Defending Life

Scott Klusendorf offers three steps on How to Defend Your Pro-Life Views in 5 Minutes or Less. Part of what he writes is a response to those who say that the embryo is less than a human being:

Put simply, there is no morally significant difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today. Differences of size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency are not relevant such that we can say that you had no rights as an embryo but you do have rights today. Think of the acronym SLED as a helpful reminder of these non-essential differences:

Size: True, embryos are smaller than newborns and adults, but why is that relevant? Do we really want to say that large people are more human than small ones? Men are generally larger than women, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve more rights. Size doesn’t equal value.

Level of development: True, embryos and fetuses are less developed than you and I. But again, why is this relevant? Four year-old girls are less developed than 14 year-old ones. Should older children have more rights than their younger siblings? Some people say that self-awareness makes one human. But if that is true, newborns do not qualify as valuable human beings. Six-week old infants lack the immediate capacity for performing human mental functions, as do the reversibly comatose, the sleeping, and those with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Environment: Where you are has no bearing on who you are. Does your value change when you cross the street or roll over in bed? If not, how can a journey of eight inches down the birth-canal suddenly change the essential nature of the unborn from non-human to human? If the unborn are not already human, merely changing their location can’t make them valuable.

Degree of Dependency: If viability makes us human, then all those who depend on insulin or kidney medication are not valuable and we may kill them. Conjoined twins who share blood type and bodily systems also have no right to life.

In short, it’s far more reasonable to argue that although humans differ immensely with respect to talents, accomplishments, and degrees of development, they are nonetheless equal because they share a common human nature.

Gospel GPS (Global Progress Scale)

Joshua Project's map of the Progress of the Gospel by People Group.

Linus on Christmas

Fred Sanders writes about The Moment Linus Drops The Blanket:

By way of conclusion for a heavy sermon, we looked at something fun: The climactic scene of the 1965 A Charlie Brown Christmas, in which Linus finally delivers his recitation of the true meaning of Christmas. There is a crucial detail that makes the clip relevant. Linus, he of the perpetual security blanket, delivers the speech with the blanket in hand (sometimes looking like a shepherd’s crook), until the moment he says the angelic words, “Fear Not,” at which he lets the blanket fall to the floor for the remainder of the speech.

It’s a perfect moment in a classic Christmas cartoon, and a profound insight. Jesus renders security blankets unnecessary. That’s not the same as calling him The Ultimate Security Blanket, as if that too-cheesy title could fit in the sequence in which Isaiah describes this Son who is given to us. But as the one who teaches perfect wisdom (Wonderful Counsellor), the one who has all power to deliver (Mighty God), the one who brings the Father’s love to us and exercises fatherly care for us (Everlasting Father), and especially as the Prince of Peace, Jesus certainly displaces our need to cling to the filthy rags of lesser comforts.

It’s just not possible to confess the “Fear Not” of the good tidings of great joy while also clutching surrogate security.

Of course, Linus, or author Charles Schulz, or director Bill Melendez, knew about the sloppiness and difficulty of leaving your security blanket where you dropped it. Watch the cartoon carefully and you’ll see that even the film editing is inconsistent: in a distant camera view of the stage, Linus is shown (impossibly) still holding his blanket.

And of course he picks it up again as soon as the speech is over. But if you know Linus, you know what a big deal it is that he dropped it at all, long enough to turn himself into a living witness to the truth of the coming of the Prince of Peace: “Fear Not.”

I'd never noticed this before but, here, watch for yourself:

Christmas Around the Blogroll

Here are some Christmas-themed posts:

The Dark Side of Christmas, posted by Bob Bixby.

You may not have experienced divorce in your family, but certainly there are those around you who have. Many want to help, but few actually do. It is better for you to stumble over your words or actions, than to remain silent. As part of the body of Christ, we are to encourage one another, pray for one another, bear one another’s burdens, weep with one another, exhort, teach, comfort, and so on. This holiday season is a perfect time for you to reach out and help a family in need (Amy Johnson).

Disturbing Christmas, posted by C. J. Mahaney.

That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ …Christmas is disturbing (William H. Smith).

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, posted by Carolyn McCulley.

But Christmas teaches that God is concerned not only with the spiritual, because he is not just a spirit anymore. He has a body. He knows what it's like to be poor, to be a refugee, to face persecution and hunger, to be beaten and stabbed. He knows what it is like to be dead. Therefore, when we put together the incarnation and the resurrection, we see that God is not just concerned about the spirit, but he also cares about the body (Tim Keller).

On Christmas Morning, posted by John Mark Reynolds.

We are unworthy. We should be content with some soup eaten in the servant’s quarters. Given previous behavior, we would not deserve the slightest favor from King Jesus.

Jesus loved us anyway. He came down on Christmas and took on our pain. He proclaimed us his siblings and we accepted the adoption. The Father is a good parent and treats His adopted children as His own.

Blessed us!

Children often don’t deserve their presents on Christmas Day. We don’t get the coal we deserve in our stockings this morning, but Paradise. It is no wonder we can hardly wait for Christmas.

Christmas: Faith, Hope and the Christ-Child, posted by Glenn Penner.

