INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (7626,48,'2012-08-24 19:28:25','2012-08-25 02:28:25','Victim.\r\n\r\nConsider that word for a moment. Victim. What does it bring to mind? Do you picture someone who has been attacked or abused or otherwise harmed-- someone who compels you to compassion and concern? Or does the word “victim” bring to mind a weak, whiny, and wretched example of a human being-- someone who blames everyone else for their misery?\r\n\r\nIf you found yourself in the latter camp, you are not alone. Victim blaming seems to be the prevailing mind-set in many circles. It happens every day in business and politics: those with power fear losing it, and some strive to keep it at all costs. Any voice crying of injustice or dissent is a threat to their power that must be hushed up. So, how is that done? It\'s simple: spin the facts so as to push the blame on the victim. And if that can’t be done, then bully or coerce them into silence.\r\n\r\nThis doesn’t just happen in politics and the business world—sadly, it’s just as rampant in the Church. If we hurt a fellow brother or sister in Christ and that person calls us out on it, do we sincerely apologize? Or, do we give them the hallow \"I\'m sorry you took offense” apology, which is not really an apology at all. It’s an accusation. If the offender happens to be a minister or in Church leadership, the victim is often instructed to suppress their complaint, because speaking out against leadership is seen as a sign of rebellion and submission issues, as well as the big no-no: \"touching the Lord\'s anointed.\" I\'d like to note that, while this idea about not touching the Lord’s anointed comes from 1 Samuel, it is taken completely out of context to support this odd doctrine of silence. Here David isn’t saying that he shouldn’t speak out against the wrong that Saul has done, but rather that he cannot <em>physically</em> harm Saul (1 Samuel 24: 4-7; 26: 9-11). In fact, directly after both incidences where David states he will not touch the Lord’s anointed, he goes on to immediately, and publicly, rebuke Saul (1 Samuel<span style=\"color: #000000\"> 24: 8-13; 26:17-20).  </span>\r\n\r\nRecently one congregation, Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) in Beaverton, Oregon, even went so far as to sue former disgruntled members for defamation, in order to further enforce the code of silence. The focus of the suit, as well as the publicity surrounding it, seemed to center on Julie Anne Smith, who blogs about her experience with spiritual abuse and BGBC at <a href=\"http://bgbcsurvivors.blogspot.com/\">BCBG Survivors</a>. On her blog, Julie Anne states that she created it after her negative Google reviews of BGBC were repeatedly deleted. It was at least in part because of the negative online reviews and Julie Anne\'s personal blog that the church brought about the defamation suit against her and four other former church members. However, while churches may try to silence their flocks within church walls, apparently they can\'t continue to do so when the sheep decide to leave the fold; the judge dismissed the case on all counts, and even ordered BGBC to pay the defendants\' court fees. Since gaining notoriety from the defamation suit, Julie Anne’s blog has now moved beyond a space simply to discuss her experiences at BGBC, into a platform to discuss spiritual abuse in the Church at large, as well as a community for those trying to heal from similar experiences.\r\n\r\nI too, experienced silencing tactics and victim blaming during my time at a rather dictatorial ministry, which I wrote about in \"<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/2012/01/16/the-c-word/\">The C Word</a>.” I regularly witnessed the head of the ministry mocking wounded and hurting people for their \"victim mentality\", both behind closed doors and in front of the pulpit. It didn’t matter how legitimate the pain or hurt, you were simply told to \"get over it\". Furthermore, those who left the ministry and dared tell anyone about their bad experiences were labeled as having an \"offended spirit\", or worse, being demon-possessed or down-right crazy. They regularly taught that speaking out against leadership was rebellious, relying heavily on the clobber verses in 1 Samuel that I mentioned previously. It was as though ministers were untouchable, accountable to God alone.\r\n\r\nNot surprisingly, my former ministry leader was not terribly happy to stumble upon my article. But, my point in writing it was certainly not to damage him or the ministry. That is why I never named the ministry in the article. Furthermore, the ministry’s name is not listed in my author biography, nor is it on the public profiles of any of my other social media site profiles. I even took great pains to try to remove any associations that could come up via web searches. My point was not to harm them, but to tell my story , and for good or ill (and despite my greatest attempts at erasing my history with them from my web presence), my experience there will always be a part of my story.\r\n\r\nIn the words of one of my favorite Christian writers, Anne Lamott, \"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should\'ve behaved better.\"  Telling your story can bring healing to yourself and to others who have suffered similarly. Regardless, you own it; it’s your story to tell. Don’t let them silence your voice. Tell it bravely, and tell it with grace.\r\n\r\nWhat bothers me the most about victim-silencing and blaming is that it has become such a normal occurrence in the world and, more distressingly, in the Church. Is this really Christ\'s response to the wounded and victimized? To silence their voices and pat the backs of the oppressor? Hardly! Christ didn\'t tell the wounded to “get over it\". He healed them. Christ didn\'t tell the oppressed and victimized to be quiet. Instead, it was the harsh and hypocritical religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, whom he rebuked. Victim blaming and silencing tactics have nothing to do with Christ.\r\n\r\nThis is not to say that there are not times when pain both parties are to blame. And yes, even those who have been greatly harmed may hold some responsibility in their pain. At the very least, we all have the responsibility to forgive. But at this point in time, I believe the pendulum has swung too far in one direction; by and large we seem much quicker to side with the abuser than the victim. I mean, it’s easier to blame the victim, isn\'t it? There\'s no mess to clean up and no work for us to do if they just need to get over it. But the real work of love is found in comforting those who are in pain and seeking justice where there is none. In the end, is that not what God requires: to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NASB)?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Gag Order: Silencing the Voices of the Wounded in the Church','','inherit','open','open','','7608-revision-7','','','2012-08-24 19:28:25','2012-08-25 02:28:25','',7608,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/24/7608-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(7627,1,'2012-08-24 22:32:18','2012-08-25 05:32:18','Victim.\n\nConsider that word for a moment. Victim. What does it bring to mind? Do you picture someone who has been attacked or abused or otherwise harmed-- someone who compels you to compassion and concern? Or does the word “victim” bring to mind a weak, whiny, and wretched example of a human being-- someone who blames everyone else for their misery?\n\nIf you found yourself in the latter camp, you are not alone. Victim blaming seems to be the prevailing mind-set in many circles. It happens every day in business and politics: those with power fear losing it, and some strive to keep it at all costs. Any voice crying of injustice or dissent is a threat to their power that must be hushed up. So, how is that done? It\'s simple: spin the facts so as to push the blame on the victim. And if that can’t be done, then bully or coerce them into silence.\n\nThis doesn’t just happen in politics and the business world—sadly, it’s just as rampant in the Church. If we hurt a fellow brother or sister in Christ and that person calls us out on it, do we sincerely apologize? Or, do we give them the hallow \"I\'m sorry you took offense” apology, which is not really an apology at all. It’s an accusation. If the offender happens to be a minister or in Church leadership, the victim is often instructed to suppress their complaint, because speaking out against leadership is seen as a sign of rebellion and submission issues, as well as the big no-no: \"touching the Lord\'s anointed.\" I\'d like to note that, while this idea about not touching the Lord’s anointed comes from 1 Samuel, it is taken completely out of context to support this odd doctrine of silence. Here David isn’t saying that he shouldn’t speak out against the wrong that Saul has done, but rather that he cannot <em>physically</em> harm Saul (1 Samuel 24: 4-7; 26: 9-11). In fact, directly after both incidences where David states he will not touch the Lord’s anointed, he goes on to immediately, and publicly, rebuke Saul (1 Samuel<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> 24: 8-13; 26:17-20).  </span>\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/silence1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7621\" title=\"silence\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/silence1-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" /></a>Recently one congregation, Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) in Beaverton, Oregon, even went so far as to sue former disgruntled members for defamation, in order to further enforce the code of silence. The focus of the suit, as well as the publicity surrounding it, seemed to center on Julie Anne Smith, who blogs about her experience with spiritual abuse and BGBC at <a href=\"http://bgbcsurvivors.blogspot.com/\">BCBG Survivors</a>. On her blog, Julie Anne states that she created it after her negative Google reviews of BGBC were repeatedly deleted. It was at least in part because of the negative online reviews and Julie Anne\'s personal blog that the church brought about the defamation suit against her and four other former church members. However, while churches may try to silence their flocks within church walls, apparently they can\'t continue to do so when the sheep decide to leave the fold; the judge dismissed the case on all counts, and even ordered BGBC to pay the defendants\' court fees. Since gaining notoriety from the defamation suit, Julie Anne’s blog has now moved beyond a space simply to discuss her experiences at BGBC, into a platform to discuss spiritual abuse in the Church at large, as well as a community for those trying to heal from similar experiences.\n\nI too, experienced silencing tactics and victim blaming during my time at a rather dictatorial ministry, which I wrote about in \"<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/2012/01/16/the-c-word/\">The C Word</a>.” I regularly witnessed the head of the ministry mocking wounded and hurting people for their \"victim mentality\", both behind closed doors and in front of the pulpit. It didn’t matter how legitimate the pain or hurt, you were simply told to \"get over it\". Furthermore, those who left the ministry and dared tell anyone about their bad experiences were labeled as having an \"offended spirit\", or worse, being demon-possessed or down-right crazy. They regularly taught that speaking out against leadership was rebellious, relying heavily on the clobber verses in 1 Samuel that I mentioned previously. It was as though ministers were untouchable, accountable to God alone.\n\nI strongly suspect my former ministry leader would not be terribly happy to stumble upon my article. But, my point in writing it was certainly not to damage him or the ministry. That is why I never named the ministry in the article. Furthermore, the ministry’s name is not listed in my author biography, nor is it on the public profiles of any of my other social media site profiles. I even took great pains to try to remove any associations that could come up via web searches. My point was not to harm them, but to tell my story, and for good or ill (and despite my greatest attempts at erasing my history with them from my web presence), my experience there will always be a part of my story. And as a writer, I may frequently draw from my experience there to further the story.\n\nIn the words of one of my favorite Christian writers, Anne Lamott, \"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should\'ve behaved better.\"  Telling your story can bring healing to yourself and to others who have suffered similarly. Regardless, you own it; it’s your story to tell. Don’t let others silence your voice. Tell it bravely, and tell it with grace.\n\nWhat bothers me the most about victim-silencing and blaming is that it has become such a normal occurrence in the world and, more distressingly, in the Church. Is this really Christ\'s response to the wounded and victimized? To silence their voices and pat the backs of the oppressor? Hardly! Christ didn\'t tell the wounded to “get over it\". He healed them. Christ didn\'t tell the oppressed and victimized to be quiet. Instead, it was the harsh and hypocritical religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, whom he rebuked. Victim blaming and silencing tactics have nothing to do with Christ.\n\nThis is not to say that there are not times when both parties are to blame. And yes, even those who have been greatly mistreated may hold some responsibility in their pain. At the very least, we all have the responsibility to forgive. But at this point in time, I believe the pendulum has swung too far in one direction; by and large we seem much quicker to side with the abuser than the victim. I mean, it’s easier to blame the victim, isn\'t it? There\'s no mess to clean up and no work for us to do if they just need to get over it. But the real work of love is found in comforting those who are in pain and seeking justice where there is none. In the end, is that not what God requires: to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NASB)?\n\n&nbsp;','Gag Order: Silencing the Voices of the Wounded in the Church','','inherit','open','open','','7608-autosave','','','2012-08-24 22:32:18','2012-08-25 05:32:18','',7608,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/24/7608-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7628,48,'2012-08-24 19:29:20','2012-08-25 02:29:20','Victim.\r\n\r\nConsider that word for a moment. Victim. What does it bring to mind? Do you picture someone who has been attacked or abused or otherwise harmed-- someone who compels you to compassion and concern? Or does the word “victim” bring to mind a weak, whiny, and wretched example of a human being-- someone who blames everyone else for their misery?\r\n\r\nIf you found yourself in the latter camp, you are not alone. Victim blaming seems to be the prevailing mind-set in many circles. It happens every day in business and politics: those with power fear losing it, and some strive to keep it at all costs. Any voice crying of injustice or dissent is a threat to their power that must be hushed up. So, how is that done? It\'s simple: spin the facts so as to push the blame on the victim. And if that can’t be done, then bully or coerce them into silence.\r\n\r\nThis doesn’t just happen in politics and the business world—sadly, it’s just as rampant in the Church. If we hurt a fellow brother or sister in Christ and that person calls us out on it, do we sincerely apologize? Or, do we give them the hallow \"I\'m sorry you took offense” apology, which is not really an apology at all. It’s an accusation. If the offender happens to be a minister or in Church leadership, the victim is often instructed to suppress their complaint, because speaking out against leadership is seen as a sign of rebellion and submission issues, as well as the big no-no: \"touching the Lord\'s anointed.\" I\'d like to note that, while this idea about not touching the Lord’s anointed comes from 1 Samuel, it is taken completely out of context to support this odd doctrine of silence. Here David isn’t saying that he shouldn’t speak out against the wrong that Saul has done, but rather that he cannot <em>physically</em> harm Saul (1 Samuel 24: 4-7; 26: 9-11). In fact, directly after both incidences where David states he will not touch the Lord’s anointed, he goes on to immediately, and publicly, rebuke Saul (1 Samuel<span style=\"color: #000000\"> 24: 8-13; 26:17-20).  </span>\r\n\r\nRecently one congregation, Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) in Beaverton, Oregon, even went so far as to sue former disgruntled members for defamation, in order to further enforce the code of silence. The focus of the suit, as well as the publicity surrounding it, seemed to center on Julie Anne Smith, who blogs about her experience with spiritual abuse and BGBC at <a href=\"http://bgbcsurvivors.blogspot.com/\">BCBG Survivors</a>. On her blog, Julie Anne states that she created it after her negative Google reviews of BGBC were repeatedly deleted. It was at least in part because of the negative online reviews and Julie Anne\'s personal blog that the church brought about the defamation suit against her and four other former church members. However, while churches may try to silence their flocks within church walls, apparently they can\'t continue to do so when the sheep decide to leave the fold; the judge dismissed the case on all counts, and even ordered BGBC to pay the defendants\' court fees. Since gaining notoriety from the defamation suit, Julie Anne’s blog has now moved beyond a space simply to discuss her experiences at BGBC, into a platform to discuss spiritual abuse in the Church at large, as well as a community for those trying to heal from similar experiences.\r\n\r\nI too, experienced silencing tactics and victim blaming during my time at a rather dictatorial ministry, which I wrote about in \"<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/2012/01/16/the-c-word/\">The C Word</a>.” I regularly witnessed the head of the ministry mocking wounded and hurting people for their \"victim mentality\", both behind closed doors and in front of the pulpit. It didn’t matter how legitimate the pain or hurt, you were simply told to \"get over it\". Furthermore, those who left the ministry and dared tell anyone about their bad experiences were labeled as having an \"offended spirit\", or worse, being demon-possessed or down-right crazy. They regularly taught that speaking out against leadership was rebellious, relying heavily on the clobber verses in 1 Samuel that I mentioned previously. It was as though ministers were untouchable, accountable to God alone.\r\n\r\nNot surprisingly, my former ministry leader was not terribly happy to stumble upon my article. But, my point in writing it was certainly not to damage him or the ministry. That is why I never named the ministry in the article. Furthermore, the ministry’s name is not listed in my author biography, nor is it on the public profiles of any of my other social media site profiles. I even took great pains to try to remove any associations that could come up via web searches. My point was not to harm them, but to tell my story , and for good or ill (and despite my greatest attempts at erasing my history with them from my web presence), my experience there will always be a part of my story.\r\n\r\nIn the words of one of my favorite Christian writers, Anne Lamott, \"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should\'ve behaved better.\"  Telling your story can bring healing to yourself and to others who have suffered similarly. Regardless, you own it; it’s your story to tell. Don’t let them silence your voice. Tell it bravely, and tell it with grace.\r\n\r\nWhat bothers me the most about victim-silencing and blaming is that it has become such a normal occurrence in the world and, more distressingly, in the Church. Is this really Christ\'s response to the wounded and victimized? To silence their voices and pat the backs of the oppressor? Hardly! Christ didn\'t tell the wounded to “get over it\". He healed them. Christ didn\'t tell the oppressed and victimized to be quiet. Instead, it was the harsh and hypocritical religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, whom he rebuked. Victim blaming and silencing tactics have nothing to do with Christ.\r\n\r\nThis is not to say that there are not times when pain both parties are to blame. And yes, even those who have been greatly harmed may hold some responsibility in their pain. At the very least, we all have the responsibility to forgive. But at this point in time, I believe the pendulum has swung too far in one direction; by and large we seem much quicker to side with the abuser than the victim. I mean, it’s easier to blame the victim, isn\'t it? There\'s no mess to clean up and no work for us to do if they just need to get over it. But the real work of love is found in comforting those who are in pain and seeking justice where there is none. In the end, is that not what God requires: to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NASB)?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Gag Order: Silencing the Voices of the Wounded in the Church','','inherit','open','open','','7608-revision-8','','','2012-08-24 19:29:20','2012-08-25 02:29:20','',7608,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/24/7608-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(7629,48,'2012-08-24 20:07:41','2012-08-25 03:07:41','Victim.\n\nConsider that word for a moment. Victim. What does it bring to mind? Do you picture someone who has been attacked or abused or otherwise harmed-- someone who compels you to compassion and concern? Or does the word “victim” bring to mind a weak, whiny, and wretched example of a human being-- someone who blames everyone else for their misery?\n\nIf you found yourself in the latter camp, you are not alone. Victim blaming seems to be the prevailing mind-set in many circles. It happens every day in business and politics: those with power fear losing it, and some strive to keep it at all costs. Any voice crying of injustice or dissent is a threat to their power that must be hushed up. So, how is that done? It\'s simple: spin the facts so as to push the blame on the victim. And if that can’t be done, then bully or coerce them into silence.\n\nThis doesn’t just happen in politics and the business world—sadly, it’s just as rampant in the Church. If we hurt a fellow brother or sister in Christ and that person calls us out on it, do we sincerely apologize? Or, do we give them the hallow \"I\'m sorry you took offense” apology, which is not really an apology at all. It’s an accusation. If the offender happens to be a minister or in Church leadership, the victim is often instructed to suppress their complaint, because speaking out against leadership is seen as a sign of rebellion and submission issues, as well as the big no-no: \"touching the Lord\'s anointed.\" I\'d like to note that, while this idea about not touching the Lord’s anointed comes from 1 Samuel, it is taken completely out of context to support this odd doctrine of silence. Here David isn’t saying that he shouldn’t speak out against the wrong that Saul has done, but rather that he cannot <em>physically</em> harm Saul (1 Samuel 24: 4-7; 26: 9-11). In fact, directly after both incidences where David states he will not touch the Lord’s anointed, he goes on to immediately, and publicly, rebuke Saul (1 Samuel<span style=\"color: #000000\"> 24: 8-13; 26:17-20).  </span>\n\nRecently one congregation, Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) in Beaverton, Oregon, even went so far as to sue former disgruntled members for defamation, in order to further enforce the code of silence. The focus of the suit, as well as the publicity surrounding it, seemed to center on Julie Anne Smith, who blogs about her experience with spiritual abuse and BGBC at <a href=\"http://bgbcsurvivors.blogspot.com/\">BCBG Survivors</a>. On her blog, Julie Anne states that she created it after her negative Google reviews of BGBC were repeatedly deleted. It was at least in part because of the negative online reviews and Julie Anne\'s personal blog that the church brought about the defamation suit against her and four other former church members. However, while churches may try to silence their flocks within church walls, apparently they can\'t continue to do so when the sheep decide to leave the fold; the judge dismissed the case on all counts, and even ordered BGBC to pay the defendants\' court fees. Since gaining notoriety from the defamation suit, Julie Anne’s blog has now moved beyond a space simply to discuss her experiences at BGBC, into a platform to discuss spiritual abuse in the Church at large, as well as a community for those trying to heal from similar experiences.\n\nI too, experienced silencing tactics and victim blaming during my time at a rather dictatorial ministry, which I wrote about in \"<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/2012/01/16/the-c-word/\">The C Word</a>.” I regularly witnessed the head of the ministry mocking wounded and hurting people for their \"victim mentality\", both behind closed doors and in front of the pulpit. It didn’t matter how legitimate the pain or hurt, you were simply told to \"get over it\". Furthermore, those who left the ministry and dared tell anyone about their bad experiences were labeled as having an \"offended spirit\", or worse, being demon-possessed or down-right crazy. They regularly taught that speaking out against leadership was rebellious, relying heavily on the clobber verses in 1 Samuel that I mentioned previously. It was as though ministers were untouchable, accountable to God alone.\n\nI strongly suspect my former ministry leader would not be terribly happy to stumble upon my article. But, my point in writing it was certainly not to damage him or the ministry. That is why I never named the ministry in the article. Furthermore, the ministry’s name is not listed in my author biography, nor is it on the public profiles of any of my other social media site profiles. I even took great pains to try to remove any associations that could come up via web searches. My point was not to harm them, but to tell my story, and for good or ill (and despite my greatest attempts at erasing my history with them from my web presence), my experience there will always be a part of my story. And as a writer, I may frequently draw from my experience there to further the story.\n\nIn the words of one of my favorite Christian writers, Anne Lamott, \"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should\'ve behaved better.\"  Telling your story can bring healing to yourself and to others who have suffered similarly. Regardless, you own it; it’s your story to tell. Don’t let others silence your voice. Tell it bravely, and tell it with grace.\n\nWhat bothers me the most about victim-silencing and blaming is that it has become such a normal occurrence in the world and, more distressingly, in the Church. Is this really Christ\'s response to the wounded and victimized? To silence their voices and pat the backs of the oppressor? Hardly! Christ didn\'t tell the wounded to “get over it\". He healed them. Christ didn\'t tell the oppressed and victimized to be quiet. Instead, it was the harsh and hypocritical religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, whom he rebuked. Victim blaming and silencing tactics have nothing to do with Christ.\n\nThis is not to say that there are not times when pain both parties are to blame. And yes, even those who have been greatly harmed may hold some responsibility in their pain. At the very least, we all have the responsibility to forgive. But at this point in time, I believe the pendulum has swung too far in one direction; by and large we seem much quicker to side with the abuser than the victim. I mean, it’s easier to blame the victim, isn\'t it? There\'s no mess to clean up and no work for us to do if they just need to get over it. But the real work of love is found in comforting those who are in pain and seeking justice where there is none. In the end, is that not what God requires: to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NASB)?\n\n&nbsp;','Gag Order: Silencing the Voices of the Wounded in the Church','','inherit','open','open','','7608-revision-9','','','2012-08-24 20:07:41','2012-08-25 03:07:41','',7608,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/24/7608-revision-9/',0,'revision','',0),(7630,1,'2012-08-24 22:32:36','2012-08-25 05:32:36','','frustrated','','inherit','open','open','','frustrated','','','2012-08-24 22:32:36','2012-08-25 05:32:36','',7608,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/frustrated.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7631,1,'2012-08-24 20:11:40','2012-08-25 03:11:40','Victim.\r\n\r\nConsider that word for a moment. Victim. What does it bring to mind? Do you picture someone who has been attacked or abused or otherwise harmed-- someone who compels you to compassion and concern? Or does the word “victim” bring to mind a weak, whiny, and wretched example of a human being-- someone who blames everyone else for their misery?\r\n\r\nIf you found yourself in the latter camp, you are not alone. Victim blaming seems to be the prevailing mind-set in many circles. It happens every day in business and politics: those with power fear losing it, and some strive to keep it at all costs. Any voice crying of injustice or dissent is a threat to their power that must be hushed up. So, how is that done? It\'s simple: spin the facts so as to push the blame on the victim. And if that can’t be done, then bully or coerce them into silence.\r\n\r\nThis doesn’t just happen in politics and the business world—sadly, it’s just as rampant in the Church. If we hurt a fellow brother or sister in Christ and that person calls us out on it, do we sincerely apologize? Or, do we give them the hallow \"I\'m sorry you took offense” apology, which is not really an apology at all. It’s an accusation. If the offender happens to be a minister or in Church leadership, the victim is often instructed to suppress their complaint, because speaking out against leadership is seen as a sign of rebellion and submission issues, as well as the big no-no: \"touching the Lord\'s anointed.\" I\'d like to note that, while this idea about not touching the Lord’s anointed comes from 1 Samuel, it is taken completely out of context to support this odd doctrine of silence. Here David isn’t saying that he shouldn’t speak out against the wrong that Saul has done, but rather that he cannot <em>physically</em> harm Saul (1 Samuel 24: 4-7; 26: 9-11). In fact, directly after both incidences where David states he will not touch the Lord’s anointed, he goes on to immediately, and publicly, rebuke Saul (1 Samuel<span style=\"color: #000000\"> 24: 8-13; 26:17-20).  </span>\r\n\r\nRecently one congregation, Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) in Beaverton, Oregon, even went so far as to sue former disgruntled members for defamation, in order to further enforce the code of silence. The focus of the suit, as well as the publicity surrounding it, seemed to center on Julie Anne Smith, who blogs about her experience with spiritual abuse and BGBC at <a href=\"http://bgbcsurvivors.blogspot.com/\">BCBG Survivors</a>. On her blog, Julie Anne states that she created it after her negative Google reviews of BGBC were repeatedly deleted. It was at least in part because of the negative online reviews and Julie Anne\'s personal blog that the church brought about the defamation suit against her and four other former church members. However, while churches may try to silence their flocks within church walls, apparently they can\'t continue to do so when the sheep decide to leave the fold; the judge dismissed the case on all counts, and even ordered BGBC to pay the defendants\' court fees. Since gaining notoriety from the defamation suit, Julie Anne’s blog has now moved beyond a space simply to discuss her experiences at BGBC, into a platform to discuss spiritual abuse in the Church at large, as well as a community for those trying to heal from similar experiences.\r\n\r\nI too, experienced silencing tactics and victim blaming during my time at a rather dictatorial ministry, which I wrote about in \"<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/2012/01/16/the-c-word/\">The C Word</a>.” I regularly witnessed the head of the ministry mocking wounded and hurting people for their \"victim mentality\", both behind closed doors and in front of the pulpit. It didn’t matter how legitimate the pain or hurt, you were simply told to \"get over it\". Furthermore, those who left the ministry and dared tell anyone about their bad experiences were labeled as having an \"offended spirit\", or worse, being demon-possessed or down-right crazy. They regularly taught that speaking out against leadership was rebellious, relying heavily on the clobber verses in 1 Samuel that I mentioned previously. It was as though ministers were untouchable, accountable to God alone.\r\n\r\nI strongly suspect my former ministry leader would not be terribly happy to stumble upon my article. But, my point in writing it was certainly not to damage him or the ministry. That is why I never named the ministry in the article. Furthermore, the ministry’s name is not listed in my author biography, nor is it on the public profiles of any of my other social media site profiles. I even took great pains to try to remove any associations that could come up via web searches. My point was not to harm them, but to tell my story, and for good or ill (and despite my greatest attempts at erasing my history with them from my web presence), my experience there will always be a part of my story. And as a writer, I may frequently draw from my experience there to further the story.\r\n\r\nIn the words of one of my favorite Christian writers, Anne Lamott, \"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should\'ve behaved better.\"  Telling your story can bring healing to yourself and to others who have suffered similarly. Regardless, you own it; it’s your story to tell. Don’t let others silence your voice. Tell it bravely, and tell it with grace.\r\n\r\nWhat bothers me the most about victim-silencing and blaming is that it has become such a normal occurrence in the world and, more distressingly, in the Church. Is this really Christ\'s response to the wounded and victimized? To silence their voices and pat the backs of the oppressor? Hardly! Christ didn\'t tell the wounded to “get over it\". He healed them. Christ didn\'t tell the oppressed and victimized to be quiet. Instead, it was the harsh and hypocritical religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, whom he rebuked. Victim blaming and silencing tactics have nothing to do with Christ.\r\n\r\nThis is not to say that there are not times when both parties are to blame. And yes, even those who have been greatly mistreated may hold some responsibility in their pain. At the very least, we all have the responsibility to forgive. But at this point in time, I believe the pendulum has swung too far in one direction; by and large we seem much quicker to side with the abuser than the victim. I mean, it’s easier to blame the victim, isn\'t it? There\'s no mess to clean up and no work for us to do if they just need to get over it. But the real work of love is found in comforting those who are in pain and seeking justice where there is none. In the end, is that not what God requires: to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NASB)?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Gag Order: Silencing the Voices of the Wounded in the Church','','inherit','open','open','','7608-revision-10','','','2012-08-24 20:11:40','2012-08-25 03:11:40','',7608,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/24/7608-revision-10/',0,'revision','',0),(7632,1,'2012-08-24 22:33:02','2012-08-25 05:33:02','Victim.\r\n\r\nConsider that word for a moment. Victim. What does it bring to mind? Do you picture someone who has been attacked or abused or otherwise harmed-- someone who compels you to compassion and concern? Or does the word “victim” bring to mind a weak, whiny, and wretched example of a human being-- someone who blames everyone else for their misery?\r\n\r\nIf you found yourself in the latter camp, you are not alone. Victim blaming seems to be the prevailing mind-set in many circles. It happens every day in business and politics: those with power fear losing it, and some strive to keep it at all costs. Any voice crying of injustice or dissent is a threat to their power that must be hushed up. So, how is that done? It\'s simple: spin the facts so as to push the blame on the victim. And if that can’t be done, then bully or coerce them into silence.\r\n\r\nThis doesn’t just happen in politics and the business world—sadly, it’s just as rampant in the Church. If we hurt a fellow brother or sister in Christ and that person calls us out on it, do we sincerely apologize? Or, do we give them the hallow \"I\'m sorry you took offense” apology, which is not really an apology at all. It’s an accusation. If the offender happens to be a minister or in Church leadership, the victim is often instructed to suppress their complaint, because speaking out against leadership is seen as a sign of rebellion and submission issues, as well as the big no-no: \"touching the Lord\'s anointed.\" I\'d like to note that, while this idea about not touching the Lord’s anointed comes from 1 Samuel, it is taken completely out of context to support this odd doctrine of silence. Here David isn’t saying that he shouldn’t speak out against the wrong that Saul has done, but rather that he cannot <em>physically</em> harm Saul (1 Samuel 24: 4-7; 26: 9-11). In fact, directly after both incidences where David states he will not touch the Lord’s anointed, he goes on to immediately, and publicly, rebuke Saul (1 Samuel<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> 24: 8-13; 26:17-20).  </span>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/silence1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7621\" title=\"silence\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/silence1-300x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" /></a>Recently one congregation, Beaverton Grace Bible Church (BGBC) in Beaverton, Oregon, even went so far as to sue former disgruntled members for defamation, in order to further enforce the code of silence. The focus of the suit, as well as the publicity surrounding it, seemed to center on Julie Anne Smith, who blogs about her experience with spiritual abuse and BGBC at <a href=\"http://bgbcsurvivors.blogspot.com/\">BCBG Survivors</a>. On her blog, Julie Anne states that she created it after her negative Google reviews of BGBC were repeatedly deleted. It was at least in part because of the negative online reviews and Julie Anne\'s personal blog that the church brought about the defamation suit against her and four other former church members. However, while churches may try to silence their flocks within church walls, apparently they can\'t continue to do so when the sheep decide to leave the fold; the judge dismissed the case on all counts, and even ordered BGBC to pay the defendants\' court fees. Since gaining notoriety from the defamation suit, Julie Anne’s blog has now moved beyond a space simply to discuss her experiences at BGBC, into a platform to discuss spiritual abuse in the Church at large, as well as a community for those trying to heal from similar experiences.\r\n\r\nI too, experienced silencing tactics and victim blaming during my time at a rather dictatorial ministry, which I wrote about in \"<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/2012/01/16/the-c-word/\">The C Word</a>.” I regularly witnessed the head of the ministry mocking wounded and hurting people for their \"victim mentality\", both behind closed doors and in front of the pulpit. It didn’t matter how legitimate the pain or hurt, you were simply told to \"get over it\". Furthermore, those who left the ministry and dared tell anyone about their bad experiences were labeled as having an \"offended spirit\", or worse, being demon-possessed or down-right crazy. They regularly taught that speaking out against leadership was rebellious, relying heavily on the clobber verses in 1 Samuel that I mentioned previously. It was as though ministers were untouchable, accountable to God alone.\r\n\r\nI strongly suspect my former ministry leader would not be terribly happy to stumble upon my article. But, my point in writing it was certainly not to damage him or the ministry. That is why I never named the ministry in the article. Furthermore, the ministry’s name is not listed in my author biography, nor is it on the public profiles of any of my other social media site profiles. I even took great pains to try to remove any associations that could come up via web searches. My point was not to harm them, but to tell my story, and for good or ill (and despite my greatest attempts at erasing my history with them from my web presence), my experience there will always be a part of my story. And as a writer, I may frequently draw from my experience there to further the story.\r\n\r\nIn the words of one of my favorite Christian writers, Anne Lamott, \"You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should\'ve behaved better.\"  Telling your story can bring healing to yourself and to others who have suffered similarly. Regardless, you own it; it’s your story to tell. Don’t let others silence your voice. Tell it bravely, and tell it with grace.\r\n\r\nWhat bothers me the most about victim-silencing and blaming is that it has become such a normal occurrence in the world and, more distressingly, in the Church. Is this really Christ\'s response to the wounded and victimized? To silence their voices and pat the backs of the oppressor? Hardly! Christ didn\'t tell the wounded to “get over it\". He healed them. Christ didn\'t tell the oppressed and victimized to be quiet. Instead, it was the harsh and hypocritical religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, whom he rebuked. Victim blaming and silencing tactics have nothing to do with Christ.\r\n\r\nThis is not to say that there are not times when both parties are to blame. And yes, even those who have been greatly mistreated may hold some responsibility in their pain. At the very least, we all have the responsibility to forgive. But at this point in time, I believe the pendulum has swung too far in one direction; by and large we seem much quicker to side with the abuser than the victim. I mean, it’s easier to blame the victim, isn\'t it? There\'s no mess to clean up and no work for us to do if they just need to get over it. But the real work of love is found in comforting those who are in pain and seeking justice where there is none. In the end, is that not what God requires: to “do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 NASB)?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Gag Order: Silencing the Voices of the Wounded in the Church','','inherit','open','open','','7608-revision-11','','','2012-08-24 22:33:02','2012-08-25 05:33:02','',7608,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/24/7608-revision-11/',0,'revision','',0),(7633,197,'2012-08-25 11:27:25','0000-00-00 00:00:00','Cohen is a missionary to several different countries with the Middle East.  He goes from on end to the other preaching the gospel where Christianity has been banned from the people.  In some countries, they would simply just have him and his wife turn around and get deported out of the country, and in other countries, he could easily lose his life.  He goes in with no fear, engaging people who have taken leaps of faith in to their own hands by boldly stepping out and telling their countries leader \"I am Christian and I am here.\"  I cannot type in his real name or tell you exactly where he goes because that could easily compromise his ministry in the Middle East, but what he does is by faith.  Even with little things like asking God for a  at the airport or a mattress in the middle of the desert in a tent, some way and God has given him both things because he simply asked for them.  Cohen lives by complete faith, he is not driven by fear.  He walks around these dangerous countries preaching the word of God, with his life and his faith on the line, knowing that God will provide through and through.\n\nWhy is it then that so many other Americans are so driven by fear and the cost of what will come if they are open about Their faith?  We live in a free nation, but yet, we seem to be so','The Cost of Losing Fear.','','draft','open','open','','','','','2012-08-25 11:27:25','2012-08-25 18:27:25','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=7633',0,'post','',0),(7634,197,'2012-08-25 11:26:25','2012-08-25 18:26:25','Cohen is a missionary to several different countries with the Middle East.  He goes from on end to the other preaching the gospel where Christianity has been banned from the people.  In some countries, they would simply just have him and his wife turn around and get deported out of the country, and in other countries, he could easily lose his life.  He goes in with no fear, engaging people who have taken leaps of faith in to their own hands by boldly stepping out and telling their countries leader \"I am Christian and I am here.\"  I cannot type in his real name or tell you exactly where he goes because that could easily compromise his ministry in the Middle East, but what he does is by faith.  Even with little things like asking God for a  at the airport or a mattress in the middle of the desert in a tent, some way and God has given him both things because he simply asked for them.  Cohen lives by complete faith, he is not driven by fear.  He walks around these dangerous countries preaching the word of God, with his life and his faith on the line, knowing that God will provide through and through.\n\nWhy is it then that so many other Americans are so driven by fear and the cost of what will come if they are open about Their faith?  We live in a free nation, but yet,','The Cost of Losing Fear.','','inherit','open','open','','7633-revision','','','2012-08-25 11:26:25','2012-08-25 18:26:25','',7633,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/25/7633-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7635,0,'2012-08-25 14:44:29','2012-08-25 21:44:29','Life: Checking out of the Media \"Camps\"; Severing Relationships with Parents; Various Education Issues\r\n\r\nFaith: Ways People Display their Proximity to God; Loving Lutherans Having a Blast in Our Mormon Dinner Group (They think we\'re a hoot...); Loving Without an Ulterior Motive\r\n\r\nJustice: A Godly Party? Uh-huh...; Does Anybody Else Think the Mark of the Beast is Already Here?;\r\n\r\nCulture: Interviews: Brian Conklin/US AID Worker, Lydia Schaeffer/Mom to 26 in Her Tanzanian Orphanage, Angel Porrino/Jesus-Girl and Star of Absinthe at Caesar\'s Palace in Vegas; Unexpected Confessions of Pastors Who Shall Remain Anonymous (Pastors\' anonymous responses to a survey about the sanctuary they provide but do not have themselves.)\r\n\r\nNow/Wow: To be determined...\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Daisy Rain Martin\nAUTHOR EMAIL: daisydaisychick@yahoo.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://www.daisyrainmartin.com\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 24.117.96.172\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Daisy Rain Martin\n    [Email] =&gt; daisydaisychick@yahoo.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; www.daisyrainmartin.com\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Life: Checking out of the Media \"Camps\"; Severing Relationships with Parents; Various Education Issues\r\n\r\nFaith: Ways People Display their Proximity to God; Loving Lutherans Having a Blast in Our Mormon Dinner Group (They think we\'re a hoot...); Loving Without an Ulterior Motive\r\n\r\nJustice: A Godly Party? Uh-huh...; Does Anybody Else Think the Mark of the Beast is Already Here?;\r\n\r\nCulture: Interviews: Brian Conklin/US AID Worker, Lydia Schaeffer/Mom to 26 in Her Tanzanian Orphanage, Angel Porrino/Jesus-Girl and Star of Absinthe at Caesar\'s Palace in Vegas; Unexpected Confessions of Pastors Who Shall Remain Anonymous (Pastors\' anonymous responses to a survey about the sanctuary they provide but do not have themselves.)\r\n\r\nNow/Wow: To be determined... \n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; daisyrainmartin\n)\n','Daisy Rain Martin - 2012-08-25 14:44:29','','publish','open','open','','697ddc8c6265da389a73454366e1ed08','','','2012-08-25 14:44:29','2012-08-25 21:44:29','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=7635',0,'feedback','',0),(7637,0,'2012-08-26 14:49:13','2012-08-26 21:49:13','I would be willing to write about topics including theology, blogging, social media, ministry, and leadership.\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Tom Jamieson\nAUTHOR EMAIL: tom@tomjamieson.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://tomjamieson.com\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 72.91.2.226\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Tom Jamieson\n    [Email] =&gt; tom@tomjamieson.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; http://tomjamieson.com\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; I would be willing to write about topics including theology, blogging, social media, ministry, and leadership.\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; tomjamieson\n)\n','Tom Jamieson - 2012-08-26 14:49:13','','publish','open','open','','42f474a3edd764d25e4541b7fc7f547a','','','2012-08-26 14:49:13','2012-08-26 21:49:13','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=7637',0,'feedback','',0),(8152,43,'2012-12-11 05:54:57','2012-12-11 13:54:57','','christmas dinner','','inherit','open','open','','christmas-dinner','','','2012-12-11 05:54:57','2012-12-11 13:54:57','',8151,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/christmas-dinner.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8153,43,'2012-12-11 05:48:27','2012-12-11 13:48:27','<blockquote>Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—\nhow good God is.\nBlessed are you who run to him.\n\n[Psalm 34:8, <em>The Message</em>]</blockquote>\nA few weeks ago, the pastor of the church we\'ve been attending came to our house for a visit.  She wanted to get to know us and talk a little about the church.  One thing that she said stood out to me above everything else:\n<blockquote>Worship is such a sensory experience.</blockquote>\nShe elaborated, describing the taste and smell of the Communion elements, the candles, the stained glass, the sound of the songs of praise.  Even listening to her, I could feel my pulse quickening with the longing that good, deep worship brings to me.\n\nLater that night, as I lay in bed, her words ran through my mind.  The Scripture I quoted above sprang to mind, and I turned it over and over, meditating on the words and thinking about what that meant.\n\nAdvent is here, and Christmas is nearly upon us, and I find myself feeling sad that we have reduced this beautiful season to a string of arguments about how to greet one another and whether or not writing \"Xmas\" is appropriate. We spend our time in stores and online, seeking the perfect gifts.  We plan and prepare elaborate feasts.  We stress about vacation plans, in-laws, and family drama.\n\nThe one thing we <em>don\'t</em> do is focus on why we celebrate.  We\'ve lost our ability to \"taste and see that the Lord is good,\" all while accusing others of taking Christ out of Christmas.\n\nThe usual suggestion I hear for easing holiday tension is to take time, slow down, and worry less.  However, I propose something radically different.  Instead of letting it go and stepping away from our holiday plans, why not seek the Lord in them?  Why not \"taste and see\" <em>through</em> our festivities?\n\nWhat if we...\n<ul>\n	<li>Appreciate the beauty of the lights in store windows and on our streets, and let them remind us that Jesus is the light of the world?</li>\n	<li>Smell the baking cookies, holiday pine, and roast turkey and think that it is an aroma pleasing to God?</li>\n	<li>Feel the pen in hand as we write cards and know that we are sharing our joy with the ones we love?</li>\n	<li>Hear the carols and the organ and the bells and remember that among them, we can still hear the still, small voice of the Lord?</li>\n	<li>Taste the spice and sweetness of gingerbread and remember the sharp tang of our sin, but the forgiveness of the One who died for us?</li>\n	<li>Bustle about our tasks, remembering that it is God who is present in all of it and gives us strength to carry on?</li>\n</ul>\nEven in all the busy moments of December, I love this season.  What about you?  How will you \"taste and see that the Lord is good\" this Christmas?','Taste and See','','inherit','open','open','','8151-revision','','','2012-12-11 05:48:27','2012-12-11 13:48:27','',8151,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/11/8151-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8139,12,'2012-12-09 00:03:23','2012-12-09 08:03:23','','psy1','','inherit','open','open','','psy1','','','2012-12-09 00:03:23','2012-12-09 08:03:23','',8138,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/psy1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8140,12,'2012-12-09 00:04:42','2012-12-09 08:04:42','','iraq1','','inherit','open','open','','iraq1','','','2012-12-09 00:04:42','2012-12-09 08:04:42','',8138,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8141,12,'2012-12-09 00:06:29','2012-12-09 08:06:29','','merica','','inherit','open','open','','merica','','','2012-12-09 00:06:29','2012-12-09 08:06:29','',8138,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8142,12,'2012-12-09 00:08:41','2012-12-09 08:08:41','<em>This is a pretentious open letter for Psy, South Korean native and recent hit author of \"<a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0\">Gangnam Style</a>.\" It was recently discovered that he launched an <a href=\"http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/08/gangnam-rile-psys-past-anti-american-performances-stir-controversy/\">anti-American tirade back in 2002 during the Iraq war</a>. Yeah. He\'s been lapping up the limelight, so of course the media has to dig up some dirt on him. So I\'m here to write him an open letter in the utmost sincerity I can muster telling him why he is such a terrible human being. <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1354242998&amp;sr=8-1\">I have the right to do this since I have never, ever, ever, ever committed a sin in my entire life</a>. Yeah. <strong>(This is a satire warning.)</strong> So here is my open letter to Psy</em>:\n\nPsy,\n\nFirst of all, this is an open letter. This is what people do when they have an issue with celebrities. They write open letters. They blog or write in an open fashion, spewing their outrage in an open manner so that everyone but the concerned party can see it. So, take that.\n\nI mean, Psy. How dare you. How dare you mess with us like that. Here we are <a href=\"http://923now.cbslocal.com/2012/12/07/does-south-korean-rapper-psy-hate-america/\">using you for your 15 minutes of fame</a>. We plucked your song out of relative obscurity and this is how you treat a country you weren\'t born in?\n\nYou had to go and do something to mess it all up. Almost a decade ago, in 20/20 hindsight, <a href=\"http://www.mediaite.com/online/gangnam-style-singer-psys-vitriolic-anti-american-past-revealed-outrage-ensues/\">you had to go America bashing</a>. Well before you even knew you\'d be a hit here. How dare you.\n\nHow dare you, as a South Korean citizen, have feelings about another nation engaged in <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War\">a war years ago</a>? Unbelievable. <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8140\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" /></a>Excuse us while we go ahead and judge you, a man who we loved for one song as if you were the ambassador to an entire nation. You don\'t get to say what you want when you want to. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech\">Where do you think you are?</a> Anyway, you were in South Korea when you said that stuff.\n\nWe obviously have the right to judge you. A man who came to this country, learned the language and then went back to his come country and became superstar. We have the taste to fall in love with a song that we don\'t understand the words to but we like the beat and enjoy seeing a guyacting like he\'s riding a horsey. But darnit, don\'t you disrespect our country ten years ago.\n\nThe things you said were just outright horrifying. You said this in a song during the Iraq War:\n\n<em>Kill those f**g Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives</em>\n<em> Kill those f***g Yankees who ordered them to torture</em>\n<em> Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers</em>\n<em> Kill them all slowly and painfully</em>\n\nCome on Psy. We can\'t dance to that.\n\nSure, you apologized. I\'m sure at the time you were outraged at the death of Christian missionary <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Sun-il\">Kim Sun-il</a> and his death. I\'m sure you felt like your voice might count. Maybe you felt like you should take a stand and as a performer, you had an obligation to say a few things. Or maybe your anger at the death of a national hero sparked in you a voice that led to anger that was overwhelming, even if you claim to have made mistakes ten years ago.\n\nNo excuse, dude. You are supposed to be perfect. In America, all of our entertainers, actors, singers, politicians and authors are perfect. Start living up to it if you\'re going to be making money here.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8141\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"208\" height=\"208\" /></a>But listen here, mister. Here in America, our entertainers <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_J_Simpson\">never let us down</a>. They never say things to embarrass us or disappoint us. <a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/\">They don\'t stick their collective feet in their mouths</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Lohan\">Ever</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks\">Ever</a>.\n\nLook at where you where. <a href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/12/07/psy_youtube_record_nets_870_000_profit_from_gangnam_style.html\">On top of YouTube.</a> O<a href=\"http://blog.music.aol.com/2012/12/05/psy-youtube-ads-gangnam-style/\">n top of iTunes</a>. Then you had to go back in time, back ten years ago and mess it all up. Just when we started accepting you.\n\nGo back to South Korea, stand in a corner for a while and don\'t come back.\n\nEver.\n\nFor a while.\n\nOr at least until you come up with another catchy tune with an accompanying dance.\n\n_______________________\n\nRay Carroll is author of  <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1355039920&amp;sr=8-1\"><em>\"Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Broken World.\"</em></a> He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\"><em>www.fallenpastor.com</em></a>.','An Open Letter to Psy of \"Gangnam Style\": \'Merican Style','','inherit','open','open','','8138-revision','','','2012-12-09 00:08:41','2012-12-09 08:08:41','',8138,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/09/8138-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8143,12,'2012-12-09 15:29:05','2012-12-09 23:29:05','<em>This is a pretentious open letter for Psy, South Korean native and recent hit author of \"<a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0\">Gangnam Style</a>.\" It was recently discovered that he launched an <a href=\"http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/08/gangnam-rile-psys-past-anti-american-performances-stir-controversy/\">anti-American tirade back in 2002 during the Iraq war</a>. Yeah. He\'s been lapping up the limelight, so of course the media has to dig up some dirt on him. So I\'m here to write him an open letter in the utmost sincerity I can muster telling him why he is such a terrible human being. <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1354242998&amp;sr=8-1\">I have the right to do this since I have never, ever, ever, ever committed a sin in my entire life</a>. Yeah. <strong>(This is a satire warning.)