FPCers in the News

Dave Bartruff
in the Marin Independent Journal, Oct. 19, 2008
Marin snapshot: San Anselmo photographer doubles as globetrotter...

Not many people have stood almost nose to nose with George Washington. Dave Bartruff, …has been atop Mount Rushmore photographing maintenance crews preserving the famed presidential heads, captured Egypt's Mount Sinai and chronicled the "forbidden" north face of Mount Everest in Tibet. Bartruff, who has a photo archive of more than 100,000 images, has completed more than 200 assignments in 90 countries. His most recent excursion to China is set for the end of October.
Read the article: HERE

Juanita Ashe
in THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, October 25, 2008
Black voters reflect on how Obama candidacy resonates on a personal level

Juanita Ashe was a young girl when men in white hoods marched past her family's Atlanta home.
...Ashe, the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of slaves, said such a moment would be overwhelming. Ashe herself grew up on a cul-de-sac in Atlanta known derisively as "Hurd's Bottom," across the road from where the white police chief and head of the Ku Klux Klan lived.
On nights when they marched, she said, she and her family huddled indoors, afraid they'd be shot if they ventured outside.
Read the article: HERE

What is Marriage - and Why is Marriage Important to Society?

Our culture has embarked on a social experiment that is largely unprecedented and California is leading the way. In our forum, Sunday night, we talked about marriage and its importance to the people who are married. We also talked a little about the importance of marriage for children. What is often left out of discussions and debates is the importance of marriage for the good of society as a whole. I received a good booklet and DVD in the mail, written from a sociological, legal and theological point of view. It is online at this address:

The Booklet, Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles: http://thetruthaboutmarriage.org/thebook

Video: http://thetruthaboutmarriage.org/video

Soon, on this Blog, you can read some of the notes of presenters, in case you missed our forum. Here's one set of notes...

Yes on Proposition 8, by Bill

BACKGROUND
Proposition 8 is in the context of a multi-year effort on the part of some groups and organizations to redefine marriage away from the traditional union of a man and a woman to being a formal cohabitation (and receive society's approval of any resulting sexual activity) between any two people, regardless of sex.
o In 2000, Proposition 22 was passed defining marriage as "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
o In 2003 the California Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act established Domestic Unions as having the same legal/benefits status as traditional marriage.
o In 2004, Gavin Newsome, Mayor of San Francisco, unilaterally began "marrying" gay couples.
o In 2008, The California Supreme Court reversed an Appeal's court ruling that upheld, per Proposition 22, that marriage is between and man and a woman.

Since the Domestic Partner's Rights and Responsibilities Act, Domestic Partners and Marriage Partners have had equal rights under State law.

Therefore, the issue is not around rights and benefits as some would insist. At issue is the definition of marriage itself.

I believe that the multi-year effort is an attack on an institution that God established at creation when He established marriage; on the very fabric of God's moral law.

BIBLICAL BASIS FOR MARRIAGE

Here is a biblical basis for reaffirming that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.

When God created Man and Woman, He instituted marriage, a mystical union that joins a man and a woman as "one flesh".

(Gen 2:24) Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. [Matt. 19:5; I Cor. 6:16; Eph. 5:31-33.]

The act of combining two people into one flesh is the sex act. The combination is a sacred one and must not be abused. It is possible for people to distort the sexual combination leading to unintended consequences.

God has established the moral law, not arbitrarily, but for our protection. We are mostly ignorant of the larger spiritual context of our own lives and the consequences of our choices [and words]. Therefore, it is vital that we heed God's guidance and obey in faith. [Daniel 10]

Proverbs warns us. There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. [Prov 16:25 ]

Nevertheless, the Bible warns against the consequences of sexual perversion (including what we now call homosexuality) and the results that it brings.

o (Lev 18:22) You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination. [I Cor. 6:9, 10.]
o (Lev 18:28) [Do none of these things] lest the land spew you out when you defile it as it spewed out the nation that was before you.
o (Lev 20:13) If a man lies with a male as if he were a woman, both men have committed an offense (something perverse, unnatural, abhorrent, and detestable)
o (Lev 20:22) You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out [as it did those before you]. [Lev. 18:28.]

Some have claimed that the Levitical laws were rescinded at Jesus' resurrection and the institution of the New Covenant (or New Testament). This is certainly true for sacrifices for the remission of sins. However, Paul, in Chapter 1 of Romans, makes very plain that sexual perversion and homosexual behavior is evidence of willful disdain for God and carries severe consequences [Romans 1:19-32]

Others have the idea that we should not care about homosexuals who marry. After all, what is it to us? And they may be right; it may have no discernable impact on us, today. But, it will have an impact at some time. The land will spew us out, homosexuals and Christians alike. Remember Lot. Lot lost everything he had, escaping only with the clothes on his back and his two daughters when God's judgment fell on Sodom. [Genesis 19]
o Lot lost all when judgment fell even though he himself was not a homosexual.

