All posts by Rod Heggy

Costa Rica 4 Christ, Missions: Latin America

Costa Rica Evangelism Trip Under Way

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Terry Hull, director of Joshua One Ministries, and a team of more than a dozen people, some from Edmond Christian Church and others from other congregations, have landed in Costa Rica. The group’s prayer manual for today, January 23, suggests these prayer items:

• Health clinic at Iglesia del Evangelio de Jesucristo (Church of the Gospel of Jesus Christ). That is the church Rodrigo pastors, and the mother church of 12 other churches in Costa Rica.
RNs Jodi and Michelle will provide health care, with Amber and Norma translating/assisting. Trudi and Cindy will operate the “pharmacy.” Steve & Lauren will operate a children’s center. The others will pass out gospel tracts to people waiting for care.
• Terry will spend much of the day meeting with Rodrigo, learning about the progress of the work and how we can best support and encourage them. Ralph will serve as translator in this meeting.
* Pray for Jodi, Amber, Michelle and Norma as they provide health care to scores of people.
* Pray for Steve and Lauren’s witness to dozens of kids.
* Pray for Terry, Rodrigo and Ralph as they discuss the work.

This is their first full day on the ground, fellowshipping with the churches in Costa Rica.

Books

BOOK REVIEW

Mysteries Include Religious Themes

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Christian fiction now abounds in ways unexpected even a few years ago. Most of it, however, is drippy with sentimentality and banal in its either seeming ignorance or its seeming refusal to acknowledge the existence of evil. Secular treatment of religious themes is often on the other extreme: full of characterizations of all persons holding religious beliefs as either criminally insane or monumentally stupid.

There are numerous exceptions such as the Chronicles of Narnia. But, truthfully, often authors either with no religious beliefs (or silence about their beliefs more so than atheism) or espousing variant religious beliefs, challenge our thinking on religious issues with greater alacrity than those who claim that their fiction was either Christ centered or somehow Christ inspired.

Now available in paperback is Matthew Pearl’s murder mystery in which nineteenth century literary and religious beliefs are tested, along with the fictional historicity of post-Civil War racism in the northeast. The Dante Club is a marvelous historical speculation about nineteenth century authors, Boston, the first black police officer, mental illness afflicting Civil War veterans, the poetry of Dante, and especially Dante’s life and vision of hell.

Also available in paperback is Tim Powers’ engaging mystery, Declare, about the evil powers trapped on our world since The Flood, briefly mentioned in Genesis, and intriguing speculation about how interaction with them might be carried out by the intelligence services of the various nations in existence from 1930 into the 1960s.

Neither of these books is “new” so they are easily obtainable online. These authors have also written several other books, none of which I have yet read. In Pearl’s book, the characters of 1865 are confronted with the needs of many around them but seem oblivious until they realize their dependence upon a black police officer whom they have not previously regarded. The characters in Powers’ book struggle with their own identity and meaning in light of the overwhelming spiritual powers with which they must contend. Thus, if you’re looking for “Christian fiction,” you might do better to look to these authors to stimulate your imagination.

Books, Movies

MOVIE REVIEW

Golden Compass: “B” Rating At Best

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Because of the controversy among evangelicals regarding the recently released movie, The Golden Compass, and the underlying trilogy of novels by Philip Pullman upon which the movie is based, it seemed logical to see it and review it. As it turns out, the controversy was unnecessary. Golden Compass gets a “B” rating at best, and all the talk may have given the film more credibility than it deserves.

In World Magazine, December 8 issue, Janie Cheaney reported that New Line Cinema, the studio that produced The Lord of the Rings movies, spent $250 million to bring Golden Compass to the screen. I doubt the movie will ever earn that, nor will it be remembered for long, like The Lord of the Rings movies.

Golden Compass starts with an impossible task: how to be a children’s movie with a PG13 rating. It’s next impossible task: how to use the talents of Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Christopher Lee and others in a meaningful way without giving them enough, or even any, meaningful screen time. Why do movie makers not understand the process by which an audience begins to empathize with a character? The movie’s third and final impossible task: how to tell a complex story, which originated in a 500-page novel, without enough dialog in 118 minutes.

Unlike the Harry Potter movies, Golden Compass must deal with several unfamiliar story ideas before the story gets in the way. Harry Potter dealt with magic, sorcerers and witches, things we all have some fictional experience interpreting. But the “parallel universe” theme of Golden Compass is a very slender thread in the science fiction genre (and equally a minor part of quantum physics). We were expected as an audience to meet, understand, and then empathize with an entirely new universe in less than two hours. As Lord of the Rings demonstrated, it takes longer.

Thus, Golden Compass has received a mediocre public reception. New Line may not be able to raise the money to bring a sequel to the screen, if that financing is dependent upon success of the first installment. This movie will not boost Pullman’s book sales, if that was the fear of some evangelicals.

The movie was imaginative, with one glaring exception. Sam Elliott appeared to be playing the same character in Golden Compass that he played in Ghost Rider. It appeared he was even wearing the same costume and using the same guns. Elliott’s character also appeared to be about equally sympathetic to the lead character in each movie, such that I had to look twice to see whether Dakota Blue Richards had morphed into Nicholas Cage.

Uncategorized

Beginning of the End of Tax-Exempt Ministry?

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The letters sent to at least five televangelists by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa-R), ranking member and former chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, were pretty strong medicine from, as his website claims, a Republican farmer and “Baptist Church” member (the exact denominational affiliation is not stated). Sen. Grassley, though he claims to be a consumer advocate, is more of a business advocate. He “reformed” bankruptcy, i.e., made it more difficult for those crushed by debt, regardless of fault, to get a fresh start, and he “reformed” class action lawsuits so that corporate America might litigate less about its accounting practices and its claims about its financial performance in order to influence investors. In both cases, Sen. Grassley thought federal judges, state judges and jurors were not capable of managing and balancing these types of matters.