</strong> So here is my open letter to Psy</em>:\n\nPsy,\n\nFirst of all, this is an open letter. This is what people do when they have an issue with celebrities. They write open letters. They blog or write in an open fashion, spewing their outrage in an open manner so that everyone but the concerned party can see it. So, take that.\n\nI mean, Psy. How dare you. How dare you mess with us like that. Here we are <a href=\"http://923now.cbslocal.com/2012/12/07/does-south-korean-rapper-psy-hate-america/\">using you for your 15 minutes of fame</a>. We plucked your song out of relative obscurity and this is how you treat a country you weren\'t born in?\n\nForget that you have become part of our culture. Even for a minute. You became part of Halloween, part of the <a href=\"http://mashable.com/2012/10/22/roy-hibbert-gangnam-style/\">NBA</a>, <a href=\"http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000098513/article/gangnam-style-invading-toronto-for-billsseahawks\">NFL</a>, <a href=\"http://gawker.com/5965850/what-hath-psy-wrought-pa-high-schools-gangnam-style-parody-dubbed-worst-video-on-the-entire-internet\">high schools</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNo9x7KQ4ZI\">colleges</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDpgzn7KuzE\">parodies</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZmkU5Pg1sw\">television </a>and <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX153eYcVrY\">whatever</a>. Know this - we as Americans can kick you to the curb whenever we want.\n\nYou had to go and do something to mess it all up. Almost a decade ago, in 20/20 hindsight, <a href=\"http://www.mediaite.com/online/gangnam-style-singer-psys-vitriolic-anti-american-past-revealed-outrage-ensues/\">you had to go America bashing</a>. Well before you even knew you\'d be a hit here. How dare you.\n\nHow dare you, as a South Korean citizen, have feelings about another nation engaged in <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War\">a war years ago</a>? Unbelievable. <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8140\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" /></a>Excuse us while we go ahead and judge you, a man who we loved for one song as if you were the ambassador to an entire nation. You don\'t get to say what you want when you want to. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech\">Where do you think you are?</a> Anyway, you were in South Korea when you said that stuff.\n\nWe obviously have the right to judge you. A man who came to this country, learned the language and then went back to his come country and became superstar. We have the taste to fall in love with a song that we don\'t understand the words to but we like the beat and enjoy seeing a guyacting like he\'s riding a horsey. But darnit, don\'t you disrespect our country ten years ago.\n\nThe things you said were just outright horrifying. You said this in a song during the Iraq War:\n\n<em>Kill those f**g Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives</em>\n<em> Kill those f***g Yankees who ordered them to torture</em>\n<em> Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers</em>\n<em> Kill them all slowly and painfully</em>\n\nCome on Psy. We can\'t dance to that.\n\nSure, you apologized. I\'m sure at the time you were outraged at the death of Christian missionary <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Sun-il\">Kim Sun-il</a> and his death. I\'m sure you felt like your voice might count. Maybe you felt like you should take a stand and as a performer, you had an obligation to say a few things. Or maybe your anger at the death of a national hero sparked in you a voice that led to anger that was overwhelming, even if you claim to have made mistakes ten years ago.\n\nNo excuse, dude. You are supposed to be perfect. In America, all of our entertainers, actors, singers, politicians and authors are perfect. Start living up to it if you\'re going to be making money here.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8141\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"208\" height=\"208\" /></a>But listen here, mister. Here in America, our entertainers <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_J_Simpson\">never let us down</a>. They never say things to embarrass us or disappoint us. <a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/\">They don\'t stick their collective feet in their mouths</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Lohan\">Ever</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks\">Ever</a>.\n\nLook at where you were. <a href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/12/07/psy_youtube_record_nets_870_000_profit_from_gangnam_style.html\">On top of YouTube.</a> O<a href=\"http://blog.music.aol.com/2012/12/05/psy-youtube-ads-gangnam-style/\">n top of iTunes</a>. Then you had to go back in time, back ten years ago and mess it all up. Just when we started accepting you.\n\nGo back to South Korea, stand in a corner for a while and don\'t come back.\n\nEver.\n\nFor a while.\n\nOr at least until you come up with another catchy tune with an accompanying dance.\n\n_______________________\n\nRay Carroll is author of  <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1355039920&amp;sr=8-1\"><em>\"Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Broken World.\"</em></a> He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\"><em>www.fallenpastor.com</em></a>.','An Open Letter to Psy of \"Gangnam Style\": \'Merican Style','','inherit','open','open','','8138-autosave','','','2012-12-09 15:29:05','2012-12-09 23:29:05','',8138,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/09/8138-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8167,1,'2012-12-17 11:24:59','2012-12-17 19:24:59','<em>This is a pretentious open letter for Psy, South Korean native and recent hit author of \"<a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0\">Gangnam Style</a>.\" It was recently discovered that he launched an <a href=\"http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/08/gangnam-rile-psys-past-anti-american-performances-stir-controversy/\">anti-American tirade back in 2002 during the Iraq war</a>. Yeah. He\'s been lapping up the limelight, so of course the media has to dig up some dirt on him. So I\'m here to write him an open letter in the utmost sincerity I can muster telling him why he is such a terrible human being. <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1354242998&amp;sr=8-1\">I have the right to do this since I have never, ever, ever, ever committed a sin in my entire life</a>. Yeah. <strong>(This is a satire warning.)</strong> So here is my open letter to Psy</em>:\n\nPsy,\n\nFirst of all, this is an open letter. This is what people do when they have an issue with celebrities. They write open letters. They blog or write in an open fashion, spewing their outrage in an open manner so that everyone but the concerned party can see it. So, take that.\n\nI mean, Psy. How dare you. How dare you mess with us like that. Here we are <a href=\"http://923now.cbslocal.com/2012/12/07/does-south-korean-rapper-psy-hate-america/\">using you for your 15 minutes of fame</a>. We plucked your song out of relative obscurity and this is how you treat a country you weren\'t born in?\n\nForget that you have become part of our culture. Even for a minute. You became part of Halloween, part of the <a href=\"http://mashable.com/2012/10/22/roy-hibbert-gangnam-style/\">NBA</a>, <a href=\"http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000098513/article/gangnam-style-invading-toronto-for-billsseahawks\">NFL</a>, <a href=\"http://gawker.com/5965850/what-hath-psy-wrought-pa-high-schools-gangnam-style-parody-dubbed-worst-video-on-the-entire-internet\">high schools</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNo9x7KQ4ZI\">colleges</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDpgzn7KuzE\">parodies</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZmkU5Pg1sw\">television </a>and <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX153eYcVrY\">whatever</a>. Know this - we as Americans can kick you to the curb whenever we want.\n\nYou had to go and do something to mess it all up. Almost a decade ago, in 20/20 hindsight, <a href=\"http://www.mediaite.com/online/gangnam-style-singer-psys-vitriolic-anti-american-past-revealed-outrage-ensues/\">you had to go America bashing</a>. Well before you even knew you\'d be a hit here. How dare you.\n\nHow dare you, as a South Korean citizen, have feelings about another nation engaged in <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War\">a war years ago</a>? Unbelievable. <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8140\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" /></a>Excuse us while we go ahead and judge you, a man who we loved for one song as if you were the ambassador to an entire nation. You don\'t get to say what you want when you want to. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech\">Where do you think you are?</a> Anyway, you were in South Korea when you said that stuff.\n\nWe obviously have the right to judge you. A man who came to this country, learned the language and then went back to his come country and became superstar. We have the taste to fall in love with a song that we don\'t understand the words to but we like the beat and enjoy seeing a guyacting like he\'s riding a horsey. But darnit, don\'t you disrespect our country ten years ago.\n\nThe things you said were just outright horrifying. You said this in a song during the Iraq War:\n\n<em>Kill those f**g Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives</em>\n<em> Kill those f***g Yankees who ordered them to torture</em>\n<em> Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers</em>\n<em> Kill them all slowly and painfully</em>\n\nCome on Psy. We can\'t dance to that.\n\nSure, you apologized. I\'m sure at the time you were outraged at the death of Christian missionary <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Sun-il\">Kim Sun-il</a> and his death. I\'m sure you felt like your voice might count. Maybe you felt like you should take a stand and as a performer, you had an obligation to say a few things. Or maybe your anger at the death of a national hero sparked in you a voice that led to anger that was overwhelming, even if you claim to have made mistakes ten years ago.\n\nNo excuse, dude. You are supposed to be perfect. In America, all of our entertainers, actors, singers, politicians and authors are perfect. Start living up to it if you\'re going to be making money here.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8141\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"208\" height=\"208\" /></a>But listen here, mister. Here in America, our entertainers <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_J_Simpson\">never let us down</a>. They never say things to embarrass us or disappoint us. <a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/\">They don\'t stick their collective feet in their mouths</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Lohan\">Ever</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks\">Ever</a>.\n\nLook at where you were. <a href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/12/07/psy_youtube_record_nets_870_000_profit_from_gangnam_style.html\">On top of YouTube.</a> O<a href=\"http://blog.music.aol.com/2012/12/05/psy-youtube-ads-gangnam-style/\">n top of iTunes</a>. Then you had to go back in time, back ten years ago and mess it all up. Just when we started accepting you.\n\nGo back to South Korea, stand in a corner for a while and don\'t come back.\n\nEver.\n\nFor a while.\n\nOr at least until you come up with another catchy tune with an accompanying dance.\n\n_______________________\n\nRay Carroll is author of  <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1355039920&amp;sr=8-1\"><em>\"Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Broken World.\"</em></a> He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\"><em>www.fallenpastor.com</em></a>.','An Open Letter to Psy of \"Gangnam Style\": \'Merican Style','','inherit','open','open','','8138-revision-4','','','2012-12-17 11:24:59','2012-12-17 19:24:59','',8138,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/17/8138-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(8149,201,'2012-12-11 00:40:45','2012-12-11 08:40:45','when the pain is\n\ndeep\n\nand the intimacy\n\ncheap\n\nwhen the fear is\n\nreal\n\nand is your only\n\nmeal\n\nShe is there,\n\nHer motherly care,\n\nwhispering Her kisses into your\n\near\n\nthough you can’t\n\nhear, feel Her\n\nbreathing Her love into your\n\nfear, She\n\nis moving in the deep\n\npain:\n\nthe blood red dripping from the cross, a love\n\nstain\n\nin your heart is\n\nHis heart\n\nso take heart, dear heart\n\nand bring that smile you danced with in your\n\nsoul last night, dig that dance into that\n\nhole:\n\na seedling will come\n\nHer winds will cause it to grow\n\nHer rain will bring it to a felt\n\nknow\n\ning, you’ll be singing that He is here\n\nwhispering kisses in your\n\near\n\nbreathing love into your\n\nfear:\n\nthat, indeed, nothing is more\n\nnear, that, indeed, there is nothing to\n\nfear','whispering kisses','','inherit','open','open','','8148-revision','','','2012-12-11 00:40:45','2012-12-11 08:40:45','',8148,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/11/8148-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7672,134,'2012-08-30 09:59:36','2012-08-30 16:59:36','','Church Graveyard, Zion Reformed United Church of Christ in Hagerstown, MD','','inherit','open','open','','olympus-digital-camera-4','','','2012-08-30 09:59:36','2012-08-30 16:59:36','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/8064_Church_Graveyard_Zion_Reformed_United_Church_of_Christ_in_Hagerstown_MD_500x250.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8138,12,'2012-12-18 08:00:01','2012-12-18 16:00:01','<em>This is a pretentious open letter for Psy, South Korean native and recent hit author of \"<a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0\">Gangnam Style</a>.\" It was recently discovered that he launched an <a href=\"http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/08/gangnam-rile-psys-past-anti-american-performances-stir-controversy/\">anti-American tirade back in 2002 during the Iraq war</a>. Yeah. He\'s been lapping up the limelight, so of course the media has to dig up some dirt on him. So I\'m here to write him an open letter in the utmost sincerity I can muster telling him why he is such a terrible human being. <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1354242998&amp;sr=8-1\">I have the right to do this since I have never, ever, ever, ever committed a sin in my entire life</a>. Yeah. <strong>(This is a satire warning.)</strong> So here is my open letter to Psy</em>:\r\n\r\nPsy,\r\n\r\nFirst of all, this is an open letter. This is what people do when they have an issue with celebrities. They write open letters. They blog or write in an open fashion, spewing their outrage in an open manner so that everyone but the concerned party can see it. So, take that.\r\n\r\nI mean, Psy. How dare you. How dare you mess with us like that. Here we are <a href=\"http://923now.cbslocal.com/2012/12/07/does-south-korean-rapper-psy-hate-america/\">using you for your 15 minutes of fame</a>. We plucked your song out of relative obscurity and this is how you treat a country you weren\'t born in?\r\n\r\nForget that you have become part of our culture. Even for a minute. You became part of Halloween, part of the <a href=\"http://mashable.com/2012/10/22/roy-hibbert-gangnam-style/\">NBA</a>, <a href=\"http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000098513/article/gangnam-style-invading-toronto-for-billsseahawks\">NFL</a>, <a href=\"http://gawker.com/5965850/what-hath-psy-wrought-pa-high-schools-gangnam-style-parody-dubbed-worst-video-on-the-entire-internet\">high schools</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNo9x7KQ4ZI\">colleges</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDpgzn7KuzE\">parodies</a>, <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZmkU5Pg1sw\">television </a>and <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX153eYcVrY\">whatever</a>. Know this - we as Americans can kick you to the curb whenever we want.\r\n\r\nYou had to go and do something to mess it all up. Almost a decade ago, in 20/20 hindsight, <a href=\"http://www.mediaite.com/online/gangnam-style-singer-psys-vitriolic-anti-american-past-revealed-outrage-ensues/\">you had to go America bashing</a>. Well before you even knew you\'d be a hit here. How dare you.\r\n\r\nHow dare you, as a South Korean citizen, have feelings about another nation engaged in <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War\">a war years ago</a>? Unbelievable. <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8140\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/iraq1-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" /></a>Excuse us while we go ahead and judge you, a man who we loved for one song as if you were the ambassador to an entire nation. You don\'t get to say what you want when you want to. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech\">Where do you think you are?</a> Anyway, you were in South Korea when you said that stuff.\r\n\r\nWe obviously have the right to judge you. A man who came to this country, learned the language and then went back to his come country and became superstar. We have the taste to fall in love with a song that we don\'t understand the words to but we like the beat and enjoy seeing a guy acting like he\'s riding a horsey. But darnit, don\'t you disrespect our country ten years ago.\r\n\r\nThe things you said were just outright horrifying. You said this in a song during the Iraq War:\r\n\r\n<em>Kill those f**g Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives</em>\r\n<em> Kill those f***g Yankees who ordered them to torture</em>\r\n<em> Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers</em>\r\n<em> Kill them all slowly and painfully</em>\r\n\r\nCome on Psy. We can\'t dance to that.\r\n\r\nSure, you apologized. I\'m sure at the time you were outraged at the death of Christian missionary <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Sun-il\">Kim Sun-il</a> and his death. I\'m sure you felt like your voice might count. Maybe you felt like you should take a stand and as a performer, you had an obligation to say a few things. Or maybe your anger at the death of a national hero sparked in you a voice that led to anger that was overwhelming, even if you claim to have made mistakes ten years ago.\r\n\r\nNo excuse, dude. You are supposed to be perfect. In America, all of our entertainers, actors, singers, politicians and authors are perfect. Start living up to it if you\'re going to be making money here.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8141\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/merica-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"208\" height=\"208\" /></a>But listen here, mister. Here in America, our entertainers <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_J_Simpson\">never let us down</a>. They never say things to embarrass us or disappoint us. <a href=\"http://www.tmz.com/\">They don\'t stick their collective feet in their mouths</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Lohan\">Ever</a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks\">Ever</a>.\r\n\r\nLook at where you were. <a href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/trending/2012/12/07/psy_youtube_record_nets_870_000_profit_from_gangnam_style.html\">On top of YouTube.</a> <a href=\"http://blog.music.aol.com/2012/12/05/psy-youtube-ads-gangnam-style/http://\">On top of iTunes</a>. Then you had to go back in time, back ten years ago and mess it all up. Just when we started accepting you.\r\n\r\nGo back to South Korea, stand in a corner for a while and don\'t come back.\r\n\r\nEver.\r\n\r\nFor a while.\r\n\r\nOr at least until you come up with another catchy tune with an accompanying dance.\r\n\r\n_______________________\r\n\r\nRay Carroll is author of  <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1355039920&amp;sr=8-1\"><em>\"Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Broken World.\"</em></a> He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\"><em>www.fallenpastor.com</em></a>.','An Open Letter to Psy of \"Gangnam Style\": \'Merican Style','','publish','open','open','','an-open-letter-to-psy-of-gangnam-style-merican-style','','http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/08/gangnam-rile-psys-past-anti-american-performances-stir-controversy/\nhttp://923now.cbslocal.com/2012/12/07/does-south-korean-rapper-psy-hate-america/','2012-12-18 18:53:03','2012-12-19 02:53:03','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8138',0,'post','',1),(8213,202,'2013-01-08 17:07:57','2013-01-09 01:07:57','','file7691279117272','','inherit','open','open','','file7691279117272','','','2013-01-08 17:07:57','2013-01-09 01:07:57','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/file7691279117272.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8214,202,'2013-01-08 17:10:19','2013-01-09 01:10:19','','file7691279117272','','inherit','open','open','','file7691279117272-2','','','2013-01-08 17:10:19','2013-01-09 01:10:19','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/file76912791172721.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8215,202,'2013-01-08 16:01:10','2013-01-09 00:01:10','<img class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http://c498390.r90.cf2.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Setting-Up-Podiums.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"482\" height=\"272\" />\r\n\r\nI remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\r\n\r\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\r\n\r\nBut what happens when our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” leads to our causing others pain?  Or what happens when people reveal to us deep pain and hurt caused by those with whom we theologically or ideologically agree?  What happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”\r\n\r\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to difficult situations like these.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert in the field but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to write about.  I write this not to chastise others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\r\n\r\nWith that confessions in mind, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith often turn into \"arguments\" which subject the people around us to \"friendly fire\":\r\n\r\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\r\n\r\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”  With a shrug many of these stories end with \"I haven\'t heard anything from them lately...\"\r\n\r\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\r\n\r\nA friend told me a couple of years ago of the painful experience of having a conversation with a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of meeting to plan activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  He was met with an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\r\n\r\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\r\n\r\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we are involved ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere a host of stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My natural instinct, and I suspect I’m not alone, is to do one of two things:  either dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, or spend the rest of the flight arguing about why they have got Christianity all wrong.\r\n\r\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular causes and hobby horses in the life of the church.  And on one level, that is fine.  The church needs to better educate its members about theology.  The church needs people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church needs to deal with its historical and cultural baggage and try to change people\'s hearts and minds.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these concerns.\r\n\r\nBut what also needs to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with which we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone who is willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\r\n\r\nAll too often we go into with those with whom we disagree trigger-happy and ready to shoot.  Spoiling for the fight, we don\'t take the time to stop and consider the consequences of our words.\r\n\r\nI was pretty astonished today when I watched this \"interview\" of Alex Jones by Piers Morgan:\r\n\r\n[youtube]http://youtu.be/Tf-i3Y5iRYo[/youtube]\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, a lot of people see Christians this way and a lot of times we Christians act this way toward one another.  Aggressive and argumentative have become synonyms with \"Christian\" in our society, and we haven\'t done much to help our cause.\r\n\r\nWhat I think we need to ask ourselves more often is whether the way we have conversations with those with whom we disagree has more to do with advancing our favorite hobby-horse than with addressing the actual needs of the person we are talking with.\r\n\r\nPut another way, I think we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis if our calling to be servant leaders is best accomplished by taking every conversation as an opportunity to argue with others about the right things to think or a moment to accept what we consider false assumptions for the sake of meeting people where they are.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','When Should We Stop Arguing?','','inherit','open','open','','8205-revision-8','','','2013-01-08 16:01:10','2013-01-09 00:01:10','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/08/8205-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(8183,1,'2012-12-21 10:30:59','2012-12-21 18:30:59','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-8178 alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\r\n\r\nI wish I could write a nice piece about the miracle of the season, but the Newtown shooting ripped away any remnants of a Norman Rockwell Christmas.  Because the primary targets were young children, it was a stark reminder of the madness that exists in this world.   Of course, every day, children are forced into war, slavery, prostitution, and extreme poverty… So, Newtown is not a new or unique story.   Even the Christmas story itself has a bloody postscript of Herod slaughtering all the male babies in and around Bethlehem.\r\n\r\nWhile Americans have mourned the victims and embraced the survivors, there are disturbing signs that evil continues to thrive among us.   Just over the last few days, there have been more threats, some against schools, others railing against the government.   Most of these people are probably just venting or seeking attention, but when police investigate, they often do find caches of weapons\r\n\r\nOn the weekend after the shooting (December 15<sup>th</sup>), one person fired off rounds outside a mall in Newport Beach, while another shot up an emergency room in Birmingham.   Just down the road from me, in Columbia, Tennessee, a 19 year old posted on his Facebook page:<em> “feel like goin on a rampage, kinda like the school shooting were that one guy killed some teachers and a bunch of students :D”</em>  19 people had “liked” his comment.\r\n\r\nThere’s a lot of blame to go around, but there are a few factors that contribute to the anger and violence in our society… For example, according to Nielson, the average TV viewer witnesses 200,000 violent acts on TV by the time they are 18.   While this desensitizes all of us, many kids have also been busy mowing down their enemies in video games.  These games are so lifelike, they simulate the experience, giving the player actual skills they can use to kill.  Obviously, the vast majority of players never take their game playing into the real world, but it shouldn’t surprise us when they do.\r\n\r\nThe mother of the Newtown killer was apparently stockpiling weapons and food in preparation of an economic collapse.  This phenomenon has become so popular that it has launched a TV show called “Doomsday Preppers.”   I understand someone wanting to protect their family from an attacker, but many of these end-of-the-world “enthusiasts” are preparing for a long, sustained war.  If you indulge in a paranoid fantasy for long enough, you might turn it into a reality or, at least, a reality TV show.\r\n\r\nWe live in a country with approximately 350 million guns, and sales have been soaring since the tragedy in Newtown.   For years, the NRA has effectively whipped up the fear that guns will be taken away.  While no one is advocating for this, it does seem reasonable to limit the size of clips or implement background checks at gun shows.   But the NRA, and its most militant members, refuses to compromise and, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, maintain that even more guns are the answer.\r\n\r\nViolent video games, preparing for disaster, and stockpiling weapons all exacerbate the problem, but what is behind the fascination with these destructive tendencies?   Of course, there are no easy answers to that question, so I’ll defer to Thomas Merton who, after spending many days meditating on the nature of war, came up with this, <em>“At the root of war is fear: not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear they have of everything.   It is not merely that they do not trust one another; they do not even trust themselves… They cannot trust anything because they have ceased to believe in God.”  </em>\r\n\r\nCould fear be at the root of our need to make war on a global scale or strike out against our fellow man?  Could lack of faith be at the root of needing to arm ourselves to the teeth?   When we need to protect ourselves from perceived enemies, we are really saying we don’t trust God.  Throughout the Old and New Testaments - God, the Prophets, and Christ are continually telling us to “Fear Not.”  Of course, that’s easier said than done in a world with real, dangerous enemies.\r\n\r\nPart of the problem may be that God’s protection doesn’t look like our version of it.   God doesn’t necessarily come cloaked in military might.    In fact, God willingly sent an innocent baby into a harsh, violent world; a world that would eventually crucify Him.   This makes no sense to a world that glorifies power and strength, and yet, 2,000 years later, Christ’s light still burns in the midst of darkness.   When sometimes this world seems to have gone mad, Christ offers an alternative path of love and peace, and that’s the true miracle of the season.\r\n\r\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville, TN and is the author of the book and the blog, <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">Hometown Prophet</a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','The Miracle of the Season','','inherit','open','open','','8176-revision-3','','','2012-12-21 10:30:59','2012-12-21 18:30:59','',8176,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/21/8176-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7755,1,'2012-09-16 19:18:03','2012-09-17 02:18:03','','dave matthews','','inherit','open','open','','dave-matthews','','','2012-09-16 19:18:03','2012-09-17 02:18:03','',7741,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/dave-matthews.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7756,1,'2012-09-16 19:19:37','2012-09-17 02:19:37','“Life is like a Dave Matthews album, Forrest.  You never know what you’re gonna get.”  As this truth about life resonates with each of us from Forrest Gump, so it is for the faithful fan of the Dave Matthews Band.  With a collection of eclectic musical expression that spans almost 20 years, the group has tested most genres of music that produces live shows that draw upon most human emotions.  Even when sampling one particular record, one cannot rest into any single pattern of listening.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/dmb-away-from-the-world_article_story_main3.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-7750\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/dmb-away-from-the-world_article_story_main3-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>If “variety” can be named as the number one quality of The Dave Matthews Band, “live” would run a close second.  The Dave Matthews band is a live band.  With an incredible collection of 18 live recordings, they make it quite clear what recording medium fits them best.  Touring extensively to support demand, they have shown that video and radio are not always the best outlets to find success in today’s music industry.\n\nWith their first release in almost three years, the band returns with another diverse collection of songs that prove they are continuing to explore the range of talents that each member possesses.  Away From the World especially reveals more of the musical personalities of saxophonist Jeff Coffin and trumpeter, Rashawn Ross; added to the band after the tragic loss of LeRoi Moore who was killed in an ATV accident in 2008.  Moore’s distinctive sound covered the bands entire horn section, creating part of the bands distinctive sound.  Both Coffin and Ross follow in Moore’s tradition, but seem to have settled into their own style as well.\n\nReminiscing on the first time I listened to the bands previous release, Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King, and my first taste of the new release yesterday, I was struck with the contrast in reaction.  While Big Whiskey produced a more instantaneous reaction of “Awesome!”, “Away From the World” slowly grew on me, lulling me into the eventual agreement that this is “a great album!”\n\nThere is a clear departure to a simpler restrained sound as evidenced by the bands reunion with Steve Lilywhite, who produced the band’s first three albums.  The stripped down subtlety that covers the entire recording begins with “Broken Things”, an old school Matthews tune with a familiar crooning chorus, “Oh my love my heart is set on you, set on you”\n\nThe album’s first single, “Mercy”, is a typical plea that imparts Dave’s passion for social transformation with love being the catalyst of change.  It’s a refreshing change from some of his more idealistic visions to musically change the world, in that he realizes that we “Can’t lay down and hope a miracle will change things” and “Can’t give up and hope God will intercede”.  But individually, and joining together in unity,  “one by one, could we turn it around”.\n\nOverall, the album is filled with images of nostalgia fueled by realistic hope.  There is a taste of his typical signature erotic sex/food tunes, with a fun funky beat on “Belly Belly Nice”.  It takes you back.  It brings you forward.  Like many of his old school fans, Dave is growing up.  His band is growing with him, and they are all finding comfort in their own skin.','Dave Matthews Band: Review of Away From the World ','','inherit','open','open','','7741-revision-8','','','2012-09-16 19:19:37','2012-09-17 02:19:37','',7741,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/16/7741-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(7678,12,'2012-09-02 11:32:45','2012-09-02 18:32:45','Did anyone notice that a presidential election is about to happen? I know, right?\r\n\r\nDid you know there\'s a presidential election right around the corner? You couldn\'t have guessed. It\'s not like it\'s in the news/ads/television/radio/blogs/internet or anything.\r\n\r\nI just wanted to write a note real quick about a great podcast that you should be listening to called \"<a href=\"http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hsw-shows/stuff-you-should-know-podcast.htm\"><em>Stuff You Should Know</em></a>.\" I\'ve been listening to it for about six months or so and it has some great material.\r\n\r\nI listened to one yesterday about the electoral college and how it affects the presidential elections. I had no idea. I thought I knew, but I didn\'t. It goes into great detail about the history, some of the conflicts, and the nitty gritty of it all. Here is the <a href=\"http://podcasts.howstuffworks.com/hsw/podcasts/sysk/2012-08-28-sysk-electoral-college.mp3\">direct link for listening online</a>, but you can also go into iTunes and just search for \"Stuff You Should Know.\" <a href=\"http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/electoral-college.htm\">The article is here if you want to read it.</a>\r\n\r\nWhether you\'re a Libertarian, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Green Party, or disinterested voter, it\'s a great episode to listen to.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuff_You_Should_Know\">The podcast is run by Josh Clark and Charles Bryant</a>. It\'s a must listen to. I\'ve learned more about shark attacks, beheadings, lobotomies, other faiths, the Musketeers, the economy, Scooby Doo, icebergs, roller derby, gas prices, oil spills and whatever by listening. Go check them out.\r\n\r\n______________\r\n\r\nRay Carroll is author of \"<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346388174&amp;sr=8-2\"><em>Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Fallen World</em></a>.\" He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\">www.fallenpastor.com</a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','How The Electoral College Works','','publish','open','open','','how-the-electoral-college-works','','','2012-09-02 11:33:34','2012-09-02 18:33:34','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=7678',0,'post','',0),(7679,12,'2012-08-30 21:44:25','2012-08-31 04:44:25','','college','','inherit','open','open','','college','','','2012-08-30 21:44:25','2012-08-31 04:44:25','',7678,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/college.gif',0,'attachment','image/gif',0),(7680,12,'2012-08-30 21:44:56','2012-08-31 04:44:56','Did anyone notice that a presidential election is about to happen? I know, right?\n\nDid you know there\'s a presidential election right around the corner? You couldn\'t have guessed. It\'s not like it\'s in the news/ads/television/radio/blogs/internet or anything.\n\nI just wanted to write a note real quick about a great podcast that you should be listening to called \"<a href=\"http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hsw-shows/stuff-you-should-know-podcast.htm\"><em>Stuff You Should Know</em></a>.\" I\'ve been listening to it for about six months or so and it has some great material.\n\nI listened to one yesterday about the electoral college and how it effects the presidential elections. I had no idea. I thought I knew, but I didn\'t. It goes into great detail about the history, some of the conflicts, and the nitty gritty of it all. Here is the <a href=\"http://podcasts.howstuffworks.com/hsw/podcasts/sysk/2012-08-28-sysk-electoral-college.mp3\">direct link for listening online</a>, but you can also go into iTunes and just search for \"Stuff You Should Know.\" <a href=\"http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/electoral-college.htm\">The article is here if you want to read it.</a>\n\nWhether you\'re a Libertarian, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Green Party, or disinterested voter, it\'s a great episode to listen to.\n\n<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuff_You_Should_Know\">The podcast is run by Josh Clark and Charles Bryant</a>. It\'s a must listen to. I\'ve learned more about shark attacks, beheadings, lobotomies, other faiths, the Musketeers, the economy, Scooby Doo, icebergs, roller derby, gas prices, oil spills and whatever by listening. Go check them out.\n\n______________\n\nRay Carroll is author of \"<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346388174&amp;sr=8-2\"><em>Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Fallen World</em></a>.\" He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\">www.fallenpastor.com</a>.\n\n&nbsp;','How The Electoral College Works: \"Stuff You Should Know\"','','inherit','open','open','','7678-revision','','','2012-08-30 21:44:56','2012-08-31 04:44:56','',7678,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/30/7678-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7681,1,'2012-09-02 11:34:43','2012-09-02 18:34:43','Did anyone notice that a presidential election is about to happen? I know, right?\n\nDid you know there\'s a presidential election right around the corner? You couldn\'t have guessed. It\'s not like it\'s in the news/ads/television/radio/blogs/internet or anything.\n\nI just wanted to write a note real quick about a great podcast that you should be listening to called \"<a href=\"http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hsw-shows/stuff-you-should-know-podcast.htm\"><em>Stuff You Should Know</em></a>.\" I\'ve been listening to it for about six months or so and it has some great material.\n\nI listened to one yesterday about the electoral college and how it affects the presidential elections. I had no idea. I thought I knew, but I didn\'t. It goes into great detail about the history, some of the conflicts, and the nitty gritty of it all. Here is the <a href=\"http://podcasts.howstuffworks.com/hsw/podcasts/sysk/2012-08-28-sysk-electoral-college.mp3\">direct link for listening online</a>, but you can also go into iTunes and just search for \"Stuff You Should Know.\" <a href=\"http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/electoral-college.htm\">The article is here if you want to read it.</a>\n\nWhether you\'re a Libertarian, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Green Party, or disinterested voter, it\'s a great episode to listen to.\n\n<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuff_You_Should_Know\">The podcast is run by Josh Clark and Charles Bryant</a>. It\'s a must listen to. I\'ve learned more about shark attacks, beheadings, lobotomies, other faiths, the Musketeers, the economy, Scooby Doo, icebergs, roller derby, gas prices, oil spills and whatever by listening. Go check them out.\n\n______________\n\nRay Carroll is author of \"<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346388174&amp;sr=8-2\"><em>Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Fallen World</em></a>.\" He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\">www.fallenpastor.com</a>.\n\n&nbsp;','How The Electoral College Works','','inherit','open','open','','7678-autosave','','','2012-09-02 11:34:43','2012-09-02 18:34:43','',7678,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/30/7678-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(7683,160,'2012-08-31 11:10:31','2012-08-31 18:10:31','','Scared Audiences','','inherit','open','open','','scared-audiences','','','2012-08-31 11:10:31','2012-08-31 18:10:31','',7682,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Scared-Audiences.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7685,160,'2012-08-31 11:13:07','2012-08-31 18:13:07','<span style=\"color: #888888\"><a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Scared-Audiences.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-7683\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Scared-Audiences-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a></span>\n\n<span style=\"color: #888888\">Th</span>e new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was finally able to open its doors after a two year feud with a few concerned citizens.   Some of the members of the Islamic Center have lived in Murfreesboro for over thirty years and always felt at home; that is until they needed a larger mosque.  A soon as they broke ground, they became the subject of protests, vandalism, arson attacks, and a bomb threat, as well as being dragged into the courts to defend their religion.  The source of the contention was summed up by Joe Brandon, the attorney representing the anti-mosque contingency, “We don’t want Sharia law.”\n\nSharia law refers to the rules in the Quran that cover a wide range of topics, such as fasting, prayer, pilgrimage, trade, inheritance, marriage and divorce.  It’s the most sensational parts that get the most publicity, i.e. men’s right to unilaterally divorce or cutting off hands for a robbery.   Of course, the Bible has many extreme rules in it too (stoning adulterers and rebellious children to death) and, like the Bible, Sharia is interpreted and followed to varying degrees by Muslims.   Never-the-less, the word “Sharia” conjures up fear in the hearts of those who are bracing for an all out jihad.\n\nTake the case of Samar Ali, a young Muslim woman who now works in the Tennessee Governor’s office.  Born and raised in Tennessee, Samar became a voice of calm and reason while she was an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University in the aftermath of the September 11<sup>th</sup> attacks.  (She was so popular she became the Student Body President).   Samar went on to Vanderbilt Law School, was a White House Fellow, and clerked at the US and South African Court of Appeals.   To add to her international experience, she spent three months in as an intern for the Islamic International Arab Bank where she was exposed to Sharia compliant finance.   Sharia?!  Sound the alarm!\n\nThe Tennessee Tea Party and several Republican county groups have characterized Ms. Ali as a Sharia “specialist” and demanded that Governor Haslam (the Republican who appointed her) immediately remove her from her post.   The Chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, Kevin Kookogey, said, “To date, the Haslam Administration has displayed an unfortunate ignorance to the threat of Sharia.  They seem willing to accept the claims and defense of the Muslim Brotherhood at face value, refusing to even consider that, perhaps, those bent on destroying Western Civilization might just be infiltrating our institutions.”\n\nThe fact that the US Constitution prohibits an official religion does not alleviate concerns that Muslims like Ms. Ali and members of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro will attempt to force Sharia law in small towns across the country.   “We don\'t want a Constitution-free zone in Rutherford County, Tennessee,” said attorney Joe Brandon, who now considers Sharia law in Murfreesboro \"a probability.\"   This would be quite a coup considering only 0.6% of Americans are Muslims and the vast majority of them say they have no interest in changing US laws.  In Turkey, where Muslims comprise 99% of the population, they recently voted to not make Islam the national religion.\n\nThis type of prejudice isn’t exactly a new phenomenon.   During the ‘Cold War’ in the 1950s, communist sympathizers were sniffed out and often prosecuted.   In World War II, Japanese Americans were rounded up and put in detention camps.   German Americans were viewed with suspicion and endured mistreatment during both World Wars.   And anyone with a British accent was probably watching his back during the Revolutionary War.   It’s human nature to distrust anyone who bares a resemblance to those we are fighting.   While Jesus tells us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), most of these aforementioned people were never our enemies; they simply had a different ethnicity or religion.\n\nMany of the most vocal opponents of Muslims and Sharia are Christians, and yet Jesus himself didn’t seem to have a problem with those who had a different faith.   The 2<sup>nd</sup> great commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves and, when asked who our neighbors are, Jesus answers by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25 - 37).  The Jews considered Samaritans to be their enemies; however, the Samaritan is the good neighbor and, therefore, the very ones we are called to love.  That parable may have been told over two thousand years ago in the Middle East, but the message is just as relevant today in Middle Tennessee.\n\nJeff Fulmer lives in Middle Tennessee and is the author of “<a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">Hometown Prophet</a>.”  You can download his e-book, “As a Christian, Why the GOP Doesn’t Speak for Me,” for free by signing up at his website, <a href=\"//www.hometownprophetbook.com/.\">http://www.hometownprophetbook.com</a>/.','Sharia!  Coming to a Town Near You','','inherit','open','open','','7682-revision','','','2012-08-31 11:13:07','2012-08-31 18:13:07','',7682,'http://provoketive.com/2012/08/31/7682-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8018,201,'2012-11-10 13:34:50','2012-11-10 21:34:50','<strong>Growing Up in Fear</strong>\n\nAs a kid, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night: gasping for air and in a cold sweat, I’d be in a state of utter horror: believing that God had returned from heaven and left me behind, I feared that I would have to struggle for three and a half to seven years to avoid the Mark of the Beast in order to be saved from eternal fire and brimstone.\n\nNo, seriously.\n\nDuring the day, I’d keep my eyes peeled for the anti-Christ.  Democrats were particularly suspect.  The stock market was also indicative.  I’d look for places where I could camp out during the tribulation.  I found a tree house once that I thought I could stay in until the water next to it turned to blood.\n\nAt night, though, when this would happen, I’d start praying incessantly: confessing the awful sins that I believed I had committed, and asking that God be gracious to me because of them.  I’d be <em>pleading</em> for God to save me from the flames of hell that I thought I was in danger of.\n\n<em>“Oh, God!  Please!  Save me!  I am so sorry to have cursed at Josh today.  He’s not a fucking asshole, God.  He’s my friend and your precious child.  Oh, please, forgive me!  I don’t want to go to hell!  Why did I do that?!  I am so sorry! Don’t leave me behind, God.  I am sorry that I masturbated tonight!  Why, God?!  How could I be such a foolish sinner? In your love, forgive me!  If you have already come back, God, then will you please swoop back down and rapture me?  I am so afraid of the devil!  I am so afraid of the anti-Christ!  I promise that I will never get the Mark of the Beast! I am so afraid of hell!”</em>\n\nThis began in elementary school and lasted through High School: to varying degrees, and in relative forms.  It’s funny now but it was traumatic as hell then.\n\nUnfortunately, I did not create these fantasies.  They weren’t the manifestation of a deranged child.  No, I am afraid they came from the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in. The dangerous myths about God that they taught me and coerced me to live into.\n\nThe place truly believed and lived as though God’s return was immanent, and that people that were either (a) unsaved or (b) living a life of sin would soon be suffering God’s wrath and, thus, the flames of hell: first on earth in a sort of tribulation,  and then in eternity.  If one wanted to avoid this suffering, then one needed to profess Christ as God and live a rather sinless life.\n\nThis was serious business.\n\nWe’d watch videos on this stuff: of God leaving people behind, of people getting the Mark of Beast, of people getting their heads chopped off as a result, of the waters of the earth turning to blood because of God’s beef with the world, of people in hell for various arbitrary reasons.\n\nThe implicit message was always: “this is what’s <em>going</em> to happen, and this is what’s going to happen to <em>you</em> unless you accept Jesus and ,basically, not sin”.\n\nThey’d illustrate the message through puppet shows.  We’d color this reality on paper.  And into the very depths of our psyches.\n\nThings got pretty scary when the demons of puberty struck.  On numerous occasions, I remember teachers coming up to me and saying: “Let me see you hands, Paul.  [At which point I’d show the teacher my hands].  Is there <em>semen</em> on these hands?  I know there is.  I know you’ve been masturbating.  You better clean yourself, boy.  Lift your hands up to heaven and pray for forgiveness.  Do it.  Right now!”\n\nIn 1999, Al Gore was the anti-Christ and Y2K was the beginning of the immanent end.  Families bought land in far off places, stocked their garages with the basic food groups, and purchased things like generators.\n\nThat same year, as a gesture of love, he claimed, my Bible teacher suggested that we write out the entire book of Revelation and then address it to an unsaved friend.  The purpose?  So that when God returned, that unsaved friend, who would be left behind, would have an opportunity to be saved by reading it.\n\nSorry about that, Mark.\n\nHow an “unsaved” kid could ascertain that information from a long and complicated book—that many suggest isn’t about the “end times” at all—is sort of interesting to think about now.\n\nMy friend’s brother also went to an Evangelical Christian school.  When he was in 9<sup>th</sup> grade, the school called everyone into the chapel and then locked them inside.  It was an emergency, the school said.\n\nThe principle got on stage and told everyone that the nuclear power plant outside of Denver had just exploded.   That all of their family members were dead.  That they only have hours to live.\n\nFortunately for them, there was still time to accept Christ.  If they didn’t, they’d soon be dead and in hell forever.  Like the rest of Denver.\n\nThe principle made the whole thing up to scare the kids into accepting Jesus.  Some parents complained, but he got off with a mere warning because his “intentions” were good: because, so the logic went, leading people to Christ can never be quite that bad.\n\n<strong>A Father and His Son</strong>\n\nThis past weekend I dropped my doctoral program to-do list and drove from Berkeley to Orange County in order to spend time with friends from college.  Thanks be to God that my old Volvo survived the trip.  I wasn’t sure that it would.  But I am so glad: I needed the respite and rejuvenation that my beautiful friends—many of whom also grew up in the sort of Evangelical world I did—lavishly bless me with.\n\nOne afternoon, as I dug my toes into the warm sand of Newport Beach, listened to the waves crash onto the shore, and ate a <em>ridiculously</em> expensive acai bowl, I watched and listened to a father teach his son how to boogie board.\n\nI watched as the boy’s father gently held his shirt until a wave was powerful enough to carry him forward.\n\nI listened as he told his son what to do: “here comes a big one, my boy, kick your feet as hard and fast as you can!”\n\nI watched as his son struggled to learn and failed to ride the waves.\n\nAnd I listened as his father encourage him in his struggles and failures: “that’s okay, my boy, we’ll get the next one”.\n\nAs I watched and listened to this simple and yet beautiful exchange, I gave thanks to God: for being the sort of Father that gently teaches us how to ride the waves of life, and that encourages us when we struggle and fail to do so.\n\nI also gave thanks to God for not actually being the God of the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in.  And for helping me understand that.\n\nThe fear-based Evangelical God is a monster.  He’s a child abuser.  And a lot of people that have left the church have left for that very reason: because they don’t want be around a God-monster that abuses children.  We should applaud their departure.  And seriously mourn their loss and the reason for it.\n\n<strong>Addressing Abuse in the Church</strong>\n\nI got to wondering about this on my drive back up to Berkeley.\n\nHow many children have had similar experiences?  How many children are experiencing this sort of thing right now?  Have people left the Church because of this reason?  What are the consequences these experiences? Has it been seriously studied yet?  Have I changed my doctoral focus yet again?  How many questions can one ask before going insane?\n\nBut seriously, is this issue on our radar?  How concerned are we about it?\n\nChildren enter the world with a profound sense of openness and trust.   That is a gift.  A blessing.  But it is also a vulnerability, and something that can be taken advantaged of and murderously destroyed if handled inappropriately.   And what some churches do to children to get them “saved” is nothing short of child abuse.\n\nThe Church ought to wake up to this fact and deal with it within its own walls lest the State take up the worthy cause to the detriment of both the Church and the State.\n\nA few important points:\n\nI am not suggesting that churches are intentionally and consciously abusing children.  I am also not suggesting that the people that teach children to be afraid of God are child abusers. Some churches are also more extreme than others.  Not every fear-based Evangelical church is like the one I grew up in.   Some are worse.  And some, like mine, are also very beautiful and loving places.  I fell in love with God in my fear-based Evangelical world, however pathological that love initially was.  And that is a testament to God’s presence there.\n\nThe situation is complicated and nuanced.  And, most of all, it’s a sacred tragedy.\n\nGod is love, and the Church is called to be an orchestra of that love.  It ought to be a place of safety for children—a place where they can go to understand how<em>ridiculously</em> in love God is with them.  Not a fear factory garbed in godliness.\n\nThe Church ought to be a place where children need <em>absolutely not</em> be afraid of God: because that is the last thing God wants for children.  When the Church teaches children to fear God, and thus alienates them from God, it perverts the essence of its mission and it embarrasses itself.  It takes advantage of children, and it often destroys something sacred in them.  And few things grieve the Spirit more than that.\n\n“Woe to you who cause children to stumble,” Jesus warned.','Al Gore as the Anti-Christ and the Nuclear Explosion in Denver that Never Happened: On God in a Fear Factory','','inherit','open','open','','8016-revision','','','2012-11-10 13:34:50','2012-11-10 21:34:50','',8016,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/10/8016-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8133,1,'2012-12-01 15:05:56','2012-12-01 23:05:56','<strong>Growing Up in Fear</strong>\r\n\r\nAs a kid, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night: gasping for air and in a cold sweat, I’d be in a state of utter horror: believing that God had returned from heaven and left me behind, I feared that I would have to struggle for three and a half to seven years to avoid the Mark of the Beast in order to be saved from eternal fire and brimstone.\r\n\r\nNo, seriously.\r\n\r\nDuring the day, I’d keep my eyes peeled for the anti-Christ.  Democrats were particularly suspect.  The stock market was also indicative.  I’d look for places where I could camp out during the tribulation.  I found a tree house once that I thought I could stay in until the water next to it turned to blood.\r\n\r\nAt night, though, when this would happen, I’d start praying incessantly: confessing the awful sins that I believed I had committed, and asking that God be gracious to me because of them.  I’d be <em>pleading</em> for God to save me from the flames of hell that I thought I was in danger of.\r\n\r\n<em>“Oh, God!  Please!  Save me!  I am so sorry to have cursed at Josh today.  He’s not a fucking asshole, God.  He’s my </em>\r\n\r\n<em>friend and your precious child.  Oh, please, forgive me!  I don’t want to go to hell!  Why did I do that?!  I am so sorry! Don’t leave me behind, God.  I am sorry that I masturbated tonight!  Why, God?!  How could I be such a foolish sinner? In your love, forgive me!  If you have already come back, God, then will you please swoop back down and rapture me?  I am so afraid of the devil!  I am so afraid of the anti-Christ!  I promise that I will never get the Mark of the Beast! I am so afraid of hell!”</em>\r\n\r\nThis began in elementary school and lasted through High School: to varying degrees, and in relative forms.  It’s funny now but it was traumatic as hell then.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, I did not create these fantasies.  They weren’t the manifestation of a deranged child.  No, I am afraid they came from the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in. The dangerous myths about God that they taught me and coerced me to live into.\r\n\r\nThe place truly believed and lived as though God’s return was immanent, and that people that were either (a) unsaved or (b) living a life of sin would soon be suffering God’s wrath and, thus, the flames of hell: first on earth in a sort of tribulation,  and then in eternity.  If one wanted to avoid this suffering, then one needed to profess Christ as God and live a rather sinless life.\r\n\r\nThis was serious business.