But those with faith are not without hope. Salvation did not come by means of a muscle-bound, Greek-style, wresting warrior-god. Our deliverer did not arrive in a majestic Roman chariot with legions on fine horses behind him. Satan was not defeated by physical or military might. God, in all his perfection and wisdom, secured our salvation and revealed his glory to the heavens and the earth through Jesus Christ: a baby in a manger in a stable; a Jewish carpenter in Roman-occupied Judea; a homeless, wandering preacher; a naked, battered and bloodied crucified man. It is no wonder that the gospel has been described as a 'great mystery'. And in these dark days, we should know that more often than not, God's ongoing work of sanctification is equally mysterious (Elizabeth Kendal).

“Nativity” by John Donne, posted by Jim Hamilton.

Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb,
Now leaves His well-belov’d imprisonment....

Christmas, God Working in the Dark, posted by Ray Van Neste.

Christmas is not the pretence that all is well now. Such pretence is a sham and people see through it as Scrooge did. No, Christmas is the blessed assurance that God is still at work redeeming His people. It is the reminder that God accomplishes salvation even when it looks bad. This gives us hope and points us forward to the coming day when God will make all things right.

Happy Christmas!

From Tim Keller, The Reason for God (New York: Dutton), p. 220-221:

The dance of joyful, mutually self-giving relationships is impossible in a world in which everyone is stationary, trying to get everything else to orbit around them.

However, God does not leave us there. The Son of God was born into the world to begin a new humanity, a new community of people who could lose their self-centeredness, begin a God-centered life, and, as a result, slowly but surely have all other relationships put right as well.

Bible Smuggling

Glenn Penner questions Is Bible Smuggling into China Unnecessary?. He posts a response from ChinaAid Association to a November 12 press release from the Bible Society of New South Wales that "smuggling Bibles into China places Chinese Christians at risk and is unnecessary."

Mr. Willis says in his press release that, "smuggling Bibles into China places Chinese Christians at risk and ... smuggling is a waste of resources." However, many Chinese Christians feel the desperation for a Bible outweighs the risk. Zhou Heng was in prison from August 3, 2007 until February 19, 2008 for giving away Bibles. Christian bookstore owner Shi Weihan was arrested on March 19, 2008 for publishing and distributing Bibles and Christian literature. He is currently in prison. These two men testify to the great need for Bibles with their actions and their lives.

Church Gatherings and Evangelism

Tony Payne asks Is Church for Evangelism? and provides a reminder that church gatherings are not the primary place for reaching non-Christians.

Even if we acknowledge that there will be ‘gospel’ things happening all over the place in church, it is also important to say that evangelism is not the purpose of Christian assemblies. It is certainly not their focus. In the New Testament, churches are characteristically the fruit of evangelism, not its agent. Evangelism usually takes place outside the assembly—in the marketplace, the synagogue, the prison, and in daily gospel conversation.

Struggles Are About Sin and Suffering

9Marks interviews Ed Welch on What Should Pastors Do with Fear, Medication & Addiction:

When people are out in the wilderness, they wonder where God is. If there's anything we know from people out in the wilderness, it is that they need the encouragement of God's people. They need to be able to fix their eyes on Christ who is with them in the midst of their suffering. You move toward everybody—absolutely everyone—because sin and suffering encompass all of this.

What about medical problems? You move towards someone who has cancer. It's a form of suffering, and we all know that we want to speak words of encouragement and point them to Christ in the midst of their suffering.

Psychiatric problems are the murky middle. Whether they are physiological or spiritual does not matter. It will involve both sin and suffering. We move toward them and we do the same thing we do with everybody else in our congregation by helping them to turn to Christ in a true and meaningful way. I think the Scripture has a simpler answer for seminary students and pastors. Someone is hurting over there. Somebody's stuck in sin. We are called to move toward them.

Mission During "Core Time"

In thinking about Mission and Recession, Skye Jethani writes about building a church on “core time” rather than “leisure time.” This is what he means by the two "times":

The average week of a working age adult includes at least 40 hours on the job, and 40 hours to maintain the family, home, and health (think shopping, meals, bathing, and dentist appointments). These 80 hours represent a person’s “core time.” (I’m not including 56 hours of sleep - unless like us you’ve got a baby at home, in which case it’s less.)

That leaves most people with about 32 hours each week of “leisure time.” Most churches are trying to motivate people to turn off the TV for three or four of these leisure hours to spend on mission. The most valuable and celebrated members are those who give eight, ten, or even twenty hours of leisure time to the church.

Jethani's describes some implications of emphasizing mission in people's "core time":

1. It would mean helping people see the missional dignity of ordinary work; communicating that their jobs matter to Christ and his kingdom, not just what happens within the walls of the church.

2. It would mean elevating the role of family and household relationships as vehicles for spiritual growth and missional engagement. Yes, raising children and caring for aging parents honors God and advances his kingdom just as, if not more, than institutional church programs.

3. It would mean not extracting people from their lives and communities to engage in church programming or committees unless absolutely necessary, but equipping them to live in communion with Christ within the context he has placed them.

4. It would shift the focus of Sunday worship away from mission and outreach to a time of celebration and encouragement for Christians who are engaged in mission the other six days of the week.

5. It would mean deploying church leaders outside the institution to engage members in their native contexts; mentoring and coaching on their turf rather than ours.

6. It would mean a radical adjustment in what the church celebrates - not institutional expansion or programmatic growth, but stories of ordinary people incarnating Christ at home, at work, at school ... everywhere life happens.

It can be hard putting this into practice, but I'm thankful for churches that seek to do this.

Give More than You Can Spare

Thanks to Ray Ortlund for sharing this quote from C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (p. 67):

I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.