicide. To continue the conversation of how Christianity can, should and could relate to political power brokers, Sean Baker provides his reflections on the Christian Churches Together conference which met in Washington D.C. two weeks ago. We finish this issue with two sermons on Daniel 3 which look to a different time and an entirely different political system to gain lasting insights about the relationship between people of faith and people of power.
Briefly Noted
Calvin Seminary hosted a town hall meeting about pastors and health entitled "Who’s Destroying God’s Temple?" The discussion was lead by Dr. Kenneth Dudley. Studies have reported that pastors, like the general population, suffer from lack of physical activity, high blood pressure and heart disease. While health and nutrition are important, event attendees openly wondered if Dr. Dudley’s emphasis on health bordered on a fixation with food, exercise and physical well-being.
Currently, Calvin College and the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship are hosting the annual Calvin Symposium on Worship. Guests from the symposium are from all over the world, including the general secretary for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi. The Kerux was privileged to interview Dr. Nyomi to learn about his role and the role of WARC, which represents 75 million Reformed Christians (including us) worldwide. This interview will be published in an upcoming edition.
Human rights activist and current book of the quarter author Ayaan Hirsi Ali gave a lecture at the January Series on January 23. Ali’s book Infidel describes her life as a Somali-born Muslim who escapes an arranged marriage and the Muslim cultural factors which continue to degrade women around the world. Her view that relativism is complicit in allowing the abuse of women to continue in certain Muslim communities in the West coupled with her abandonment of faith give her a lone but clear voice in the debate regarding Muslim Western relations and even Muslim Christian relations.
The Purpose-Driven [Inaugural] Prayer
Which prayer will you remember?
President Obama asked two pastors to pray at the historic inaugural ceremony on January 20th. The first to pray was Pastor Rick Warren. Warren is the author of Purpose-Driven Life (one of the top-selling non-fiction books of all time), pastor of the eighth largest church in the U.S., and director of six nonprofit organizations. The media coverage of Warren's comments on homosexuality only added to an already electric environment surrounding the inaugural celebration of our first African-American President. (I'm cheering as I type this!). The world was watching as Warren stepped to the microphone, his hair blowing in the wintry air, a sea of over one million people stretching out before him, and countless more watching on TV. The energy was palpable. The fruit was ripe for the picking. But Warren didn't pick it. Instead, Rev. Joseph Lowery, age 87, picked that ol' fruit right off the vine.
Death with Dignity
Coming to a town near you
The advance of what John Paul II called "the culture of death" has taken another bold step forward. On election day Washington state became the second state in the union to authorize physician-assisted suicide. This was part of the Oregon Plus One strategy advocated by those, some famous and wealthy, who want to extend the legalization of euthanasia to more and more states. Proposition 1000, the aptly named Death with Dignity Act, was the title of the ballet measure in Washington that allows terminally ill patients to request in writing with witnesses a lethal overdose of medication.
Christian Leaders Urge Obama to Consider the Poor
An ecumenical conference on social justice
This past week, Christian Churches Together (CCT), arguably the most diverse ecumenical organization ever to meet in the United States, went to Capitol Hill and urged the Obama Transition Team and over 30 U.S. Senators to prioritize the poor and the vulnerable in their governing, for Christ’s Sake.
"Who’s This God That Will Save You?"
Waiting for God (preached the second week of Advent)
My friend Annette emigrated from the Netherlands to the U.S. after WWII. Her real name isn't actually Annette. She was born Ankia. But when she started school in America, she was called into the principal's office. He told her that her name was too hard for others to say and they needed to change it if she wanted to fit in. He said, "You'll be Angela from now on." A few days later, "Angela" was playing on the swing set when she realized that she didn't much like her new name, so she went back to the principal's office and asked for a new one. That day, Ankia's identity shifted from a Dutch girl in America, to being Annette, the Dutch-American girl.
These Are Hard Times
A sermon on Daniel 3
These are hard times. My friend, who works at a local manufacturing company, had to walk three of his workers down the hall. "Get your things together," he told them. "We don’t have work for you anymore."