\r\n\r\nWe’d watch videos on this stuff: of God leaving people behind, of people getting the Mark of Beast, of people getting their heads chopped off as a result, of the waters of the earth turning to blood because of God’s beef with the world, of people in hell for various arbitrary reasons.\r\n\r\nThe implicit message was always: “this is what’s <em>going</em> to happen, and this is what’s going to happen to <em>you</em> unless you accept Jesus and ,basically, not sin”.\r\n\r\nThey’d illustrate the message through puppet shows.  We’d color this reality on paper.  And into the very depths of our psyches.\r\n\r\nThings got pretty scary when the demons of puberty struck.  On numerous occasions, I remember teachers coming up to me and saying: “Let me see you hands, Paul.  [At which point I’d show the teacher my hands].  Is there <em>semen</em> on these hands?  I know there is.  I know you’ve been masturbating.  You better clean yourself, boy.  Lift your hands up to heaven and pray for forgiveness.  Do it.  Right now!”\r\n\r\n<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-8017 alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gw-al-gore-fire-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" />\r\n\r\nIn 1999, Al Gore was the anti-Christ and Y2K was the beginning of the immanent end.  Families bought land in far off places, stocked their garages with the basic food groups, and purchased things like generators.\r\n\r\nThat same year, as a gesture of love, he claimed, my Bible teacher suggested that we write out the entire book of Revelation and then address it to an unsaved friend.  The purpose?  So that when God returned, that unsaved friend, who would be left behind, would have an opportunity to be saved by reading it.\r\n\r\nSorry about that, Mark.\r\n\r\nHow an “unsaved” kid could ascertain that information from a long and complicated book—that many suggest isn’t about the “end times” at all—is sort of interesting to think about now.\r\n\r\nMy friend’s brother also went to an Evangelical Christian school.  When he was in 9<sup>th</sup> grade, the school called everyone into the chapel and then locked them inside.  It was an emergency, the school said.\r\n\r\nThe principle got on stage and told everyone that the nuclear power plant outside of Denver had just exploded.   That all of their family members were dead.  That they only have hours to live.\r\n\r\nFortunately for them, there was still time to accept Christ.  If they didn’t, they’d soon be dead and in hell forever.  Like the rest of Denver.\r\n\r\nThe principle made the whole thing up to scare the kids into accepting Jesus.  Some parents complained, but he got off with a mere warning because his “intentions” were good: because, so the logic went, leading people to Christ can never be quite that bad.\r\n\r\n<strong>A Father and His Son</strong>\r\n\r\nThis past weekend I dropped my doctoral program to-do list and drove from Berkeley to Orange County in order to spend time with friends from college.  Thanks be to God that my old Volvo survived the trip.  I wasn’t sure that it would.  But I am so glad: I needed the respite and rejuvenation that my beautiful friends—many of whom also grew up in the sort of Evangelical world I did—lavishly bless me with.\r\n\r\nOne afternoon, as I dug my toes into the warm sand of Newport Beach, listened to the waves crash onto the shore, and ate a <em>ridiculously</em> expensive acai bowl, I watched and listened to a father teach his son how to boogie board.\r\n\r\nI watched as the boy’s father gently held his shirt until a wave was powerful enough to carry him forward.\r\n\r\nI listened as he told his son what to do: “here comes a big one, my boy, kick your feet as hard and fast as you can!”\r\n\r\nI watched as his son struggled to learn and failed to ride the waves.\r\n\r\nAnd I listened as his father encourage him in his struggles and failures: “that’s okay, my boy, we’ll get the next one”.\r\n\r\nAs I watched and listened to this simple and yet beautiful exchange, I gave thanks to God: for being the sort of Father that gently teaches us how to ride the waves of life, and that encourages us when we struggle and fail to do so.\r\n\r\nI also gave thanks to God for not actually being the God of the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in.  And for helping me understand that.\r\n\r\nThe fear-based Evangelical God is a monster.  He’s a child abuser.  And a lot of people that have left the church have left for that very reason: because they don’t want be around a God-monster that abuses children.  We should applaud their departure.  And seriously mourn their loss and the reason for it.\r\n\r\n<strong>Addressing Abuse in the Church</strong>\r\n\r\nI got to wondering about this on my drive back up to Berkeley.\r\n\r\nHow many children have had similar experiences?  How many children are experiencing this sort of thing right now?  Have people left the Church because of this reason?  What are the consequences these experiences? Has it been seriously studied yet?  Have I changed my doctoral focus yet again?  How many questions can one ask before going insane?\r\n\r\nBut seriously, is this issue on our radar?  How concerned are we about it?\r\n\r\nChildren enter the world with a profound sense of openness and trust.   That is a gift.  A blessing.  But it is also a vulnerability, and something that can be taken advantaged of and murderously destroyed if handled inappropriately.   And what some churches do to children to get them “saved” is nothing short of child abuse.\r\n\r\nThe Church ought to wake up to this fact and deal with it within its own walls lest the State take up the worthy cause to the detriment of both the Church and the State.\r\n\r\nA few important points:\r\n\r\nI am not suggesting that churches are intentionally and consciously abusing children.  I am also not suggesting that the people that teach children to be afraid of God are child abusers. Some churches are also more extreme than others.  Not every fear-based Evangelical church is like the one I grew up in.   Some are worse.  And some, like mine, are also very beautiful and loving places.  I fell in love with God in my fear-based Evangelical world, however pathological that love initially was.  And that is a testament to God’s presence there.\r\n\r\nThe situation is complicated and nuanced.  And, most of all, it’s a sacred tragedy.\r\n\r\nGod is love, and the Church is called to be an orchestra of that love.  It ought to be a place of safety for children—a place where they can go to understand how<em>ridiculously</em> in love God is with them.  Not a fear factory garbed in godliness.\r\n\r\nThe Church ought to be a place where children need <em>absolutely not</em> be afraid of God: because that is the last thing God wants for children.  When the Church teaches children to fear God, and thus alienates them from God, it perverts the essence of its mission and it embarrasses itself.  It takes advantage of children, and it often destroys something sacred in them.  And few things grieve the Spirit more than that.\r\n\r\n“Woe to you who cause children to stumble,” Jesus warned.','God in a Fear Factory','','inherit','open','open','','8016-revision-7','','','2012-12-01 15:05:56','2012-12-01 23:05:56','',8016,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/01/8016-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(7690,1,'2012-09-02 11:32:45','2012-09-02 18:32:45','Did anyone notice that a presidential election is about to happen? I know, right?\r\n\r\nDid you know there\'s a presidential election right around the corner? You couldn\'t have guessed. It\'s not like it\'s in the news/ads/television/radio/blogs/internet or anything.\r\n\r\nI just wanted to write a note real quick about a great podcast that you should be listening to called \"<a href=\"http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hsw-shows/stuff-you-should-know-podcast.htm\"><em>Stuff You Should Know</em></a>.\" I\'ve been listening to it for about six months or so and it has some great material.\r\n\r\nI listened to one yesterday about the electoral college and how it effects the presidential elections. I had no idea. I thought I knew, but I didn\'t. It goes into great detail about the history, some of the conflicts, and the nitty gritty of it all. Here is the <a href=\"http://podcasts.howstuffworks.com/hsw/podcasts/sysk/2012-08-28-sysk-electoral-college.mp3\">direct link for listening online</a>, but you can also go into iTunes and just search for \"Stuff You Should Know.\" <a href=\"http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/electoral-college.htm\">The article is here if you want to read it.</a>\r\n\r\nWhether you\'re a Libertarian, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Green Party, or disinterested voter, it\'s a great episode to listen to.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuff_You_Should_Know\">The podcast is run by Josh Clark and Charles Bryant</a>. It\'s a must listen to. I\'ve learned more about shark attacks, beheadings, lobotomies, other faiths, the Musketeers, the economy, Scooby Doo, icebergs, roller derby, gas prices, oil spills and whatever by listening. Go check them out.\r\n\r\n______________\r\n\r\nRay Carroll is author of \"<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346388174&amp;sr=8-2\"><em>Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Fallen World</em></a>.\" He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\">www.fallenpastor.com</a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','How The Electoral College Works','','inherit','open','open','','7678-revision-3','','','2012-09-02 11:32:45','2012-09-02 18:32:45','',7678,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/02/7678-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7691,1,'2012-09-02 11:33:04','2012-09-02 18:33:04','Did anyone notice that a presidential election is about to happen? I know, right?\r\n\r\nDid you know there\'s a presidential election right around the corner? You couldn\'t have guessed. It\'s not like it\'s in the news/ads/television/radio/blogs/internet or anything.\r\n\r\nI just wanted to write a note real quick about a great podcast that you should be listening to called \"<a href=\"http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/hsw-shows/stuff-you-should-know-podcast.htm\"><em>Stuff You Should Know</em></a>.\" I\'ve been listening to it for about six months or so and it has some great material.\r\n\r\nI listened to one yesterday about the electoral college and how it affects the presidential elections. I had no idea. I thought I knew, but I didn\'t. It goes into great detail about the history, some of the conflicts, and the nitty gritty of it all. Here is the <a href=\"http://podcasts.howstuffworks.com/hsw/podcasts/sysk/2012-08-28-sysk-electoral-college.mp3\">direct link for listening online</a>, but you can also go into iTunes and just search for \"Stuff You Should Know.\" <a href=\"http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/electoral-college.htm\">The article is here if you want to read it.</a>\r\n\r\nWhether you\'re a Libertarian, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Green Party, or disinterested voter, it\'s a great episode to listen to.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuff_You_Should_Know\">The podcast is run by Josh Clark and Charles Bryant</a>. It\'s a must listen to. I\'ve learned more about shark attacks, beheadings, lobotomies, other faiths, the Musketeers, the economy, Scooby Doo, icebergs, roller derby, gas prices, oil spills and whatever by listening. Go check them out.\r\n\r\n______________\r\n\r\nRay Carroll is author of \"<a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1346388174&amp;sr=8-2\"><em>Fallen Pastor: Finding Restoration in a Fallen World</em></a>.\" He blogs regularly at <a href=\"http://www.fallenpastor.com\">www.fallenpastor.com</a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','How The Electoral College Works','','inherit','open','open','','7678-revision-4','','','2012-09-02 11:33:04','2012-09-02 18:33:04','',7678,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/02/7678-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7783,178,'2012-09-13 21:05:36','2012-09-14 04:05:36','[caption id=\"attachment_7719\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"500\"]<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7719 \" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"456\" /></a> Photo Credit: CRASH: candy via Flickr[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe five of us have been sitting around the same antique table on a semi-monthly for more than four years. We rarely see each outside of these monthly get-togethers, yet I consider these women to be among some of my dearest friends. We come from different backgrounds, different demographics, and different parts of the metro Chicago area, yet we always have one thing in common – our mutual interest in facilitating each other’s spiritual accountability by engaging in respectful faith sharing.\r\n\r\nWe began meeting as part of a small group through the Unitarian Universalist church that we were attending at the time. Since then, our group’s members have changed slightly – some members leaving and a new member joining – but the purpose of the group has always been the same.\r\n\r\nWe eat. We drink. We talk. We share.\r\n\r\nWe talk about food and wine and sex and God. We talk about our jobs and our kids and our spouses and our spirituality.\r\n\r\nWe share our dreams, our insecurities, our doubts, and our faith. We share our joys and concerns. We share our thoughts and ideas about what it means to live a life of compassion, generosity, justice, and spirituality. We share our life stories and our faith stories.\r\n\r\nAnd in doing so, we share the deepest parts of ourselves. We share our faith and we share our relationship with God. We share our most vulnerable and sensitive beliefs, laying ourselves raw and fully open to the possibility of knowing each other on a deeper level.\r\n\r\nIn talking about our beliefs and sharing our faith with each other, we have granted one another a rare glimpse into the deepest recesses of our souls – a place that many of us don’t even let our closest friends and family members see.\r\n\r\nYou see, we live in a society that shuns faith sharing. We are scared of it. We are afraid of being judged and we are afraid of judging. We are afraid that if we talk about sensitive and personal issues such as faith and spirituality that we might be forced to acknowledge that there are differences between us.\r\n\r\nBut when we do this, we forget that differences do not need to divide us; rather, acknowledging differences can be a means of expanding our options and opening our minds. When we talk about beliefs – not necessarily <em>what</em> we believe but <em>why </em>we believe – we grant ourselves the opportunity to know someone on a deeper level and open our minds to alternative perspectives. When we share our faith – not just how we practice our faith but how our faith shapes our life – we give someone else the gift of knowing us more intimately.\r\n\r\nSo ask me what I believe; I will tell you.  And I will, in turn, ask you what you believe in the hopes that we can embark on an educational conversation, in which we both learn something about each other and our respective faiths.\r\n\r\nIf you shy away from religious or spiritual conversations, ask yourself two questions: Am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am afraid that I will be judged?  Or am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am unsure of what I believe?\r\n\r\nIf it is the former, and there is a genuine fear of judgment, feel empowered to say so. Let the listener know that you fear that you will be judged.  If the other person tends to judge, they deserve to be called out on it.  On the other hand, your fear of judgment may be unwarranted and you owe the other person the benefit of the doubt.\r\n\r\nI suspect, however, that fear of judgment is not the only thing that keeps us from talking about our faith. Many of us shy away from conversations about our faith simply because we are unsure of what we believe. We have doubts. We have questions. We see inconsistencies and, regardless of how strong our faith is, there are times when we just don’t know what we believe. But if you look into your heart – I mean <em>really</em> look into your heart – you just might come to some conclusions about your faith and spiritual beliefs. There is no shame in admitting your doubts. In fact, acknowledging doubts is a critical part of an authentic faith.\r\n\r\nEvangelism is not a dirty word. Evangelism (not to be confused with evangelical) is about faith <em>sharing</em> – listening to the beliefs and faiths of someone else without the expectation of conversion. Evangelism is <em>not</em> the act of proselytizing, which is a dictatorial one-sided persuasive commentary; rather, evangelism is the participation in a responsible and respectful conversation that involves a full and fair informational exchange.\r\n\r\nFor many of us, our faith – or lack of faith – is a large part of who we are and how we live our lives. By refraining from talking about our faith, we are preventing ourselves from really getting to know others, including those people who are closest to us. And when we fail to know and understand others and ourselves, we are ultimately preventing ourselves from fully knowing the power of a graceful and compassionate God.\r\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px;height: 15px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http://www.zemanta.com/?px\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none;float: right\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=643de11f-2ba9-4183-aabd-43ef425e1ea6\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" /></a></div>','Evangelism Is Not a Dirty Word','','inherit','open','open','','7713-revision-7','','','2012-09-13 21:05:36','2012-09-14 04:05:36','',7713,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/13/7713-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(8154,43,'2012-12-11 05:55:17','2012-12-11 13:55:17','<blockquote>Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—\r\nhow good God is.\r\nBlessed are you who run to him.\r\n\r\n[Psalm 34:8, <em>The Message</em>]</blockquote>\r\nA few weeks ago, the pastor of the church we\'ve been attending came to our house for a visit.  She wanted to get to know us and talk a little about the church.  One thing that she said stood out to me above everything else:\r\n<blockquote>Worship is such a sensory experience.</blockquote>\r\nShe elaborated, describing the taste and smell of the Communion elements, the candles, the stained glass, the sound of the songs of praise.  Even listening to her, I could feel my pulse quickening with the longing that good, deep worship brings to me.\r\n\r\nLater that night, as I lay in bed, her words ran through my mind.  The Scripture I quoted above sprang to mind, and I turned it over and over, meditating on the words and thinking about what that meant.\r\n\r\nAdvent is here, and Christmas is nearly upon us, and I find myself feeling sad that we have reduced this beautiful season to a string of arguments about how to greet one another and whether or not writing \"Xmas\" is appropriate. We spend our time in stores and online, seeking the perfect gifts.  We plan and prepare elaborate feasts.  We stress about vacation plans, in-laws, and family drama.\r\n\r\nThe one thing we <em>don\'t</em> do is focus on why we celebrate.  We\'ve lost our ability to \"taste and see that the Lord is good,\" all while accusing others of taking Christ out of Christmas.\r\n\r\nThe usual suggestion I hear for easing holiday tension is to take time, slow down, and worry less.  However, I propose something radically different.  Instead of letting it go and stepping away from our holiday plans, why not seek the Lord in them?  Why not \"taste and see\" <em>through</em> our festivities?\r\n\r\nWhat if we...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Appreciate the beauty of the lights in store windows and on our streets, and let them remind us that Jesus is the light of the world?</li>\r\n	<li>Smell the baking cookies, holiday pine, and roast turkey and think that it is an aroma pleasing to God?</li>\r\n	<li>Feel the pen in hand as we write cards and know that we are sharing our joy with the ones we love?</li>\r\n	<li>Hear the carols and the organ and the bells and remember that among them, we can still hear the still, small voice of the Lord?</li>\r\n	<li>Taste the spice and sweetness of gingerbread and remember the sharp tang of our sin, but the forgiveness of the One who died for us?</li>\r\n	<li>Bustle about our tasks, remembering that it is God who is present in all of it and gives us strength to carry on?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nEven in all the busy moments of December, I love this season.  What about you?  How will you \"taste and see that the Lord is good\" this Christmas?','Taste and See','','inherit','open','open','','8151-revision-2','','','2012-12-11 05:55:17','2012-12-11 13:55:17','',8151,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/11/8151-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8155,43,'2012-12-11 06:07:39','2012-12-11 14:07:39','<blockquote>Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—\r\nhow good God is.\r\nBlessed are you who run to him.\r\n\r\n[Psalm 34:8, <em>The Message</em>]</blockquote>\r\nA few weeks ago, the pastor of the church we\'ve been attending came to our house for a visit.  She wanted to get to know us and talk a little about the church.  One thing that she said stood out to me above everything else:\r\n<blockquote>Worship is such a sensory experience.</blockquote>\r\nShe elaborated, describing the taste and smell of the Communion elements, the candles, the stained glass, the sound of the songs of praise.  Even listening to her, I could feel my pulse quickening with the longing that good, deep worship brings to me.\r\n\r\nLater that night, as I lay in bed, her words ran through my mind.  The Scripture I quoted above sprang to mind, and I turned it over and over, meditating on it and thinking about what that meant.\r\n\r\nAdvent is here, and Christmas is nearly upon us, and I find myself feeling sad that we have reduced this beautiful season to a string of arguments about how to greet one another and whether or not writing \"Xmas\" is appropriate. We spend our time in stores and online, seeking the perfect gifts.  We plan and prepare elaborate feasts.  We stress about vacation plans, in-laws, and family drama.\r\n\r\nThe one thing we <em>don\'t</em> do is focus on why we celebrate.  We\'ve lost our ability to \"taste and see that the Lord is good,\" all while accusing others of taking Christ out of Christmas.\r\n\r\nEven in all the busy moments of December, I love this time of year.  I can recall in exquisite detail the very first Christmas that I celebrated as a follower of Jesus.  For the first time, I understood exactly what the words of the songs meant.  Everything took on a new meaning, even the decorations in the mall and the lights on our tree and the stockings full of gifts.  The almost-magic of the season permeated my whole world.  It still does now, even after almost twenty-five years, and even through all the challenges that life has brought.\r\n\r\nChristmas can be a difficult time for many people, with all its busyness and heartache and anxiety.  The usual suggestion I hear for easing holiday tension is to take time, slow down, and worry less.  However, I propose something radically different.  Instead of letting it go and stepping away from our holiday plans, why not seek the Lord in them?  Why not \"taste and see\" <em>through</em> our festivities?\r\n\r\nWhat if we...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Appreciate the beauty of the lights in store windows and on our streets, and let them remind us that Jesus is the light of the world?</li>\r\n	<li>Smell the baking cookies, holiday pine, and roast turkey and think of it as an aroma pleasing to God?</li>\r\n	<li>Feel the pen in hand as we write cards and know that we are sharing our joy with the ones we love?</li>\r\n	<li>Hear the carols and the organ and the bells and remember that among them, we can still hear the still, small voice of the Lord?</li>\r\n	<li>Taste the spice and sweetness of gingerbread and remember the sharp tang of our sin, but the forgiveness of the One who died for us?</li>\r\n	<li>Bustle about our tasks, remembering that it is God who is present in all of it and gives us strength to carry on?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nWhat about you?  How will you \"taste and see that the Lord is good\" this Christmas?','Taste and See','','inherit','open','open','','8151-revision-3','','','2012-12-11 06:07:39','2012-12-11 14:07:39','',8151,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/11/8151-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8156,43,'2012-12-11 06:08:42','2012-12-11 14:08:42','<blockquote>Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—\r\nhow good God is.\r\nBlessed are you who run to him.\r\n\r\n[Psalm 34:8, <em>The Message</em>]</blockquote>\r\nA few weeks ago, the pastor of the church we\'ve been attending came to our house for a visit.  She wanted to get to know us and talk a little about the church.  One thing that she said stood out to me above everything else:\r\n<blockquote>Worship is such a sensory experience.</blockquote>\r\nShe elaborated, describing the taste and smell of the Communion elements, the candles, the stained glass, the sound of the songs of praise.  Even listening to her, I could feel my pulse quickening with the longing that good, deep worship brings to me.\r\n\r\nLater that night, as I lay in bed, her words ran through my mind.  The Scripture I quoted above sprang to mind, and I turned it over and over, meditating on it and thinking about what that meant.\r\n\r\nAdvent is here, and Christmas is nearly upon us, and I find myself feeling sad that we have reduced this beautiful season to a string of arguments about how to greet one another and whether or not writing \"Xmas\" is appropriate. We spend our time in stores and online, seeking the perfect gifts.  We plan and prepare elaborate feasts.  We stress about vacation plans, in-laws, and family drama.\r\n\r\nThe one thing we <em>don\'t</em> do is focus on why we celebrate.  We\'ve lost our ability to \"taste and see that the Lord is good,\" all while accusing others of taking Christ out of Christmas.\r\n\r\nEven in all the busy moments of December, I love this time of year.  I can recall in exquisite detail the very first Christmas that I celebrated as a follower of Jesus.  For the first time, I understood exactly what the words of the songs meant.  Everything took on a new meaning—the decorations in the mall and the lights on our tree and the stockings full of gifts.  Even Christmas cookies tasted different.  The almost-magic of the season permeated my whole world.  It still does now, even after almost twenty-five years, and even through all the challenges that life has brought.\r\n\r\nChristmas can be a difficult time for many people, with all its busyness and heartache and anxiety.  The usual suggestion I hear for easing holiday tension is to take time, slow down, and worry less.  However, I propose something radically different.  Instead of letting it go and stepping away from our holiday plans, why not seek the Lord in them?  Why not \"taste and see\" <em>through</em> our festivities?\r\n\r\nWhat if we...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Appreciate the beauty of the lights in store windows and on our streets, and let them remind us that Jesus is the light of the world?</li>\r\n	<li>Smell the baking cookies, holiday pine, and roast turkey and think of it as an aroma pleasing to God?</li>\r\n	<li>Feel the pen in hand as we write cards and know that we are sharing our joy with the ones we love?</li>\r\n	<li>Hear the carols and the organ and the bells and remember that among them, we can still hear the still, small voice of the Lord?</li>\r\n	<li>Taste the spice and sweetness of gingerbread and remember the sharp tang of our sin, but the forgiveness of the One who died for us?</li>\r\n	<li>Bustle about our tasks, remembering that it is God who is present in all of it and gives us strength to carry on?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nWhat about you?  How will you \"taste and see that the Lord is good\" this Christmas?','Taste and See','','inherit','open','open','','8151-revision-4','','','2012-12-11 06:08:42','2012-12-11 14:08:42','',8151,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/11/8151-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(8157,43,'2012-12-11 06:10:52','2012-12-11 14:10:52','<blockquote>Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—\r\nhow good God is.\r\nBlessed are you who run to him.\r\n\r\n[Psalm 34:8, <em>The Message</em>]</blockquote>\r\nA few weeks ago, the pastor of the church we\'ve been attending came to our house for a visit.  She wanted to get to know us and talk a little about the church.  One thing that she said stood out to me above everything else:\r\n<blockquote>Worship is such a sensory experience.</blockquote>\r\nShe elaborated, describing the taste and smell of the Communion elements, the candles, the stained glass, the sound of the songs of praise.  Even listening to her, I could feel my pulse quickening with the longing that good, deep worship brings to me.\r\n\r\nLater that night, as I lay in bed, her words ran through my mind.  The Scripture I quoted above sprang to mind, and I turned it over and over, meditating on it and thinking about what that meant.\r\n\r\nAdvent is here, and Christmas is nearly upon us, and I find myself feeling sad that we have reduced this beautiful season to a string of arguments about how to greet one another and whether or not writing \"Xmas\" is appropriate. We spend our time in stores and online, seeking the perfect gifts.  We plan and prepare elaborate feasts.  We stress about vacation plans, in-laws, and family drama.\r\n\r\nThe one thing we <em>don\'t</em> do is focus on why we celebrate.  We\'ve lost our ability to \"taste and see that the Lord is good,\" all while accusing others of taking Christ out of Christmas.\r\n\r\nEven in all the busy moments of December, I love this time of year.  I can recall in exquisite detail the very first Christmas that I celebrated as a follower of Jesus.  For the first time, I understood exactly what the words of the songs meant.  Everything took on a new meaning—the decorations in the mall and the lights on our tree and the stockings full of gifts.  Even Christmas cookies tasted different.  The almost-magic of the season permeated my whole life.  It still does now, even after almost twenty-five years, and even through all the challenges that life has brought.\r\n\r\nChristmas can be a difficult time for many people, with all its busyness and heartache and anxiety.  The usual suggestion I hear for easing holiday tension is to take time, slow down, and worry less.  However, I propose something radically different.  Instead of letting it go and stepping away from our holiday plans, why not seek the Lord <em>in</em> them?  Why not \"taste and see\" <em>through</em> our festivities?\r\n\r\nWhat if we...\r\n<ul>\r\n	<li>Appreciate the beauty of the lights in store windows and on our streets, and let them remind us that Jesus is the light of the world?</li>\r\n	<li>Smell the baking cookies, holiday pine, and roast turkey and think of it as an aroma pleasing to God?</li>\r\n	<li>Feel the pen in hand as we write cards and know that we are sharing our joy with the ones we love?</li>\r\n	<li>Hear the carols and the organ and the bells and remember that among them, we can still hear the still, small voice of the Lord?</li>\r\n	<li>Taste the spice and sweetness of gingerbread and remember the sharp tang of our sin, but the forgiveness of the One who died for us?</li>\r\n	<li>Bustle about our tasks, remembering that it is God who is present in all of it and gives us strength to carry on?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nWhat about you?  How will you \"taste and see that the Lord is good\" this Christmas?','Taste and See','','inherit','open','open','','8151-revision-5','','','2012-12-11 06:10:52','2012-12-11 14:10:52','',8151,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/11/8151-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8070,0,'2012-11-17 13:56:30','2012-11-17 21:56:30','Politics\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Beverly Donner\nAUTHOR EMAIL: Buddynet02@att.net\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 108.75.45.104\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Beverly Donner\n    [Email] =&gt; Buddynet02@att.net\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; \n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Politics\n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; Blackie01\n)\n','Beverly Donner - 2012-11-17 13:56:30','','publish','open','open','','8e25111d90843d5f355df029594a626a','','','2012-11-17 13:56:30','2012-11-17 21:56:30','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8070',0,'feedback','',0),(8071,0,'2012-11-17 14:11:00','2012-11-17 22:11:00','A Message to My Conservative Friends and Relatives\r\n\r\nThe election’s over, and believe it or not, my heart goes out to you with what you are probably feeling right now, as I know you probably feel about Obama like I do about the Evil One Percent, and it is frightening and unsettling to think that the enemy won.  But for myself, I have to say that I feel greatly relieved, like a giant boulder has been lifted off my chest and that I can live with the certainty that I will have the pension I worked so hard to achieve at least for the next four years and I thank God that people won over $$$. You know, if those One Percenters had put their millions into making America better, had actually created jobs with living wages, instead of trying to buy our nation and turn it into China, I might have even voted as a Republican. \r\n\r\nAs it stands, I have never been happier about seeing selfish control freaks lose large amounts of money,  Adelson, the casino magnate losing his bet, Trump and all the hatemongering rumors and lies he stirred up, the Koch Brothers and their “Right to Work“ anti-union agenda, and the awful propaganda movie they put out to inspire hate and fear and demonize our president--millions spent all for their own selfish goals!  Their losses won\'t affect their lifestyle and they will go on with all their luxurious homes scattered around both here and abroad, their car elevators, and their every whim being met, and they can go for generations never making another cent and be just as wealthy as ever.  However, what they wanted to impose on the common people was just plain evil.\r\n\r\nRight now, at a time I should be jubilant, my feeling about winning is bittersweet, and I pray for the safety and protection of our president and his family, as well as those who supported him, as there is already a call for violence out there.  I pray that this time around congress will do as Chris Christie had to do and work with the leader of our nation to make it work for the people.  If that could happen, if those jobs bills, especially the ones Obama tried to get for veterans, were to pass this time around, if outsourced corporations were more heavily taxed or fined, and corporations that employed American workers and paid them a wage they could live on were given incentives or deserved tax breaks, if those suffering families who lost their incomes to greedy outsourcing actually could get jobs with living wages and those who have no working skills could get a little training, all those people would be putting back into the economy, but people need a hand up, not punishment, and telling them they are lazy slobs and to get a job when there are none only creates hate and resentment. I believe if our congress, both democrats and republicans could work together with the good of the people at heart instead of partisan goals, we could have our America back, the one we grew up with and still cherish in our hearts and believe our great nation should be.  I believe in Government, that we ARE the government, and it can\'t be \"small government\" as we are a huge population and we need to try to make life equitable for all. God Bless America, Everyone!!!\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Beverly Donner\nAUTHOR EMAIL: Buddynet02@att.net\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 108.75.45.104\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Beverly Donner\n    [Email] =&gt; Buddynet02@att.net\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; \n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; A Message to My Conservative Friends and Relatives\r\n\r\nThe election’s over, and believe it or not, my heart goes out to you with what you are probably feeling right now, as I know you probably feel about Obama like I do about the Evil One Percent, and it is frightening and unsettling to think that the enemy won.  But for myself, I have to say that I feel greatly relieved, like a giant boulder has been lifted off my chest and that I can live with the certainty that I will have the pension I worked so hard to achieve at least for the next four years and I thank God that people won over $$$. You know, if those One Percenters had put their millions into making America better, had actually created jobs with living wages, instead of trying to buy our nation and turn it into China, I might have even voted as a Republican. \r\n\r\nAs it stands, I have never been happier about seeing selfish control freaks lose large amounts of money,  Adelson, the casino magnate losing his bet, Trump and all the hatemongering rumors and lies he stirred up, the Koch Brothers and their “Right to Work“ anti-union agenda, and the awful propaganda movie they put out to inspire hate and fear and demonize our president--millions spent all for their own selfish goals!  Their losses won\'t affect their lifestyle and they will go on with all their luxurious homes scattered around both here and abroad, their car elevators, and their every whim being met, and they can go for generations never making another cent and be just as wealthy as ever.  However, what they wanted to impose on the common people was just plain evil.\r\n\r\nRight now, at a time I should be jubilant, my feeling about winning is bittersweet, and I pray for the safety and protection of our president and his family, as well as those who supported him, as there is already a call for violence out there.  I pray that this time around congress will do as Chris Christie had to do and work with the leader of our nation to make it work for the people.  If that could happen, if those jobs bills, especially the ones Obama tried to get for veterans, were to pass this time around, if outsourced corporations were more heavily taxed or fined, and corporations that employed American workers and paid them a wage they could live on were given incentives or deserved tax breaks, if those suffering families who lost their incomes to greedy outsourcing actually could get jobs with living wages and those who have no working skills could get a little training, all those people would be putting back into the economy, but people need a hand up, not punishment, and telling them they are lazy slobs and to get a job when there are none only creates hate and resentment. I believe if our congress, both democrats and republicans could work together with the good of the people at heart instead of partisan goals, we could have our America back, the one we grew up with and still cherish in our hearts and believe our great nation should be.  I believe in Government, that we ARE the government, and it can\'t be \"small government\" as we are a huge population and we need to try to make life equitable for all. God Bless America, Everyone!!! \n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; Blackie01\n)\n','Beverly Donner - 2012-11-17 14:11:00','','publish','open','open','','2ddf83e4c48d627baa30a1cf1a91cb82','','','2012-11-17 14:11:00','2012-11-17 22:11:00','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8071',0,'feedback','',0),(8086,12,'2012-11-23 22:12:17','2012-11-24 06:12:17','','chbrch','','inherit','open','open','','chbrch','','','2012-11-23 22:12:17','2012-11-24 06:12:17','',8085,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/chbrch.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8087,12,'2012-11-23 22:13:45','2012-11-24 06:13:45','','chbr2','','inherit','open','open','','the-peanuts-gang-rejoices-in-the-true-spirit-of-christmas','','','2012-11-23 22:13:45','2012-11-24 06:13:45','',8085,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/chbr2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8088,12,'2012-11-23 22:15:22','2012-11-24 06:15:22','','snodan','','inherit','open','open','','snodan','','','2012-11-23 22:15:22','2012-11-24 06:15:22','',8085,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/snodan.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8089,12,'2012-11-23 22:15:34','2012-11-24 06:15:34','Once again, <a href=\"http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/11/22/charlie-brown-thanksgiving/\">Charlie Brown\'s Thanksgiving special outdrew other major programs including the X-Factor and Survivor</a>.\n\nWhy is that? The X-Factor is a great show. I\'ve actually watched it. It\'s a reality show where people compete with great talent to get to get noticed. Survivor? A long running show where people survive on an island. Both are great programming with good networking people behind them.\n\nHow can <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Thanksgiving\">a show that has been airing since the year I was born (1973)</a> beat both of them out in the ratings? And most likely, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown_Christmas\">A Charlie Brown Christmas</a> will probably beat out most programs in that time slot as well.\n\nWhat\'s up with Charlie Brown? Charles Schulz was the crafter of the cartoon and made it come to life with its simplicity in the comic strip. With characters like Lucy, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and others, they made the weekly and Sunday morning comics come to life. They were Americana. They have stood the test of time.\n\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/chbr2.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-8087\" style=\"margin-left: 6px;margin-right: 6px\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/chbr2-300x231.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"269\" height=\"207\" /></a>Bring on reality television. They have heartwarming stories, success, drama and tension. They are the norm for today. But apparently, they cannot compete with a show from 1973 for some reason.\n\nI\'m sure there are network executives banging their heads against the wall trying to figure it out. Or maybe they aren\'t. Maybe they\'re saying, \"<em>Well, it\'s tradition. People are watching because it\'s part of their heritage. It\'s just middle America making sense of life when everything is falling apart.</em>\"\n\nThat may be true. But I think the story of Charlie Brown is more than that. It\'s something we can all wrap our hearts around.\n\nIt\'s the story of a boy who nothing goes right for. A boy who just wants simplicity and joy. Who wants a few friends, a dog and normal relationships. More than that, even when Christmas comes, he doesn\'t pick out a giant Christmas tree, he picks out a puny little tree and makes it his own. He\'s an underdog.\n\nHe\'s pure Americana. He represents the underdog of us all. He can\'t kick the football because someone keeps pulling it out from us when we try to kick it. He can\'t seem to catch the fly ball despite his best efforts. He doesn\'t seem to understand the adults in his life because they all seem to say as if through a muffled trombone, \"<em>MUUHHH MAHHH MUHHHH MAHHHH MUHHHH MAHHH MUAHHHHH</em>.\"\n\nAnd he says, \"<em>Yes, ma\'am</em>.\"\n\nHe doesn\'t roll over, he just keeps going. He just wants joy. He just wants that final scene where Schroeder is playing the <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/snodan.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8088\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/snodan-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" /></a>piano, where Pig-Pen is dancing, where Snoopy is doing the Snoopy dance, where Linus is grasping his towel in joy, and where everyone is happy. He isn\'t an apple polisher. He is a person who lives up to his potential and wants complete joy.\n\nThat\'s what all of us want. A life where all of us are dancing at the end. Where piano music is heard and all of us can dance together.\n\nThat piano music is much more enchanting than the X-Factor or any reality television show. And we all soak it in, hoping and wishing for all of it. Hoping to put ornaments on that sorry little tree.\n\n&nbsp;','Charlie Brown vs. Everything Else','','inherit','open','open','','8085-revision','','','2012-11-23 22:15:34','2012-11-24 06:15:34','',8085,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/23/8085-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8090,198,'2012-11-29 08:00:25','2012-11-29 16:00:25','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nAs I look out into the faces of the people in the congregation I’m speaking to on any particular Sunday, I think to myself once again, <em>It would be so much easier to get up here behind this pulpit and talk about the joy of pap smears. Or snot. Or farting in public.</em>\r\n\r\nThe message I’ve been given to share, however, doesn’t involve topics as cozy and comfortable as these. I talk to churches and other organizations about proactively protecting children from sexual abuse. I say words like pedophiles and predators and prey. I throw out percentages and numbers, and I watch the faces of the people turn dark as data materializes into reality. Relentlessly, I drop on them the statistical impossibility that everyone underneath this steeple is somehow immune from this horror. Instead, I make it painfully clear that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who have been molested—that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who are currently <em>being</em> molested. The level of discomfort is evident on every grim face. They know what I’m going to say next: that they are statistically very likely to be sharing the pews with someone who has identified and chosen children who typify the desired profile; that they have then groomed those children over time, built a trust with their parents (unless, of course, children are being molested <em>by</em> their parents) and molested them just as soon as they arrived at a comfortable level of certainty that their victims wouldn’t tell. I warn them that their children could even now be somewhere along that dreadful continuum. The numbers don’t lie.\r\n\r\nI’m there to make sure they know that pedophiles sure do.\r\n\r\nIf I were in the audience listening to someone like me, I think I’d be looking around, making a mental note of every person who has had any sort of contact with my child, staring them down looking for the slightest trace of betrayal. I think I’d be freaked out enough to have my boy skip a few weeks of Royal Rangers or have my daughter sit with me in the main service instead of taking her to Children’s Church. If I were a Sunday school teacher or a nursery worker, conversations like this would make me want to stand up and announce, “Hey, everybody! I’m not a perv! Just want to make that clear—thought it was worth mentioning!”\r\n\r\nI create chaos, is what I do, and allow people to wallow in a bit of despondency for a time which, if you think about it, seems a little contrary to the pastor who is trying to bring the congregation together in unity, after all, and provide a place where people can come once a week to <em>refresh</em> and <em>recharge</em>. And then some chick has the gall to come along, grab the microphone and start shattering paradigms—not to mention brazenly encouraging those who are suffering in silence to speak up, even if their molester is sitting in the pew beside him or her. Even if their molester is on staff or a deacon or leads the choir. I empower children to speak out against their parents, wives against their husbands, and neighbors against neighbors. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household, right?\r\n\r\nSo believe me, it’s not like I’m booked out for months in advance to speak in different churches every Sunday. After I leave, it’s entirely possible, probable even, that victims will emerge and people—perhaps very visible people who have been trusted—will be discovered, arrested and charged with very serious crimes. Reputations ruined. Drama. Rumors hot off the prayer chain. It’s interesting to see who claims in the wake of one of my visits that God is “…leading us in a new direction” (as in… <em>not jail</em>) and suddenly parts ways.\r\n\r\nIt <em>would</em> be easier to talk about farting. Or how the Mormons are all deceived. How secular music is poisoning the minds of our young people, or politics and patriotism and all the Godly candidates. You know, issues good Christian folk can really come together on.\r\n\r\nBut I come with a sword and bring division; I do not come in peace. I don’t apologize, and I don’t mince words. Christ is coming again, I like to point out, and He’s not coming back as a little baby in a lowly manger this time. He’s coming back on a white horse (which may or may not be a metaphor for a Harley—I’m still pondering that) and He will make right all that is wrong on this planet. Evil will scatter the day that lightning splits the sky, but it will be rooted out of every dismal crevice and corner. No mountain stands too high, no ocean too deep, no distance so far, no location so obscure that the Commander of the Lord’s Army cannot snatch those who oppress the small and the weak right out.\r\n\r\nI’m occasionally admonished, “Well, Daisy, that doesn’t seem very gracious. Don’t you believe that Christ can forgive even the most heinous sins?”\r\n\r\nIn fact, I do. Let Christ do His work in the darkest hearts of those so enmeshed in deceit and manipulation and horror around which the rest of us can’t even wrap our heads. The Church should certainly make sure they have all the cigarettes and socks they’ll ever need or want for the duration of their time in prison.\r\n\r\n“So, pedophiles and those who harbor and protect you, <em>be afraid</em>,” I warn ignoring the pallor of pastors’ faces as I slice and dice his congregation, “Christ isn’t <em>just</em> coming for His own—He’s also coming for <em>you</em>. Those who live under tyranny, abuse and oppression, <em>take heart</em>, for the day of your deliverance <em>is</em> coming. And Church, the laborers are tragically few—so refresh and recharge, if you will, but remember that the body of Christ is a living, breathing entity whose purpose it is to bring hope and healing to a broken world. Bind up those bruised and broken reeds, rescue those in peril and set free those in captivity.”\r\n\r\nIn other words, grab a sword, people.\r\n\r\nJust be careful where you point it because there’s a lot of sword pointing out there in the name of Christ. To be clear, it wasn’t an atheist or a liberal or a homosexual or some other supposed enemy of the church that molested me every day of my childhood. It was the man who sang in the choir every Sunday and sat with my mother and me right there on the pews with his Bible open and his hands lifted in praise toward Heaven, fooling everybody and wreaking havoc on an entire generation—precisely where he remains to this day.\r\n\r\nOne sobering statistic: Serial pedophiles, the ones who molest children over an entire lifetime can abuse upwards of 400 children. We all would agree that even <em>one</em> is too many. We are called to be lights in this world, and I know we are all willing to be those lights. But we are so reluctant to believe that someone in our family, or one of our friends or neighbors, or someone sharing the pew with us in the house of God could bring that depravity into our inner sanctum. As a result, children suffer mutely and families show up twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights pretending they aren’t splintered into shards, deluding everyone.\r\n\r\nMy message is twofold: First, be careful and be vigilant, Church. These individuals have no difficultly slipping into churches where a patriarchal pecking order is the generally accepted structure and is not to be questioned or challenged; where even their most egregious sins are cast as far as the east is from the west in just one 30-second prayer; and Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and nursery workers are always in short supply. Has your place of worship put the adults on notice? Does your church ever sit down and have a conversation with kids about this? Do you assure them that you love them and will do everything within your power to keep them safe always? Have you taught them how to advocate for themselves and how to report to you if they are ever in a compromising situation? Do you have a plan of action when (not<em> if</em>) that occurs? If your church provides true sanctuary… it will happen. The statistics can promise you that.\r\n\r\nSecond, Christ heals. He restores. I am living proof. The nightmare can end, but we, as the body of Christ, need to open our eyes and acknowledge this epidemic of abuse for what it is. I’m not merely talking about tirelessly pontificating against every worldly ill (real or perceived) from the safety of our own bandwagons. I’m talking about stepping outside our peripheries of comfort and finding the courage to battle real evil in what could potentially become an all-out melee with casualties. I’m looking for contenders. I’m looking for redeemers. I’m looking for healers.\r\n\r\nLet’s do this.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','publish','open','open','','lets-have-a-talk-will-somebody-hold-my-sword-for-a-second','','','2012-11-28 09:14:22','2012-11-28 17:14:22','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8090',0,'post','',31),(8091,198,'2012-11-24 11:05:42','2012-11-24 19:05:42','','angel-fantasy-art-18','','inherit','open','open','','angel-fantasy-art-18','','','2012-11-24 11:05:42','2012-11-24 19:05:42','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-18.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8092,198,'2012-11-24 11:13:53','2012-11-24 19:13:53','','angel-fantasy-art-18','','inherit','open','open','','angel-fantasy-art-18-2','','','2012-11-24 11:13:53','2012-11-24 19:13:53','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-181.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8093,198,'2012-11-24 11:15:04','2012-11-24 19:15:04','','angel-fantasy-art-18','','inherit','open','open','','angel-fantasy-art-18-3','','','2012-11-24 11:15:04','2012-11-24 19:15:04','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8094,198,'2012-11-24 11:15:29','2012-11-24 19:15:29','','angel-fantasy-art-18','','inherit','open','open','','angel-fantasy-art-18-4','','','2012-11-24 11:15:29','2012-11-24 19:15:29','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-183.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8104,1,'2012-11-26 12:26:00','2012-11-26 20:26:00','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-revision-4','','','2012-11-26 12:26:00','2012-11-26 20:26:00','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/26/8090-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(8095,198,'2012-11-24 11:41:01','2012-11-24 19:41:01','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8093\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-revision','','','2012-11-24 11:41:01','2012-11-24 19:41:01','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/24/8090-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8096,198,'2012-11-28 11:50:18','2012-11-28 19:50:18','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\nAs I look out into the faces of the people in the congregation I’m speaking to on any particular Sunday, I think to myself once again, <em>It would be so much easier to get up here behind this pulpit and talk about the joy of pap smears. Or snot. Or farting in public.</em>\n\nThe message I’ve been given to share, however, doesn’t involve topics as cozy and comfortable as these. I talk to churches and other organizations about proactively protecting children from sexual abuse. I say words like pedophiles and predators and prey. I throw out percentages and numbers, and I watch the faces of the people turn dark as data materializes into reality. Relentlessly, I drop on them the statistical impossibility that everyone underneath this steeple is somehow immune from this horror. Instead, I make it painfully clear that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who have been molested—that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who are currently <em>being</em> molested. The level of discomfort is evident on every grim face. They know what I’m going to say next: that they are statistically very likely to be sharing the pews with someone who has identified and chosen children who typify the desired profile; that they have then groomed those children over time, built a trust with their parents (unless, of course, children are being molested <em>by</em> their parents) and molested them just as soon as they arrived at a comfortable level of certainty that their victims wouldn’t tell. I warn them that their children could even now be somewhere along that dreadful continuum. The numbers don’t lie.\n\nI’m there to make sure they know that pedophiles sure do.\n\nIf I were in the audience listening to someone like me, I think I’d be looking around, making a mental note of every person who has had any sort of contact with my child, staring them down looking for the slightest trace of betrayal. I think I’d be freaked out enough to have my boy skip a few weeks of Royal Rangers or have my daughter sit with me in the main service instead of taking her to Children’s Church. If I were a Sunday school teacher or a nursery worker, conversations like this would make me want to stand up and announce, “Hey, everybody! I’m not a perv! Just want to make that clear—thought it was worth mentioning!”\n\nI create chaos, is what I do, and allow people to wallow in a bit of despondency for a time which, if you think about it, seems a little contrary to the pastor who is trying to bring the congregation together in unity, after all, and provide a place where people can come once a week to <em>refresh</em> and <em>recharge</em>. And then some chick has the gall to come along, grab the microphone and start shattering paradigms—not to mention brazenly encouraging those who are suffering in silence to speak up, even if their molester is sitting in the pew beside him or her. Even if their molester is on staff or a deacon or leads the choir. I empower children to speak out against their parents, wives against their husbands, and neighbors against neighbors. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household, right?\n\nSo believe me, it’s not like I’m booked out for months in advance to speak in different churches every Sunday. After I leave, it’s entirely possible, probable even, that victims will emerge and people—perhaps very visible people who have been trusted—will be discovered, arrested and charged with very serious crimes. Reputations ruined. Drama. Rumors hot off the prayer chain. It’s interesting to see who claims in the wake of one of my visits that God is “…leading us in a new direction” (as in… <em>not jail</em>) and suddenly parts ways.\n\nIt <em>would</em> be easier to talk about farting. Or how the Mormons are all deceived. How secular music is poisoning the minds of our young people, or politics and patriotism and all the Godly candidates. You know, issues good Christian folk can really come together on.\n\nBut I come with a sword and bring division; I do not come in peace. I don’t apologize, and I don’t mince words. Christ is coming again, I like to point out, and He’s not coming back as a little baby in a lowly manger this time. He’s coming back on a white horse (which may or may not be a metaphor for a Harley—I’m still pondering that) and He will make right all that is wrong on this planet. Evil will scatter the day that lightning splits the sky, but it will be rooted out of every dismal crevice and corner. No mountain stands too high, no ocean too deep, no distance so far, no location so obscure that the Commander of the Lord’s Army cannot snatch those who oppress the small and the weak right out.