While I’m certainly not a fan of many televangelists, and while I’m in favor of transparency in charitable and tax-exempt organization accounting, I am concerned about how far this will go. While I am not an adherent of Word of Faith doctrine, as are the ministers and ministries targeted by Grassley, and while I certainly agree that any ministry that misuses donated money should face consequences, I am hesitant to agree that the federal government should be the policing agency.

Our protections under the 1st Amendment seem to be dwindling. The separation of church and state seems headed toward oppression of religious organizations and people by government’s attempt to remain separate. Then, abruptly, the government crosses the chasm of separateness and bludgeons some ministries.

The letters to Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and “Pastor Benedictus Hinn” by Grassley demanding voluntary disclosures of numerous financial facts should be the templates used by the Christian media to demand that same information. But, in his role as a U.S. senator, Senator Grassley is crossing the chasm of separateness in an aggressive and provocative manner.

Admittedly, he feels he has to protect the donors who are trusting those ministries. Admittedly, use of the enormous power of the U.S. Senate, including its subpoena power, to gather this information from understandably reluctant persons, may be the only way the information will be obtained. Admittedly, he wants to prevent tax-exempt status from being used to shield what is really being stolen, or used as undeclared income. Nevertheless, these very important goals are insignificant compared to the importance of separation of church and state.

Christian news media should be doing this job. It should have been done a long time ago, and it should be a mainstay of Christian news media to test the transparency of Christian charities and ministries. If donors have been abused, once alerted by the Christian news media, they can stop giving. Donors may even demand an accounting in class action lawsuits. If these televangelists are treating donations as income without paying income taxes, then the government has a legitimate reason to audit them, like any other taxpayer, and demand the money. In the final analysis, after the Christian news media has done its job, if donors want to continue to support these ministries, if they really are ministries and not scams, the separation of church and state should make that a private matter.

I wonder, too, if Sen. Grassley has not started a ball rolling. The Christian “right” seems so fragmented that it will be largely ineffectual in influencing next year’s elections. Indeed, as a result, won’t the Christian right retreat from government to avoid, if not Sen. Grassley, then governmental audits and restrictions potentially arising from his inquiries? Will that cascade into a deepening swell of support for the seemingly inevitable Clinton Administration? Wouldn’t the next Clinton Administration institutionalize Grassley’s senatorial “audit” of religious organizations to further drive them underground and further reduce their influence? Would the eventual trend be that tax-exempt status would be ultimately unavailable to churches and ministries?

Church health, Missions: Latin America

The 2% Givers

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Is it true that God has blessed the United States? If so, why has He done so? Many evangelicals will answer with the thought that God has blessed the United States because of or to encourage a Christian nation and the resulting history of missions giving one would expect from a Christian nation.

I am not suggesting this idea is true or untrue. As a patriot I am drawn to it. As a Christian of the Restoration Movement, I’m not sure there is Biblical support for it, the terrifying little book of Malachi (see 3:10) notwithstanding.

Acting as if this true, however, our own federal government tracks cash contributions of citizens to charities. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (“BLS”) Consumer Expenditure Survey tracked the spending habits of 30,000 U.S. families. This data has been analyzed by a ministry known as empty tomb, inc. [lowercase letters are used by the organization].

empty tomb, inc. found that for 2005, Americans gave $114 billion in cash contributions for charity. The organization’s analysis of the BLS data also found that on a percentage basis, “poor” households, those earning under $10,000 annually and those earning under $40,000 annually, reported a higher percentage of their after-tax income was given away. But the next highest percentage belonged to seemingly “well off” families earning more than $150,000 per year.

Unfortunately, the Christian nation that has been blessed in order to foster missions, according to many Christians, is reportedly giving only giving 1.7% of its after-tax income to charity.

Joel Belz reported in World Magazine about this report and offered his conclusion that the report seemed to suggest that Christians were giving about 2% of their income to “denominational world missions.” Belz then went on to suggest that even if evangelicals, which would include Restoration Movement Christians, were actually giving a higher percentage, it was still a frightening idea, especially if, indeed, God’s blessings of the United States has in whole or in part been motivated by missions giving. After all, how long could the less well off carry the well off? How long could the evangelicals carry the ecumenicals?

It should be noted that the empty tomb, inc. report itself suggests that giving to “church, religious organizations” is higher than the 1.7% average for all charitable giving. It also suggests that households with annual incomes up to $50,000 annually gave more than the U.S. average charitable giving of 1.7% to their churches.

The very next week, in World Magazine, Belz suggested that the drought afflicting many parts of the United States might be the result of God spinning the spigots to remind everyone who is in charge. Belz did not link the two articles – I am doing that – so it should not be assumed he meant to go so far in assertions about God’s motives. I doubt if he meant to suggest that Malachi was describing a linear causation rather than a spiritual reality. I think Belz did mean to suggest that our motives, our righteousness, and our fidelity to the Father should be scrutinized in light of these events, and that would include our commitment to missions, both at home and abroad, and I would agree. I am concerned that our comparatively weak commitment to giving, especially to missions at home and abroad, will hurt us.

By the way, for those outside of Oklahoma in the drought stricken regions, Oklahoma, the home of the “Dust Bowl,” has “endured” more rainfall in 2007 so far than in any year since 1908 (more than 53 inches compared to typical rainfall of 21-23 inches). This certainly proves the “rain falls on the good and the evil.” Matthew 5:45.