Christians must resist the corruption of God's rules of living - what we call moral law. To do otherwise is to put our entire civilization in jeopardy. Not immediately, or even over the space of many years, but eventually for sure. Christians have a great responsibility. Not to judge others but to uphold God's laws and to influence the entire culture toward God.

The question remains, however, how are we to treat those around us who may be caught up in sexual immorality or other deadly and self-destructive behavior? The best example of how we are to treat the people around us in this condition comes from Jesus himself. We do not condemn. "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." [John 8:11]

If we really loved those around us who are caught up in sexual sin, we would do everything in our power to work for their salvation. Otherwise, they are condemned to be excluded from the kingdom of God by their own choice and behavior.

(1Co 6:9-10) Do you not know that the unrighteous and the wrongdoers will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived (misled): neither the impure and immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality, Nor cheats (swindlers and thieves), nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foulmouthed revilers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God.

Proposition 8 is a move to reaffirm, as originally ordained by God, that marriage is between a man and a woman.

-Bill

Persecution of Christians - on the Rise?

Oct. 20 - Taliban say they killed aid worker for spreading Christianity
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/20/europe/afghan.php

 

Oct. 13 Hinduism vs. Christianity in India

More than 30 people have been killed, 3,000 homes burned and more than 130 churches destroyed. It is impossible to know how many forced conversions have taken place.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/13/asia/orissa.php

 

Thanks Ryan for passing these along.

 

Tents of Hope in the News

News Story, Oct. 15, 2008 in the Argus-Courier: Pupils told of dramatic art-panel saga (Meadow School)

Meadow School students also view stark images painted by refugees on panels

Meadow Elementary School students suddenly became very silent as they passed around 30 art panels containing images of death and destruction — but soon afterward, they became much more animated, clustering in small groups to raise questions about the images and discuss their reaction to them.

 

More here

 http://www.petaluma360.com/article/AC/20081016/NEWS01/810159897/-1/PETALUMA360&template=ptart

 

 

 

Article on Prop. 8

I thought this article in the SF Chronicle, on Prop. 8 (Gay marriage), was thoughtful and balanced. They even quote from the Bible. Here is the link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/15/MNNC13ELMC.DTL

 

 

 

No sense being pessimistic...

It wouldn't work anyway.

Loss is the story of our economy recently. Our homes have lost value – bad news for home owners and not so great for renters either; rents are up. There are job losses - nationally, and among people we know. Businesses have lost customers and income. Charities are short on donations of food and cash.

Financial experts are telling us we are at the end of an era. The time of profligate spending is over. We have to start living within our means.

But, it's really a matter of perspective. There is good news. Homes are more affordable than ever for those who work hard and have used credit wisely – what's wrong with that?

Rather than bemoan our hard times, we can look at the future as a time for new opportunities.

Ralph Roberts was running a belt-and-cuff-links business when he saw something alarming: an ad for slacks that didn't need a belt to stay up. Roberts already knew cuff links were history. Faced with the coming beltless revolution, he sold the company and bought a cable television franchise in Tupelo, MS, in 1963. During the next few decades, he and his son Brian built that tiny system into a pretty respectable company. Comcast, the media powerhouse, owes its start to "the beltless pants revolution" (that never came). (Time, quoted in 50 Day Adventure: Daring to Dream Again).

As the sign in my office says, "No sense being pessimistic. It wouldn't work anyway."

Don't fear; don't despair. Put your hope in God's promises. Here is a promise to cling to:

Psalm 46

1 God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her at break of day.

6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;

he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The Lord Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

8 Come and see the works of the Lord,

the desolations he has brought on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;

he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,

he burns the shields with fire.

10 "Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."

 

"Men and women are limited not by the place of their birth, not by the color of their skin, but by the size of their hope." -John Johnson

 

 

Count the Spoons

Chuck Colson writes: "In our zeal to accommodate our so-called enlightened and tolerant age, we have lost the ideal of public virtue.  I am reminded of Samuel Johnson, who, upon learning that one of his dinner guests believed morality was merely a sham, said to his butler, 'Well, if he really believes that there is not distinction between virtue and vice, let us count the spoons before he leaves.'

"Today there aren't any spoons left to count. Look at Washington, Wall Street, academia, sports, the ministry--all the spoons are gone because we can no longer distinguish between virtue and vice.

"Recovering that ability depends on asking the right questions.  Our brightest and best leaders are concerned with the question, 'How shall we be governed?'  But in the Book of Ezekiel the Jews asked: 'How shall we live?'  It doesn't matter who governs if society has no spiritual element to guide it. Unless we learn how to live [with integrity], we are doomed."

   [Imprimis, Apr 1993.  Page 3.]