\n\nI’m occasionally admonished, “Well, Daisy, that doesn’t seem very gracious. Don’t you believe that Christ can forgive even the most heinous sins?”\n\nIn fact, I do. Let Christ do His work in the darkest hearts of those so enmeshed in deceit and manipulation and horror around which the rest of us can’t even wrap our heads. The Church should certainly make sure they have all the cigarettes and socks they’ll ever need or want for the duration of their time in prison.\n\n“So, pedophiles and those who harbor and protect you, <em>be afraid</em>,” I warn ignoring the pallor of pastors’ faces as I slice and dice his congregation, “Christ isn’t <em>just</em> coming for His own—He’s also coming for <em>you</em>. Those who live under tyranny, abuse and oppression, <em>take heart</em>, for the day of your deliverance <em>is</em> coming. And Church, the laborers are tragically few—so refresh and recharge, if you will, but remember that the body of Christ is a living, breathing entity whose purpose it is to bring hope and healing to a broken world. Bind up those bruised and broken reeds, rescue those in peril and set free those in captivity.”\n\nIn other words, grab a sword, people.\n\nJust be careful where you point it because there’s a lot of sword pointing out there in the name of Christ. To be clear, it wasn’t an atheist or a liberal or a homosexual or some other supposed enemy of the church that molested me every day of my childhood. It was the man who sang in the choir every Sunday and sat with my mother and me right there on the pews with his Bible open and his hands lifted in praise toward Heaven, fooling everybody and wreaking havoc on an entire generation—precisely where he remains to this day.\n\nOne sobering statistic: Serial pedophiles, the ones who molest children over an entire lifetime can abuse upwards of 400 children. We all would agree that even <em>one</em> is too many. We are called to be lights in this world, and I know we are all willing to be those lights. But we are so reluctant to believe that someone in our family, or one of our friends or neighbors, or someone sharing the pew with us in the house of God could bring that depravity into our inner sanctum. As a result, children suffer mutely and families show up twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights pretending they aren’t splintered into shards, deluding everyone.\n\nMy message is twofold: First, be careful and be vigilant, Church. These individuals have no difficultly slipping into churches where a patriarchal pecking order is the generally accepted structure and is not to be questioned or challenged; where even their most egregious sins are cast as far as the east is from the west in just one 30-second prayer; and Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and nursery workers are always in short supply. Has your place of worship put the adults on notice? Does your church ever sit down and have a conversation with kids about this? Do you assure them that you love them and will do everything within your power to keep them safe always? Have you taught them how to advocate for themselves and how to report to you if they are ever in a compromising situation? Do you have a plan of action when (not<em> if</em>) that occurs? If your church provides true sanctuary… it will happen. The statistics can promise you that.\n\nSecond, Christ heals. He restores. I am living proof. The nightmare can end, but we, as the body of Christ, need to open our eyes and acknowledge this epidemic of abuse for what it is. I’m not merely talking about tirelessly pontificating against every worldly ill (real or perceived) from the safety of our own bandwagons. I’m talking about stepping outside our peripheries of comfort and finding the courage to battle real evil in what could potentially become an all-out melee with casualties. I’m looking for contenders. I’m looking for redeemers. I’m looking for healers.\n\nLet’s do this.\n\n&nbsp;','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-autosave','','','2012-11-28 11:50:18','2012-11-28 19:50:18','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/24/8090-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8097,0,'2012-11-24 11:48:12','2012-11-24 19:48:12','I just submitted an article for review with a picture. On the preview, I see the picture and the title, but I don\'t see the article itself. Umm... What did I do wrong? Thanks!\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: daisyrainmartin\nAUTHOR EMAIL: daisydaisychick@yahoo.com\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: Submit A Question\nIP: 216.190.58.234\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; daisyrainmartin\n    [Email] =&gt; daisydaisychick@yahoo.com\n    [City] =&gt; daisyrainmartin\n    [Your question] =&gt; I just submitted an article for review with a picture. On the preview, I see the picture and the title, but I don\'t see the article itself. Umm... What did I do wrong? Thanks!\n)\n','daisyrainmartin - 2012-11-24 11:48:12','','publish','open','open','','3b6f8b3e00c3a77572eb738bcc88223d','','','2012-11-24 11:48:12','2012-11-24 19:48:12','',4432,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8097',0,'feedback','',0),(8255,0,'2013-01-13 11:10:30','2013-01-13 19:10:30','Spirituality, Interfaith Dialogue, Philosophy , Spiritual Practices, Social Justice, Politics, Gender Equality, Movies, Books.\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Tim McCollum\nAUTHOR EMAIL: tim@timmccollum.com\nAUTHOR URL: http://www.timmccollum.com\nSUBJECT: Provoketive Magazine Writing For Provoketive\nIP: 107.5.180.211\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Tim McCollum\n    [Email] =&gt; tim@timmccollum.com\n    [Existing Blog or Website] =&gt; www.timmccollum.com\n    [List the topic you are interested writing about] =&gt; Spirituality, Interfaith Dialogue, Philosophy , Spiritual Practices, Social Justice, Politics, Gender Equality, Movies, Books. \n    [Current or New WordPress Login Name (We\'ll send you a password.)] =&gt; tim\n)\n','Tim McCollum - 2013-01-13 11:10:30','','publish','open','open','','733a59416ff491100c79416d550aea04','','','2013-01-13 11:10:30','2013-01-13 19:10:30','',358,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8255',0,'feedback','',0),(8189,1,'2012-12-27 09:28:16','2012-12-27 17:28:16','You gotta like <a href=\"http://www.timtebow.com\">Tim Tebow</a>, even if you don\'t like him.\r\n\r\nYesterday, ESPN called Tim Tebow, \"the most famous second quarterback in the history of the NFL.\" The Tebow hype has come back into full swing as <a href=\"http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8783587/mark-sanchez-start-new-york-jets-place-greg-mcelroy\">the New York Jets try and figure out what to do with the guy they traded for, yet refuse to play</a>.  Skip Bayless loves him...and countless people still want him...except Rex Ryan, his coach.  Sad.\r\n\r\nTebow is famous for late comebacks.  He\'s not the best quarterback by any means.  He\'s not a great passer, or even a good passer. He intelligent, exceedingly gracious...all good qualities in life, but not necessarily in the locker room. But most importantly, <strong>he wins</strong>.  That\'s what matters in professional sports.  In Denver, he orchestrated countless comebacks to John Elway\'s chagrin. You could see John fume on the sidelines as the Tebow kept winning.  It was a strange site. Here was one of the most celebrated QBs of all time, frustrated at winning.  Because every time Tebow won, Elway had to continue the charade he didn\'t want to play.  Ironic at best and strange at worst.  Because every time Tebow won, the crowds would chant his name, the pundits would bash him even more, and Tebow would continue to give credit to God.\r\n\r\nWhat\'s interesting about this year, is that Tebow is suffering.  The glory isn\'t there. Rex Ryan <strong>refuses</strong> to play him, even though the back-up McElroy is not very good (and now has a concussion), and Mark Sanchez has proven he\'s always (also orchestrated by Rex Ryan). Instead of stepping into the Elway charade, Ryan is now choosing to go back to Sanchez, the man he ceremoniously dumped two weeks ago.  And Tebow continues to wait.  His response was to <a href=\"http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8781908/tim-tebow-new-york-jets-says-never-asked-wildcat\">defend his character</a>.\r\n\r\nBut what\'s notably absent for me is the credit to God.  Where his amazing success was attributed to God, his lack of playing time is not.  I really wonder if God has given Tebow this same suffering because of the platform that was built in the previous year.  Because it\'s easy to credit God for success.  But it\'s hard to credit God for trials and tribulations.  God allows it.  And as frustrating as it is, our faith is defined also by the trials and not just in the successes.  Perhaps Tebow\'s greatest act will be in making it through the suffering with grace.  I think he has the character to do it.  But will he give credit to God?\r\n\r\nYou gotta like Tim Tebow.  I just hope he Tebows (gets down on his knees and prays) in the midst of this as much as he did last year.','The Twisted Tale of Tim Tebow','','publish','open','open','','the-twisted-tale-of-tim-tebow','','','2012-12-27 09:28:16','2012-12-27 17:28:16','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8189',0,'post','',2),(8148,201,'2012-12-20 08:00:57','2012-12-20 16:00:57','when the pain is\r\n\r\ndeep\r\n\r\nand the intimacy\r\n\r\ncheap\r\n\r\nwhen the fear is\r\n\r\nreal\r\n\r\nand is your only\r\n\r\nmeal\r\n\r\nShe is there,\r\n\r\nHer motherly care,\r\n\r\nwhispering Her kisses into your\r\n\r\near\r\n\r\nthough you can’t\r\n\r\nhear, feel Her\r\n\r\nbreathing Her love into your\r\n\r\nfear, She\r\n\r\nis moving in the deep\r\n\r\npain:\r\n\r\nthe blood red dripping from the cross, a love\r\n\r\nstain\r\n\r\nin your heart is\r\n\r\nHis heart\r\n\r\nso take heart, dear heart\r\n\r\nand bring that smile you danced with in your\r\n\r\nsoul last night, dig that dance into that\r\n\r\nhole:\r\n\r\na seedling will come\r\n\r\nHer winds will cause it to grow\r\n\r\nHer rain will bring it to a felt\r\n\r\nknow\r\n\r\ning, you’ll be singing that He is here\r\n\r\nwhispering kisses in your\r\n\r\near\r\n\r\nbreathing love into your\r\n\r\nfear:\r\n\r\nthat, indeed, nothing is more\r\n\r\nnear, that, indeed, there is nothing to\r\n\r\nfear','whispering kisses','','publish','open','open','','whispering-kisses','','','2012-12-17 11:27:43','2012-12-17 19:27:43','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8148',0,'post','',0),(8102,1,'2012-11-24 11:42:25','2012-11-24 19:42:25','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8093\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-revision-2','','','2012-11-24 11:42:25','2012-11-24 19:42:25','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/24/8090-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8103,1,'2012-11-26 12:25:24','2012-11-26 20:25:24','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8093\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-revision-3','','','2012-11-26 12:25:24','2012-11-26 20:25:24','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/26/8090-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8105,198,'2012-11-26 15:27:10','2012-11-26 23:27:10','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n\nAs I look out into the faces of the people in the congregation I’m speaking to on any particular Sunday, I think to myself once again, <em>It would be so much easier to get up here behind this pulpit and talk about the joy of pap smears. Or snot. Or farting in public.</em>\n\nThe message I’ve been given to share, however, doesn’t involve topics as cozy and comfortable as these. I talk to churches and other organizations about proactively protecting children from sexual abuse. I say words like pedophiles and predators and prey. I throw out percentages and numbers, and I watch the faces of the people turn dark as data materializes into reality. Relentlessly, I drop on them the statistical impossibility that everyone underneath this steeple is somehow immune from this horror. Instead, I make it painfully clear that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who have been molested—that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who are currently <em>being</em> molested. The level of discomfort is evident on every grim face. They know what I’m going to say next: that they are statistically very likely to be sharing the pews with someone who has identified and chosen children who typify the desired profile; that they have then groomed those children over time, built a trust with their parents (unless, of course, children are being molested <em>by</em> their parents) and molested them just as soon as they arrived at a comfortable level of certainty that their victims wouldn’t tell. I warn them that their children could even now be somewhere along that dreadful continuum. The numbers don’t lie.\n\nI’m there to make sure they know that pedophiles sure do.\n\nIf I were in the audience listening to someone like me, I think I’d be looking around, making a mental note of every person who has had any sort of contact with my child, staring them down looking for the slightest trace of betrayal. I think I’d be freaked out enough to have my boy skip a few weeks of Royal Rangers or have my daughter sit with me in the main service instead of taking her to Children’s Church. If I were a Sunday school teacher or a nursery worker, conversations like this would make me want to stand up and announce, “Hey, everybody! I’m not a perv! Just want to make that clear—thought it was worth mentioning!”\n\nI create chaos, is what I do, and allow people to wallow in a bit of despondency for a time which, if you think about it, seems a little contrary to the pastor who is trying to bring the congregation together in unity, after all, and provide a place where people can come once a week to <em>refresh</em> and <em>recharge</em>. And then some chick has the gall to come along, grab the microphone and start shattering paradigms—not to mention brazenly encouraging those who are suffering in silence to speak up, even if their molester is sitting in the pew beside him or her. Even if their molester is on staff or a deacon or leads the choir. I empower children to speak out against their parents, wives against their husbands, and neighbors against neighbors. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household, right?\n\nSo believe me, it’s not like I’m booked out for months in advance to speak in different churches every Sunday. After I leave, it’s entirely possible, probable even, that victims will emerge and people—perhaps very visible people who have been trusted—will be discovered, arrested and charged with very serious crimes. Reputations ruined. Drama. Rumors hot off the prayer chain. It’s interesting to see who claims in the wake of one of my visits that God is “…leading us in a new direction” (as in… <em>not jail</em>) and suddenly parts ways.\n\nIt <em>would</em> be easier to talk about farting. Or how the Mormons are all deceived. How secular music is poisoning the minds of our young people, or politics and patriotism and all the Godly candidates. You know, issues good Christian folk can really come together on.\n\nBut I come with a sword and bring division; I do not come in peace. I don’t apologize, and I don’t mince words. Christ is coming again, I like to point out, and He’s not coming back as a little baby in a lowly manger this time. He’s coming back on a white horse (which may or may not be a metaphor for a Harley—I’m still pondering that) and He will make right all that is wrong on this planet. Evil will scatter the day that lightning splits the sky, but it will be rooted out of every dismal crevice and corner. No mountain stands too high, no ocean too deep, no distance so far, no location so obscure that the Commander of the Lord’s Army cannot snatch those who oppress the small and the weak right out.\n\nI’m occasionally admonished, “Well, Daisy, that doesn’t seem very gracious. Don’t you believe that Christ can forgive even the most heinous sins?”\n\nIn fact, I do. Let Christ do His work in the darkest hearts of those so enmeshed in deceit and manipulation and horror around which the rest of us can’t even wrap our heads. The Church should certainly make sure they have all the cigarettes and socks they’ll ever need or want for the duration of their time in prison.\n\n“So, pedophiles and those who harbor and protect you, <em>be afraid</em>,” I warn ignoring the pallor of pastors’ faces as I slice and dice his congregation, “Christ isn’t <em>just</em> coming for His own—He’s also coming for <em>you</em>. Those who live under tyranny, abuse and oppression, <em>take heart</em>, for the day of your deliverance <em>is</em> coming. And Church, the laborers are tragically few—so refresh and recharge, if you will, but remember that the body of Christ is a living, breathing entity whose purpose it is to bring hope and healing to a broken world. Bind up those bruised and broken reeds, rescue those in peril and set free those in captivity.”\n\nIn other words, grab a sword, people.\n\nJust be careful where you point it because there’s a lot of sword pointing out there in the name of Christ. To be clear, it wasn’t an atheist or a liberal or a homosexual or some other supposed enemy of the church that molested me every day of my childhood. It was the man who sang in the choir every Sunday and sat with my mother and me right there on the pews with his Bible open and his hands lifted in praise toward Heaven, fooling everybody and wreaking havoc on an entire generation—precisely where he remains to this day.\n\nOne sobering statistic: Serial pedophiles, the ones who molest children over an entire lifetime can abuse upwards of 400 children. We all would agree that even <em>one</em> is too many. We are called to be lights in this world, and I know we are all willing to be those lights. But we are so reluctant to believe that someone in our family, or one of our friends or neighbors, or someone sharing the pew with us in the house of God could bring that depravity into our inner sanctum. As a result, children suffer mutely and families show up twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights pretending they aren’t splintered into shards, deluding everyone.\n\nMy message is twofold: First, be careful and be vigilant, Church. These individuals have no difficultly slipping into churches where a patriarchal pecking order is the generally accepted structure and is not to be questioned or challenged; where even their most egregious sins are cast as far as the east is from the west in just one 30-second prayer; and Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and nursery workers are always in short supply. Has your place of worship put the adults on notice? Does your church ever sit down and have a conversation with kids about this? Do you assure them that you love them and will do everything within your power to keep them safe always? Have you taught them how to advocate for themselves and how to report to you if they are ever in a compromising situation? Do you have a plan of action when (not<em> if</em>) that occurs? If your church provides true sanctuary… it will happen. The statistics can promise you that.\n\nSecond, Christ heals. He restores. I am living proof. The nightmare can end, but we, as the body of Christ, need to open our eyes and acknowledge this epidemic of abuse for what it is. I’m not merely talking about tirelessly pontificating against every worldly ill (real or perceived) from the safety of our own bandwagons. I’m talking about stepping outside our peripheries of comfort and finding the courage to battle real evil in what could potentially become an all-out melee with casualties. I’m looking for contenders. I’m looking for redeemers. I’m looking for healers.\n\nLet’s do this.\n\n&nbsp;','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-revision-5','','','2012-11-26 15:27:10','2012-11-26 23:27:10','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/26/8090-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8106,198,'2012-11-26 15:27:25','2012-11-26 23:27:25','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nAs I look out into the faces of the people in the congregation I’m speaking to on any particular Sunday, I think to myself once again, <em>It would be so much easier to get up here behind this pulpit and talk about the joy of pap smears. Or snot. Or farting in public.</em>\r\n\r\nThe message I’ve been given to share, however, doesn’t involve topics as cozy and comfortable as these. I talk to churches and other organizations about proactively protecting children from sexual abuse. I say words like pedophiles and predators and prey. I throw out percentages and numbers, and I watch the faces of the people turn dark as data materializes into reality. Relentlessly, I drop on them the statistical impossibility that everyone underneath this steeple is somehow immune from this horror. Instead, I make it painfully clear that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who have been molested—that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who are currently <em>being</em> molested. The level of discomfort is evident on every grim face. They know what I’m going to say next: that they are statistically very likely to be sharing the pews with someone who has identified and chosen children who typify the desired profile; that they have then groomed those children over time, built a trust with their parents (unless, of course, children are being molested <em>by</em> their parents) and molested them just as soon as they arrived at a comfortable level of certainty that their victims wouldn’t tell. I warn them that their children could even now be somewhere along that dreadful continuum. The numbers don’t lie.\r\n\r\nI’m there to make sure they know that pedophiles sure do.\r\n\r\nIf I were in the audience listening to someone like me, I think I’d be looking around, making a mental note of every person who has had any sort of contact with my child, staring them down looking for the slightest trace of betrayal. I think I’d be freaked out enough to have my boy skip a few weeks of Royal Rangers or have my daughter sit with me in the main service instead of taking her to Children’s Church. If I were a Sunday school teacher or a nursery worker, conversations like this would make me want to stand up and announce, “Hey, everybody! I’m not a perv! Just want to make that clear—thought it was worth mentioning!”\r\n\r\nI create chaos, is what I do, and allow people to wallow in a bit of despondency for a time which, if you think about it, seems a little contrary to the pastor who is trying to bring the congregation together in unity, after all, and provide a place where people can come once a week to <em>refresh</em> and <em>recharge</em>. And then some chick has the gall to come along, grab the microphone and start shattering paradigms—not to mention brazenly encouraging those who are suffering in silence to speak up, even if their molester is sitting in the pew beside him or her. Even if their molester is on staff or a deacon or leads the choir. I empower children to speak out against their parents, wives against their husbands, and neighbors against neighbors. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household, right?\r\n\r\nSo believe me, it’s not like I’m booked out for months in advance to speak in different churches every Sunday. After I leave, it’s entirely possible, probable even, that victims will emerge and people—perhaps very visible people who have been trusted—will be discovered, arrested and charged with very serious crimes. Reputations ruined. Drama. Rumors hot off the prayer chain. It’s interesting to see who claims in the wake of one of my visits that God is “…leading us in a new direction” (as in… <em>not jail</em>) and suddenly parts ways.\r\n\r\nIt <em>would</em> be easier to talk about farting. Or how the Mormons are all deceived. How secular music is poisoning the minds of our young people, or politics and patriotism and all the Godly candidates. You know, issues good Christian folk can really come together on.\r\n\r\nBut I come with a sword and bring division; I do not come in peace. I don’t apologize, and I don’t mince words. Christ is coming again, I like to point out, and He’s not coming back as a little baby in a lowly manger this time. He’s coming back on a white horse (which may or may not be a metaphor for a Harley—I’m still pondering that) and He will make right all that is wrong on this planet. Evil will scatter the day that lightning splits the sky, but it will be rooted out of every dismal crevice and corner. No mountain stands too high, no ocean too deep, no distance so far, no location so obscure that the Commander of the Lord’s Army cannot snatch those who oppress the small and the weak right out.\r\n\r\nI’m occasionally admonished, “Well, Daisy, that doesn’t seem very gracious. Don’t you believe that Christ can forgive even the most heinous sins?”\r\n\r\nIn fact, I do. Let Christ do His work in the darkest hearts of those so enmeshed in deceit and manipulation and horror around which the rest of us can’t even wrap our heads. The Church should certainly make sure they have all the cigarettes and socks they’ll ever need or want for the duration of their time in prison.\r\n\r\n“So, pedophiles and those who harbor and protect you, <em>be afraid</em>,” I warn ignoring the pallor of pastors’ faces as I slice and dice his congregation, “Christ isn’t <em>just</em> coming for His own—He’s also coming for <em>you</em>. Those who live under tyranny, abuse and oppression, <em>take heart</em>, for the day of your deliverance <em>is</em> coming. And Church, the laborers are tragically few—so refresh and recharge, if you will, but remember that the body of Christ is a living, breathing entity whose purpose it is to bring hope and healing to a broken world. Bind up those bruised and broken reeds, rescue those in peril and set free those in captivity.”\r\n\r\nIn other words, grab a sword, people.\r\n\r\nJust be careful where you point it because there’s a lot of sword pointing out there in the name of Christ. To be clear, it wasn’t an atheist or a liberal or a homosexual or some other supposed enemy of the church that molested me every day of my childhood. It was the man who sang in the choir every Sunday and sat with my mother and me right there on the pews with his Bible open and his hands lifted in praise toward Heaven, fooling everybody and wreaking havoc on an entire generation—precisely where he remains to this day.\r\n\r\nOne sobering statistic: Serial pedophiles, the ones who molest children over an entire lifetime can abuse upwards of 400 children. We all would agree that even <em>one</em> is too many. We are called to be lights in this world, and I know we are all willing to be those lights. But we are so reluctant to believe that someone in our family, or one of our friends or neighbors, or someone sharing the pew with us in the house of God could bring that depravity into our inner sanctum. As a result, children suffer mutely and families show up twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights pretending they aren’t splintered into shards, deluding everyone.\r\n\r\nMy message is twofold: First, be careful and be vigilant, Church. These individuals have no difficultly slipping into churches where a patriarchal pecking order is the generally accepted structure and is not to be questioned or challenged; where even their most egregious sins are cast as far as the east is from the west in just one 30-second prayer; and Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and nursery workers are always in short supply. Has your place of worship put the adults on notice? Does your church ever sit down and have a conversation with kids about this? Do you assure them that you love them and will do everything within your power to keep them safe always? Have you taught them how to advocate for themselves and how to report to you if they are ever in a compromising situation? Do you have a plan of action when (not<em> if</em>) that occurs? If your church provides true sanctuary… it will happen. The statistics can promise you that.\r\n\r\nSecond, Christ heals. He restores. I am living proof. The nightmare can end, but we, as the body of Christ, need to open our eyes and acknowledge this epidemic of abuse for what it is. I’m not merely talking about tirelessly pontificating against every worldly ill (real or perceived) from the safety of our own bandwagons. I’m talking about stepping outside our peripheries of comfort and finding the courage to battle real evil in what could potentially become an all-out melee with casualties. I’m looking for contenders. I’m looking for redeemers. I’m looking for healers.\r\n\r\nLet’s do this.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-revision-6','','','2012-11-26 15:27:25','2012-11-26 23:27:25','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/26/8090-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(8107,64,'2012-11-27 09:15:27','0000-00-00 00:00:00','Most of my life, I have been waiting for God. It’s a spiritual waiting\r\n\r\nfor miracles. Waiting\r\n\r\nfor answers. Waiting\r\n\r\nfor healing in me and in others that I love or have loved. Waiting\r\n\r\nto feel mercy. Waiting\r\n\r\nfor peace.\r\n\r\nWaiting for the Holy.\r\n\r\nAnd honestly, it’s no good for I am so often unfaithful, daily, profoundly ungrateful, spiritually tepid, and living a halfhearted, broken fear filled life.\r\n\r\nAnd no matter how much I have learned, the spiritual lessons hard earned, it seems to come down to my learning, over and over again. A training of the heart, where I am bent and broken, toward healing and joy.\r\n\r\nAdvent (and perhaps all of the spiritual life) is about our\r\n\r\nopening,\r\n\r\nslowing, and\r\n\r\nreceiving.\r\n\r\nStill, in some ways I cannot hold on to the babe, the Christ Child, no matter how much I want to.\r\n\r\nI remember nothing about Advent growing up, not even lighting the purple and white candles on Sundays. Though our church tradition celebrated these things, very little of it sunk in. All too soon Christmas became about the fun of buying, giving, and consuming, even in our Christian home. \r\n\r\nFor this missionary kid who started her life overseas, who “shopped” the missionary barrel for school clothes, and grew up wearing all hand me downs, perhaps especially because of these realities, Christmas was about me getting new stuff of my own.\r\n\r\nAt this point in my life that no longer works for me. Though I love to give gifts to others, including this time of year, that idea lacks true meaning for me.\r\n\r\nAlthough Christmas has come to mean gift giving, the word Advent means coming! And it comes down to opening my heart to what God is doing already, slowing down enough to anticipate and receive him – the child, a fleshy squalling, human baby who grew up to become our Savior and King.\r\n\r\nHenri Nouwen said, \"I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God\'s saving powers. Our temptation is to be distracted by them. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God\'s presence ... I will always remain tempted to despair.\"1\r\n\r\nMost of my life, I’ve been waiting in despair, filled with longing for something other than here and now. I have been blind to the signs all around me. All too often I am weary for miracles when so much of the miracle is simply and profoundly the gift of Christ, who died to save us, who is our King.\r\n\r\nFor me Advent isn’t about answers, it is mostly about waiting.\r\n\r\nAnd in my waiting I am bent, leaning toward God, listening for whispers of hope. Inclined in, oriented toward and filled with longing for the Holy One who comes. Oh, he comes!\r\n\r\nFor me Advent is an awareness of my need, over and over again\r\n\r\nfor the babe,\r\n\r\nour Savior,\r\n\r\nfor the King.\r\n\r\nIn her beautiful little book on advent, Enuma Okoro says, “we have to train ourselves to become the type of earthly vessels that can endure the challenging joy of waiting on God …”2\r\n\r\nThis Advent, I will again wait; purposefully and joyfully needing, anxiously wanting to hear and see a miracle, and resolutely longing for the One who is always with us. That is the miracle of Advent and the wonder of every day.\r\n\r\nKnowing God and waiting for the Holy.\r\n\r\n1 Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal (1983)\r\n2 Enuma Okoro, Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, Upper Room Books (2012)','Waiting for the Holy','','draft','open','open','','','','','2012-11-27 09:15:27','2012-11-27 17:15:27','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8107',0,'post','',0),(8108,64,'2012-11-27 09:04:58','2012-11-27 17:04:58','','Auto Draft','','inherit','open','open','','8107-revision','','','2012-11-27 09:04:58','2012-11-27 17:04:58','',8107,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/27/8107-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8110,64,'2012-11-27 09:14:45','2012-11-27 17:14:45','Most of my life, I have been waiting for God. It’s a spiritual waiting\n\nfor miracles. Waiting\n\nfor answers. Waiting\n\nfor healing in me and in others that I love or have loved. Waiting\n\nto feel mercy. Waiting\n\nfor peace.\n\nWaiting for the Holy.\n\nAnd honestly, it’s no good for I am so often unfaithful, daily, profoundly ungrateful, spiritually tepid, and living a halfhearted, broken fear filled life.\n\nAnd no matter how much I have learned, the spiritual lessons hard earned, it seems to come down to my learning, over and over again. A training of the heart, where I am bent and broken, toward healing and joy.\n\nAdvent (and perhaps all of the spiritual life) is about our\n\nopening,\n\nslowing, and\n\nreceiving.\n\nStill, in some ways I cannot hold on to the babe, the Christ Child, no matter how much I want to.\n\nI remember nothing about Advent growing up, not even lighting the purple and white candles on Sundays. Though our church tradition celebrated these things, very little of it sunk in. All too soon Christmas became about the fun of buying, giving, and consuming, even in our Christian home. \n\nFor this missionary kid who started her life overseas, who “shopped” the missionary barrel for school clothes, and grew up wearing all hand me downs, perhaps especially because of these realities, Christmas was about me getting new stuff of my own.\n\nAt this point in my life that no longer works for me. Though I love to give gifts to others, including this time of year, that idea lacks true meaning for me.\n\nAlthough Christmas has come to mean gift giving, the word Advent means coming! And it comes down to opening my heart to what God is doing already, slowing down enough to anticipate and receive him – the child, a fleshy squalling, human baby who grew up to become our Savior and King.\n\nHenri Nouwen said, \"I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God\'s saving powers. Our temptation is to be distracted by them. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God\'s presence ... I will always remain tempted to despair.\"1\n\nMost of my life, I’ve been waiting in despair, filled with longing for something other than here and now. I have been blind to the signs all around me. All too often I am weary for miracles when so much of the miracle is simply and profoundly the gift of Christ, who died to save us, who is our King.\n\nFor me Advent isn’t about answers, it is mostly about waiting.\n\nAnd in my waiting I am bent, leaning toward God, listening for whispers of hope. Inclined in, oriented toward and filled with longing for the Holy One who comes. Oh, he comes!\n\nFor me Advent is an awareness of my need, over and over again\n\nfor the babe,\n\nour Savior,\n\nfor the King.\n\nIn her beautiful little book on advent, Enuma Okoro says, “we have to train ourselves to become the type of earthly vessels that can endure the challenging joy of waiting on God …”2\n\nThis Advent, I will again wait; purposefully and joyfully needing, anxiously wanting to hear and see a miracle, and resolutely longing for the One who is always with us. That is the miracle of Advent and the wonder of every day.\n\nKnowing God and waiting for the Holy.\n\n1 Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal (1983)\n2 Enuma Okoro, Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, Upper Room Books (2012)','Waiting for the Holy','','inherit','open','open','','8107-revision-2','','','2012-11-27 09:14:45','2012-11-27 17:14:45','',8107,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/27/8107-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8111,64,'2012-11-27 09:14:54','2012-11-27 17:14:54','Most of my life, I have been waiting for God. It’s a spiritual waiting\r\n\r\nfor miracles. Waiting\r\n\r\nfor answers. Waiting\r\n\r\nfor healing in me and in others that I love or have loved. Waiting\r\n\r\nto feel mercy. Waiting\r\n\r\nfor peace.\r\n\r\nWaiting for the Holy.\r\n\r\nAnd honestly, it’s no good for I am so often unfaithful, daily, profoundly ungrateful, spiritually tepid, and living a halfhearted, broken fear filled life.\r\n\r\nAnd no matter how much I have learned, the spiritual lessons hard earned, it seems to come down to my learning, over and over again. A training of the heart, where I am bent and broken, toward healing and joy.\r\n\r\nAdvent (and perhaps all of the spiritual life) is about our\r\n\r\nopening,\r\n\r\nslowing, and\r\n\r\nreceiving.\r\n\r\nStill, in some ways I cannot hold on to the babe, the Christ Child, no matter how much I want to.\r\n\r\nI remember nothing about Advent growing up, not even lighting the purple and white candles on Sundays. Though our church tradition celebrated these things, very little of it sunk in. All too soon Christmas became about the fun of buying, giving, and consuming, even in our Christian home. \r\n\r\nFor this missionary kid who started her life overseas, who “shopped” the missionary barrel for school clothes, and grew up wearing all hand me downs, perhaps especially because of these realities, Christmas was about me getting new stuff of my own.\r\n\r\nAt this point in my life that no longer works for me. Though I love to give gifts to others, including this time of year, that idea lacks true meaning for me.\r\n\r\nAlthough Christmas has come to mean gift giving, the word Advent means coming! And it comes down to opening my heart to what God is doing already, slowing down enough to anticipate and receive him – the child, a fleshy squalling, human baby who grew up to become our Savior and King.\r\n\r\nHenri Nouwen said, \"I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God\'s saving powers. Our temptation is to be distracted by them. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God\'s presence ... I will always remain tempted to despair.\"1\r\n\r\nMost of my life, I’ve been waiting in despair, filled with longing for something other than here and now. I have been blind to the signs all around me. All too often I am weary for miracles when so much of the miracle is simply and profoundly the gift of Christ, who died to save us, who is our King.\r\n\r\nFor me Advent isn’t about answers, it is mostly about waiting.\r\n\r\nAnd in my waiting I am bent, leaning toward God, listening for whispers of hope. Inclined in, oriented toward and filled with longing for the Holy One who comes. Oh, he comes!\r\n\r\nFor me Advent is an awareness of my need, over and over again\r\n\r\nfor the babe,\r\n\r\nour Savior,\r\n\r\nfor the King.\r\n\r\nIn her beautiful little book on advent, Enuma Okoro says, “we have to train ourselves to become the type of earthly vessels that can endure the challenging joy of waiting on God …”2\r\n\r\nThis Advent, I will again wait; purposefully and joyfully needing, anxiously wanting to hear and see a miracle, and resolutely longing for the One who is always with us. That is the miracle of Advent and the wonder of every day.\r\n\r\nKnowing God and waiting for the Holy.\r\n\r\n1 Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal (1983)\r\n2 Enuma Okoro, Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent, Upper Room Books (2012)','Waiting for the Holy','','inherit','open','open','','8107-revision-3','','','2012-11-27 09:14:54','2012-11-27 17:14:54','',8107,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/27/8107-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(8113,1,'2012-11-26 15:27:53','2012-11-26 23:27:53','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182.jpg\"><img src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/angel-fantasy-art-182-154x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"154\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n\r\nAs I look out into the faces of the people in the congregation I’m speaking to on any particular Sunday, I think to myself once again, <em>It would be so much easier to get up here behind this pulpit and talk about the joy of pap smears. Or snot. Or farting in public.</em>\r\n\r\nThe message I’ve been given to share, however, doesn’t involve topics as cozy and comfortable as these. I talk to churches and other organizations about proactively protecting children from sexual abuse. I say words like pedophiles and predators and prey. I throw out percentages and numbers, and I watch the faces of the people turn dark as data materializes into reality. Relentlessly, I drop on them the statistical impossibility that everyone underneath this steeple is somehow immune from this horror. Instead, I make it painfully clear that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who have been molested—that there are people at this very moment, in this very room who are currently <em>being</em> molested. The level of discomfort is evident on every grim face. They know what I’m going to say next: that they are statistically very likely to be sharing the pews with someone who has identified and chosen children who typify the desired profile; that they have then groomed those children over time, built a trust with their parents (unless, of course, children are being molested <em>by</em> their parents) and molested them just as soon as they arrived at a comfortable level of certainty that their victims wouldn’t tell. I warn them that their children could even now be somewhere along that dreadful continuum. The numbers don’t lie.\r\n\r\nI’m there to make sure they know that pedophiles sure do.\r\n\r\nIf I were in the audience listening to someone like me, I think I’d be looking around, making a mental note of every person who has had any sort of contact with my child, staring them down looking for the slightest trace of betrayal. I think I’d be freaked out enough to have my boy skip a few weeks of Royal Rangers or have my daughter sit with me in the main service instead of taking her to Children’s Church. If I were a Sunday school teacher or a nursery worker, conversations like this would make me want to stand up and announce, “Hey, everybody! I’m not a perv! Just want to make that clear—thought it was worth mentioning!”\r\n\r\nI create chaos, is what I do, and allow people to wallow in a bit of despondency for a time which, if you think about it, seems a little contrary to the pastor who is trying to bring the congregation together in unity, after all, and provide a place where people can come once a week to <em>refresh</em> and <em>recharge</em>. And then some chick has the gall to come along, grab the microphone and start shattering paradigms—not to mention brazenly encouraging those who are suffering in silence to speak up, even if their molester is sitting in the pew beside him or her. Even if their molester is on staff or a deacon or leads the choir. I empower children to speak out against their parents, wives against their husbands, and neighbors against neighbors. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household, right?\r\n\r\nSo believe me, it’s not like I’m booked out for months in advance to speak in different churches every Sunday. After I leave, it’s entirely possible, probable even, that victims will emerge and people—perhaps very visible people who have been trusted—will be discovered, arrested and charged with very serious crimes. Reputations ruined. Drama. Rumors hot off the prayer chain. It’s interesting to see who claims in the wake of one of my visits that God is “…leading us in a new direction” (as in… <em>not jail</em>) and suddenly parts ways.\r\n\r\nIt <em>would</em> be easier to talk about farting. Or how the Mormons are all deceived. How secular music is poisoning the minds of our young people, or politics and patriotism and all the Godly candidates. You know, issues good Christian folk can really come together on.\r\n\r\nBut I come with a sword and bring division; I do not come in peace. I don’t apologize, and I don’t mince words. Christ is coming again, I like to point out, and He’s not coming back as a little baby in a lowly manger this time. He’s coming back on a white horse (which may or may not be a metaphor for a Harley—I’m still pondering that) and He will make right all that is wrong on this planet. Evil will scatter the day that lightning splits the sky, but it will be rooted out of every dismal crevice and corner. No mountain stands too high, no ocean too deep, no distance so far, no location so obscure that the Commander of the Lord’s Army cannot snatch those who oppress the small and the weak right out.\r\n\r\nI’m occasionally admonished, “Well, Daisy, that doesn’t seem very gracious. Don’t you believe that Christ can forgive even the most heinous sins?”\r\n\r\nIn fact, I do. Let Christ do His work in the darkest hearts of those so enmeshed in deceit and manipulation and horror around which the rest of us can’t even wrap our heads. The Church should certainly make sure they have all the cigarettes and socks they’ll ever need or want for the duration of their time in prison.\r\n\r\n“So, pedophiles and those who harbor and protect you, <em>be afraid</em>,” I warn ignoring the pallor of pastors’ faces as I slice and dice his congregation, “Christ isn’t <em>just</em> coming for His own—He’s also coming for <em>you</em>. Those who live under tyranny, abuse and oppression, <em>take heart</em>, for the day of your deliverance <em>is</em> coming. And Church, the laborers are tragically few—so refresh and recharge, if you will, but remember that the body of Christ is a living, breathing entity whose purpose it is to bring hope and healing to a broken world. Bind up those bruised and broken reeds, rescue those in peril and set free those in captivity.”\r\n\r\nIn other words, grab a sword, people.\r\n\r\nJust be careful where you point it because there’s a lot of sword pointing out there in the name of Christ. To be clear, it wasn’t an atheist or a liberal or a homosexual or some other supposed enemy of the church that molested me every day of my childhood. It was the man who sang in the choir every Sunday and sat with my mother and me right there on the pews with his Bible open and his hands lifted in praise toward Heaven, fooling everybody and wreaking havoc on an entire generation—precisely where he remains to this day.\r\n\r\nOne sobering statistic: Serial pedophiles, the ones who molest children over an entire lifetime can abuse upwards of 400 children. We all would agree that even <em>one</em> is too many. We are called to be lights in this world, and I know we are all willing to be those lights. But we are so reluctant to believe that someone in our family, or one of our friends or neighbors, or someone sharing the pew with us in the house of God could bring that depravity into our inner sanctum. As a result, children suffer mutely and families show up twice on Sundays and Wednesday nights pretending they aren’t splintered into shards, deluding everyone.\r\n\r\nMy message is twofold: First, be careful and be vigilant, Church. These individuals have no difficultly slipping into churches where a patriarchal pecking order is the generally accepted structure and is not to be questioned or challenged; where even their most egregious sins are cast as far as the east is from the west in just one 30-second prayer; and Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and nursery workers are always in short supply. Has your place of worship put the adults on notice? Does your church ever sit down and have a conversation with kids about this? Do you assure them that you love them and will do everything within your power to keep them safe always? Have you taught them how to advocate for themselves and how to report to you if they are ever in a compromising situation? Do you have a plan of action when (not<em> if</em>) that occurs? If your church provides true sanctuary… it will happen. The statistics can promise you that.\r\n\r\nSecond, Christ heals. He restores. I am living proof. The nightmare can end, but we, as the body of Christ, need to open our eyes and acknowledge this epidemic of abuse for what it is. I’m not merely talking about tirelessly pontificating against every worldly ill (real or perceived) from the safety of our own bandwagons. I’m talking about stepping outside our peripheries of comfort and finding the courage to battle real evil in what could potentially become an all-out melee with casualties. I’m looking for contenders. I’m looking for redeemers. I’m looking for healers.\r\n\r\nLet’s do this.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Let\'s Have a Talk... Will Somebody Hold My Sword for a Second?','','inherit','open','open','','8090-revision-7','','','2012-11-26 15:27:53','2012-11-26 23:27:53','',8090,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/26/8090-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(8210,202,'2013-01-08 15:44:44','2013-01-08 23:44:44','<img class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http://c498390.r90.cf2.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Setting-Up-Podiums.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"860\" height=\"485\" />I remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\r\n\r\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\r\n\r\nBut what happens when our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” leads to our causing others pain?  Or what happens when people reveal to us deep pain and hurt caused by those with whom we theologically or ideologically agree?  What happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”\r\n\r\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to difficult situations like these.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert in the field but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to write about.  I write this not to chastise others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\r\n\r\nWith that confessions in mind, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith cross lines of difference that I have observed:\r\n\r\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\r\n\r\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”\r\n\r\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\r\n\r\nA friend told me a couple of years ago of the painful experience of having a conversation with a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of their meeting and planning activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  He was met with an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\r\n\r\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\r\n\r\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we are involved ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere all the usual stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My natural instinct, and I suspect I’m not alone, is to dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, allowing me to explain that Christianity can have a very different look and feel than my new acquaintances have supposed.\r\n\r\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular causes and hobby horses in the life of the church.  And on one level, that is fine.  The church needs to better educate its members about theology.  The church needs people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church needs to deal with its historical and cultural baggage.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these issues.\r\n\r\nBut what also needs to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with which we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone who is willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\r\n\r\nAll too often we go into situations where we are crossing lines of disagreement trigger-happy and ready to shoot.  Spoiling for the argument, we don\'t take the time to stop and consider the consequences of our words.  I was pretty astonished today when I watched this \"interview\" of Alex Jones by Piers Morgan:\r\n\r\n[youtube]http://youtu.be/Tf-i3Y5iRYo[/youtube]\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, a lot of people see Christians this way and a lot of times we Christians think this way of one another.  Aggressive and argumentative have become synonyms with \"Christian\" in our society, and we haven\'t done much to help our cause.\r\n\r\nWhat I think we need to ask ourselves more often is whether the way we have conversations with those with whom we disagree has more to do with advancing our favorite hobby-horse than with addressing the actual needs of the person we are talking with.\r\n\r\nPut another way, I think we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis if our calling to be servant leaders is best accomplished by taking every conversation as an opportunity to argue with others about the right things to think or a moment to accept what we consider false assumptions for the sake of meeting people where they are.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','When Should We Stop Arguing?','','inherit','open','open','','8205-revision-5','','','2013-01-08 15:44:44','2013-01-08 23:44:44','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/08/8205-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8066,12,'2012-11-16 23:17:44','2012-11-17 07:17:44','','lee','','inherit','open','open','','lee-3','','','2012-11-16 23:17:44','2012-11-17 07:17:44','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/lee2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8212,202,'2013-01-08 15:48:14','2013-01-08 23:48:14','<img class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http://c498390.r90.cf2.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Setting-Up-Podiums.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"688\" height=\"388\" />\r\n\r\nI remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\r\n\r\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\r\n\r\nBut what happens when our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” leads to our causing others pain?  Or what happens when people reveal to us deep pain and hurt caused by those with whom we theologically or ideologically agree?  What happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”\r\n\r\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to difficult situations like these.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert in the field but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to write about.  I write this not to chastise others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\r\n\r\nWith that confessions in mind, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith cross lines of difference that I have observed:\r\n\r\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\r\n\r\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”\r\n\r\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\r\n\r\nA friend told me a couple of years ago of the painful experience of having a conversation with a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of their meeting and planning activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  He was met with an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\r\n\r\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\r\n\r\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we are involved ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere all the usual stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My natural instinct, and I suspect I’m not alone, is to dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, allowing me to explain that Christianity can have a very different look and feel than my new acquaintances have supposed.\r\n\r\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular causes and hobby horses in the life of the church.  And on one level, that is fine.  The church needs to better educate its members about theology.  The church needs people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church needs to deal with its historical and cultural baggage.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these issues.\r\n\r\nBut what also needs to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with which we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone who is willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\r\n\r\nAll too often we go into situations where we are crossing lines of disagreement trigger-happy and ready to shoot.  Spoiling for the argument, we don\'t take the time to stop and consider the consequences of our words.  I was pretty astonished today when I watched this \"interview\" of Alex Jones by Piers Morgan:\r\n\r\n[youtube]http://youtu.be/Tf-i3Y5iRYo[/youtube]\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, a lot of people see Christians this way and a lot of times we Christians think this way of one another.  Aggressive and argumentative have become synonyms with \"Christian\" in our society, and we haven\'t done much to help our cause.\r\n\r\nWhat I think we need to ask ourselves more often is whether the way we have conversations with those with whom we disagree has more to do with advancing our favorite hobby-horse than with addressing the actual needs of the person we are talking with.\r\n\r\nPut another way, I think we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis if our calling to be servant leaders is best accomplished by taking every conversation as an opportunity to argue with others about the right things to think or a moment to accept what we consider false assumptions for the sake of meeting people where they are.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','When Should We Stop Arguing?','','inherit','open','open','','8205-revision-7','','','2013-01-08 15:48:14','2013-01-08 23:48:14','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/08/8205-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(8190,1,'2012-12-27 09:23:05','2012-12-27 17:23:05','','Tebow','','inherit','open','open','','tebow','','','2012-12-27 09:23:05','2012-12-27 17:23:05','',8189,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Tebow.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8191,1,'2012-12-27 09:28:16','2012-12-27 17:28:16','You gotta like <a href=\"http://www.timtebow.com\">Tim Tebow</a>, even if you don\'t like him.\n\nYesterday, ESPN called Tim Tebow, \"the most famous second quarterback in the history of the NFL.\" The Tebow hype has come back into full swing as <a href=\"http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8783587/mark-sanchez-start-new-york-jets-place-greg-mcelroy\">the New York Jets try and figure out what to do with the guy they traded for, yet refuse to play</a>.  Skip Bayless loves him...and countless people still want him...except Rex Ryan, his coach.  Sad.\n\nTebow is famous for late comebacks.  He\'s not the best quarterback by any means.  He\'s not a great passer, or even a good passer. He intelligent, exceedingly gracious...all good qualities in life, but not necessarily in the locker room. But most importantly, <strong>he wins</strong>.  That\'s what matters in professional sports.  In Denver, he orchestrated countless comebacks to John Elway\'s chagrin. You could see John fume on the sidelines as the Tebow kept winning.  It was a strange site. Here was one of the most celebrated QBs of all time, frustrated at winning.  Because every time Tebow won, Elway had to continue the charade he didn\'t want to play.  Ironic at best and strange at worst.  Because every time Tebow won, the crowds would chant his name, the pundits would bash him even more, and Tebow would continue to give credit to God.\n\nWhat\'s interesting about this year, is that Tebow is suffering.  The glory isn\'t there. Rex Ryan <strong>refuses</strong> to play him, even though the back-up McElroy is not very good (and now has a concussion), and Mark Sanchez has proven he\'s always (also orchestrated by Rex Ryan). Instead of stepping into the Elway charade, Ryan is now choosing to go back to Sanche the man he ceremoniously dumped two weeks ago, the awful Mark Sanchez.  And Tebow continues to wait.  His response was to <a href=\"http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8781908/tim-tebow-new-york-jets-says-never-asked-wildcat\">defend his character</a>.\n\nBut what\'s notably absent for me is the credit to God.  Where his amazing success was attributed to God, his lack of playing time is not.  I really wonder if God has given Tebow this same suffering because of the platform that was built in the previous year.  Because it\'s easy to credit God for success.  But it\'s hard to credit God for trials and tribulations.  God allows it.  And as frustrating as it is, our faith is defined also by the trials and not just in the successes.  Perhaps Tebow\'s greatest act will be in making it through the suffering with grace.  I think he has the character to do it.\n\nYou gotta like Tim Tebow.  I just hope he Tebows (gets down on his knees and prays) in the midst of this as much as he did last year.','The Twisted Tale of Tim Tebow','','inherit','open','open','','8189-revision','','','2012-12-27 09:28:16','2012-12-27 17:28:16','',8189,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/27/8189-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8209,202,'2013-01-08 14:53:28','2013-01-08 22:53:28','I remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBut what happens when our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” leads to our causing others pain?  Or what happens when people reveal to us deep pain and hurt caused by those with whom we theologically or ideologically agree?  What happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to difficult situations like these.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert in the field but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to write about.  I write this not to chastise others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWith that confessions in mind, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith cross lines of difference that I have observed:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nA friend told me a couple of years ago of the painful experience of having a conversation with a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of their meeting and planning activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  He was met with an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we are involved ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere all the usual stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My natural instinct, and I suspect I’m not alone, is to dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, allowing me to explain that Christianity can have a very different look and feel than my new acquaintances have supposed.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular causes and hobby horses in the life of the church.  And on one level, that is fine.  The church needs to better educate its members about theology.  The church needs people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church needs to deal with its historical and cultural baggage.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these issues.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBut what also needs to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with which we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone who is willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI’m not going to claim to be able to lay out hard rules for what to do in situations like this.  And I’m certainly not going to claim that I’ve navigated these waters perfectly myself.  But what I’m wondering about, and what I think we need to ask ourselves more often, is whether the way we have conversations with those with whom we disagree has more to do with advancing our favorite hobby-horse or with addressing the actual needs of the person we are talking with.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nPut another way, I think we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis if our calling to be servant leaders is best accomplished by taking every conversation as an opportunity to “teach” others the right things to think or by being willing to accept what we consider false assumptions for the sake of meeting people where they are.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','Responding to Someone Who Believes \"The Wrong Thing\"','','inherit','open','open','','8205-revision-4','','','2013-01-08 14:53:28','2013-01-08 22:53:28','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/08/8205-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(8192,1,'2012-12-27 09:29:25','2012-12-27 17:29:25','You gotta like <a href=\"http://www.timtebow.com\">Tim Tebow</a>, even if you don\'t like him.\n\nYesterday, ESPN called Tim Tebow, \"the most famous second quarterback in the history of the NFL.\" The Tebow hype has come back into full swing as <a href=\"http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8783587/mark-sanchez-start-new-york-jets-place-greg-mcelroy\">the New York Jets try and figure out what to do with the guy they traded for, yet refuse to play</a>.  Skip Bayless loves him...and countless people still want him...except Rex Ryan, his coach.  Sad.\n\nTebow is famous for late comebacks.  He\'s not the best quarterback by any means.  He\'s not a great passer, or even a good passer. He intelligent, exceedingly gracious...all good qualities in life, but not necessarily in the locker room. But most importantly, <strong>he wins</strong>.  That\'s what matters in professional sports.  In Denver, he orchestrated countless comebacks to John Elway\'s chagrin. You could see John fume on the sidelines as the Tebow kept winning.  It was a strange site. Here was one of the most celebrated QBs of all time, frustrated at winning.  Because every time Tebow won, Elway had to continue the charade he didn\'t want to play.  Ironic at best and strange at worst.  Because every time Tebow won, the crowds would chant his name, the pundits would bash him even more, and Tebow would continue to give credit to God.\n\nWhat\'s interesting about this year, is that Tebow is suffering.  The glory isn\'t there. Rex Ryan <strong>refuses</strong> to play him, even though the back-up McElroy is not very good (and now has a concussion), and Mark Sanchez has proven he\'s always (also orchestrated by Rex Ryan). Instead of stepping into the Elway charade, Ryan is now choosing to go back to Sanchez, the man he ceremoniously dumped two weeks ago.  And Tebow continues to wait.  His response was to <a href=\"http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/8781908/tim-tebow-new-york-jets-says-never-asked-wildcat\">defend his character</a>.\n\nBut what\'s notably absent for me is the credit to God.  Where his amazing success was attributed to God, his lack of playing time is not.  I really wonder if God has given Tebow this same suffering because of the platform that was built in the previous year.  Because it\'s easy to credit God for success.  But it\'s hard to credit God for trials and tribulations.  God allows it.  And as frustrating as it is, our faith is defined also by the trials and not just in the successes.  Perhaps Tebow\'s greatest act will be in making it through the suffering with grace.  I think he has the character to do it.  But will he give credit to God?\n\nYou gotta like Tim Tebow.  I just hope he Tebows (gets down on his knees and prays) in the midst of this as much as he did last year.','The Twisted Tale of Tim Tebow','','inherit','open','open','','8189-autosave','','','2012-12-27 09:29:25','2012-12-27 17:29:25','',8189,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/27/8189-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8358,0,'2013-01-21 09:47:32','2013-01-21 17:47:32','Every time I see the words “CNN is Against Child Labour” or watch some celebrity on TV waving the physical or vocal “Abolish Child Labour” flag, I want to get up and smash something—probably the screen.\r\n\r\nAnd sometimes aloud I will ask the empty room, “And then what?” Has anybody thought further than that? What happens to the children then? What happens to the families then?\r\n\r\nBefore we speak or take any action, we should consider the severe ramifications of abolishing a source of both income and labour that is not only prevalent, but has been part of the third world culture since time immemorial. Does anyone realize the importance of differentiating between “child slavery” and “child labour?” That the former is, in the majority of cases, a probable result of no access to the latter?\r\n\r\nDuring my years in both Africa and Asia, I spent a lot of time in villages talking to the village chiefs. I also spent time visiting factories where children were working, speaking not only to the owners, but also to the families of the children and the children themselves.\r\n\r\nI worked in the so-called “child care” industry for a number of years and have been part of not only the rescue, but also the caring and education operation—not in a detached way—in a hands on daily living way.\r\n\r\nIn Asia I have stood on street corners with prostitutes waiting for another family member to bring me their child or sibling—made quite an interesting sight, the <em>falang</em>(foreign) woman standing next to the local lady of the night; after a phone call from the village chief, I travelled hundreds of kilometres on the back of a motorbike to try and rescue two children from their aunt and uncle; I have stopped beggars in the middle of the road using drugged children as a lure to empty pockets and tried to convince them to let me take the children; I have visited brick-making factories where children worked next to their parents; I have searched for children stolen from the grounds of a temple the night before I was to take them to a place of care—by a relative to be sold (they were found a month later and are now in good care); I have been hit by drugged up little children begging from cars stopped at traffic lights, their mother sitting on a nearby corner watching carefully.\r\n\r\nYes, I have done these things and I can tell you a very different story—the one that ends with the immediate family and the child starving when the child is removed from the labour force. Or there’s the one that ends with a close relative stealing the child to take him or her to work in the next village or sold; or there is also the one with the family, now destitute, selling the child into sex trafficking or to factory owners or labour traffickers or, if young enough, to village witchdoctors for the making of medicine.\r\n\r\nA lot of noise—the same noise that’s been going on for more than 10 years—is currently being made about the children trafficked to work in the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast and the instant “quick-fix” is to stop buying Nestlé chocolate, or any other chocolate or cocoa product for that matter. And yes, some of these children—not all—have been trafficked. The cocoa industry—and the worldwide trade in sweets and chocolates that it supplies—has long had to contend with a growing reputation for child exploitation. In the Ivory Coast, which accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s cocoa production, the U.S. state department estimates that more than 100,000 children work in the cocoa industry, and many are victims of human trafficking and slavery.\r\n\r\nThe 2010 documentary <a href=\"http://www.thedarksideofchocolate.org/\"><em>The Dark Side of Chocolate</em></a> alleges that Nestlé purchases cocoa beans from Ivory Coast plantations that use child slave labour. The children are usually 12 to 15 years old, and some are trafficked from nearby countries—“some” not all.\r\n\r\nBut let us look closely at the definition of human trafficking according to <a href=\"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html#What_is_Human_Trafficking\">UNODC</a> (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime):\r\n<h2><strong>What is Human Trafficking?</strong></h2>\r\nArticle 3, paragraph (a) of the <a href=\"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/index.html\">Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons</a> defines Trafficking in Persons as:\r\n<blockquote>the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of<strong>the giving or</strong> <strong>receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person</strong>, <strong>for the purpose of exploitation.</strong>Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.</blockquote>\r\nAnd “at a minimum” is translated in <a href=\"http://www.ilo.org/declaration/principles/abolitionofchildlabour/lang--en/index.htm\">The ILO</a>—International Labour Organization—in one of their charter documents <em>Effective Abolition of Child Labour</em> <a href=\"http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?R190\">Supplemented: R190 Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999</a> as:\r\n<blockquote>12. Members should provide that the following worst forms of child labour are criminal offences:\r\n\r\n(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;\r\n\r\n(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances; and\r\n\r\n(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties, or for activities which involve the unlawful carrying or use of firearms or other weapons.</blockquote>\r\nVictims of human trafficking are not permitted to leave upon arrival at their destination. They are held against their will through acts of coercion and forced to work or provide services to the trafficker or others. The work or services may include anything from bonded or forced labour to commercialized sexual exploitation. The arrangement may be structured as a work contract, but with no or low payment or on terms which are highly exploitative. Sometimes the arrangement is structured as debt bondage, with the victim not being permitted or able to pay off the debt.\r\n\r\nHowever, remember, the majority of the children trafficked have been sold <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>by a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”</em></strong> In worlds where the attitude is, it’s the next, or the next few meals that count, or the debt collector has to be appeased, selling children into slavery is the easy way out.\r\n<h2><strong>Now let us look at child labour</strong></h2>\r\nAccording to the <a href=\"http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30177.html\">UN Convention On The Rights Of The Child</a>—Protection Rights: Keeping Safe from Harm Article 32 (Child labour):\r\n<blockquote>The government should protect children from work that is dangerous or might harm their health or their education. While the Convention protects children from harmful and exploitative work, there is nothing in it that prohibits parents from expecting their children to help out at home in ways that are safe and appropriate to their age. If children help out in a family farm or business, the tasks they do be safe and suited to their level of development and comply with national labour laws. Children’s work should not jeopardize any of their other rights, including the right to education, or the right to relaxation and play.</blockquote>\r\n<a href=\"http://www.ilo.org/declaration/principles/abolitionofchildlabour/lang--en/index.htm\">The ILO</a>—International Labour Organization—in one of their charter documents<em>Effective Abolition of Child Labour</em> states:\r\n<blockquote>The principle of the effective abolition of child labour means ensuring that every girl and boy has the opportunity to develop physically and mentally to her or his full potential. Its aim is to stop all work by children that jeopardizes their education and development. This does not mean stopping all work performed by children. International labour standards allow the distinction to be made between what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable forms of work for children at different ages and stages of development… The general minimum age for admission to employment should not be less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling and never be less than 15 years. But developing countries may make certain exceptions to this, and a minimum age of 14 years may be applied where the economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed. Sometimes, light work may be performed by children two years younger than the general minimum age.</blockquote>\r\nAlmost every section of both the above statements could be torn apart. Child labour accounts for 22 per cent of the workforce in <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2011/feel-beggar-care-smile/\">Asia</a>, 32 per cent in <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2011/sana-musasama-ceramic-artist/\">Africa</a> and 17 per cent in Latin America. In third world countries where the teachers are themselves not being paid and have to extract money from the children before even giving them their exam results, who is going to pay for this education that the child has a right to and, while the child is being educated, who is going to help feed the starving family?\r\n\r\n“The completion of compulsory schooling” is laughable. Go speak to the parents, find out what this “compulsory schooling” costs—especially at supposedly “free” government schools.\r\n\r\nGAP is screamed at for using factories that employ child labour; Nike was accused of using child labour in Pakistan to manufacture its soccer balls; Levi Strauss &amp; Co. are accused of using cotton from Uzbekistan harvested by enforced child labour. And again, the uninformed scream “Stop buying these products!”\r\n\r\nThen what? What happens to the children then? Now there is NO work and I can assure you, manufacturing soccer balls, making bricks, sitting behind sewing machines, working in the fields and picking cotton are preferable to some of the alternatives. At least these children get the chance to go home and be with their families.\r\n\r\nWe in the western world created this monster and now we cannot live with the consequences of our actions. Maybe it is time to think of the effect our so-called “developed world” has on the—again so-called—“developing world” before we want more of what we don’t need.\r\n\r\nNo, we should not stop buying the products from companies that knowingly or unwittingly make use of child labour to manufacture either a portion of or the completed article we purchase.\r\n\r\nWhat we should be doing is telling them to pay the labour a proper living wage and monitor the factory to ensure that this is actually being done. This is still a pittance in countries where families are expected to survive on $30 per month.\r\n\r\nWe should be telling the companies who use child labour to downsize their profit margins—let go of some greed. Money earned by the workers for the manufacture of a soccer ball in Pakistan? In the region of $0.50 per ball and what do Nike soccer balls cost? Go figure.\r\n\r\nWe should not stop buying cocoa or chocolate products. As Nestlé chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe recently told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, removing child labour from the African cocoa harvest is “almost impossible,” citing the difficulty faced by small-time farmers in rural areas managing a harvest without the help of their children. He announced that, rather than eliminating child labour, his company instead wanted to invest in education for those children who worked in the cocoa fields—a concept he referred to as “creating shared value.” “If they have the access to good schooling, then the child labour as such is helping the fathers in the field and helping with the harvesting, I don’t think this is a problem,” he said. “The problem is when you use the children only for that and don’t allow them to go to school.”\r\n\r\nWhat we should be doing is agitating for the companies who supply us our addictions via the trafficking route to go one step further; go look for the traffickers, go find the children and buy them back, allow them access to their families, give them education opportunities.\r\n\r\nWe should be going to the factories and negotiating for space somewhere on the premises to teach the child when it is not working—I did this at brick making factories and was given space and permission on only one condition, that I teach the adults too!\r\n\r\nWe should be telling those organizations and activists who believe it is better to remove the child from the workplace to go ahead, but then pay the family the money the child would have earned AND pay to educate this child. And be fully aware of the consequences of any action they take.\r\n\r\nYes, children are precious and we must protect them. But we must be extremely careful how we do this in third world countries where children are commodities used to feed those who can no longer feed themselves, and the only way to truly protect them is to ensure that the rest of the family is cared for too. Abolishing child labour will lead to them being trafficked—that is a fact.\r\n\r\nTo slightly adapt the words of a Roger Waters song “What God Wants God gets, God help us all”—what developed man wants, developed man gets, developed man help us all. And think carefully—exactly how far are you prepared to go to undo what you have done and are still doing? Are you prepared to buy a life to save a life?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div><em>Jane Olivier writes for and edits <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a> journal of engaged living.</em></div>','Abolishing Child Labor Leads to Slavery','','inherit','open','open','','8243-revision-4','','','2013-01-21 09:47:32','2013-01-21 17:47:32','',8243,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/21/8243-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7706,0,'2012-09-10 12:54:12','2012-09-10 19:54:12','Hi,\r\n\r\nMy name is Hannah and I came across your site while exploring issues related to the college job market and student debt. Myself, along with a team of designers and researchers have created a graphic which shows the facts and figures behind the struggles of recent college graduates.\r\n\r\nI would love to share it with you, if you\'re interested let me know. :)\r\n\r\nThank you,\r\n\r\nHannah Peters\r\npetershannah8@gmail.com | CollegeAtHome.com\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Hannah\nAUTHOR EMAIL: petershannah8@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: [Provoketive Magazine] Contact Us\nIP: 121.96.61.130\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Hannah\n    [Email] =&gt; petershannah8@gmail.com\n    [Comment] =&gt; Hi,\r\n\r\nMy name is Hannah and I came across your site while exploring issues related to the college job market and student debt. Myself, along with a team of designers and researchers have created a graphic which shows the facts and figures behind the struggles of recent college graduates.\r\n\r\nI would love to share it with you, if you\'re interested let me know. :)\r\n\r\nThank you,\r\n\r\nHannah Peters\r\npetershannah8@gmail.com | CollegeAtHome.com\r\n\n)\n','Hannah - 2012-09-10 12:54:12','','publish','open','open','','fd3cf58bc1f7f9529bd77683af759fe9','','','2012-09-10 12:54:12','2012-09-10 19:54:12','',16,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=7706',0,'feedback','',0),(8134,1,'2012-12-01 15:11:52','2012-12-01 23:11:52','<strong>Growing Up in Fear</strong>\r\n\r\nAs a kid, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night: gasping for air and in a cold sweat, I’d be in a state of utter horror: believing that God had returned from heaven and left me behind, I feared that I would have to struggle for three and a half to seven years to avoid the Mark of the Beast in order to be saved from eternal fire and brimstone.\r\n\r\nNo, seriously.\r\n\r\nDuring the day, I’d keep my eyes peeled for the anti-Christ.  Democrats were particularly suspect.  The stock market was also indicative.  I’d look for places where I could camp out during the tribulation.  I found a tree house once that I thought I could stay in until the water next to it turned to blood.\r\n\r\nAt night, though, when this would happen, I’d start praying incessantly: confessing the awful sins that I believed I had committed, and asking that God be gracious to me because of them.  I’d be <em>pleading</em> for God to save me from the flames of hell that I thought I was in danger of.\r\n\r\n<em>“Oh, God!  Please!  Save me!  I am so sorry to have cursed at Josh today.  He’s not a fucking asshole, God.  He’s my </em>\r\n\r\n<em>friend and your precious child.  Oh, please, forgive me!  I don’t want to go to hell!  Why did I do that?!  I am so sorry! Don’t leave me behind, God.  I am sorry that I masturbated tonight!  Why, God?!  How could I be such a foolish sinner? In your love, forgive me!  If you have already come back, God, then will you please swoop back down and rapture me?  I am so afraid of the devil!  I am so afraid of the anti-Christ!  I promise that I will never get the Mark of the Beast! I am so afraid of hell!”</em>\r\n\r\nThis began in elementary school and lasted through High School: to varying degrees, and in relative forms.  It’s funny now but it was traumatic as hell then.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, I did not create these fantasies.  They weren’t the manifestation of a deranged child.  No, I am afraid they came from the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in. The dangerous myths about God that they taught me and coerced me to live into.\r\n\r\nThe place truly believed and lived as though God’s return was immanent, and that people that were either (a) unsaved or (b) living a life of sin would soon be suffering God’s wrath and, thus, the flames of hell: first on earth in a sort of tribulation,  and then in eternity.  If one wanted to avoid this suffering, then one needed to profess Christ as God and live a rather sinless life.\r\n\r\nThis was serious business.\r\n\r\nWe’d watch videos on this stuff: of God leaving people behind, of people getting the Mark of Beast, of people getting their heads chopped off as a result, of the waters of the earth turning to blood because of God’s beef with the world, of people in hell for various arbitrary reasons.\r\n\r\nThe implicit message was always: “this is what’s <em>going</em> to happen, and this is what’s going to happen to <em>you</em> unless you accept Jesus and ,basically, not sin”.\r\n\r\nThey’d illustrate the message through puppet shows.  We’d color this reality on paper.  And into the very depths of our psyches.\r\n\r\nThings got pretty scary when the demons of puberty struck.  On numerous occasions, I remember teachers coming up to me and saying: “Let me see you hands, Paul.  [At which point I’d show the teacher my hands].  Is there <em>semen</em> on these hands?  I know there is.  I know you’ve been masturbating.  You better clean yourself, boy.  Lift your hands up to heaven and pray for forgiveness.  Do it.  Right now!”\r\n\r\n<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-8017 alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gw-al-gore-fire-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" />\r\n\r\nIn 1999, Al Gore was the anti-Christ and Y2K was the beginning of the immanent end.  Families bought land in far off places, stocked their garages with the basic food groups, and purchased things like generators.\r\n\r\nThat same year, as a gesture of love, he claimed, my Bible teacher suggested that we write out the entire book of Revelation and then address it to an unsaved friend.  The purpose?  So that when God returned, that unsaved friend, who would be left behind, would have an opportunity to be saved by reading it.\r\n\r\nSorry about that, Mark.\r\n\r\nHow an “unsaved” kid could ascertain that information from a long and complicated book—that many suggest isn’t about the “end times” at all—is sort of interesting to think about now.\r\n\r\nMy friend’s brother also went to an Evangelical Christian school.  When he was in 9<sup>th</sup> grade, the school called everyone into the chapel and then locked them inside.  It was an emergency, the school said.\r\n\r\nThe principle got on stage and told everyone that the nuclear power plant outside of Denver had just exploded.   That all of their family members were dead.  That they only have hours to live.\r\n\r\nFortunately for them, there was still time to accept Christ.  If they didn’t, they’d soon be dead and in hell forever.  Like the rest of Denver.\r\n\r\nThe principle made the whole thing up to scare the kids into accepting Jesus.  Some parents complained, but he got off with a mere warning because his “intentions” were good: because, so the logic went, leading people to Christ can never be quite that bad.\r\n\r\n<strong>A Father and His Son</strong>\r\n\r\nThis past weekend I dropped my doctoral program to-do list and drove from Berkeley to Orange County in order to spend time with friends from college.  Thanks be to God that my old Volvo survived the trip.  I wasn’t sure that it would.  But I am so glad: I needed the respite and rejuvenation that my beautiful friends—many of whom also grew up in the sort of Evangelical world I did—lavishly bless me with.\r\n\r\nOne afternoon, as I dug my toes into the warm sand of Newport Beach, listened to the waves crash onto the shore, and ate a <em>ridiculously</em> expensive acai bowl, I watched and listened to a father teach his son how to boogie board.\r\n\r\nI watched as the boy’s father gently held his shirt until a wave was powerful enough to carry him forward.\r\n\r\nI listened as he told his son what to do: “here comes a big one, my boy, kick your feet as hard and fast as you can!”\r\n\r\nI watched as his son struggled to learn and failed to ride the waves.\r\n\r\nAnd I listened as his father encourage him in his struggles and failures: “that’s okay, my boy, we’ll get the next one”.\r\n\r\nAs I watched and listened to this simple and yet beautiful exchange, I gave thanks to God: for being the sort of Father that gently teaches us how to ride the waves of life, and that encourages us when we struggle and fail to do so.\r\n\r\nI also gave thanks to God for not actually being the God of the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in.  And for helping me understand that.\r\n\r\nThe fear-based Evangelical God is a monster.  He’s a child abuser.  And a lot of people that have left the church have left for that very reason: because they don’t want be around a God-monster that abuses children.  We should applaud their departure.  And seriously mourn their loss and the reason for it.\r\n\r\n<strong>Addressing Abuse in the Church</strong>\r\n\r\nI got to wondering about this on my drive back up to Berkeley.\r\n\r\nHow many children have had similar experiences?  How many children are experiencing this sort of thing right now?  Have people left the Church because of this reason?  What are the consequences these experiences? Has it been seriously studied yet?  Have I changed my doctoral focus yet again?  How many questions can one ask before going insane?\r\n\r\nBut seriously, is this issue on our radar?  How concerned are we about it?\r\n\r\nChildren enter the world with a profound sense of openness and trust.   That is a gift.  A blessing.  But it is also a vulnerability, and something that can be taken advantaged of and murderously destroyed if handled inappropriately.   And what some churches do to children to get them “saved” is nothing short of child abuse.\r\n\r\nThe Church ought to wake up to this fact and deal with it within its own walls lest the State take up the worthy cause to the detriment of both the Church and the State.\r\n\r\nA few important points:\r\n\r\nI am not suggesting that churches are intentionally and consciously abusing children.  I am also not suggesting that the people that teach children to be afraid of God are child abusers. Some churches are also more extreme than others.  Not every fear-based Evangelical church is like the one I grew up in.   Some are worse.  And some, like mine, are also very beautiful and loving places.  I fell in love with God in my fear-based Evangelical world, however pathological that love initially was.  And that is a testament to God’s presence there.\r\n\r\nThe situation is complicated and nuanced.  And, most of all, it’s a sacred tragedy.\r\n\r\nGod is love, and the Church is called to be an orchestra of that love.  It ought to be a place of safety for children—a place where they can go to understand how<em>ridiculously</em> in love God is with them.  Not a fear factory garbed in godliness.\r\n\r\nThe Church ought to be a place where children need <em>absolutely not</em> be afraid of God: because that is the last thing God wants for children.  When the Church teaches children to fear God, and thus alienates them from God, it perverts the essence of its mission and it embarrasses itself.  It takes advantage of children, and it often destroys something sacred in them.  And few things grieve the Spirit more than that.\r\n\r\n“Woe to you who cause children to stumble,” Jesus warned.','God in a Fear Factory','','inherit','open','open','','8016-revision-8','','','2012-12-01 15:11:52','2012-12-01 23:11:52','',8016,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/01/8016-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(8130,201,'2012-12-01 23:01:42','2012-12-02 07:01:42','<strong>Growing Up in Fear</strong>\n\nAs a kid, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night: gasping for air and in a cold sweat, I’d be in a state of utter horror: believing that God had returned from heaven and left me behind, I feared that I would have to struggle for three and a half to seven years to avoid the Mark of the Beast in order to be saved from eternal fire and brimstone.\n\nNo, seriously.\n\nDuring the day, I’d keep my eyes peeled for the anti-Christ.  Democrats were particularly suspect.  The stock market was also indicative.  I’d look for places where I could camp out during the tribulation.  I found a tree house once that I thought I could stay in until the water next to it turned to blood.\n\nAt night, though, when this would happen, I’d start praying incessantly: confessing the awful sins that I believed I had committed, and asking that God be gracious to me because of them.  I’d be <em>pleading</em> for God to save me from the flames of hell that I thought I was in danger of.\n\n<em>“Oh, God!  Please!  Save me!  I am so sorry to have cursed at Josh today.  He’s not a fucking asshole, God.  He’s my </em>\n\n<em>friend and your precious child.  Oh, please, forgive me!  I don’t want to go to hell!  Why did I do that?!  I am so sorry! Don’t leave me behind, God.  I am sorry that I masturbated tonight!  Why, God?!  How could I be such a foolish sinner? In your love, forgive me!  If you have already come back, God, then will you please swoop back down and rapture me?  I am so afraid of the devil!  I am so afraid of the anti-Christ!  I promise that I will never get the Mark of the Beast! I am so afraid of hell!”</em>\n\nThis began in elementary school and lasted through High School: to varying degrees, and in relative forms.  It’s funny now but it was traumatic as hell then.\n\nUnfortunately, I did not create these fantasies.  They weren’t the manifestation of a deranged child.  No, I am afraid they came from the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in. The dangerous myths about God that they taught me and coerced me to live into.\n\nThe place truly believed and lived as though God’s return was immanent, and that people that were either (a) unsaved or (b) living a life of sin would soon be suffering God’s wrath and, thus, the flames of hell: first on earth in a sort of tribulation,  and then in eternity.  If one wanted to avoid this suffering, then one needed to profess Christ as God and live a rather sinless life.\n\nThis was serious business.\n\nWe’d watch videos on this stuff: of God leaving people behind, of people getting the Mark of Beast, of people getting their heads chopped off as a result, of the waters of the earth turning to blood because of God’s beef with the world, of people in hell for various arbitrary reasons.\n\nThe implicit message was always: “this is what’s <em>going</em> to happen, and this is what’s going to happen to <em>you</em> unless you accept Jesus and ,basically, not sin”.\n\nThey’d illustrate the message through puppet shows.  We’d color this reality on paper.  And into the very depths of our psyches.\n\nThings got pretty scary when the demons of puberty struck.  On numerous occasions, I remember teachers coming up to me and saying: “Let me see you hands, Paul.  [At which point I’d show the teacher my hands].  Is there <em>semen</em> on these hands?  I know there is.  I know you’ve been masturbating.  You better clean yourself, boy.  Lift your hands up to heaven and pray for forgiveness.  Do it.  Right now!”\n\n<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-8017 alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gw-al-gore-fire-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" />\n\nIn 1999, Al Gore was the anti-Christ and Y2K was the beginning of the immanent end.  Families bought land in far off places, stocked their garages with the basic food groups, and purchased things like generators.\n\nThat same year, as a gesture of love, he claimed, my Bible teacher suggested that we write out the entire book of Revelation and then address it to an unsaved friend.  The purpose?  So that when God returned, that unsaved friend, who would be left behind, would have an opportunity to be saved by reading it.\n\nSorry about that, Mark.\n\nHow an “unsaved” kid could ascertain that information from a long and complicated book—that many suggest isn’t about the “end times” at all—is sort of interesting to think about now.\n\nMy friend’s brother also went to an Evangelical Christian school.  When he was in 9<sup>th</sup> grade, the school called everyone into the chapel and then locked them inside.  It was an emergency, the school said.\n\nThe principle got on stage and told everyone that the nuclear power plant outside of Denver had just exploded.   That all of their family members were dead.  That they only have hours to live.\n\nFortunately for them, there was still time to accept Christ.  If they didn’t, they’d soon be dead and in hell forever.  Like the rest of Denver.\n\nThe principle made the whole thing up to scare the kids into accepting Jesus.  Some parents complained, but he got off with a mere warning because his “intentions” were good: because, so the logic went, leading people to Christ can never be quite that bad.\n\n<strong>A Father and His Son</strong>\n\nThis past weekend I dropped my doctoral program to-do list and drove from Berkeley to Orange County in order to spend time with friends from college.  Thanks be to God that my old Volvo survived the trip.  I wasn’t sure that it would.  But I am so glad: I needed the respite and rejuvenation that my beautiful friends—many of whom also grew up in the sort of Evangelical world I did—lavishly bless me with.\n\nOne afternoon, as I dug my toes into the warm sand of Newport Beach, listened to the waves crash onto the shore, and ate a <em>ridiculously</em> expensive acai bowl, I watched and listened to a father teach his son how to boogie board.\n\nI watched as the boy’s father gently held his shirt until a wave was powerful enough to carry him forward.\n\nI listened as he told his son what to do: “here comes a big one, my boy, kick your feet as hard and fast as you can!”\n\nI watched as his son struggled to learn and failed to ride the waves.\n\nAnd I listened as his father encourage him in his struggles and failures: “that’s okay, my boy, we’ll get the next one”.\n\nAs I watched and listened to this simple and yet beautiful exchange, I gave thanks to God: for being the sort of Father that gently teaches us how to ride the waves of life, and that encourages us when we struggle and fail to do so.\n\nI also gave thanks to God for not actually being the God of the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in.  And for helping me understand that.\n\nThe fear-based Evangelical God is a monster.  He’s a child abuser.  And a lot of people that have left the church have left for that very reason: because they don’t want be around a God-monster that abuses children.  We should applaud their departure.  And seriously mourn their loss and the reason for it.\n\n<strong>Addressing Abuse in the Church</strong>\n\nI got to wondering about this on my drive back up to Berkeley.\n\nHow many children have had similar experiences?  How many children are experiencing this sort of thing right now?  Have people left the Church because of this reason?  What are the consequences these experiences? Has it been seriously studied yet?  Have I changed my doctoral focus yet again?  How many questions can one ask before going insane?\n\nBut seriously, is this issue on our radar?  How concerned are we about it?\n\nChildren enter the world with a profound sense of openness and trust.   That is a gift.  A blessing.  But it is also a vulnerability, and something that can be taken advantaged of and murderously destroyed if handled inappropriately.   And what some churches do to children to get them “saved” is nothing short of child abuse.\n\nThe Church ought to wake up to this fact and deal with it within its own walls lest the State take up the worthy cause to the detriment of both the Church and the State.\n\nA few important points:\n\nI am not suggesting that churches are intentionally and consciously abusing children.  I am also not suggesting that the people that teach children to be afraid of God are child abusers. Some churches are also more extreme than others.  Not every fear-based Evangelical church is like the one I grew up in.   Some are worse.  And some, like mine, are also very beautiful and loving places.  I fell in love with God in my fear-based Evangelical world, however pathological that love initially was.  And that is a testament to God’s presence there.\n\nThe situation is complicated and nuanced.  And, most of all, it’s a sacred tragedy.\n\nGod is love, and the Church is called to be an orchestra of that love.  It ought to be a place of safety for children—a place where they can go to understand how<em>ridiculously</em> in love God is with them.  Not a fear factory garbed in godliness.\n\nThe Church ought to be a place where children need <em>absolutely not</em> be afraid of God: because that is the last thing God wants for children.  When the Church teaches children to fear God, and thus alienates them from God, it perverts the essence of its mission and it embarrasses itself.  It takes advantage of children, and it often destroys something sacred in them.  And few things grieve the Spirit more than that.\n\n“Woe to you who cause children to stumble,” Jesus warned.','God In A Fear Factory','','inherit','open','open','','8016-autosave','','','2012-12-01 23:01:42','2012-12-02 07:01:42','',8016,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/01/8016-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8131,1,'2012-12-01 10:43:05','2012-12-01 18:43:05','&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gw-al-gore-fire.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8017\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gw-al-gore-fire-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" /></a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Growing Up in Fear</strong>\r\n\r\nAs a kid, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night: gasping for air and in a cold sweat, I’d be in a state of utter horror: believing that God had returned from heaven and left me behind, I feared that I would have to struggle for three and a half to seven years to avoid the Mark of the Beast in order to be saved from eternal fire and brimstone.\r\n\r\nNo, seriously.\r\n\r\nDuring the day, I’d keep my eyes peeled for the anti-Christ.  Democrats were particularly suspect.  The stock market was also indicative.  I’d look for places where I could camp out during the tribulation.  I found a tree house once that I thought I could stay in until the water next to it turned to blood.\r\n\r\nAt night, though, when this would happen, I’d start praying incessantly: confessing the awful sins that I believed I had committed, and asking that God be gracious to me because of them.  I’d be <em>pleading</em> for God to save me from the flames of hell that I thought I was in danger of.\r\n\r\n<em>“Oh, God!  Please!  Save me!  I am so sorry to have cursed at Josh today.  He’s not a fucking asshole, God.  He’s my friend and your precious child.  Oh, please, forgive me!  I don’t want to go to hell!  Why did I do that?!  I am so sorry! Don’t leave me behind, God.  I am sorry that I masturbated tonight!  Why, God?!  How could I be such a foolish sinner? In your love, forgive me!  If you have already come back, God, then will you please swoop back down and rapture me?  I am so afraid of the devil!  I am so afraid of the anti-Christ!  I promise that I will never get the Mark of the Beast! I am so afraid of hell!”</em>\r\n\r\nThis began in elementary school and lasted through High School: to varying degrees, and in relative forms.  It’s funny now but it was traumatic as hell then.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, I did not create these fantasies.  They weren’t the manifestation of a deranged child.  No, I am afraid they came from the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in. The dangerous myths about God that they taught me and coerced me to live into.\r\n\r\nThe place truly believed and lived as though God’s return was immanent, and that people that were either (a) unsaved or (b) living a life of sin would soon be suffering God’s wrath and, thus, the flames of hell: first on earth in a sort of tribulation,  and then in eternity.  If one wanted to avoid this suffering, then one needed to profess Christ as God and live a rather sinless life.\r\n\r\nThis was serious business.\r\n\r\nWe’d watch videos on this stuff: of God leaving people behind, of people getting the Mark of Beast, of people getting their heads chopped off as a result, of the waters of the earth turning to blood because of God’s beef with the world, of people in hell for various arbitrary reasons.\r\n\r\nThe implicit message was always: “this is what’s <em>going</em> to happen, and this is what’s going to happen to <em>you</em> unless you accept Jesus and ,basically, not sin”.\r\n\r\nThey’d illustrate the message through puppet shows.  We’d color this reality on paper.  And into the very depths of our psyches.\r\n\r\nThings got pretty scary when the demons of puberty struck.  On numerous occasions, I remember teachers coming up to me and saying: “Let me see you hands, Paul.  [At which point I’d show the teacher my hands].  Is there <em>semen</em> on these hands?  I know there is.  I know you’ve been masturbating.  You better clean yourself, boy.  Lift your hands up to heaven and pray for forgiveness.  Do it.  Right now!”\r\n\r\nIn 1999, Al Gore was the anti-Christ and Y2K was the beginning of the immanent end.  Families bought land in far off places, stocked their garages with the basic food groups, and purchased things like generators.\r\n\r\nThat same year, as a gesture of love, he claimed, my Bible teacher suggested that we write out the entire book of Revelation and then address it to an unsaved friend.  The purpose?  So that when God returned, that unsaved friend, who would be left behind, would have an opportunity to be saved by reading it.\r\n\r\nSorry about that, Mark.\r\n\r\nHow an “unsaved” kid could ascertain that information from a long and complicated book—that many suggest isn’t about the “end times” at all—is sort of interesting to think about now.\r\n\r\nMy friend’s brother also went to an Evangelical Christian school.  When he was in 9<sup>th</sup> grade, the school called everyone into the chapel and then locked them inside.  It was an emergency, the school said.\r\n\r\nThe principle got on stage and told everyone that the nuclear power plant outside of Denver had just exploded.   That all of their family members were dead.  That they only have hours to live.\r\n\r\nFortunately for them, there was still time to accept Christ.  If they didn’t, they’d soon be dead and in hell forever.  Like the rest of Denver.\r\n\r\nThe principle made the whole thing up to scare the kids into accepting Jesus.  Some parents complained, but he got off with a mere warning because his “intentions” were good: because, so the logic went, leading people to Christ can never be quite that bad.\r\n\r\n<strong>A Father and His Son</strong>\r\n\r\nThis past weekend I dropped my doctoral program to-do list and drove from Berkeley to Orange County in order to spend time with friends from college.  Thanks be to God that my old Volvo survived the trip.  I wasn’t sure that it would.  But I am so glad: I needed the respite and rejuvenation that my beautiful friends—many of whom also grew up in the sort of Evangelical world I did—lavishly bless me with.\r\n\r\nOne afternoon, as I dug my toes into the warm sand of Newport Beach, listened to the waves crash onto the shore, and ate a <em>ridiculously</em> expensive acai bowl, I watched and listened to a father teach his son how to boogie board.\r\n\r\nI watched as the boy’s father gently held his shirt until a wave was powerful enough to carry him forward.\r\n\r\nI listened as he told his son what to do: “here comes a big one, my boy, kick your feet as hard and fast as you can!”\r\n\r\nI watched as his son struggled to learn and failed to ride the waves.\r\n\r\nAnd I listened as his father encourage him in his struggles and failures: “that’s okay, my boy, we’ll get the next one”.\r\n\r\nAs I watched and listened to this simple and yet beautiful exchange, I gave thanks to God: for being the sort of Father that gently teaches us how to ride the waves of life, and that encourages us when we struggle and fail to do so.\r\n\r\nI also gave thanks to God for not actually being the God of the fear-based Evangelical world that I grew up in.  And for helping me understand that.\r\n\r\nThe fear-based Evangelical God is a monster.  He’s a child abuser.  And a lot of people that have left the church have left for that very reason: because they don’t want be around a God-monster that abuses children.  We should applaud their departure.  And seriously mourn their loss and the reason for it.\r\n\r\n<strong>Addressing Abuse in the Church</strong>\r\n\r\nI got to wondering about this on my drive back up to Berkeley.\r\n\r\nHow many children have had similar experiences?  How many children are experiencing this sort of thing right now?  Have people left the Church because of this reason?  What are the consequences these experiences? Has it been seriously studied yet?  Have I changed my doctoral focus yet again?  How many questions can one ask before going insane?\r\n\r\nBut seriously, is this issue on our radar?  How concerned are we about it?\r\n\r\nChildren enter the world with a profound sense of openness and trust.   That is a gift.  A blessing.  But it is also a vulnerability, and something that can be taken advantaged of and murderously destroyed if handled inappropriately.   And what some churches do to children to get them “saved” is nothing short of child abuse.\r\n\r\nThe Church ought to wake up to this fact and deal with it within its own walls lest the State take up the worthy cause to the detriment of both the Church and the State.\r\n\r\nA few important points:\r\n\r\nI am not suggesting that churches are intentionally and consciously abusing children.  I am also not suggesting that the people that teach children to be afraid of God are child abusers. Some churches are also more extreme than others.  Not every fear-based Evangelical church is like the one I grew up in.   Some are worse.  And some, like mine, are also very beautiful and loving places.  I fell in love with God in my fear-based Evangelical world, however pathological that love initially was.  And that is a testament to God’s presence there.\r\n\r\nThe situation is complicated and nuanced.  And, most of all, it’s a sacred tragedy.\r\n\r\nGod is love, and the Church is called to be an orchestra of that love.  It ought to be a place of safety for children—a place where they can go to understand how<em>ridiculously</em> in love God is with them.  Not a fear factory garbed in godliness.\r\n\r\nThe Church ought to be a place where children need <em>absolutely not</em> be afraid of God: because that is the last thing God wants for children.  When the Church teaches children to fear God, and thus alienates them from God, it perverts the essence of its mission and it embarrasses itself.  It takes advantage of children, and it often destroys something sacred in them.  And few things grieve the Spirit more than that.\r\n\r\n“Woe to you who cause children to stumble,” Jesus warned.','Al Gore as the Anti-Christ and the Nuclear Explosion in Denver that Never Happened: On God in a Fear Factory','','inherit','open','open','','8016-revision-6','','','2012-12-01 10:43:05','2012-12-01 18:43:05','',8016,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/01/8016-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(8022,144,'2012-11-13 10:02:34','2012-11-13 18:02:34','<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">I am seriously moved, definitely warmed and inspired as I just finished a new novel by Doug Worgul, entitled, </span><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Blue-Smoke-Doug-Worgul/dp/0985295325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1352059633&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=thin+blue+smoke\"><em>Thin Blue Smoke.</em></a></strong></p>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">These characters got into my heart and let me know I still have a heart. They’re real and flawed. Some of them have had some really bad breaks in life, but those bad breaks did not set their destiny; one human being caring about another did.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Having stumbled upon a review while surfing my Facebook updates, it was the context of Kansas City barbecue that intrigued me because I love barbecue and spent a good many years living just north and later, just south of KC. A downtown hole-the-wall barbecue joint is a connecting point for many of the characters in the story.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http://www.dougworgul.com/\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><img class=\" wp-image-1205 alignright\" src=\"http://www.glennhager.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/worgul-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"159\" height=\"240\" /></span></a><strong>Food, friends, and faith are all meshed in a raw and real way to keep you eagerly reading.</strong> I was sucked in with a mention of my hometown in the first paragraph of chapter one and later references to obscure northwestern Missouri locales, all of which were familiar to me.</span>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">Worgul is a former features, book and magazine editor for the </span><em>Kansas City Star</em></strong><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>, the author of two non-fiction works, and a bona fide barbecue expert.</strong> He writes so beautifully and warmly that you know this man knows something about people, God, relationships, redemption, and barbecue. It’s not preachy in the least and is not a Christian book, in any conventional sense, but its message of love and redemption through relationships is, perhaps, the most beautiful I have ever read.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>The characters are colorful, including the cranky old former professional baseball player and proprietor of the BBQ joint,</strong> the sort of adopted lost boy who runs the place, the scholarly, alcoholic, has been author Episcopal priest, the real estate developer with a secret, and the seventy-five year-old local legend blues singer, known as Mother. These are real people who have serious regrets, drink too much, have sex, and yes, some of them, are violent and corrupt. Not everyone is redeemed. It’s like life.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>There are scenes so tender that they got to a crusty old dude like me.</strong> The eccentricities of the people made me laugh out loud and the circumstances of their love and grief caused me to weep silently.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>I loved reading this rich and rewarding story set in a place I know, but it is the people</strong> (I don’t even think of them as characters) that encouraged me and inspired me to see if maybe, somehow in the twists and turns of life, I could be something of a redeeming influence for somebody.</span>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.dougworgul.com/\">Doug Worgul’s site</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://burnsidewriters.com/2012/03/19/introducing-burnside-books/\">Burnside Books (publisher) site</a>','Thin Blue Smoke','','inherit','open','open','','8004-autosave','','','2012-11-13 10:02:34','2012-11-13 18:02:34','',8004,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/12/8004-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8025,144,'2012-11-13 09:54:59','2012-11-13 17:54:59','','tbs banner-2','','inherit','open','open','','tbs-banner-2','','','2012-11-13 09:54:59','2012-11-13 17:54:59','',8004,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/tbs-banner-2.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8024,144,'2012-11-13 09:51:59','2012-11-13 17:51:59','','tbs banner-1','','inherit','open','open','','tbs-banner-1','','','2012-11-13 09:51:59','2012-11-13 17:51:59','',8004,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/tbs-banner-1.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8026,144,'2012-11-13 09:56:32','2012-11-13 17:56:32','','tbs banner-3','','inherit','open','open','','tbs-banner-3','','','2012-11-13 09:56:32','2012-11-13 17:56:32','',8004,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/tbs-banner-3.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8027,144,'2012-11-12 16:45:09','2012-11-13 00:45:09','<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Blue-Smoke-Doug-Worgul/dp/0985295325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1352138606&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=thin+blue+smoke\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8005\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/thin-blue-smoke-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"641\" height=\"276\" /></a>I am seriously moved, definitely warmed and inspired as I just finished a new novel by Doug Worgul, entitled, </span><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Blue-Smoke-Doug-Worgul/dp/0985295325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1352059633&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=thin+blue+smoke\"><em>Thin Blue Smoke.</em></a></strong></p>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">These characters got into my heart and let me know I still have a heart. They’re real and flawed. Some of them have had some really bad breaks in life, but those bad breaks did not set their destiny; one human being caring about another did.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Having stumbled upon a review while surfing my Facebook updates, it was the context of Kansas City barbecue that intrigued me because I love barbecue and spent a good many years living just north and later, just south of KC. A downtown hole-the-wall barbecue joint is a connecting point for many of the characters in the story.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http://www.dougworgul.com/\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><img class=\" wp-image-1205 alignright\" src=\"http://www.glennhager.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/worgul-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"159\" height=\"240\" /></span></a><strong>Food, friends, and faith are all meshed in a raw and real way to keep you eagerly reading.</strong> I was sucked in with a mention of hometown in the first paragraph of chapter one and later references to obscure northwestern Missouri locales, all of which were familiar to me.</span>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">Worgul is a former features, book and magazine editor for the </span><em>Kansas City Star</em></strong><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>, the author of two non-fiction works, and a bona fide barbecue expert.</strong> He writes so beautifully and warmly that you know this man knows something about people, God, relationships, redemption, and barbecue. It’s not preachy in the least and is not a Christian book, in any conventional sense, but its message of love and redemption through relationships is, perhaps, the most beautiful I have ever read.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>The characters are colorful, including the cranky old former professional baseball player and proprietor of the BBQ joint,</strong> the sort of adopted lost boy who runs the place, the scholarly, alcoholic, has been author Episcopal priest, the real estate developer with a secret, and the seventy-five year-old local legend blues singer, known as Mother. These are real people who have serious regrets, drink too much, have sex, and yes, some of them, are violent and corrupt. Not everyone is redeemed. It’s like life.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>There are scenes so tender that they got to a crusty old dude like me.</strong> The eccentricities of the people made me laugh out loud and the circumstances of their love and grief caused me to weep silently.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>I loved reading this rich and rewarding story set in a place I know, but it is the people</strong> (I don’t even think of them as characters) that encouraged me and inspired me to see if maybe, somehow in the twists and turns of life, I could be something of a redeeming influence for somebody.</span>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.dougworgul.com/\">Doug Worgul’s site</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://burnsidewriters.com/2012/03/19/introducing-burnside-books/\">Burnside Books (publisher) site</a>','Thin Blue Smoke','','inherit','open','open','','8004-revision-7','','','2012-11-12 16:45:09','2012-11-13 00:45:09','',8004,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/12/8004-revision-7/',0,'revision','',0),(8028,144,'2012-11-13 09:59:37','2012-11-13 17:59:37','','tbs banner-3','','inherit','open','open','','tbs-banner-3-2','','','2012-11-13 09:59:37','2012-11-13 17:59:37','',8004,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/tbs-banner-31.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8029,144,'2012-11-13 09:57:23','2012-11-13 17:57:23','<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Blue-Smoke-Doug-Worgul/dp/0985295325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1352828933&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=thin+blue+smoke\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8026\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/tbs-banner-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"485\" height=\"124\" /></a>I am seriously moved, definitely warmed and inspired as I just finished a new novel by Doug Worgul, entitled, </span><a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Thin-Blue-Smoke-Doug-Worgul/dp/0985295325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1352059633&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=thin+blue+smoke\"><em>Thin Blue Smoke.</em></a></strong></p>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">These characters got into my heart and let me know I still have a heart. They’re real and flawed. Some of them have had some really bad breaks in life, but those bad breaks did not set their destiny; one human being caring about another did.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\">Having stumbled upon a review while surfing my Facebook updates, it was the context of Kansas City barbecue that intrigued me because I love barbecue and spent a good many years living just north and later, just south of KC. A downtown hole-the-wall barbecue joint is a connecting point for many of the characters in the story.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http://www.dougworgul.com/\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><img class=\" wp-image-1205 alignright\" src=\"http://www.glennhager.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/worgul-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"159\" height=\"240\" /></span></a><strong>Food, friends, and faith are all meshed in a raw and real way to keep you eagerly reading.</strong> I was sucked in with a mention of my hometown in the first paragraph of chapter one and later references to obscure northwestern Missouri locales, all of which were familiar to me.</span>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style=\"color: #000000\">Worgul is a former features, book and magazine editor for the </span><em>Kansas City Star</em></strong><span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>, the author of two non-fiction works, and a bona fide barbecue expert.</strong> He writes so beautifully and warmly that you know this man knows something about people, God, relationships, redemption, and barbecue. It’s not preachy in the least and is not a Christian book, in any conventional sense, but its message of love and redemption through relationships is, perhaps, the most beautiful I have ever read.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>The characters are colorful, including the cranky old former professional baseball player and proprietor of the BBQ joint,</strong> the sort of adopted lost boy who runs the place, the scholarly, alcoholic, has been author Episcopal priest, the real estate developer with a secret, and the seventy-five year-old local legend blues singer, known as Mother. These are real people who have serious regrets, drink too much, have sex, and yes, some of them, are violent and corrupt. Not everyone is redeemed. It’s like life.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>There are scenes so tender that they got to a crusty old dude like me.</strong> The eccentricities of the people made me laugh out loud and the circumstances of their love and grief caused me to weep silently.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000\"><strong>I loved reading this rich and rewarding story set in a place I know, but it is the people</strong> (I don’t even think of them as characters) that encouraged me and inspired me to see if maybe, somehow in the twists and turns of life, I could be something of a redeeming influence for somebody.</span>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.dougworgul.com/\">Doug Worgul’s site</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://burnsidewriters.com/2012/03/19/introducing-burnside-books/\">Burnside Books (publisher) site</a>','Thin Blue Smoke','','inherit','open','open','','8004-revision-8','','','2012-11-13 09:57:23','2012-11-13 17:57:23','',8004,'http://provoketive.com/2012/11/13/8004-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(8034,12,'2012-11-15 22:51:20','2012-11-16 06:51:20','','petition','','inherit','open','open','','petition','','','2012-11-15 22:51:20','2012-11-16 06:51:20','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/petition.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8135,0,'2012-12-04 06:41:21','2012-12-04 14:41:21','Hi,\r\n\r\nMy name is Kayla and I came across your site after searching for people that have referenced or mentioned salaries and wages. I am part of a team of designers and researchers that put together an infographic showing why the gender wage gap continues to be a growing concern.  I thought you might be interested, so I wanted to reach out.\r\n\r\nIf this is the correct email and you\'re interested in using our content, I\'d be happy to share it with you. :)\r\n\r\nThank you,\r\n\r\nKayla Evans\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: Kayla Evans\nAUTHOR EMAIL: evanskayla13@gmail.com\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: [Provoketive Magazine] Contact Us\nIP: 121.96.61.130\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; Kayla Evans\n    [Email] =&gt; evanskayla13@gmail.com\n    [Comment] =&gt; Hi,\r\n\r\nMy name is Kayla and I came across your site after searching for people that have referenced or mentioned salaries and wages. I am part of a team of designers and researchers that put together an infographic showing why the gender wage gap continues to be a growing concern.  I thought you might be interested, so I wanted to reach out.\r\n\r\nIf this is the correct email and you\'re interested in using our content, I\'d be happy to share it with you. :)\r\n\r\nThank you,\r\n\r\nKayla Evans\r\n\n)\n','Kayla Evans - 2012-12-04 06:41:21','','publish','open','open','','3c6090c629729a0c2490b7c446c9bca5','','','2012-12-04 06:41:21','2012-12-04 14:41:21','',16,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8135',0,'feedback','',0),(8035,12,'2012-11-15 22:58:21','2012-11-16 06:58:21','','chipx','','inherit','open','open','','chipx','','','2012-11-15 22:58:21','2012-11-16 06:58:21','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/chipx.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8036,12,'2012-11-15 23:00:01','2012-11-16 07:00:01','','civilwar','','inherit','open','open','','civilwar','','','2012-11-15 23:00:01','2012-11-16 07:00:01','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/civilwar.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8037,12,'2012-11-15 23:01:42','2012-11-16 07:01:42','','lee','','inherit','open','open','','lee','','','2012-11-15 23:01:42','2012-11-16 07:01:42','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/lee.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8180,1,'2012-12-21 10:25:42','2012-12-21 18:25:42','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-8178 alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\n\nI wish I could write a nice piece about the miracle of the season, but the Newtown shooting ripped away any remnants of a Norman Rockwell Christmas.  Because the primary targets were young children, it was a stark reminder of the madness that exists in this world.   Of course, every day, children are forced into war, slavery, prostitution, and extreme poverty… So, Newtown is not a new or unique story.   Even the Christmas story itself has a bloody postscript of Herod slaughtering all the male babies in and around Bethlehem.\n\nWhile Americans have mourned the victims and embraced the survivors, there are disturbing signs that evil continues to thrive among us.   Just over the last few days, there have been more threats, some against schools, others railing against the government.   Most of these people are probably just venting or seeking attention, but when police investigate, they often do find caches of weapons\n\nOn the weekend after the shooting (December 15<sup>th</sup>), one person fired off rounds outside a mall in Newport Beach, while another shot up an emergency room in Birmingham.   Just down the road from me, in Columbia, Tennessee, a 19 year old posted on his Facebook page:<em> “feel like goin on a rampage, kinda like the school shooting were that one guy killed some teachers and a bunch of students :D”</em>  19 people had “liked” his comment.\n\nThere’s a lot of blame to go around, but there are a few factors that contribute to the anger and violence in our society… For example, according to Nielson, the average TV viewer witnesses 200,000 violent acts on TV by the time they are 18.   While this desensitizes all of us, many kids have also been busy mowing down their enemies in video games.  These games are so lifelike, they simulate the experience, giving the player actual skills they can use to kill.  Obviously, the vast majority of players never take their game playing into the real world, but it shouldn’t surprise us when they do.\n\nThe mother of the Newtown killer was apparently stockpiling weapons and food in preparation of an economic collapse.  This phenomenon has become so popular that it has launched a TV show called “Doomsday Preppers.”   I understand someone wanting to protect their family from an attacker, but many of these end-of-the-world “enthusiasts” are preparing for a long, sustained war.  If you indulge in a paranoid fantasy for long enough, you might turn it into a reality or, at least, a reality TV show.\n\nWe live in a country with approximately 350 million guns, and sales have been soaring since the tragedy in Newtown.   For years, the NRA has effectively whipped up the fear that guns will be taken away.  While no one is advocating for this, it does seem reasonable to limit the size of clips or implement background checks at gun shows.   But the NRA, and its most militant members, refuses to compromise and, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, maintain that even more guns are the answer.\n\nViolent video games, preparing for disaster, and stockpiling weapons all exacerbate the problem, but what is behind the fascination with these destructive tendencies?   Of course, there are no easy answers to that question, so I’ll defer to Thomas Merton who, after spending many days meditating on the nature of war, came up with this, <em>“At the root of war is fear: not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear they have of everything.   It is not merely that they do not trust one another; they do not even trust themselves… They cannot trust anything because they have ceased to believe in God.”  </em>\n\nCould fear be at the root of our need to make war on a global scale or strike out against our fellow man?  Could lack of faith be at the root of needing to arm ourselves to the teeth?   When we need to protect ourselves from perceived enemies, we are really saying we don’t trust God.  Throughout the Old and New Testaments - God, the Prophets, and Christ are continually telling us to “Fear Not.”  Of course, that’s easier said than done in a world with real, dangerous enemies.\n\nPart of the problem may be that God’s protection doesn’t look like our version of it.   God doesn’t necessarily come cloaked in military might.    In fact, God willingly sent an innocent baby into a harsh, violent world; a world that would eventually crucify Him.   This makes no sense to a world that glorifies power and strength, and yet, 2,000 years later, Christ’s light still burns in the midst of darkness.   When sometimes this world seems to have gone mad, Christ offers an alternative path of love and peace, and that’s the true miracle of the season.\n\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville, TN and is the author of the book and the blog, <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">Hometown Prophet</a>.\n\n&nbsp;','The Miracle of the Season','','inherit','open','open','','8176-autosave','','','2012-12-21 10:25:42','2012-12-21 18:25:42','',8176,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/21/8176-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8120,201,'2012-12-01 10:35:21','2012-12-01 18:35:21','','stop-child-abuse7','','inherit','open','open','','stop-child-abuse7','','','2012-12-01 10:35:21','2012-12-01 18:35:21','',8115,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stop-child-abuse7.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8176,160,'2012-12-21 10:30:59','2012-12-21 18:30:59','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-8178 alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\r\n\r\nI wish I could write a nice piece about the miracle of the season, but the Newtown shooting ripped away any remnants of a Norman Rockwell Christmas.  Because the primary targets were young children, it was a stark reminder of the madness that exists in this world.   Of course, every day, children are forced into war, slavery, prostitution, and extreme poverty… So, Newtown is not a new or unique story.   Even the Christmas story itself has a bloody postscript of Herod slaughtering all the male babies in and around Bethlehem.\r\n\r\nWhile Americans have mourned the victims and embraced the survivors, there are disturbing signs that evil continues to thrive among us.   Just over the last few days, there have been more threats, some against schools, others railing against the government.   Most of these people are probably just venting or seeking attention, but when police investigate, they often do find caches of weapons\r\n\r\nOn the weekend after the shooting (December 15<sup>th</sup>), one person fired off rounds outside a mall in Newport Beach, while another shot up an emergency room in Birmingham.   Just down the road from me, in Columbia, Tennessee, a 19 year old posted on his Facebook page:<em> “feel like goin on a rampage, kinda like the school shooting were that one guy killed some teachers and a bunch of students :D”</em>  19 people had “liked” his comment.\r\n\r\nThere’s a lot of blame to go around, but there are a few factors that contribute to the anger and violence in our society… For example, according to Nielson, the average TV viewer witnesses 200,000 violent acts on TV by the time they are 18.   While this desensitizes all of us, many kids have also been busy mowing down their enemies in video games.  These games are so lifelike, they simulate the experience, giving the player actual skills they can use to kill.  Obviously, the vast majority of players never take their game playing into the real world, but it shouldn’t surprise us when they do.\r\n\r\nThe mother of the Newtown killer was apparently stockpiling weapons and food in preparation of an economic collapse.  This phenomenon has become so popular that it has launched a TV show called “Doomsday Preppers.”   I understand someone wanting to protect their family from an attacker, but many of these end-of-the-world “enthusiasts” are preparing for a long, sustained war.  If you indulge in a paranoid fantasy for long enough, you might turn it into a reality or, at least, a reality TV show.\r\n\r\nWe live in a country with approximately 350 million guns, and sales have been soaring since the tragedy in Newtown.   For years, the NRA has effectively whipped up the fear that guns will be taken away.  While no one is advocating for this, it does seem reasonable to limit the size of clips or implement background checks at gun shows.   But the NRA, and its most militant members, refuses to compromise and, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, maintain that even more guns are the answer.\r\n\r\nViolent video games, preparing for disaster, and stockpiling weapons all exacerbate the problem, but what is behind the fascination with these destructive tendencies?   Of course, there are no easy answers to that question, so I’ll defer to Thomas Merton who, after spending many days meditating on the nature of war, came up with this, <em>“At the root of war is fear: not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear they have of everything.   It is not merely that they do not trust one another; they do not even trust themselves… They cannot trust anything because they have ceased to believe in God.”  </em>\r\n\r\nCould fear be at the root of our need to make war on a global scale or strike out against our fellow man?  Could lack of faith be at the root of needing to arm ourselves to the teeth?   When we need to protect ourselves from perceived enemies, we are really saying we don’t trust God.  Throughout the Old and New Testaments - God, the Prophets, and Christ are continually telling us to “Fear Not.”  Of course, that’s easier said than done in a world with real, dangerous enemies.\r\n\r\nPart of the problem may be that God’s protection doesn’t look like our version of it.   God doesn’t necessarily come cloaked in military might.    In fact, God willingly sent an innocent baby into a harsh, violent world; a world that would eventually crucify Him.   This makes no sense to a world that glorifies power and strength, and yet, 2,000 years later, Christ’s light still burns in the midst of darkness.   When sometimes this world seems to have gone mad, Christ offers an alternative path of love and peace, and that’s the true miracle of the season.\r\n\r\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville, TN and is the author of the book and the blog, <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">Hometown Prophet</a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','The Miracle of the Season','','publish','open','open','','the-miracle-of-the-season','','','2012-12-21 16:03:43','2012-12-22 00:03:43','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8176',0,'post','',0),(8177,160,'2012-12-21 08:50:59','2012-12-21 16:50:59','','wake','','inherit','open','open','','wake','','','2012-12-21 08:50:59','2012-12-21 16:50:59','',8176,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8178,160,'2012-12-21 08:51:33','2012-12-21 16:51:33','','wake','','inherit','open','open','','wake-2','','','2012-12-21 08:51:33','2012-12-21 16:51:33','',8176,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8179,160,'2012-12-21 08:52:20','2012-12-21 16:52:20','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-8178\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/wake1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\n\nI wish I could write a nice piece about the miracle of the season, but the Newtown shooting ripped away any remnants of a Norman Rockwell Christmas.  Because the primary targets were young children, it was a stark reminder of the madness that exists in this world.   Of course, every day, children are forced into war, slavery, prostitution, and extreme poverty… So, Newtown is not a new or unique story.   Even the Christmas story itself has a bloody postscript of Herod slaughtering all the male babies in and around Bethlehem.\n\nWhile Americans have mourned the victims and embraced the survivors, there are disturbing signs that evil continues to thrive among us.   Just over the last few days, there have been more threats, some against schools, others railing against the government.   Most of these people are probably just venting or seeking attention, but when police investigate, they often do find caches of weapons\n\nOn the weekend after the shooting (December 15<sup>th</sup>), one person fired off rounds outside a mall in Newport Beach, while another shot up an emergency room in Birmingham.   Just down the road from me, in Columbia, Tennessee, a 19 year old posted on his Facebook page:<em> “feel like goin on a rampage, kinda like the school shooting were that one guy killed some teachers and a bunch of students :D”</em>  19 people had “liked” his comment.\n\nThere’s a lot of blame to go around, but there are a few factors that contribute to the anger and violence in our society… For example, according to Nielson, the average TV viewer witnesses 200,000 violent acts on TV by the time they are 18.   While this desensitizes all of us, many kids have also been busy mowing down their enemies in video games.  These games are so lifelike, they simulate the experience, giving the player actual skills they can use to kill.  Obviously, the vast majority of players never take their game playing into the real world, but it shouldn’t surprise us when they do.\n\nThe mother of the Newtown killer was apparently stockpiling weapons and food in preparation of an economic collapse.  This phenomenon has become so popular that it has launched a TV show called “Doomsday Preppers.”   I understand someone wanting to protect their family from an attacker, but many of these end-of-the-world “enthusiasts” are preparing for a long, sustained war.  If you indulge in a paranoid fantasy for long enough, you might turn it into a reality or, at least, a reality TV show.\n\nWe live in a country with approximately 350 million guns, and sales have been soaring since the tragedy in Newtown.   For years, the NRA has effectively whipped up the fear that guns will be taken away.  While no one is advocating for this, it does seem reasonable to limit the size of clips or implement background checks at gun shows.   But the NRA, and its most militant members, refuses to compromise and, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, maintain that even more guns are the answer.\n\nViolent video games, preparing for disaster, and stockpiling weapons all exacerbate the problem, but what is behind the fascination with these destructive tendencies?   Of course, there are no easy answers to that question, so I’ll defer to Thomas Merton who, after spending many days meditating on the nature of war, came up with this, <em>“At the root of war is fear: not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear they have of everything.   It is not merely that they do not trust one another; they do not even trust themselves… They cannot trust anything because they have ceased to believe in God.”  </em>\n\nCould fear be at the root of our need to make war on a global scale or strike out against our fellow man?  Could lack of faith be at the root of needing to arm ourselves to the teeth?   When we need to protect ourselves from perceived enemies, we are really saying we don’t trust God.  Throughout the Old and New Testaments - God, the Prophets, and Christ are continually telling us to “Fear Not.”  Of course, that’s easier said than done in a world with real, dangerous enemies.\n\nPart of the problem may be that God’s protection doesn’t look like our version of it.   God doesn’t necessarily come cloaked in military might.    In fact, God willingly sent an innocent baby into a harsh, violent world; a world that would eventually crucify Him.   This makes no sense to a world that glorifies power and strength, and yet, 2,000 years later, Christ’s light still burns in the midst of darkness.   When sometimes this world seems to have gone mad, Christ offers an alternative path of love and peace, and that’s the true miracle of the season.\n\nJeff Fulmer lives in Nashville, TN and is the author of the book and the blog, <a href=\"http://www.hometownprophetbook.com/\">Hometown Prophet</a>.\n\n&nbsp;','The Miracle of the Season','','inherit','open','open','','8176-revision','','','2012-12-21 08:52:20','2012-12-21 16:52:20','',8176,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/21/8176-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8173,1,'2012-12-18 12:54:18','2012-12-18 20:54:18','','Daisy Rain Martin','','publish','open','open','','daisy-rain-martin','','','2012-12-18 12:55:06','2012-12-18 20:55:06','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8173',41,'nav_menu_item','',0),(8047,12,'2012-11-16 22:50:33','2012-11-17 06:50:33','','chipx','','inherit','open','open','','chipx-2','','','2012-11-16 22:50:33','2012-11-17 06:50:33','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/chipx1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8048,12,'2012-11-16 22:52:32','2012-11-17 06:52:32','','civilwar','','inherit','open','open','','civilwar-2','','','2012-11-16 22:52:32','2012-11-17 06:52:32','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/civilwar1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8049,12,'2012-11-16 22:55:35','2012-11-17 06:55:35','','lee','','inherit','open','open','','lee-2','','','2012-11-16 22:55:35','2012-11-17 06:55:35','',0,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/lee1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(8352,0,'2013-01-20 21:26:55','2013-01-21 05:26:55','Selamat siang, \r\nsaya bisa minta contact person untuk media partner \r\nTerima Kasih\n<!--more-->\nAUTHOR: oshelby setiani irawan\nAUTHOR EMAIL: oshelbysirawan@yahoo.com\nAUTHOR URL: \nSUBJECT: [Provoketive Magazine] Contact Us\nIP: 110.137.239.222\nArray\n(\n    [Name] =&gt; oshelby setiani irawan\n    [Email] =&gt; oshelbysirawan@yahoo.com\n    [Comment] =&gt; Selamat siang, \r\nsaya bisa minta contact person untuk media partner \r\nTerima Kasih\n)\n','oshelby setiani irawan - 2013-01-20 21:26:55','','publish','open','open','','0d33910de87ee430616a7f205dbe2753','','','2013-01-20 21:26:55','2013-01-21 05:26:55','',16,'http://provoketive.com/?post_type=feedback&p=8352',0,'feedback','',0),(8353,1,'2013-01-21 09:42:20','2013-01-21 17:42:20','Every time I see the words “CNN is Against Child Labour” or watch some celebrity on TV waving the physical or vocal “Abolish Child Labour” flag, I want to get up and smash something—probably the screen.\n\nAnd sometimes aloud I will ask the empty room, “And then what?” Has anybody thought further than that? What happens to the children then? What happens to the families then?\n\nBefore we speak or take any action, we should consider the severe ramifications of abolishing a source of both income and labour that is not only prevalent, but has been part of the third world culture since time immemorial. Does anyone realize the importance of differentiating between “child slavery” and “child labour?” That the former is, in the majority of cases, a probable result of no access to the latter?\n\nDuring my years in both Africa and Asia, I spent a lot of time in villages talking to the village chiefs. I also spent time visiting factories where children were working, speaking not only to the owners, but also to the families of the children and the children themselves.\n\nI worked in the so-called “child care” industry for a number of years and have been part of not only the rescue, but also the caring and education operation—not in a detached way—in a hands on daily living way.\n\nIn Asia I have stood on street corners with prostitutes waiting for another family member to bring me their child or sibling—made quite an interesting sight, the <em>falang</em>(foreign) woman standing next to the local lady of the night; after a phone call from the village chief, I travelled hundreds of kilometres on the back of a motorbike to try and rescue two children from their aunt and uncle; I have stopped beggars in the middle of the road using drugged children as a lure to empty pockets and tried to convince them to let me take the children; I have visited brick-making factories where children worked next to their parents; I have searched for children stolen from the grounds of a temple the night before I was to take them to a place of care—by a relative to be sold (they were found a month later and are now in good care); I have been hit by drugged up little children begging from cars stopped at traffic lights, their mother sitting on a nearby corner watching carefully.\n\nYes, I have done these things and I can tell you a very different story—the one that ends with the immediate family and the child starving when the child is removed from the labour force. Or there’s the one that ends with a close relative stealing the child to take him or her to work in the next village or sold; or there is also the one with the family, now destitute, selling the child into sex trafficking or to factory owners or labour traffickers or, if young enough, to village witchdoctors for the making of medicine.\n\nA lot of noise—the same noise that’s been going on for more than 10 years—is currently being made about the children trafficked to work in the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast and the instant “quick-fix” is to stop buying Nestlé chocolate, or any other chocolate or cocoa product for that matter. And yes, some of these children—not all—have been trafficked. The cocoa industry—and the worldwide trade in sweets and chocolates that it supplies—has long had to contend with a growing reputation for child exploitation. In the Ivory Coast, which accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s cocoa production, the U.S. state department estimates that more than 100,000 children work in the cocoa industry, and many are victims of human trafficking and slavery.\n\nThe 2010 documentary <a href=\"http://www.thedarksideofchocolate.org/\"><em>The Dark Side of Chocolate</em></a> alleges that Nestlé purchases cocoa beans from Ivory Coast plantations that use child slave labour. The children are usually 12 to 15 years old, and some are trafficked from nearby countries—“some” not all.\n\nBut let us look closely at the definition of human trafficking according to <a href=\"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html#What_is_Human_Trafficking\">UNODC</a> (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime):\n<h2><strong>What is Human Trafficking?</strong></h2>\nArticle 3, paragraph (a) of the <a href=\"http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/index.html\">Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons</a> defines Trafficking in Persons as:\n<blockquote>the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of<strong>the giving or</strong> <strong>receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person</strong>, <strong>for the purpose of exploitation.</strong>Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.</blockquote>\nAnd “at a minimum” is translated in <a href=\"http://www.ilo.org/declaration/principles/abolitionofchildlabour/lang--en/index.htm\">The ILO</a>—International Labour Organization—in one of their charter documents <em>Effective Abolition of Child Labour</em> <a href=\"http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?R190\">Supplemented: R190 Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999</a> as:\n<blockquote>12. Members should provide that the following worst forms of child labour are criminal offences:\n\n(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;\n\n(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances; and\n\n(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties, or for activities which involve the unlawful carrying or use of firearms or other weapons.</blockquote>\nVictims of human trafficking are not permitted to leave upon arrival at their destination. They are held against their will through acts of coercion and forced to work or provide services to the trafficker or others. The work or services may include anything from bonded or forced labour to commercialized sexual exploitation. The arrangement may be structured as a work contract, but with no or low payment or on terms which are highly exploitative. Sometimes the arrangement is structured as debt bondage, with the victim not being permitted or able to pay off the debt.\n\nHowever, remember, the majority of the children trafficked have been sold <strong><em>“</em></strong><strong><em>by a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”</em></strong> In worlds where the attitude is, it’s the next, or the next few meals that count, or the debt collector has to be appeased, selling children into slavery is the easy way out.\n<h2><strong>Now let us look at child labour</strong></h2>\nAccording to the <a href=\"http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30177.html\">UN Convention On The Rights Of The Child</a>—Protection Rights: Keeping Safe from Harm Article 32 (Child labour):\n<blockquote>The government should protect children from work that is dangerous or might harm their health or their education. While the Convention protects children from harmful and exploitative work, there is nothing in it that prohibits parents from expecting their children to help out at home in ways that are safe and appropriate to their age. If children help out in a family farm or business, the tasks they do be safe and suited to their level of development and comply with national labour laws. Children’s work should not jeopardize any of their other rights, including the right to education, or the right to relaxation and play.</blockquote>\n<a href=\"http://www.ilo.org/declaration/principles/abolitionofchildlabour/lang--en/index.htm\">The ILO</a>—International Labour Organization—in one of their charter documents<em>Effective Abolition of Child Labour</em> states:\n<blockquote>The principle of the effective abolition of child labour means ensuring that every girl and boy has the opportunity to develop physically and mentally to her or his full potential. Its aim is to stop all work by children that jeopardizes their education and development. This does not mean stopping all work performed by children. International labour standards allow the distinction to be made between what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable forms of work for children at different ages and stages of development… The general minimum age for admission to employment should not be less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling and never be less than 15 years. But developing countries may make certain exceptions to this, and a minimum age of 14 years may be applied where the economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed. Sometimes, light work may be performed by children two years younger than the general minimum age.</blockquote>\nAlmost every section of both the above statements could be torn apart. Child labour accounts for 22 per cent of the workforce in <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2011/feel-beggar-care-smile/\">Asia</a>, 32 per cent in <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org/2011/sana-musasama-ceramic-artist/\">Africa</a> and 17 per cent in Latin America. In third world countries where the teachers are themselves not being paid and have to extract money from the children before even giving them their exam results, who is going to pay for this education that the child has a right to and, while the child is being educated, who is going to help feed the starving family?\n\n“The completion of compulsory schooling” is laughable. Go speak to the parents, find out what this “compulsory schooling” costs—especially at supposedly “free” government schools.\n\nGAP is screamed at for using factories that employ child labour; Nike was accused of using child labour in Pakistan to manufacture its soccer balls; Levi Strauss &amp; Co. are accused of using cotton from Uzbekistan harvested by enforced child labour. And again, the uninformed scream “Stop buying these products!”\n\nThen what? What happens to the children then? Now there is NO work and I can assure you, manufacturing soccer balls, making bricks, sitting behind sewing machines, working in the fields and picking cotton are preferable to some of the alternatives. At least these children get the chance to go home and be with their families.\n\nWe in the western world created this monster and now we cannot live with the consequences of our actions. Maybe it is time to think of the effect our so-called “developed world” has on the—again so-called—“developing world” before we want more of what we don’t need.\n\nNo, we should not stop buying the products from companies that knowingly or unwittingly make use of child labour to manufacture either a portion of or the completed article we purchase.\n\nWhat we should be doing is telling them to pay the labour a proper living wage and monitor the factory to ensure that this is actually being done. This is still a pittance in countries where families are expected to survive on $30 per month.\n\nWe should be telling the companies who use child labour to downsize their profit margins—let go of some greed. Money earned by the workers for the manufacture of a soccer ball in Pakistan? In the region of $0.50 per ball and what do Nike soccer balls cost? Go figure.\n\nWe should not stop buying cocoa or chocolate products. As Nestlé chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe recently told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, removing child labour from the African cocoa harvest is “almost impossible,” citing the difficulty faced by small-time farmers in rural areas managing a harvest without the help of their children. He announced that, rather than eliminating child labour, his company instead wanted to invest in education for those children who worked in the cocoa fields—a concept he referred to as “creating shared value.” “If they have the access to good schooling, then the child labour as such is helping the fathers in the field and helping with the harvesting, I don’t think this is a problem,” he said. “The problem is when you use the children only for that and don’t allow them to go to school.”\n\nWhat we should be doing is agitating for the companies who supply us our addictions via the trafficking route to go one step further; go look for the traffickers, go find the children and buy them back, allow them access to their families, give them education opportunities.\n\nWe should be going to the factories and negotiating for space somewhere on the premises to teach the child when it is not working—I did this at brick making factories and was given space and permission on only one condition, that I teach the adults too!\n\nWe should be telling those organizations and activists who believe it is better to remove the child from the workplace to go ahead, but then pay the family the money the child would have earned AND pay to educate this child. And be fully aware of the consequences of any action they take.\n\nYes, children are precious and we must protect them. But we must be extremely careful how we do this in third world countries where children are commodities used to feed those who can no longer feed themselves, and the only way to truly protect them is to ensure that the rest of the family is cared for too. Abolishing child labour will lead to them being trafficked—that is a fact.\n\nTo slightly adapt the words of a Roger Waters song “What God Wants God gets, God help us all”—what developed man wants, developed man gets, developed man help us all. And think carefully—exactly how far are you prepared to go to undo what you have done and are still doing? Are you prepared to buy a life to save a life?\n\n&nbsp;\n<div><em>Jane Olivier writes for and edits <a href=\"http://www.themindfulword.org\">The Mindful Word</a> journal of engaged living.</em></div>','Abolishing Child Labor Leads to Slavery','','inherit','open','open','','8243-autosave','','','2013-01-21 09:42:20','2013-01-21 17:42:20','',8243,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/21/8243-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8205,202,'2013-01-18 08:00:18','2013-01-18 16:00:18','I remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\r\n\r\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\r\n\r\nBut can our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” do more harm than good?\r\n\r\nWhat happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”  What happens when revealing to others the theologies or ideologies that we hold dear causes them pain?  What happens when arguing for what we believe causes others to walk away from the faith altogether?\r\n\r\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to delicate situations.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  If I\'m honest, I must confess that I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to describe, so I write this not to criticize others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\r\n\r\nWith that confession on the table, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith often turn into \"arguments\" which subject the people around us to \"friendly fire\":\r\n\r\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\r\n\r\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”  With a shrug many of these stories end with \"I haven\'t heard anything from them lately...\"\r\n\r\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\r\n\r\nA friend told me a couple of years ago about a painful experience involving a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of meeting to plan activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  In return she was given an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\r\n\r\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\r\n\r\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we work in ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright or Kathryn Tanner book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere a host of stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My instincts, and I suspect I’m not alone, are to do one of two things:  either dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, or spend the rest of the flight arguing about why my new \"opponents\" have got Christianity all wrong.\r\n\r\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular commitments and beliefs in the life of the church.  And on one level, these are good, important things.  The church <em>needs</em> to better educate its members about theology.  The church <em>needs</em> people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church <em>needs</em> to deal with its historical and cultural baggage and <em>needs</em> to try to change people\'s hearts and minds.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these concerns.\r\n\r\nBut what also <em>needs</em> to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with whom we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\r\n\r\nThese are difficult questions to answer and there are no hard and fast rules for deciding them.  And while I certainly would be the first to say that at times we need to argue for what we believe to be true, I also want to acknowledge that all too often we go into conversations with those with whom we disagree trigger-happy and ready to shoot.  Spoiling for the fight, we don\'t take the time to stop and consider the consequences of our words.\r\n\r\nI was pretty astonished today when I watched this \"interview\" of Alex Jones by Piers Morgan:\r\n\r\n[youtube]http://youtu.be/Tf-i3Y5iRYo[/youtube]\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, many people see Christians this way and a lot of times we Christians act this way toward one another.  Aggressive, argumentative, and even obstinate have become synonyms with \"Christian\" in our society, and we haven\'t done much to help our cause.\r\n\r\nToo often we forget, I\'m afraid, that sitting across the table from us is a real person who has real needs and real questions, and that they are looking to us for answers.  There is a time and a place for arguing, but have we forgotten that there is also a time and a place for sitting still and listening to what others have to say?\r\n\r\nEven when we <em>know</em> that they are wrong?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','When is it Time to Stop Arguing?','','publish','open','open','','when-is-it-time-to-stop-arguing','','','2013-01-18 09:59:37','2013-01-18 17:59:37','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=8205',0,'post','',3),(8206,202,'2013-01-08 14:46:29','2013-01-08 22:46:29','I remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nBut what happens when our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” leads to our causing others pain?  Or what happens when people reveal to us deep pain and hurt caused by those with whom we theologically or ideologically agree?  What happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”\n\n&nbsp;\n\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to difficult situations like these.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert in the field but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to write about.  I write this not to chastise others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nWith that confessions in mind, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith cross lines of difference that I have observed:\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nA friend told me a couple of years ago of the painful experience of having a conversation with a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of their meeting and planning activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  He was met with an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we are involved ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere all the usual stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My natural instinct, and I suspect I’m not alone, is to dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, allowing me to explain that Christianity can have a very different look and feel than my new acquaintances have supposed.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular causes and hobby horses in the life of the church.  And on one level, that is fine.  The church needs to better educate its members about theology.  The church needs people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church needs to deal with its historical and cultural baggage.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these issues.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nBut what also needs to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with which we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone who is willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\n\n&nbsp;\n\nI’m not going to claim to be able to lay out hard rules for what to do in situations like this.  And I’m certainly not going to claim that I’ve navigated these waters perfectly myself.  But what I’m wondering about, and what I think we need to ask ourselves more often, is whether the way we have conversations with those with whom we disagree has more to do with advancing our favorite hobby-horse or with addressing the actual needs of the person we are talking with.\n\n&nbsp;\n\nPut another way, I think we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis if our calling to be servant leaders is best accomplished by taking every conversation as an opportunity to “teach” others the right things to think or by being willing to accept what we consider false assumptions for the sake of meeting people where they are.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','Responding to Someone Who Believes \"The Wrong Thing\"','','inherit','open','open','','8205-revision','','','2013-01-08 14:46:29','2013-01-08 22:46:29','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/08/8205-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(8207,202,'2013-01-08 14:49:55','2013-01-08 22:49:55','I remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBut what happens when our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” leads to our causing others pain?  Or what happens when people reveal to us deep pain and hurt caused by those with whom we theologically or ideologically agree?  What happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to difficult situations like these.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert in the field but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to write about.  I write this not to chastise others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWith that confessions in mind, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith cross lines of difference that I have observed:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nA friend told me a couple of years ago of the painful experience of having a conversation with a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of their meeting and planning activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  He was met with an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we are involved ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere all the usual stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My natural instinct, and I suspect I’m not alone, is to dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, allowing me to explain that Christianity can have a very different look and feel than my new acquaintances have supposed.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular causes and hobby horses in the life of the church.  And on one level, that is fine.  The church needs to better educate its members about theology.  The church needs people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church needs to deal with its historical and cultural baggage.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these issues.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBut what also needs to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with which we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone who is willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI’m not going to claim to be able to lay out hard rules for what to do in situations like this.  And I’m certainly not going to claim that I’ve navigated these waters perfectly myself.  But what I’m wondering about, and what I think we need to ask ourselves more often, is whether the way we have conversations with those with whom we disagree has more to do with advancing our favorite hobby-horse or with addressing the actual needs of the person we are talking with.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nPut another way, I think we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis if our calling to be servant leaders is best accomplished by taking every conversation as an opportunity to “teach” others the right things to think or by being willing to accept what we consider false assumptions for the sake of meeting people where they are.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','Responding to Someone Who Believes \"The Wrong Thing\"','','inherit','open','open','','8205-revision-2','','','2013-01-08 14:49:55','2013-01-08 22:49:55','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/08/8205-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(8208,202,'2013-01-08 14:50:11','2013-01-08 22:50:11','I remember hearing a story in college about a large church with a young pastor who boldly preached the gospel according to Calvin and Albert Mohler.  The mega-church he led had lost a sizable number of members (though certainly not enough to diminish its mega-church status) and a friend commented that this was because this pastor was “preaching the truth.”  What he meant, which I agree with, is that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear.  What he implied, which I want to question, is that any consequences of bluntly telling the truth are perfectly acceptable.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nA friend of mine said to me recently that what we believe determines how we live and treat others.  Whether he meant to or not, he seemed to imply that the primary concern of any spiritual leader must be making sure people believe correctly.  Lifestyle will follow if we just get people’s theology in order.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBut what happens when our quest to enlighten others with “the truth” leads to our causing others pain?  Or what happens when people reveal to us deep pain and hurt caused by those with whom we theologically or ideologically agree?  What happens when people ask for our advice and we discover that they believe “the wrong thing?”\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBefore we go any farther with this I need to confess that I am by no means a master of discretion when it comes to difficult situations like these.  So what follows is not the teachings of an expert in the field but the honest questionings of a fellow journeyer.  I am guilty of having done (and probably will do again) many things similar to those I am about to write about.  I write this not to chastise others but to bring to light a concern that all of us engaged in conversations about faith need to keep in mind.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWith that confessions in mind, let me share three types of situations in which conversations about faith cross lines of difference that I have observed:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe first happens when we cross lines of theological difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI have heard many pastors, bible study leaders, and seminary students, whether they be Calvinist, Wesleyan, or none-of-the-above, describe moments in which someone came to them with a question or a pastoral concern which simultaneously revealed that they held the “wrong theology.”  Not missing a beat, said “teacher” took the opportunity to inform their new, unsuspecting “student” of a more theologically robust and accurate way of conceptualizing the “issue at hand,” with the resulting private lecture in systematics often taking up most of the 30 minute block set aside for their “coffee meeting.”\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe second happens when we cross lines of political difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nA friend told me a couple of years ago of the painful experience of having a conversation with a mentor and colleague who was leading a local church outreach program.  In the course of their meeting and planning activities for this program, they realized that they came down on opposite sides of a very controversial political issue.  My friend humbly asked to continue working with this mentor and colleague despite their disagreement.  He was met with an ultimatum: until you change your mind about this, we can’t work together.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nThe third happens when we cross lines of cultural or experiential difference.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSqueezed into the middle seat on a long Southwest flight to visit family for the holidays, it comes out that we are involved ministry or are studying theology.  Or maybe the guy next to us notices the title of the N.T. Wright book we are reading.  Whatever it was, suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere all the usual stereotypes and accusations are flying: the diatribe against organized religion from the woman on our left, the stories of personal pain and hurt caused by church when the fellow on our right was growing up.  My natural instinct, and I suspect I’m not alone, is to dodge the bullet and play the I’m-not-that-kind-of-Christian card, allowing me to explain that Christianity can have a very different look and feel than my new acquaintances have supposed.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nUnderlying all three of these types of situations, I think, is a concern for the advancement of particular causes and hobby horses in the life of the church.  And on one level, that is fine.  The church needs to better educate its members about theology.  The church needs people who are serious about arguing for the right application of Christianity to the needs of this world.  The church needs to deal with its historical and cultural baggage.  And when we engage in conversations about faith we will often find ourselves on the front lines of all of these issues.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nBut what also needs to be considered is the concrete reality of the other person in each of these situations.  Does the church member across the table from us need a lesson in theology or do they need to be heard out?  Does the colleague with which we disagree politically need an ultimatum or do they need an outstretched hand?  Do our fellow passengers (or perhaps prisoners?) on a long flight home need the sales pitch for our particular brand of Christianity or do they need someone who is willing to own the harm done to them and simply say “I’m sorry”?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI’m not going to claim to be able to lay out hard rules for what to do in situations like this.  And I’m certainly not going to claim that I’ve navigated these waters perfectly myself.  But what I’m wondering about, and what I think we need to ask ourselves more often, is whether the way we have conversations with those with whom we disagree has more to do with advancing our favorite hobby-horse or with addressing the actual needs of the person we are talking with.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nPut another way, I think we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis if our calling to be servant leaders is best accomplished by taking every conversation as an opportunity to “teach” others the right things to think or by being willing to accept what we consider false assumptions for the sake of meeting people where they are.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<em>Alexander Marshall is a blogger, writer, teacher, and student at Yale Divinity School.  You can connect with him on <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/alexanderpmarshall\">Facebook</a>, <a href=\"https://twitter.com/alexp_marshall\">Twitter</a>, or by <a href=\"http://apmarshall.wordpress.com\">visiting his blog</a>.</em>','Responding to Someone Who Believes \"The Wrong Thing\"','','inherit','open','open','','8205-revision-3','','','2013-01-08 14:50:11','2013-01-08 22:50:11','',8205,'http://provoketive.com/2013/01/08/8205-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7761,1,'2012-09-12 11:35:06','2012-09-12 18:35:06','<blockquote>Spiritual disciplines are activities in our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.</blockquote>\r\nDallas Willard in <em>The Great Omission</em>.\r\n\r\nThere is something so true about this statement.  Spiritual disciplines are the way we train to become what we cannot become in any other way: Christlike.\r\n\r\nYet they have a bad name.  Because no one likes discipline and no one actually likes hard work.  If you plan to run the London Marathon, you don\'t go on training runs in the wet grey of the London streets with the traffic thundering because you actually like said experience.  But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize.  You go because at night you dream of crossing the finishing line and in the day you live and breathe the vision of what could be.  You do the training because you long for the goal and you know that training is the one thing in your power to do which will enable you to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed one day and running 26.2 miles.\r\n\r\nAnd spiritual disciplines are the same.  Those who have walked long and faithfully with Christ have stayed the course not because they strained for what was impossible but because they understood that faithfulness is made up of daily decisions to pray, to read the Bible, to give, to worship, to celebrate and gather in community, to fast or to serve another without gain.\r\n\r\nYet there is a generation coming for whom discipline is perhaps even worse a word than it is for us.  There is a generation coming - or perhaps half-generation in reality - of those in their twenties, many of whom do not see any reason to do that which is personally costly in their discipleship.  They are Christians, yet many do not read their Bibles, they pray only snatched words as they run for the bus in the morning, they spend their money freely on going out but balk at the idea of saving to go on a missions trip or a training day to equip them as disciples in their workplaces.\r\n\r\nI want to be as fair as I know how here and so I must say that I know many in their twenties who are not like this but I have also never seen a generation for whom there seems to be such a rise in the tide of the rejection of spiritual disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if we are on the front edge of it here in London, a place where the internet and mobile culture of hyper-connectivity has taken hold so strongly, a place of many broken and complex family situations, where parents exhausted by the pace of city life have no strength at the end of a working day to discipline their children and so allow the children to bring themselves up within their own tribe of \'young people\'.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it is not as pronounced elsewhere in the country but here we are beginning to see the effects of this culture on those who have hit their twenties.  It is there in those of us in our thirties too, but to a lesser extent, I think, presumably because fewer of our teenage years were formed by this culture of hyper-connectivity and immediacy.  After all, I was 15 before we got the internet at home and I didn\'t send an e-mail until I was 18; I also didn\'t have a mobile until I was 22.  Those facts alone are more than most of the twenties I lead can believe; it also makes me ancient to the teenagers who send between 3000 and 5000 texts each month.  (Work that out as texts per waking hour - you might start to feel ill!)\r\n\r\nThere is a spirit of independence in this new generation: these men and women have grown up knowing how to take care of themselves and their experience tells them that no one else knows like they do what is best for them.  They don\'t tend to save much because there is a despair about that: they know they won\'t get on the housing ladder unless they get help from parents or land themselves a professional job and they don\'t even care what saving for a rainy day might mean because all that matters is surviving in the now and having as much fun as possible.\r\n\r\nAnd fun means hanging out with the tribe, clubbing, drinking and then posting the pictures on Facebook.  Because that is how community is created, community which depends on the shared memories of a Facebook timeline and which is fuelled by instant messaging via BBM or whatsapp.  They don\'t talk by phone any more really, it seems; that is too intrusive, so it is all about exchanging messages which can be interacted with as and when it is convenient to the recipient.\r\n\r\nWhen it\'s time to relax, the answer is screen time.  Even for those who admit to once having been readers.  They freely tell you that it\'s easier to check Facebook, to watch TV on demand, download a film or surf the web randomly.  And I know this is true because I have noticed changes in my own behaviour over the last three to five years, during which time the internet has increasingly become an option for diversion.  I have seen my concentration span drop off slightly; I have seen my efforts to multitask increase, although productivity is almost certainly inversely proportional!  So, I understand the temptation, its insidiousness as this hyper-connectivity worms its way into our lives, destroying our ability to concentrate, to engage with anything which requires something of us personally other than to be an observer.\r\n\r\nAnd then, in the face of all of this, as a disciple-maker I am bringing a message about spiritual disciplines.  A message to a generation which has already largely decided that they alone must be the arbiter of what is right, that anyone who suggests that there must be a better way is automatically pressuring them.\r\n\r\nIt\'s not only that even the very gentlest of calls to discipleship by another are still perceived as a massive and unacceptable threat to their own authority over their lives; it\'s also that this is a message about a faith which cannot simply be added to one\'s life as another interesting diversion but which demands to be worked into every part of our life, a faith which requires participation not observation.  A faith which requires submission to spiritual disciplines as our guides in the process of becoming.\r\n\r\nAnd, despite all the joys over those who \'get it\', I despair some days.\r\n\r\nI wish I didn\'t.  But I do because I feel utterly unprepared for ministry which looks like this.  My training, such as it is, is largely outdated already, save in so far as it has taught me how to think theologically and to innovate in a context of rapid and discontinuous change.  I don\'t know how to reach a generation which claims Christ as its own yet which has little concept of discipline, of preparing for a future day.\r\n\r\nAnd, in a way, why should they?  That\'s not embedded in the culture anymore, that we would make preparation for our future, because our future looks bleak.  If we haven\'t run out of natural resources by then, if we haven\'t seen the kick-off of World War III, if we haven\'t lost the war on global terror and if we haven\'t seen the melting of the polar ice caps or a worsening of the hole in the ozone layer, we\'ll certainly all be working until we\'re 90 and then paying extortionate nursing home fees until we die.\r\n\r\nWe don\'t have the culture on side anymore for emphasising the value of preparing for a happy future.  This generation doesn\'t even think about the future because it\'s not attractive and so it is to them as if the future will never come.  And if the future will not come, then a future experience of heaven and the goal of a journey towards Christlikeness might as well also be a pipedream.\r\n\r\nIn the face of all of that, why would you invest yourself in spiritual disciplines now?  When reading the Bible is hard and sitting still to pray for even ten minutes nigh-on impossible without checking Facebook at least once, why would you pay that price now if you have no concept of the future it\'s preparing you for?  And who would run London\'s rain-slick pavements as the cold bites and the traffic fumes choke if there was never an expectation that there would one day be a marathon to run and a medal to claim?\r\n\r\nAnd that is where I end up with this.  I long to make disciples, to teach them of the power of spiritual disciplines to form character and habits, to introduce them to how a progressive laying aside of lordship over one\'s own life is a journey of the most incredible becoming that ever was.  And, God knows, in this church we will keep trying.  But I am more and more convinced that what is needed more than anything else is a move of God where thousands upon thousands of this new generation have an encounter with Christ which is more real than Facebook, more tangible than instant messaging.  An encounter which will have them dreaming at night of crossing the finishing line, knowing whom they have believed.  An encounter which, in the daytime, will see them living and breathing the vision of what could be.  An encounter which will empower them to do the training because they now long for the goal like never before and know that training is the one thing in their power to do which will enable them to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed each day and running the race.\r\n\r\nI long to see the work of God in this generation of twenties and thirties and in those who are still teenagers.  I long to see the things of which I first began to dream twelve years ago when I started to hear God speaking to me by his Spirit about the church in the UK.  And I am becoming increasingly convinced that - though the church\'s leaders may play their part, struggling as we toil - the work can only be achieved with his energy which he so powerfully works in us as we struggle to present everyone mature in Christ.  Today, perhaps like never before, I am utterly convinced that, in this disorientating new world of never-ceasing and rapidly speeded-up change, the future of the church in this nation depends on a move of God by his Spirit to give us a new encounter with Christ.\r\n\r\nAnd it breaks my heart to think what kind of church we will see in fifty years\' time if I don\'t see that in my lifetime.\r\n\r\nPicture credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/\" target=\"_blank\">some rights reserved by Lieven Soete</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Does disciple-making have a future?','','inherit','open','open','','7725-revision-8','','','2012-09-12 11:35:06','2012-09-12 18:35:06','',7725,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/12/7725-revision-8/',0,'revision','',0),(8132,1,'2012-12-01 15:11:35','2012-12-01 23:11:35','','afraid','','inherit','open','open','','afraid','','','2012-12-01 15:11:35','2012-12-01 23:11:35','',8016,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/afraid.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8126,201,'2012-12-01 10:42:03','2012-12-01 18:42:03','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stop-child-abuse7.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-8120 aligncenter\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stop-child-abuse7-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"> )photo-credit: foreign policy association(</p>\r\nChild abuse is a social problem of epidemic proportions.\r\n\r\nEven though it is difficult to understand the true scope of child abuse—studies have found that only one third of child abuse is reported, for example<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn1\">[1]</a>—the reports that are available, however conservative in nature, paint a horrific picture.  In one 2008 study, researchers found that one in five children will experience child abuse—or 15 million in total.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn2\">[2]</a>  Another study found that 1 in every 3 girls and 1 in every 8 boys will experience sexual abuse; roughly half of which being incestuous.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn3\">[3]</a>.  In 2009, 6 million children were reported to Child Protective Services.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn4\">[4]</a>  A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds,<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn5\">[5]</a> and it takes the life of more than five children each day: that is seventy-one classrooms full of children that die every year as a result of child abuse.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn6\">[6]</a>  David Finkelhor, a leading researcher on childhood victimization, has argued that children are in fact the most victimized population in the United States.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn7\">[7]</a>  In addition to experiencing the same rates of victimization as adults, he argues, children also experience victimizations unique to their own status such as child sexual abuse and neglect.  “They are beaten by family members, bullied and attacked by schoolmates and peers, abused and raped by dating partners, and targeted by sex offenders in both physical and virtual realms.”  “Childhood,” Finkelhor asserts, “is indeed a gauntlet”.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn8\">[8]</a>\r\n\r\nMillions of children across America are suffering: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are sleeping underneath blankets of fear, walking to school in dread, and playing on the street corners we pass by on our way home from work: crying out in desperate need.   Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are waiting in emergency rooms, visiting mental health clinics, and are often engaging in risky behavior, confounding their trauma all the more: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are sitting in pews and benches, coloring in Sunday school rooms, and clapping their hands and singing to worship songs in churches all across America: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?\r\n\r\nThe needs created by the problem of child abuse are vast, and the Church is in a remarkable position to be able to respond to these needs.  To be a healer.  To be Christ.  To help them move into, in both their interior worlds and their social circumstances, a lived experience of God’s love.\r\n\r\nThis is not to suggest that the Church is not already responding.  Organizations like Marie Fortune’s Faith Trust Institute and the evangelical Royal Family Kids Camp are good examples.  There are more.  And, to be sure, one shouldn’t be naïve: churches are understaffed, underfunded, and attendance in many denominations is very low.  The resources are limited; time is lacking.  Yet, amidst this EPIDEMIC—where children, the most vulnerable people in our society, are the most victimized–it is clear that the Church can do more; that is has to do more.  It must learn to trust that the Holy Spirit will make a way for it to respond to the needs of abused children.\r\n\r\nI have been wondering what it might look like for all churches—if even for a year—decided to respond collectively to the most victimized population in the United States: if every church in America dedicated some of its energies to creating a campaign against child abuse in response to the needs of abused children. In addition to meeting the needs of abused children, it seems that such a campaign would be an excellent way for the Fragmented Body of Christ to become more unified—and could also serve as a catalyst for interfaith dialogue and collaboration.  Theological and sociopolitical issues aside, certainly we can agree that this epidemic necessitates a more comprehensive response, and that the Church has the power and responsibility to meet the needs of those that are suffering.  Perhaps we can all agree with Dietrich Bonheoffer when he said, “the ultimate test for a moral society is the kind of world it leaves for its children”.\r\n\r\nWhat kind of world have we created for our children? What kind of society is ours when children are the most victimized population–and they are suffering, often in a screaming silence, amidst so much wealth and affluence?\r\n\r\nThe Church has to do more.  We have to find a way.\r\n<div>To be continued …</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref1\">[1]</a> Sedlak, A. J., &amp; Broadhurst, D. D. (1996)\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref2\">[2]</a> How Common is Maltreatment: 5\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref3\">[3]</a> http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/factsheet/pdf/childhoodSexualAbuseFactSheet.pdf\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref4\">[4]</a> National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS)\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref5\">[5]</a> http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics#2\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref6\">[6]</a> United States Government Accountability Office, 2011. Child maltreatment: strengthening national data on child fatalities could aid in prevention (GAO-11-599). Retrieved from <a href=\"http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf\">http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf</a>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref7\">[7]</a> David Finkelhor, Childhood Victimization (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) 3.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref8\">[8]</a> Ibid.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','Child Abuse is an Epidemic: The Church Must Do More','','inherit','open','open','','8115-revision-5','','','2012-12-01 10:42:03','2012-12-01 18:42:03','',8115,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/01/8115-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),(8127,201,'2012-12-02 18:39:13','2012-12-03 02:39:13','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stop-child-abuse7.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-8120 alignleft\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stop-child-abuse7-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a><span style=\"text-align: center\">Child abuse is a social problem of epidemic proportions.</span>\n\nEven though it is difficult to understand the true scope of child abuse—studies have found that only one third of child abuse is reported, for example<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn1\">[1]</a>—the reports that are available, however conservative in nature, paint a horrific picture.  In one 2008 study, researchers found that one in five children will experience child abuse—or 15 million in total.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn2\">[2]</a>  Another study found that 1 in every 3 girls and 1 in every 8 boys will experience sexual abuse; roughly half of which being incestuous.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn3\">[3]</a>.  In 2009, 6 million children were reported to Child Protective Services.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn4\">[4]</a>  A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds,<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn5\">[5]</a> and it takes the life of more than five children each day: that is seventy-one classrooms full of children that die every year as a result of child abuse.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn6\">[6]</a>  David Finkelhor, a leading researcher on childhood victimization, has argued that children are in fact the most victimized population in the United States.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn7\">[7]</a>  In addition to experiencing the same rates of victimization as adults, he argues, children also experience victimizations unique to their own status such as child sexual abuse and neglect.  “They are beaten by family members, bullied and attacked by schoolmates and peers, abused and raped by dating partners, and targeted by sex offenders in both physical and virtual realms.”  “Childhood,” Finkelhor asserts, “is indeed a gauntlet”.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn8\">[8]</a>\n\nMillions of children across America are suffering: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are sleeping underneath blankets of fear, walking to school in dread, and playing on the street corners we pass by on our way home from work: crying out in desperate need.   Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are waiting in emergency rooms, visiting mental health clinics, and are often engaging in risky behavior, confounding their trauma all the more: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are sitting in pews and benches, coloring in Sunday school rooms, and clapping their hands and singing to worship songs in churches all across America: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?\n\nThe needs created by the problem of child abuse are vast, and the Church is in a remarkable position to be able to respond to these needs.  To be a healer.  To be Christ.  To help them move into, in both their interior worlds and their social circumstances, a lived experience of God’s love.\n\nThis is not to suggest that the Church is not already responding.  Organizations like Marie Fortune’s Faith Trust Institute and the evangelical Royal Family Kids Camp are good examples.  There are more.  And, to be sure, one shouldn’t be naïve: churches are understaffed, underfunded, and attendance in many denominations is very low.  The resources are limited; time is lacking.  Yet, amidst this EPIDEMIC—where children, the most vulnerable people in our society, are the most victimized–it is clear that the Church can do more; that is has to do more.  It must learn to trust that the Holy Spirit will make a way for it to respond to the needs of abused children.\n\nI have been wondering what it might look like for all churches—if even for a year—decided to respond collectively to the most victimized population in the United States: if every church in America dedicated some of its energies to creating a campaign against child abuse in response to the needs of abused children. In addition to meeting the needs of abused children, it seems that such a campaign would be an excellent way for the Fragmented Body of Christ to become more unified—and could also serve as a catalyst for interfaith dialogue and collaboration.  Theological and sociopolitical issues aside, certainly we can agree that this epidemic necessitates a more comprehensive response, and that the Church has the power and responsibility to meet the needs of those that are suffering.  Perhaps we can all agree with Dietrich Bonheoffer when he said, “the ultimate test for a moral society is the kind of world it leaves for its children”.\n\nWhat kind of world have we created for our children? What kind of society is ours when children are the most victimized population–and they are suffering, often in a screaming silence, amidst so much wealth and affluence?\n\nThe Church has to do more.  We have to find a way.\n<div>To be continued …</div>\n<div>\n\n<hr />\n\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref1\">[1]</a> Sedlak, A. J., &amp; Broadhurst, D. D. (1996)\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref2\">[2]</a> How Common is Maltreatment: 5\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref3\">[3]</a> http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/factsheet/pdf/childhoodSexualAbuseFactSheet.pdf\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref4\">[4]</a> National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS)\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref5\">[5]</a> http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics#2\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref6\">[6]</a> United States Government Accountability Office, 2011. Child maltreatment: strengthening national data on child fatalities could aid in prevention (GAO-11-599). Retrieved from <a href=\"http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf\">http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf</a>\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref7\">[7]</a> David Finkelhor, Childhood Victimization (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) 3.\n\n</div>\n<div>\n\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref8\">[8]</a> Ibid.\n\nphoto-credit: foreign policy association\n\n</div>\n</div>','Child Abuse is an Epidemic: The Church Must Do More','','inherit','open','open','','8115-autosave','','','2012-12-02 18:39:13','2012-12-03 02:39:13','',8115,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/01/8115-autosave/',0,'revision','',0),(8128,1,'2012-12-01 15:02:28','2012-12-01 23:02:28','','Child-abuse','','inherit','open','open','','child-abuse','','','2012-12-01 15:02:28','2012-12-01 23:02:28','',8115,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Child-abuse.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8129,1,'2012-12-01 10:48:49','2012-12-01 18:48:49','<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stop-child-abuse7.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-8120 aligncenter\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stop-child-abuse7-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"> )photo-credit: foreign policy association(</p>\r\nChild abuse is a social problem of epidemic proportions.\r\n\r\nEven though it is difficult to understand the true scope of child abuse—studies have found that only one third of child abuse is reported, for example<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn1\">[1]</a>—the reports that are available, however conservative in nature, paint a horrific picture.  In one 2008 study, researchers found that one in five children will experience child abuse—or 15 million in total.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn2\">[2]</a>  Another study found that 1 in every 3 girls and 1 in every 8 boys will experience sexual abuse; roughly half of which being incestuous.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn3\">[3]</a>.  In 2009, 6 million children were reported to Child Protective Services.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn4\">[4]</a>  A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds,<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn5\">[5]</a> and it takes the life of more than five children each day: that is seventy-one classrooms full of children that die every year as a result of child abuse.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn6\">[6]</a>  David Finkelhor, a leading researcher on childhood victimization, has argued that children are in fact the most victimized population in the United States.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn7\">[7]</a>  In addition to experiencing the same rates of victimization as adults, he argues, children also experience victimizations unique to their own status such as child sexual abuse and neglect.  “They are beaten by family members, bullied and attacked by schoolmates and peers, abused and raped by dating partners, and targeted by sex offenders in both physical and virtual realms.”  “Childhood,” Finkelhor asserts, “is indeed a gauntlet”.<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/#_ftn8\">[8]</a>\r\n\r\nMillions of children across America are suffering: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are sleeping underneath blankets of fear, walking to school in dread, and playing on the street corners we pass by on our way home from work: crying out in desperate need.   Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are waiting in emergency rooms, visiting mental health clinics, and are often engaging in risky behavior, confounding their trauma all the more: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?  These children are sitting in pews and benches, coloring in Sunday school rooms, and clapping their hands and singing to worship songs in churches all across America: crying out in desperate need.  Has the Church heard their cries?\r\n\r\nThe needs created by the problem of child abuse are vast, and the Church is in a remarkable position to be able to respond to these needs.  To be a healer.  To be Christ.  To help them move into, in both their interior worlds and their social circumstances, a lived experience of God’s love.\r\n\r\nThis is not to suggest that the Church is not already responding.  Organizations like Marie Fortune’s Faith Trust Institute and the evangelical Royal Family Kids Camp are good examples.  There are more.  And, to be sure, one shouldn’t be naïve: churches are understaffed, underfunded, and attendance in many denominations is very low.  The resources are limited; time is lacking.  Yet, amidst this EPIDEMIC—where children, the most vulnerable people in our society, are the most victimized–it is clear that the Church can do more; that is has to do more.  It must learn to trust that the Holy Spirit will make a way for it to respond to the needs of abused children.\r\n\r\nI have been wondering what it might look like for all churches—if even for a year—decided to respond collectively to the most victimized population in the United States: if every church in America dedicated some of its energies to creating a campaign against child abuse in response to the needs of abused children. In addition to meeting the needs of abused children, it seems that such a campaign would be an excellent way for the Fragmented Body of Christ to become more unified—and could also serve as a catalyst for interfaith dialogue and collaboration.  Theological and sociopolitical issues aside, certainly we can agree that this epidemic necessitates a more comprehensive response, and that the Church has the power and responsibility to meet the needs of those that are suffering.  Perhaps we can all agree with Dietrich Bonheoffer when he said, “the ultimate test for a moral society is the kind of world it leaves for its children”.\r\n\r\nWhat kind of world have we created for our children? What kind of society is ours when children are the most victimized population–and they are suffering, often in a screaming silence, amidst so much wealth and affluence?\r\n\r\nThe Church has to do more.  We have to find a way.\r\n<div>To be continued …</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref1\">[1]</a> Sedlak, A. J., &amp; Broadhurst, D. D. (1996)\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref2\">[2]</a> How Common is Maltreatment: 5\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref3\">[3]</a> http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/factsheet/pdf/childhoodSexualAbuseFactSheet.pdf\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref4\">[4]</a> National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS)\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref5\">[5]</a> http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics#2\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref6\">[6]</a> United States Government Accountability Office, 2011. Child maltreatment: strengthening national data on child fatalities could aid in prevention (GAO-11-599). Retrieved from <a href=\"http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf\">http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11599.pdf</a>\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref7\">[7]</a> David Finkelhor, Childhood Victimization (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) 3.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\n<a title=\"\" href=\"http://asocialspirituality.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/child-abuse-as-an-epidemic-the-church-must-do-more/#_ftnref8\">[8]</a> Ibid.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</div>','Child Abuse is an Epidemic: The Church Must Do More','','inherit','open','open','','8115-revision-6','','','2012-12-01 10:48:49','2012-12-01 18:48:49','',8115,'http://provoketive.com/2012/12/01/8115-revision-6/',0,'revision','',0),(7719,178,'2012-09-11 19:11:47','2012-09-12 02:11:47','','2226145803_c420b399ed','Photo Credit: CRASH: candy via Flickr','inherit','open','open','','2226145803_c420b399ed','','','2012-09-11 19:11:47','2012-09-12 02:11:47','',7713,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7771,12,'2012-09-24 08:00:17','2012-09-24 15:00:17','Do you know where I grew up? Arkansas. Laugh it up. Har-dee-har. <em>\"You married to your sister, Ray?\"</em> No. My cousin. But thanks for asking.\r\n\r\nIn Arkansas, just like the current state I live in (Kentucky), guns are a huge part of life. The majority of gun use is by hunters who love to shoot ol\' bambi between the ears every deer season. And duck hunting is huge. From what I understand, Duck Dynasty is a big show. I refuse to watch it. I live in it.\r\n\r\nSame reason I won\'t watch most reality television. The Kentucky Turtle Man, housewives yelling at each other, Honey Boo Boo, COPS, Dirty Jobs, filthy hotels, Single Moms, and the what have you. Know why I don\'t watch? All I have to do is cruise around in a forty minute radius and I can see it in stinking person.\r\n\r\nDo you know how many times I see people post on their Facebook page: \"Got me a picture with the Kentucky Turtle Man! Highlight of my life!\" Keep shooting for the stars, bro. Oh, in case you have no idea what I\'m talking about and you\'re living on an insulated coast:\r\n\r\nhttp://youtu.be/qOXyxLJna1c\r\n\r\nAnyway, what was I talking about? Oh yes, gun control.\r\n\r\nJust about every person I know owns a gun. Up until six months ago, I had a 9mm Glock in my drawer for home protection. Then something clicked in me. I didn\'t want it anymore. I had a flashback to a U2 concert I had been to back in 1999. They are pro-gun control or something. They showed a video of a little girl getting access to a gun out of an old Kroger bag or something.\r\n\r\nIt took me this long for that to sink in. What if my kids got a hold of my guns. Yes. I teach them all gun safety. They know how to shoot and hold a gun. They know proper respect for weapons. But what the heck?\r\n\r\nA firearm capable of destroying the life of one of my family members in my own home? Apparently you have a better chance of dying in a car accident. Twice. That was my excuse.\r\n\r\nSo don\'t start calling me a liberal. Seriously. I\'m a Libertarian.\r\n\r\nThe article that got me thinking was one about <a href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19641398#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&amp;ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa\">why the police in Great Britain don\'t carry guns</a>. They just don\'t. Well, <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/brpol.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7774\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/brpol-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>they\'re obviously morons, right? Those cops must be getting their heads blown off at an enormous rate. Poor people. Armed with popsicle sticks and a bullhorn, they are walking dead meat.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19641398\">This article says no.</a> In fact, most British police are fine with the way things are and don\'t want to carry firearms. They subdue their criminals who are not allowed to carry guns and throw them in the paddy wagon. Really? Really? Surely some of the rough people over there carry some sort of weapons.\r\n\r\nThey do. And they\'re subdued. But that\'s not to say that policepeople aren\'t killed. It\'s tragic. But not as many policepeople are killed overseas as they are here.\r\n\r\nIn 2011, 72 United States policemen were killed on duty. That\'s 72 too many for me. I honestly couldn\'t find a record for a British police officer who died in 2011.\r\n\r\nNow hold up before you get mad, Bible Belt. Those of you on the opposite coasts are probably applauding. There\'s nothing to applaud. I don\'t want police officers, military or anyone to die. Do I think hunters should be able to hunt? Yeah. But I think the restrictions should be a bit more.\r\n\r\nI think each state should have a say in what happens on that level as well. It bothers me that there are extremists on both sides. We can never have a happy medium.\r\n\r\nOn the one hand I get the gun guys. The truly law-abiding gun guys who are taking out their 12 year old-daughters to the Land Between the Lakes to shoot their first turkey. They will dress it, cook it and eat it. The father and daughter will have an experience they will never forget. The father and son who sit in a deer stand waiting for six hours waiting for that perfect buck to walk by. Then he does. The son takes the shot.\r\n\r\nBut what I don\'t understand is how ex-felons are able to put a .32 special in their hand and threaten a store clerk\r\n\r\nOn that side, there are extremists. They will point to the second amendment. Listen, we all know that the right to bear arms has to do with tyranny, not shooting deer. HOWEVER, I will hire one of you to shoot the deer who jump in front of me every night on my country ride home from work before it hits my $800 bumper.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/trebek.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7775\" style=\"margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/trebek-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>Extremists you say? There\'s another side who says do away with all firearms. Burn all of them. In a Great Britain society, I see where it works. Fewer cop deaths. And listen to this stat from a <a href=\"http://www.juancole.com/2012/07/300000-violent-gun-crimes-a-year-in-the-us-poster.html\">good site</a>: <em><a href=\"http://www.juancole.com/2012/07/58-murders-a-year-by-firearms-in-britain-8775-in-us.html\"> 59 people are killed every year with firearms in Britain, but 8,777</a> are killed by guns in the US (per capita, the rate in the US is 30 times higher).</em>\r\n\r\nWhat\'s the answer? Just burn all the firearms? No, I don\'t think so. Get the government involved? Nope. The government is already too involved. Personal responsibility. There\'s more, but I\'m not a politician, so I don\'t have the answers.\r\n\r\nBut I know for me and my house, there will be no guns here. No firearms that can damage or kill a child by accidental misfiring. I don\'t care how powerful it makes me feel or secure. I trust in my God, I trust in the odds. I trust that there is a decent shred of American morality left.\r\n\r\nHeck, that and I\'ve still got mace...','I Didn\'t Want To Write This Post. Gun Control.','','publish','open','open','','i-didnt-want-to-write-this-post-gun-control','','','2012-09-23 22:08:13','2012-09-24 05:08:13','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=7771',0,'post','',3),(7721,178,'2012-09-11 19:12:58','2012-09-12 02:12:58','[caption id=\"attachment_7719\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"500\"]<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7719 \" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"456\" /></a> Photo Credit: CRASH: candy via Flickr[/caption]\n\nThe five of us have been sitting around the same antique table on a semi-monthly for more than four years. We rarely see each outside of these monthly get-togethers, yet I consider these women to be among some of my dearest friends. We come from different backgrounds, different demographics, and different parts of the metro Chicago area, yet we always have one thing in common – our mutual interest in facilitating each other’s spiritual accountability by engaging in respectful faith sharing.\n\nWe began meeting as part of a small group through the Unitarian Universalist church that we were attending at the time. Since then, our group’s members have changed slightly – some members leaving and a new member joining – but the purpose of the group has always been the same.\n\nWe eat. We drink. We talk. We share.\n\nWe talk about food and wine and sex and God. We talk about our jobs and our kids and our spouses and our spirituality.\n\nWe share our dreams, our insecurities, our doubts, and our faith. We share our joys and concerns. We share our thoughts and ideas about what it means to live a life of compassion, generosity, justice, and spirituality. We share our life stories and our faith stories.\n\nAnd in doing so, we share the deepest parts of ourselves. We share our faith and we share our relationship with God. We share our most vulnerable and sensitive beliefs, laying ourselves raw and fully open to the possibility of knowing each other on a deeper level.\n\nIn talking about our beliefs and sharing our faith with each other, we have granted one another a rare glimpse into the deepest recesses of our souls – a place that many of us don’t even let our closest friends and family members see.\n\nYou see, we live in a society that shuns faith sharing. We are scared of it. We are afraid of being judged and we are afraid of judging. We are afraid that if we talk about sensitive and personal issues such as faith and spirituality that we might be forced to acknowledge that there are differences between us.\n\nBut when we do this, we forget that differences do not need to divide us; rather, acknowledging differences can be a means of expanding our options and opening our minds. When we talk about beliefs – not necessarily <em>what</em> we believe but <em>why </em>we believe – we grant ourselves the opportunity to know someone on a deeper level and open our minds to alternative perspectives. When we share our faith – not just how we practice our faith but how our faith shapes our life – we give someone else the gift of knowing us more intimately.\n\nSo ask me what I believe; I will tell you.  And I will, in turn, ask you what you believe in the hopes that we can embark on an educational conversation, in which we both learn something about each other and our respective faiths.\n\nIf you shy away from religious or spiritual conversations, ask yourself two questions: Am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am afraid that I will be judged?  Or am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am unsure of what I believe?\n\nIf it is the former, and there is a genuine fear of judgment, feel empowered to say so. Let the listener know that you fear that you will be judged.  If the other person tends to judge, they deserve to be called out on it.  On the other hand, your fear of judgment may be unwarranted and you owe the other person the benefit of the doubt.\n\nI suspect, however, that fear of judgment is not the only thing that keeps us from talking about our faith. Many of us shy away from conversations about our faith simply because we are unsure of what we believe. We have doubts. We have questions. We see inconsistencies and, regardless of how strong our faith is, there are times when we just don’t know what we believe. But if you look into your heart – I mean <em>really</em> look into your heart – you just might come to some conclusions about your faith and spiritual beliefs. There is no shame in admitting your doubts. In fact, acknowledging doubts is a critical part of an authentic faith.\n\nEvangelism is not a dirty word. Evangelism (not to be confused with evangelical) is about faith <em>sharing</em> – listening to the beliefs and faiths of someone else without the expectation of conversion. Evangelism is <em>not</em> the act of proselytizing, which is a dictatorial one-sided persuasive commentary; rather, evangelism is the participation in a responsible and respectful conversation that involves a full and fair informational exchange.\n\nFor many of us, our faith – or lack of faith – is a large part of who we are and how we live our lives. By refraining from talking about our faith, we are preventing ourselves from really getting to know others, including those people who are closest to us. And when we fail to know and understand others and ourselves, we are ultimately preventing ourselves from fully knowing the power of a graceful and compassionate God.\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px;height: 15px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http://www.zemanta.com/?px\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none;float: right\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=643de11f-2ba9-4183-aabd-43ef425e1ea6\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" /></a></div>','Evangelism Is Not a Dirty Word','','inherit','open','open','','7713-revision','','','2012-09-11 19:12:58','2012-09-12 02:12:58','',7713,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/11/7713-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7722,178,'2012-09-11 19:13:08','2012-09-12 02:13:08','[caption id=\"attachment_7719\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"500\"]<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7719 \" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"456\" /></a> Photo Credit: CRASH: candy via Flickr[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe five of us have been sitting around the same antique table on a semi-monthly for more than four years. We rarely see each outside of these monthly get-togethers, yet I consider these women to be among some of my dearest friends. We come from different backgrounds, different demographics, and different parts of the metro Chicago area, yet we always have one thing in common – our mutual interest in facilitating each other’s spiritual accountability by engaging in respectful faith sharing.\r\n\r\nWe began meeting as part of a small group through the Unitarian Universalist church that we were attending at the time. Since then, our group’s members have changed slightly – some members leaving and a new member joining – but the purpose of the group has always been the same.\r\n\r\nWe eat. We drink. We talk. We share.\r\n\r\nWe talk about food and wine and sex and God. We talk about our jobs and our kids and our spouses and our spirituality.\r\n\r\nWe share our dreams, our insecurities, our doubts, and our faith. We share our joys and concerns. We share our thoughts and ideas about what it means to live a life of compassion, generosity, justice, and spirituality. We share our life stories and our faith stories.\r\n\r\nAnd in doing so, we share the deepest parts of ourselves. We share our faith and we share our relationship with God. We share our most vulnerable and sensitive beliefs, laying ourselves raw and fully open to the possibility of knowing each other on a deeper level.\r\n\r\nIn talking about our beliefs and sharing our faith with each other, we have granted one another a rare glimpse into the deepest recesses of our souls – a place that many of us don’t even let our closest friends and family members see.\r\n\r\nYou see, we live in a society that shuns faith sharing. We are scared of it. We are afraid of being judged and we are afraid of judging. We are afraid that if we talk about sensitive and personal issues such as faith and spirituality that we might be forced to acknowledge that there are differences between us.\r\n\r\nBut when we do this, we forget that differences do not need to divide us; rather, acknowledging differences can be a means of expanding our options and opening our minds. When we talk about beliefs – not necessarily <em>what</em> we believe but <em>why </em>we believe – we grant ourselves the opportunity to know someone on a deeper level and open our minds to alternative perspectives. When we share our faith – not just how we practice our faith but how our faith shapes our life – we give someone else the gift of knowing us more intimately.\r\n\r\nSo ask me what I believe; I will tell you.  And I will, in turn, ask you what you believe in the hopes that we can embark on an educational conversation, in which we both learn something about each other and our respective faiths.\r\n\r\nIf you shy away from religious or spiritual conversations, ask yourself two questions: Am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am afraid that I will be judged?  Or am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am unsure of what I believe?\r\n\r\nIf it is the former, and there is a genuine fear of judgment, feel empowered to say so. Let the listener know that you fear that you will be judged.  If the other person tends to judge, they deserve to be called out on it.  On the other hand, your fear of judgment may be unwarranted and you owe the other person the benefit of the doubt.\r\n\r\nI suspect, however, that fear of judgment is not the only thing that keeps us from talking about our faith. Many of us shy away from conversations about our faith simply because we are unsure of what we believe. We have doubts. We have questions. We see inconsistencies and, regardless of how strong our faith is, there are times when we just don’t know what we believe. But if you look into your heart – I mean <em>really</em> look into your heart – you just might come to some conclusions about your faith and spiritual beliefs. There is no shame in admitting your doubts. In fact, acknowledging doubts is a critical part of an authentic faith.\r\n\r\nEvangelism is not a dirty word. Evangelism (not to be confused with evangelical) is about faith <em>sharing</em> – listening to the beliefs and faiths of someone else without the expectation of conversion. Evangelism is <em>not</em> the act of proselytizing, which is a dictatorial one-sided persuasive commentary; rather, evangelism is the participation in a responsible and respectful conversation that involves a full and fair informational exchange.\r\n\r\nFor many of us, our faith – or lack of faith – is a large part of who we are and how we live our lives. By refraining from talking about our faith, we are preventing ourselves from really getting to know others, including those people who are closest to us. And when we fail to know and understand others and ourselves, we are ultimately preventing ourselves from fully knowing the power of a graceful and compassionate God.\r\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px;height: 15px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http://www.zemanta.com/?px\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none;float: right\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=643de11f-2ba9-4183-aabd-43ef425e1ea6\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" /></a></div>','Evangelism Is Not a Dirty Word','','inherit','open','open','','7713-revision-2','','','2012-09-11 19:13:08','2012-09-12 02:13:08','',7713,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/11/7713-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7723,178,'2012-09-11 19:13:46','2012-09-12 02:13:46','[caption id=\"attachment_7719\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"500\"]<a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-7719 \" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2226145803_c420b399ed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"456\" /></a> Photo Credit: CRASH: candy via Flickr[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe five of us have been sitting around the same antique table on a semi-monthly for more than four years. We rarely see each outside of these monthly get-togethers, yet I consider these women to be among some of my dearest friends. We come from different backgrounds, different demographics, and different parts of the metro Chicago area, yet we always have one thing in common – our mutual interest in facilitating each other’s spiritual accountability by engaging in respectful faith sharing.\r\n\r\nWe began meeting as part of a small group through the Unitarian Universalist church that we were attending at the time. Since then, our group’s members have changed slightly – some members leaving and a new member joining – but the purpose of the group has always been the same.\r\n\r\nWe eat. We drink. We talk. We share.\r\n\r\nWe talk about food and wine and sex and God. We talk about our jobs and our kids and our spouses and our spirituality.\r\n\r\nWe share our dreams, our insecurities, our doubts, and our faith. We share our joys and concerns. We share our thoughts and ideas about what it means to live a life of compassion, generosity, justice, and spirituality. We share our life stories and our faith stories.\r\n\r\nAnd in doing so, we share the deepest parts of ourselves. We share our faith and we share our relationship with God. We share our most vulnerable and sensitive beliefs, laying ourselves raw and fully open to the possibility of knowing each other on a deeper level.\r\n\r\nIn talking about our beliefs and sharing our faith with each other, we have granted one another a rare glimpse into the deepest recesses of our souls – a place that many of us don’t even let our closest friends and family members see.\r\n\r\nYou see, we live in a society that shuns faith sharing. We are scared of it. We are afraid of being judged and we are afraid of judging. We are afraid that if we talk about sensitive and personal issues such as faith and spirituality that we might be forced to acknowledge that there are differences between us.\r\n\r\nBut when we do this, we forget that differences do not need to divide us; rather, acknowledging differences can be a means of expanding our options and opening our minds. When we talk about beliefs – not necessarily <em>what</em> we believe but <em>why </em>we believe – we grant ourselves the opportunity to know someone on a deeper level and open our minds to alternative perspectives. When we share our faith – not just how we practice our faith but how our faith shapes our life – we give someone else the gift of knowing us more intimately.\r\n\r\nSo ask me what I believe; I will tell you.  And I will, in turn, ask you what you believe in the hopes that we can embark on an educational conversation, in which we both learn something about each other and our respective faiths.\r\n\r\nIf you shy away from religious or spiritual conversations, ask yourself two questions: Am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am afraid that I will be judged?  Or am I uncomfortable with this conversation because I am unsure of what I believe?\r\n\r\nIf it is the former, and there is a genuine fear of judgment, feel empowered to say so. Let the listener know that you fear that you will be judged.  If the other person tends to judge, they deserve to be called out on it.  On the other hand, your fear of judgment may be unwarranted and you owe the other person the benefit of the doubt.\r\n\r\nI suspect, however, that fear of judgment is not the only thing that keeps us from talking about our faith. Many of us shy away from conversations about our faith simply because we are unsure of what we believe. We have doubts. We have questions. We see inconsistencies and, regardless of how strong our faith is, there are times when we just don’t know what we believe. But if you look into your heart – I mean <em>really</em> look into your heart – you just might come to some conclusions about your faith and spiritual beliefs. There is no shame in admitting your doubts. In fact, acknowledging doubts is a critical part of an authentic faith.\r\n\r\nEvangelism is not a dirty word. Evangelism (not to be confused with evangelical) is about faith <em>sharing</em> – listening to the beliefs and faiths of someone else without the expectation of conversion. Evangelism is <em>not</em> the act of proselytizing, which is a dictatorial one-sided persuasive commentary; rather, evangelism is the participation in a responsible and respectful conversation that involves a full and fair informational exchange.\r\n\r\nFor many of us, our faith – or lack of faith – is a large part of who we are and how we live our lives. By refraining from talking about our faith, we are preventing ourselves from really getting to know others, including those people who are closest to us. And when we fail to know and understand others and ourselves, we are ultimately preventing ourselves from fully knowing the power of a graceful and compassionate God.\r\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px;height: 15px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http://www.zemanta.com/?px\"><img class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none;float: right\" src=\"http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=643de11f-2ba9-4183-aabd-43ef425e1ea6\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" /></a></div>','Evangelism Is Not a Dirty Word','','inherit','open','open','','7713-revision-3','','','2012-09-11 19:13:46','2012-09-12 02:13:46','',7713,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/11/7713-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7779,1,'2012-09-18 13:20:59','2012-09-18 20:20:59','Today I found myself listening to one of my old favorite U2 songs tonight, <em>\"Running to Stand Still\"</em> from the <em>Joshua Tree</em> Album. Here it is if you\'ve never had the great pleasure of listening to it:\r\n\r\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eCv0bXFppc\r\n\r\nLiterally, it is a song written about the heroin problem that plagued Dublin in the \'80s. You can read all about the imagery within the song at the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_to_Stand_Still\">song\'s Wikipedia page</a>. It is considered by many to be one of the most complete U2 songs ever written.\r\n\r\nOne of the things I like about U2 songs is something I heard someone close to the band say once. Or maybe it was Bono: <em>\"Really, you can make our songs about anything you want.\"</em> Fans will agree with that as many people find many of their albums becoming a soundtrack for their own life, just when they needed it.\r\n\r\nIn that particular song, there are a couple of statements that intrigue me, <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Pastor-Finding-Restoration-Broken/dp/0615567096/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1347593993&amp;sr=8-1\">especially after my own fall from the pastorate due to adultery</a>. And I really think it\'s applicable to anyone who has sinned against God or struggled with addiction, argued with God, or simply just not felt good enough for God because of their sin.\r\n\r\nSin has a double edged slice to it. For those who love God, we know it is wrong. When we sin, we know it puts us in a bad relationship with him. When we commit those \"small sins,\" you know, driving too fast, calling the guy in the car next to us <a href=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/stand-still.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-7765\" src=\"http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/stand-still.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"169\" /></a>an \"idiot\" when he cuts us off, cheating on a test; it doesn\'t bother us so much. But when we really sin, we are overwhelmed with guilt.\r\n\r\nThe other edge to sin is how appealing it can be. Especially the big ones. Just go back to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden. The fruit on the tree was appealing to them. Knowing they could be like God was appealing to them. It sounded <em>delicious</em> to them.\r\n\r\nFrankly, when I got to the point in my life where I first considered adultery, it sounded very appealing. I wanted the woman I was with. She was the answer to my prayers and everything I needed. There are other sins like that. What if you need money badly? Let\'s say you work somewhere that you can access it easily and no one will miss small amounts? It\'s desirable. It\'s delicious to you to think about taking it. What about the abuse of power? You can get your way over other people with manipulation or being a jerk. Using that power is appealing. Tasty.\r\n\r\nThere\'s a line in the song where the heroin addict is feeling something that U2 wrote about:\r\n\r\n<em>\"Sweet the sin, but bitter the taste in my mouth.\"</em>\r\n\r\nThere\'s the rub for the Christian. None of us just wake up one day and say, <em>\"Hey! I\'m going to commit adultery/embezzle/be power hungry!\"</em> No, it breeds in us. It becomes delicious to us over time. And we finally decide to sin and consume that sin that we think will be so tasty to us.\r\n\r\nBut when we eat it, at first, it might be delicious. But then, for those who know God, we realize the bitterness. There are consequences for all of our actions.\r\n\r\nWe might be in a place where we think, <em>\"I have to commit this sin. Life has left me no choice. My marriage is a joke,\"</em> or <em>\"I\'m broke.\"</em> There\'s another line in the song that is dealing with something else but is applicable: <em>\"I see seven towers, but I only see one way out.\"</em>\r\n\r\nWhen we begin focusing on a sin, we think the only way out is to keep pursuing that sin. But if we know Christ, we know that\'s not the case. With the redemption of Christ, there\'s always a way out. If we are surrounded by a community filled with the love of Christ, we are even more assured that rescue is at hand.\r\n\r\nBut all too often, we will choose to pursue that sin. The sin that looks so delicious, yet when we bite into it, will only deliver bitterness.\r\n\r\nThat\'s where you may be today. On the path screaming straight toward a sin. Turn from it while you can. Know there are people who are willing to care for you and love you. Look past the deceivingly beautiful veneer of the sin on the outside and see the bitterness that dwells within. Don\'t be afraid to pray to God to deliver you and to put you in the path of people who can help.','\"Running to Stand Still\": The Taste of Sin','','inherit','open','open','','7763-revision-4','','','2012-09-18 13:20:59','2012-09-18 20:20:59','',7763,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/18/7763-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7725,119,'2012-09-18 08:00:52','2012-09-18 15:00:52','\"Spiritual disciplines are activities in our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.\" - Dallas Willard in <em>The Great Omission</em>.\r\n\r\nThere is something so true about this statement.  Spiritual disciplines are the way we train to become what we cannot become in any other way: Christlike.\r\n\r\nYet they have a bad name.  Because no one likes discipline and no one actually likes hard work.  If you plan to run the London Marathon, you don\'t go on training runs in the wet grey of the London streets with the traffic thundering because you actually like said experience.  But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize.  You go because at night you dream of crossing the finishing line and in the day you live and breathe the vision of what could be.  You do the training because you long for the goal and you know that training is the one thing in your power to do which will enable you to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed one day and running 26.2 miles.\r\n\r\nAnd spiritual disciplines are the same.  Those who have walked long and faithfully with Christ have stayed the course not because they strained for what was impossible but because they understood that faithfulness is made up of daily decisions to pray, to read the Bible, to give, to worship, to celebrate and gather in community, to fast or to serve another without gain.\r\n\r\nYet there is a generation coming for whom discipline is perhaps even worse a word than it is for us.  There is a generation coming - or perhaps half-generation in reality - of those in their twenties, many of whom do not see any reason to do that which is personally costly in their discipleship.  They are Christians, yet many do not read their Bibles, they pray only snatched words as they run for the bus in the morning, they spend their money freely on going out but balk at the idea of saving to go on a missions trip or a training day to equip them as disciples in their workplaces.\r\n\r\nI want to be as fair as I know how here and so I must say that I know many in their twenties who are not like this but I have also never seen a generation for whom there seems to be such a rise in the tide of the rejection of spiritual disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if we are on the front edge of it here in London, a place where the internet and mobile culture of hyper-connectivity has taken hold so strongly, a place of many broken and complex family situations, where parents exhausted by the pace of city life have no strength at the end of a working day to discipline their children and so allow the children to bring themselves up within their own tribe of \'young people\'.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it is not as pronounced elsewhere in the country but here we are beginning to see the effects of this culture on those who have hit their twenties.  It is there in those of us in our thirties too, but to a lesser extent, I think, presumably because fewer of our teenage years were formed by this culture of hyper-connectivity and immediacy.  After all, I was 15 before we got the internet at home and I didn\'t send an e-mail until I was 18; I also didn\'t have a mobile until I was 22.  Those facts alone are more than most of the twenties I lead can believe; it also makes me ancient to the teenagers who send between 3000 and 5000 texts each month.  (Work that out as texts per waking hour - you might start to feel ill!)\r\n\r\nThere is a spirit of independence in this new generation: these men and women have grown up knowing how to take care of themselves and their experience tells them that no one else knows like they do what is best for them.  They don\'t tend to save much because there is a despair about that: they know they won\'t get on the housing ladder unless they get help from parents or land themselves a professional job and they don\'t even care what saving for a rainy day might mean because all that matters is surviving in the now and having as much fun as possible.\r\n\r\nAnd fun means hanging out with the tribe, clubbing, drinking and then posting the pictures on Facebook.  Because that is how community is created, community which depends on the shared memories of a Facebook timeline and which is fuelled by instant messaging via BBM or whatsapp.  They don\'t talk by phone any more really, it seems; that is too intrusive, so it is all about exchanging messages which can be interacted with as and when it is convenient to the recipient.\r\n\r\nWhen it\'s time to relax, the answer is screen time.  Even for those who admit to once having been readers.  They freely tell you that it\'s easier to check Facebook, to watch TV on demand, download a film or surf the web randomly.  And I know this is true because I have noticed changes in my behaviour over the last three to five years, during which time the internet has increasingly become an option for diversion.  I have seen my concentration span drop off slightly; I have seen my efforts to multitask increase, although productivity is almost certainly inversely proportional!  So, I understand the temptation, its insidiousness as this hyper-connectivity worms its way into our lives, destroying our ability to concentrate, to engage with anything which requires something of us personally other than to be an observer.\r\n\r\nAnd then, in the face of all of this, as a disciple-maker I am bringing a message about spiritual disciplines.  A message to a generation which has already largely decided that they alone must be the arbiter of what is right, that anyone who suggests that there must be a better way is automatically pressuring them.\r\n\r\nIt\'s not only that even the very gentlest of calls to discipleship by another are still perceived as a massive and unacceptable threat to their own authority over their lives; it\'s also that this is a message about a faith which cannot simply be added to one\'s life as another interesting diversion but which demands to be worked into every part of our life, a faith which requires participation not observation.  A faith which requires submission to spiritual disciplines as our guides in the process of becoming.\r\n\r\nAnd, despite all the joys over those who \'get it\', I despair some days.\r\n\r\nI wish I didn\'t.  But I do because I feel utterly unprepared for ministry which looks like this.  My training, such as it is, is largely outdated already, save in so far as it has taught me how to think theologically and to innovate in a context of rapid and discontinuous change.  I don\'t know how to reach a generation which claims Christ as its own yet which has little concept of discipline, of preparing for a future day.\r\n\r\nAnd, in a way, why should they?  That\'s not embedded in the culture anymore, that we would make preparation for our future, because our future looks bleak.  If we haven\'t run out of natural resources by then, if we haven\'t seen the kick-off of World War III, if we haven\'t lost the war on global terror and if we haven\'t seen the melting of the polar ice caps or a worsening of the hole in the ozone layer, we\'ll certainly all be working until we\'re 90 and then paying extortionate nursing home fees until we die.\r\n\r\nWe don\'t have the culture on side anymore for emphasizing the value of preparing for a happy future.  This generation doesn\'t even think about the future because it\'s not attractive and so it is to them as if the future will never come.  And if the future will not come, then a future experience of heaven and the goal of a journey towards Christlikeness might as well also be a pipe dream.\r\n\r\nIn the face of all of that, why would you invest yourself in spiritual disciplines now?  When reading the Bible is hard and sitting still to pray for even ten minutes nigh-on impossible without checking Facebook at least once, why would you pay that price now if you have no concept of the future it\'s preparing you for?  And who would run London\'s rain-slick pavements as the cold bites and the traffic fumes choke if there was never an expectation that there would one day be a marathon to run and a medal to claim?\r\n\r\nAnd that is where I end up with this.  I long to make disciples, to teach them of the power of spiritual disciplines to form character and habits, to introduce them to how a progressive laying aside of lordship over one\'s own life is a journey of the most incredible becoming that ever was.  And, God knows, in this church we will keep trying.  But I am more and more convinced that what is needed more than anything else is a move of God where thousands upon thousands of this new generation have an encounter with Christ which is more real than Facebook, more tangible than instant messaging.  An encounter which will have them dreaming at night of crossing the finishing line, knowing whom they have believed.  An encounter which, in the daytime, will see them living and breathing the vision of what could be.  An encounter which will empower them to do the training because they now long for the goal like never before and know that training is the one thing in their power to do which will enable them to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed each day and running the race.\r\n\r\nI long to see the work of God in this generation of twenties and thirties and in those who are still teenagers.  I long to see the things of which I first began to dream twelve years ago when I started to hear God speaking to me by his Spirit about the church in the UK.  And I am becoming increasingly convinced that - though the church\'s leaders may play their part, struggling as we toil - the work can only be achieved with his energy which he so powerfully works in us as we struggle to present everyone mature in Christ.  Today, perhaps like never before, I am utterly convinced that, in this disorienting new world of never-ceasing and rapidly speeded-up change, the future of the church in this nation depends on a move of God by his Spirit to give us a new encounter with Christ.\r\n\r\nAnd it breaks my heart to think what kind of church we will see in fifty years\' time if I don\'t see that in my lifetime.\r\n\r\nPicture credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/\" target=\"_blank\">some rights reserved by Lieven Soete</a>','Does disciple-making have a future?','','publish','open','open','','does-disciple-making-have-a-future','','','2012-09-16 19:30:20','2012-09-17 02:30:20','',0,'http://provoketive.com/?p=7725',0,'post','',10),(7727,119,'2012-09-12 11:09:46','2012-09-12 18:09:46','<blockquote>Spiritual disciplines are activities in our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.</blockquote>\nDallas Willard in <em>The Great Omission</em>.\n\nThere is something so true about this statement.  Spiritual disciplines are the way we train to become what we cannot become in any other way: Christlike.\n\nYet they have a bad name.  Because no one likes discipline and no one actually likes hard work.  If you plan to run the London Marathon, you don\'t go on training runs in the wet grey of the London streets with the traffic thundering because you actually like said experience.  But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize.  You go because at night you dream of crossing the finishing line and in the day you live and breathe the vision of what could be.  You do the training because you long for the goal and you know that training is the one thing in your power to do which will enable you to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed one day and running 26.2 miles.\n\nAnd spiritual disciplines are the same.  Those who have walked long and faithfully with Christ have stayed the course not because they strained for what was impossible but because they understood that faithfulness is made up of daily decisions to pray, to read the Bible, to give, to worship, to celebrate and gather in community, to fast or to serve another without gain.\n\nYet there is a generation coming for whom discipline is perhaps even worse a word than it is for us.  There is a generation coming - or perhaps half-generation in reality - of those in their twenties, many of whom do not see any reason to do that which is personally costly in their discipleship.  They are Christians, yet many do not read their Bibles, they pray only snatched words as they run for the bus in the morning, they spend their money freely on going out but balk at the idea of saving to go on a missions trip or a training day to equip them as disciples in their workplaces.\n\nI want to be as fair as I know how here and so I must say that I know many in their twenties who are not like this but I have also never seen a generation for whom there seems to be such a rise in the tide of the rejection of spiritual disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if we are on the front edge of it here in London, a place where the internet and mobile culture of hyper-connectivity has taken hold so strongly, a place of many broken and complex family situations, where parents exhausted by the pace of city life have no strength at the end of a working day to discipline their children and so allow the children to bring themselves up within their own tribe of \'young people\'.\n\nPerhaps it is not as pronounced elsewhere in the country but here we are beginning to see the effects of this culture on those who have hit their twenties.  It is there in those of us in our thirties too, but to a lesser extent, I think, presumably because fewer of our teenage years were formed by this culture of hyper-connectivity and immediacy.  After all, I was 15 before we got the internet at home and I didn\'t send an e-mail until I was 18; I also didn\'t have a mobile until I was 22.  Those facts alone are more than most of the twenties I lead can believe; it also makes me ancient to the teenagers who send between 3000 and 5000 texts each month.  (Work that out as texts per waking hour - you might start to feel ill!)\n\nThere is a spirit of independence in this new generation: these men and women have grown up knowing how to take care of themselves and their experience tells them that no one else knows like they do what is best for them.  They don\'t tend to save much because there is a despair about that: they know they won\'t get on the housing ladder unless they get help from parents or land themselves a professional job and they don\'t even care what saving for a rainy day might mean because all that matters is surviving in the now and having as much fun as possible.\n\nAnd fun means hanging out with the tribe, clubbing, drinking and then posting the pictures on Facebook.  Because that is how community is created, community which depends on the shared memories of a Facebook timeline and which is fuelled by instant messaging via BBM or whatsapp.  They don\'t talk by phone any more really, it seems; that is too intrusive, so it is all about exchanging messages which can be interacted with as and when it is convenient to the recipient.\n\nWhen it\'s time to relax, the answer is screen time.  Even for those who admit to once having been readers.  They freely tell you that it\'s easier to check Facebook, to watch TV on demand, download a film or surf the web randomly.  And I know this is true because I have noticed changes in my own behaviour over the last three to five years, during which time the internet has increasingly become an option for diversion.  I have seen my concentration span drop off slightly; I have seen my efforts to multitask increase, although productivity is almost certainly inversely proportional!  So, I understand the temptation, its insidiousness as this hyper-connectivity worms its way into our lives, destroying our ability to concentrate, to engage with anything which requires something of us personally other than to be an observer.\n\nAnd then, in the face of all of this, as a disciple-maker I am bringing a message about spiritual disciplines.  A message to a generation which has already largely decided that they alone must be the arbiter of what is right, that anyone who suggests that there must be a better way is automatically pressuring them.\n\nIt\'s not only that even the very gentlest of calls to discipleship by another are still perceived as a massive and unacceptable threat to their own authority over their lives; it\'s also that this is a message about a faith which cannot simply be added to one\'s life as another interesting diversion but which demands to be worked into every part of our life, a faith which requires participation not observation.  A faith which requires submission to spiritual disciplines as our guides in the process of becoming.\n\nAnd, despite all the joys over those who \'get it\', I despair some days.\n\nI wish I didn\'t.  But I do because I feel utterly unprepared for ministry which looks like this.  My training, such as it is, is largely outdated already, save in so far as it has taught me how to think theologically and to innovate in a context of rapid and discontinuous change.  I don\'t know how to reach a generation which claims Christ as its own yet which has little concept of discipline, of preparing for a future day.\n\nAnd, in a way, why should they?  That\'s not embedded in the culture anymore, that we would make preparation for our future, because our future looks bleak.  If we haven\'t run out of natural resources by then, if we haven\'t seen the kick-off of World War III, if we haven\'t lost the war on global terror and if we haven\'t seen the melting of the polar ice caps or a worsening of the hole in the ozone layer, we\'ll certainly all be working until we\'re 90 and then paying extortionate nursing home fees until we die.\n\nWe don\'t have the culture on side anymore for emphasising the value of preparing for a happy future.  This generation doesn\'t even think about the future because it\'s not attractive and so it is to them as if the future will never come.  And if the future will not come, then a future experience of heaven and the goal of a journey towards Christlikeness might as well also be a pipedream.\n\nIn the face of all of that, why would you invest yourself in spiritual disciplines now?  When reading the Bible is hard and sitting still to pray for even ten minutes nigh-on impossible without checking Facebook at least once, why would you pay that price now if you have no concept of the future it\'s preparing you for?  And who would run London\'s rain-slick pavements as the cold bites and the traffic fumes choke if there was never an expectation that there would one day be a marathon to run and a medal to claim?\n\nAnd that is where I end up with this.  I long to make disciples, to teach them of the power of spiritual disciplines to form character and habits, to introduce them to how a progressive laying aside of lordship over one\'s own life is a journey of the most incredible becoming that ever was.  And, God knows, in this church we will keep trying.  But I am more and more convinced that what is needed more than anything else is a move of God where thousands upon thousands of this new generation have an encounter with Christ which is more real than Facebook, more tangible than instant messaging.  An encounter which will have them dreaming at night of crossing the finishing line, knowing whom they have believed.  An encounter which, in the daytime, will see them living and breathing the vision of what could be.  An encounter which will empower them to do the training because they now long for the goal like never before and know that training is the one thing in their power to do which will enable them to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed each day and running the race.\n\nI long to see the work of God in this generation of twenties and thirties and in those who are still teenagers.  I long to see the things of which I first began to dream twelve years ago when I started to hear God speaking to me by his Spirit about the church in the UK.  And I am becoming increasingly convinced that - though the church\'s leaders may play their part, struggling as we toil - the work can only be achieved with his energy which he so powerfully works in us as we struggle to present everyone mature in Christ.  Today, perhaps like never before, I am utterly convinced that, in this disorientating new world of never-ceasing and rapidly speeded-up change, the future of the church in this nation depends on a move of God by his Spirit to give us a new encounter with Christ.\n\nAnd it breaks my heart to think what kind of church we will see in fifty years\' time if I don\'t see that in my lifetime.\n\nPicture credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/\" target=\"_blank\">some rights reserved by Lieven Soete</a>\n\n&nbsp;','Can we still make disciples this way?','','inherit','open','open','','7725-revision','','','2012-09-12 11:09:46','2012-09-12 18:09:46','',7725,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/12/7725-revision/',0,'revision','',0),(7726,119,'2012-09-12 11:05:26','2012-09-12 18:05:26','','3063508196_9ebd2535e3_b (1)','Some rights reserved by Lieven Soete  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/','inherit','open','open','','3063508196_9ebd2535e3_b-1','','','2012-09-12 11:05:26','2012-09-12 18:05:26','',7725,'http://provoketive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/3063508196_9ebd2535e3_b-1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(7728,119,'2012-09-12 11:13:42','2012-09-12 18:13:42','<blockquote>Spiritual disciplines are activities in our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.</blockquote>\nDallas Willard in <em>The Great Omission</em>.\n\nThere is something so true about this statement.  Spiritual disciplines are the way we train to become what we cannot become in any other way: Christlike.\n\nYet they have a bad name.  Because no one likes discipline and no one actually likes hard work.  If you plan to run the London Marathon, you don\'t go on training runs in the wet grey of the London streets with the traffic thundering because you actually like said experience.  But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize.  You go because at night you dream of crossing the finishing line and in the day you live and breathe the vision of what could be.  You do the training because you long for the goal and you know that training is the one thing in your power to do which will enable you to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed one day and running 26.2 miles.\n\nAnd spiritual disciplines are the same.  Those who have walked long and faithfully with Christ have stayed the course not because they strained for what was impossible but because they understood that faithfulness is made up of daily decisions to pray, to read the Bible, to give, to worship, to celebrate and gather in community, to fast or to serve another without gain.\n\nYet there is a generation coming for whom discipline is perhaps even worse a word than it is for us.  There is a generation coming - or perhaps half-generation in reality - of those in their twenties, many of whom do not see any reason to do that which is personally costly in their discipleship.  They are Christians, yet many do not read their Bibles, they pray only snatched words as they run for the bus in the morning, they spend their money freely on going out but balk at the idea of saving to go on a missions trip or a training day to equip them as disciples in their workplaces.\n\nI want to be as fair as I know how here and so I must say that I know many in their twenties who are not like this but I have also never seen a generation for whom there seems to be such a rise in the tide of the rejection of spiritual disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if we are on the front edge of it here in London, a place where the internet and mobile culture of hyper-connectivity has taken hold so strongly, a place of many broken and complex family situations, where parents exhausted by the pace of city life have no strength at the end of a working day to discipline their children and so allow the children to bring themselves up within their own tribe of \'young people\'.\n\nPerhaps it is not as pronounced elsewhere in the country but here we are beginning to see the effects of this culture on those who have hit their twenties.  It is there in those of us in our thirties too, but to a lesser extent, I think, presumably because fewer of our teenage years were formed by this culture of hyper-connectivity and immediacy.  After all, I was 15 before we got the internet at home and I didn\'t send an e-mail until I was 18; I also didn\'t have a mobile until I was 22.  Those facts alone are more than most of the twenties I lead can believe; it also makes me ancient to the teenagers who send between 3000 and 5000 texts each month.  (Work that out as texts per waking hour - you might start to feel ill!)\n\nThere is a spirit of independence in this new generation: these men and women have grown up knowing how to take care of themselves and their experience tells them that no one else knows like they do what is best for them.  They don\'t tend to save much because there is a despair about that: they know they won\'t get on the housing ladder unless they get help from parents or land themselves a professional job and they don\'t even care what saving for a rainy day might mean because all that matters is surviving in the now and having as much fun as possible.\n\nAnd fun means hanging out with the tribe, clubbing, drinking and then posting the pictures on Facebook.  Because that is how community is created, community which depends on the shared memories of a Facebook timeline and which is fuelled by instant messaging via BBM or whatsapp.  They don\'t talk by phone any more really, it seems; that is too intrusive, so it is all about exchanging messages which can be interacted with as and when it is convenient to the recipient.\n\nWhen it\'s time to relax, the answer is screen time.  Even for those who admit to once having been readers.  They freely tell you that it\'s easier to check Facebook, to watch TV on demand, download a film or surf the web randomly.  And I know this is true because I have noticed changes in my own behaviour over the last three to five years, during which time the internet has increasingly become an option for diversion.  I have seen my concentration span drop off slightly; I have seen my efforts to multitask increase, although productivity is almost certainly inversely proportional!  So, I understand the temptation, its insidiousness as this hyper-connectivity worms its way into our lives, destroying our ability to concentrate, to engage with anything which requires something of us personally other than to be an observer.\n\nAnd then, in the face of all of this, as a disciple-maker I am bringing a message about spiritual disciplines.  A message to a generation which has already largely decided that they alone must be the arbiter of what is right, that anyone who suggests that there must be a better way is automatically pressuring them.\n\nIt\'s not only that even the very gentlest of calls to discipleship by another are still perceived as a massive and unacceptable threat to their own authority over their lives; it\'s also that this is a message about a faith which cannot simply be added to one\'s life as another interesting diversion but which demands to be worked into every part of our life, a faith which requires participation not observation.  A faith which requires submission to spiritual disciplines as our guides in the process of becoming.\n\nAnd, despite all the joys over those who \'get it\', I despair some days.\n\nI wish I didn\'t.  But I do because I feel utterly unprepared for ministry which looks like this.  My training, such as it is, is largely outdated already, save in so far as it has taught me how to think theologically and to innovate in a context of rapid and discontinuous change.  I don\'t know how to reach a generation which claims Christ as its own yet which has little concept of discipline, of preparing for a future day.\n\nAnd, in a way, why should they?  That\'s not embedded in the culture anymore, that we would make preparation for our future, because our future looks bleak.  If we haven\'t run out of natural resources by then, if we haven\'t seen the kick-off of World War III, if we haven\'t lost the war on global terror and if we haven\'t seen the melting of the polar ice caps or a worsening of the hole in the ozone layer, we\'ll certainly all be working until we\'re 90 and then paying extortionate nursing home fees until we die.\n\nWe don\'t have the culture on side anymore for emphasising the value of preparing for a happy future.  This generation doesn\'t even think about the future because it\'s not attractive and so it is to them as if the future will never come.  And if the future will not come, then a future experience of heaven and the goal of a journey towards Christlikeness might as well also be a pipedream.\n\nIn the face of all of that, why would you invest yourself in spiritual disciplines now?  When reading the Bible is hard and sitting still to pray for even ten minutes nigh-on impossible without checking Facebook at least once, why would you pay that price now if you have no concept of the future it\'s preparing you for?  And who would run London\'s rain-slick pavements as the cold bites and the traffic fumes choke if there was never an expectation that there would one day be a marathon to run and a medal to claim?\n\nAnd that is where I end up with this.  I long to make disciples, to teach them of the power of spiritual disciplines to form character and habits, to introduce them to how a progressive laying aside of lordship over one\'s own life is a journey of the most incredible becoming that ever was.  And, God knows, in this church we will keep trying.  But I am more and more convinced that what is needed more than anything else is a move of God where thousands upon thousands of this new generation have an encounter with Christ which is more real than Facebook, more tangible than instant messaging.  An encounter which will have them dreaming at night of crossing the finishing line, knowing whom they have believed.  An encounter which, in the daytime, will see them living and breathing the vision of what could be.  An encounter which will empower them to do the training because they now long for the goal like never before and know that training is the one thing in their power to do which will enable them to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed each day and running the race.\n\nI long to see the work of God in this generation of twenties and thirties and in those who are still teenagers.  I long to see the things of which I first began to dream twelve years ago when I started to hear God speaking to me by his Spirit about the church in the UK.  And I am becoming increasingly convinced that - though the church\'s leaders may play their part, struggling as we toil - the work can only be achieved with his energy which he so powerfully works in us as we struggle to present everyone mature in Christ.  Today, perhaps like never before, I am utterly convinced that, in this disorientating new world of never-ceasing and rapidly speeded-up change, the future of the church in this nation depends on a move of God by his Spirit to give us a new encounter with Christ.\n\nAnd it breaks my heart to think what kind of church we will see in fifty years\' time if I don\'t see that in my lifetime.\n\nPicture credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/\" target=\"_blank\">some rights reserved by Lieven Soete</a>\n\n&nbsp;','Can we still make disciples this way?','','inherit','open','open','','7725-revision-2','','','2012-09-12 11:13:42','2012-09-12 18:13:42','',7725,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/12/7725-revision-2/',0,'revision','',0),(7729,119,'2012-09-12 11:14:32','2012-09-12 18:14:32','<blockquote>Spiritual disciplines are activities in our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.</blockquote>\r\nDallas Willard in <em>The Great Omission</em>.\r\n\r\nThere is something so true about this statement.  Spiritual disciplines are the way we train to become what we cannot become in any other way: Christlike.\r\n\r\nYet they have a bad name.  Because no one likes discipline and no one actually likes hard work.  If you plan to run the London Marathon, you don\'t go on training runs in the wet grey of the London streets with the traffic thundering because you actually like said experience.  But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize.  You go because at night you dream of crossing the finishing line and in the day you live and breathe the vision of what could be.  You do the training because you long for the goal and you know that training is the one thing in your power to do which will enable you to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed one day and running 26.2 miles.\r\n\r\nAnd spiritual disciplines are the same.  Those who have walked long and faithfully with Christ have stayed the course not because they strained for what was impossible but because they understood that faithfulness is made up of daily decisions to pray, to read the Bible, to give, to worship, to celebrate and gather in community, to fast or to serve another without gain.\r\n\r\nYet there is a generation coming for whom discipline is perhaps even worse a word than it is for us.  There is a generation coming - or perhaps half-generation in reality - of those in their twenties, many of whom do not see any reason to do that which is personally costly in their discipleship.  They are Christians, yet many do not read their Bibles, they pray only snatched words as they run for the bus in the morning, they spend their money freely on going out but balk at the idea of saving to go on a missions trip or a training day to equip them as disciples in their workplaces.\r\n\r\nI want to be as fair as I know how here and so I must say that I know many in their twenties who are not like this but I have also never seen a generation for whom there seems to be such a rise in the tide of the rejection of spiritual disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if we are on the front edge of it here in London, a place where the internet and mobile culture of hyper-connectivity has taken hold so strongly, a place of many broken and complex family situations, where parents exhausted by the pace of city life have no strength at the end of a working day to discipline their children and so allow the children to bring themselves up within their own tribe of \'young people\'.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it is not as pronounced elsewhere in the country but here we are beginning to see the effects of this culture on those who have hit their twenties.  It is there in those of us in our thirties too, but to a lesser extent, I think, presumably because fewer of our teenage years were formed by this culture of hyper-connectivity and immediacy.  After all, I was 15 before we got the internet at home and I didn\'t send an e-mail until I was 18; I also didn\'t have a mobile until I was 22.  Those facts alone are more than most of the twenties I lead can believe; it also makes me ancient to the teenagers who send between 3000 and 5000 texts each month.  (Work that out as texts per waking hour - you might start to feel ill!)\r\n\r\nThere is a spirit of independence in this new generation: these men and women have grown up knowing how to take care of themselves and their experience tells them that no one else knows like they do what is best for them.  They don\'t tend to save much because there is a despair about that: they know they won\'t get on the housing ladder unless they get help from parents or land themselves a professional job and they don\'t even care what saving for a rainy day might mean because all that matters is surviving in the now and having as much fun as possible.\r\n\r\nAnd fun means hanging out with the tribe, clubbing, drinking and then posting the pictures on Facebook.  Because that is how community is created, community which depends on the shared memories of a Facebook timeline and which is fuelled by instant messaging via BBM or whatsapp.  They don\'t talk by phone any more really, it seems; that is too intrusive, so it is all about exchanging messages which can be interacted with as and when it is convenient to the recipient.\r\n\r\nWhen it\'s time to relax, the answer is screen time.  Even for those who admit to once having been readers.  They freely tell you that it\'s easier to check Facebook, to watch TV on demand, download a film or surf the web randomly.  And I know this is true because I have noticed changes in my own behaviour over the last three to five years, during which time the internet has increasingly become an option for diversion.  I have seen my concentration span drop off slightly; I have seen my efforts to multitask increase, although productivity is almost certainly inversely proportional!  So, I understand the temptation, its insidiousness as this hyper-connectivity worms its way into our lives, destroying our ability to concentrate, to engage with anything which requires something of us personally other than to be an observer.\r\n\r\nAnd then, in the face of all of this, as a disciple-maker I am bringing a message about spiritual disciplines.  A message to a generation which has already largely decided that they alone must be the arbiter of what is right, that anyone who suggests that there must be a better way is automatically pressuring them.\r\n\r\nIt\'s not only that even the very gentlest of calls to discipleship by another are still perceived as a massive and unacceptable threat to their own authority over their lives; it\'s also that this is a message about a faith which cannot simply be added to one\'s life as another interesting diversion but which demands to be worked into every part of our life, a faith which requires participation not observation.  A faith which requires submission to spiritual disciplines as our guides in the process of becoming.\r\n\r\nAnd, despite all the joys over those who \'get it\', I despair some days.\r\n\r\nI wish I didn\'t.  But I do because I feel utterly unprepared for ministry which looks like this.  My training, such as it is, is largely outdated already, save in so far as it has taught me how to think theologically and to innovate in a context of rapid and discontinuous change.  I don\'t know how to reach a generation which claims Christ as its own yet which has little concept of discipline, of preparing for a future day.\r\n\r\nAnd, in a way, why should they?  That\'s not embedded in the culture anymore, that we would make preparation for our future, because our future looks bleak.  If we haven\'t run out of natural resources by then, if we haven\'t seen the kick-off of World War III, if we haven\'t lost the war on global terror and if we haven\'t seen the melting of the polar ice caps or a worsening of the hole in the ozone layer, we\'ll certainly all be working until we\'re 90 and then paying extortionate nursing home fees until we die.\r\n\r\nWe don\'t have the culture on side anymore for emphasising the value of preparing for a happy future.  This generation doesn\'t even think about the future because it\'s not attractive and so it is to them as if the future will never come.  And if the future will not come, then a future experience of heaven and the goal of a journey towards Christlikeness might as well also be a pipedream.\r\n\r\nIn the face of all of that, why would you invest yourself in spiritual disciplines now?  When reading the Bible is hard and sitting still to pray for even ten minutes nigh-on impossible without checking Facebook at least once, why would you pay that price now if you have no concept of the future it\'s preparing you for?  And who would run London\'s rain-slick pavements as the cold bites and the traffic fumes choke if there was never an expectation that there would one day be a marathon to run and a medal to claim?\r\n\r\nAnd that is where I end up with this.  I long to make disciples, to teach them of the power of spiritual disciplines to form character and habits, to introduce them to how a progressive laying aside of lordship over one\'s own life is a journey of the most incredible becoming that ever was.  And, God knows, in this church we will keep trying.  But I am more and more convinced that what is needed more than anything else is a move of God where thousands upon thousands of this new generation have an encounter with Christ which is more real than Facebook, more tangible than instant messaging.  An encounter which will have them dreaming at night of crossing the finishing line, knowing whom they have believed.  An encounter which, in the daytime, will see them living and breathing the vision of what could be.  An encounter which will empower them to do the training because they now long for the goal like never before and know that training is the one thing in their power to do which will enable them to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed each day and running the race.\r\n\r\nI long to see the work of God in this generation of twenties and thirties and in those who are still teenagers.  I long to see the things of which I first began to dream twelve years ago when I started to hear God speaking to me by his Spirit about the church in the UK.  And I am becoming increasingly convinced that - though the church\'s leaders may play their part, struggling as we toil - the work can only be achieved with his energy which he so powerfully works in us as we struggle to present everyone mature in Christ.  Today, perhaps like never before, I am utterly convinced that, in this disorientating new world of never-ceasing and rapidly speeded-up change, the future of the church in this nation depends on a move of God by his Spirit to give us a new encounter with Christ.\r\n\r\nAnd it breaks my heart to think what kind of church we will see in fifty years\' time if I don\'t see that in my lifetime.\r\n\r\nPicture credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/\" target=\"_blank\">some rights reserved by Lieven Soete</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Can we still make disciples this way?','','inherit','open','open','','7725-revision-3','','','2012-09-12 11:14:32','2012-09-12 18:14:32','',7725,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/12/7725-revision-3/',0,'revision','',0),(7730,119,'2012-09-12 11:21:40','2012-09-12 18:21:40','<blockquote>Spiritual disciplines are activities in our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.</blockquote>\nDallas Willard in <em>The Great Omission</em>.\n\nThere is something so true about this statement.  Spiritual disciplines are the way we train to become what we cannot become in any other way: Christlike.\n\nYet they have a bad name.  Because no one likes discipline and no one actually likes hard work.  If you plan to run the London Marathon, you don\'t go on training runs in the wet grey of the London streets with the traffic thundering because you actually like said experience.  But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize.  You go because at night you dream of crossing the finishing line and in the day you live and breathe the vision of what could be.  You do the training because you long for the goal and you know that training is the one thing in your power to do which will enable you to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed one day and running 26.2 miles.\n\nAnd spiritual disciplines are the same.  Those who have walked long and faithfully with Christ have stayed the course not because they strained for what was impossible but because they understood that faithfulness is made up of daily decisions to pray, to read the Bible, to give, to worship, to celebrate and gather in community, to fast or to serve another without gain.\n\nYet there is a generation coming for whom discipline is perhaps even worse a word than it is for us.  There is a generation coming - or perhaps half-generation in reality - of those in their twenties, many of whom do not see any reason to do that which is personally costly in their discipleship.  They are Christians, yet many do not read their Bibles, they pray only snatched words as they run for the bus in the morning, they spend their money freely on going out but balk at the idea of saving to go on a missions trip or a training day to equip them as disciples in their workplaces.\n\nI want to be as fair as I know how here and so I must say that I know many in their twenties who are not like this but I have also never seen a generation for whom there seems to be such a rise in the tide of the rejection of spiritual disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if we are on the front edge of it here in London, a place where the internet and mobile culture of hyper-connectivity has taken hold so strongly, a place of many broken and complex family situations, where parents exhausted by the pace of city life have no strength at the end of a working day to discipline their children and so allow the children to bring themselves up within their own tribe of \'young people\'.\n\nPerhaps it is not as pronounced elsewhere in the country but here we are beginning to see the effects of this culture on those who have hit their twenties.  It is there in those of us in our thirties too, but to a lesser extent, I think, presumably because fewer of our teenage years were formed by this culture of hyper-connectivity and immediacy.  After all, I was 15 before we got the internet at home and I didn\'t send an e-mail until I was 18; I also didn\'t have a mobile until I was 22.  Those facts alone are more than most of the twenties I lead can believe; it also makes me ancient to the teenagers who send between 3000 and 5000 texts each month.  (Work that out as texts per waking hour - you might start to feel ill!)\n\nThere is a spirit of independence in this new generation: these men and women have grown up knowing how to take care of themselves and their experience tells them that no one else knows like they do what is best for them.  They don\'t tend to save much because there is a despair about that: they know they won\'t get on the housing ladder unless they get help from parents or land themselves a professional job and they don\'t even care what saving for a rainy day might mean because all that matters is surviving in the now and having as much fun as possible.\n\nAnd fun means hanging out with the tribe, clubbing, drinking and then posting the pictures on Facebook.  Because that is how community is created, community which depends on the shared memories of a Facebook timeline and which is fuelled by instant messaging via BBM or whatsapp.  They don\'t talk by phone any more really, it seems; that is too intrusive, so it is all about exchanging messages which can be interacted with as and when it is convenient to the recipient.\n\nWhen it\'s time to relax, the answer is screen time.  Even for those who admit to once having been readers.  They freely tell you that it\'s easier to check Facebook, to watch TV on demand, download a film or surf the web randomly.  And I know this is true because I have noticed changes in my own behaviour over the last three to five years, during which time the internet has increasingly become an option for diversion.  I have seen my concentration span drop off slightly; I have seen my efforts to multitask increase, although productivity is almost certainly inversely proportional!  So, I understand the temptation, its insidiousness as this hyper-connectivity worms its way into our lives, destroying our ability to concentrate, to engage with anything which requires something of us personally other than to be an observer.\n\nAnd then, in the face of all of this, as a disciple-maker I am bringing a message about spiritual disciplines.  A message to a generation which has already largely decided that they alone must be the arbiter of what is right, that anyone who suggests that there must be a better way is automatically pressuring them.\n\nIt\'s not only that even the very gentlest of calls to discipleship by another are still perceived as a massive and unacceptable threat to their own authority over their lives; it\'s also that this is a message about a faith which cannot simply be added to one\'s life as another interesting diversion but which demands to be worked into every part of our life, a faith which requires participation not observation.  A faith which requires submission to spiritual disciplines as our guides in the process of becoming.\n\nAnd, despite all the joys over those who \'get it\', I despair some days.\n\nI wish I didn\'t.  But I do because I feel utterly unprepared for ministry which looks like this.  My training, such as it is, is largely outdated already, save in so far as it has taught me how to think theologically and to innovate in a context of rapid and discontinuous change.  I don\'t know how to reach a generation which claims Christ as its own yet which has little concept of discipline, of preparing for a future day.\n\nAnd, in a way, why should they?  That\'s not embedded in the culture anymore, that we would make preparation for our future, because our future looks bleak.  If we haven\'t run out of natural resources by then, if we haven\'t seen the kick-off of World War III, if we haven\'t lost the war on global terror and if we haven\'t seen the melting of the polar ice caps or a worsening of the hole in the ozone layer, we\'ll certainly all be working until we\'re 90 and then paying extortionate nursing home fees until we die.\n\nWe don\'t have the culture on side anymore for emphasising the value of preparing for a happy future.  This generation doesn\'t even think about the future because it\'s not attractive and so it is to them as if the future will never come.  And if the future will not come, then a future experience of heaven and the goal of a journey towards Christlikeness might as well also be a pipedream.\n\nIn the face of all of that, why would you invest yourself in spiritual disciplines now?  When reading the Bible is hard and sitting still to pray for even ten minutes nigh-on impossible without checking Facebook at least once, why would you pay that price now if you have no concept of the future it\'s preparing you for?  And who would run London\'s rain-slick pavements as the cold bites and the traffic fumes choke if there was never an expectation that there would one day be a marathon to run and a medal to claim?\n\nAnd that is where I end up with this.  I long to make disciples, to teach them of the power of spiritual disciplines to form character and habits, to introduce them to how a progressive laying aside of lordship over one\'s own life is a journey of the most incredible becoming that ever was.  And, God knows, in this church we will keep trying.  But I am more and more convinced that what is needed more than anything else is a move of God where thousands upon thousands of this new generation have an encounter with Christ which is more real than Facebook, more tangible than instant messaging.  An encounter which will have them dreaming at night of crossing the finishing line, knowing whom they have believed.  An encounter which, in the daytime, will see them living and breathing the vision of what could be.  An encounter which will empower them to do the training because they now long for the goal like never before and know that training is the one thing in their power to do which will enable them to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed each day and running the race.\n\nI long to see the work of God in this generation of twenties and thirties and in those who are still teenagers.  I long to see the things of which I first began to dream twelve years ago when I started to hear God speaking to me by his Spirit about the church in the UK.  And I am becoming increasingly convinced that - though the church\'s leaders may play their part, struggling as we toil - the work can only be achieved with his energy which he so powerfully works in us as we struggle to present everyone mature in Christ.  Today, perhaps like never before, I am utterly convinced that, in this disorientating new world of never-ceasing and rapidly speeded-up change, the future of the church in this nation depends on a move of God by his Spirit to give us a new encounter with Christ.\n\nAnd it breaks my heart to think what kind of church we will see in fifty years\' time if I don\'t see that in my lifetime.\n\nPicture credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/\" target=\"_blank\">some rights reserved by Lieven Soete</a>\n\n&nbsp;','Does disciple-making have a future?','','inherit','open','open','','7725-revision-4','','','2012-09-12 11:21:40','2012-09-12 18:21:40','',7725,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/12/7725-revision-4/',0,'revision','',0),(7731,119,'2012-09-12 11:23:38','2012-09-12 18:23:38','<blockquote>Spiritual disciplines are activities in our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.</blockquote>\nDallas Willard in <em>The Great Omission</em>.\n\nThere is something so true about this statement.  Spiritual disciplines are the way we train to become what we cannot become in any other way: Christlike.\n\nYet they have a bad name.  Because no one likes discipline and no one actually likes hard work.  If you plan to run the London Marathon, you don\'t go on training runs in the wet grey of the London streets with the traffic thundering because you actually like said experience.  But you go because you have seen the glory of the prize.  You go because at night you dream of crossing the finishing line and in the day you live and breathe the vision of what could be.  You do the training because you long for the goal and you know that training is the one thing in your power to do which will enable you to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed one day and running 26.2 miles.\n\nAnd spiritual disciplines are the same.  Those who have walked long and faithfully with Christ have stayed the course not because they strained for what was impossible but because they understood that faithfulness is made up of daily decisions to pray, to read the Bible, to give, to worship, to celebrate and gather in community, to fast or to serve another without gain.\n\nYet there is a generation coming for whom discipline is perhaps even worse a word than it is for us.  There is a generation coming - or perhaps half-generation in reality - of those in their twenties, many of whom do not see any reason to do that which is personally costly in their discipleship.  They are Christians, yet many do not read their Bibles, they pray only snatched words as they run for the bus in the morning, they spend their money freely on going out but balk at the idea of saving to go on a missions trip or a training day to equip them as disciples in their workplaces.\n\nI want to be as fair as I know how here and so I must say that I know many in their twenties who are not like this but I have also never seen a generation for whom there seems to be such a rise in the tide of the rejection of spiritual disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if we are on the front edge of it here in London, a place where the internet and mobile culture of hyper-connectivity has taken hold so strongly, a place of many broken and complex family situations, where parents exhausted by the pace of city life have no strength at the end of a working day to discipline their children and so allow the children to bring themselves up within their own tribe of \'young people\'.\n\nPerhaps it is not as pronounced elsewhere in the country but here we are beginning to see the effects of this culture on those who have hit their twenties.  It is there in those of us in our thirties too, but to a lesser extent, I think, presumably because fewer of our teenage years were formed by this culture of hyper-connectivity and immediacy.  After all, I was 15 before we got the internet at home and I didn\'t send an e-mail until I was 18; I also didn\'t have a mobile until I was 22.  Those facts alone are more than most of the twenties I lead can believe; it also makes me ancient to the teenagers who send between 3000 and 5000 texts each month.  (Work that out as texts per waking hour - you might start to feel ill!)\n\nThere is a spirit of independence in this new generation: these men and women have grown up knowing how to take care of themselves and their experience tells them that no one else knows like they do what is best for them.  They don\'t tend to save much because there is a despair about that: they know they won\'t get on the housing ladder unless they get help from parents or land themselves a professional job and they don\'t even care what saving for a rainy day might mean because all that matters is surviving in the now and having as much fun as possible.\n\nAnd fun means hanging out with the tribe, clubbing, drinking and then posting the pictures on Facebook.  Because that is how community is created, community which depends on the shared memories of a Facebook timeline and which is fuelled by instant messaging via BBM or whatsapp.  They don\'t talk by phone any more really, it seems; that is too intrusive, so it is all about exchanging messages which can be interacted with as and when it is convenient to the recipient.\n\nWhen it\'s time to relax, the answer is screen time.  Even for those who admit to once having been readers.  They freely tell you that it\'s easier to check Facebook, to watch TV on demand, download a film or surf the web randomly.  And I know this is true because I have noticed changes in my own behaviour over the last three to five years, during which time the internet has increasingly become an option for diversion.  I have seen my concentration span drop off slightly; I have seen my efforts to multitask increase, although productivity is almost certainly inversely proportional!  So, I understand the temptation, its insidiousness as this hyper-connectivity worms its way into our lives, destroying our ability to concentrate, to engage with anything which requires something of us personally other than to be an observer.\n\nAnd then, in the face of all of this, as a disciple-maker I am bringing a message about spiritual disciplines.  A message to a generation which has already largely decided that they alone must be the arbiter of what is right, that anyone who suggests that there must be a better way is automatically pressuring them.\n\nIt\'s not only that even the very gentlest of calls to discipleship by another are still perceived as a massive and unacceptable threat to their own authority over their lives; it\'s also that this is a message about a faith which cannot simply be added to one\'s life as another interesting diversion but which demands to be worked into every part of our life, a faith which requires participation not observation.  A faith which requires submission to spiritual disciplines as our guides in the process of becoming.\n\nAnd, despite all the joys over those who \'get it\', I despair some days.\n\nI wish I didn\'t.  But I do because I feel utterly unprepared for ministry which looks like this.  My training, such as it is, is largely outdated already, save in so far as it has taught me how to think theologically and to innovate in a context of rapid and discontinuous change.  I don\'t know how to reach a generation which claims Christ as its own yet which has little concept of discipline, of preparing for a future day.\n\nAnd, in a way, why should they?  That\'s not embedded in the culture anymore, that we would make preparation for our future, because our future looks bleak.  If we haven\'t run out of natural resources by then, if we haven\'t seen the kick-off of World War III, if we haven\'t lost the war on global terror and if we haven\'t seen the melting of the polar ice caps or a worsening of the hole in the ozone layer, we\'ll certainly all be working until we\'re 90 and then paying extortionate nursing home fees until we die.\n\nWe don\'t have the culture on side anymore for emphasising the value of preparing for a happy future.  This generation doesn\'t even think about the future because it\'s not attractive and so it is to them as if the future will never come.  And if the future will not come, then a future experience of heaven and the goal of a journey towards Christlikeness might as well also be a pipedream.\n\nIn the face of all of that, why would you invest yourself in spiritual disciplines now?  When reading the Bible is hard and sitting still to pray for even ten minutes nigh-on impossible without checking Facebook at least once, why would you pay that price now if you have no concept of the future it\'s preparing you for?  And who would run London\'s rain-slick pavements as the cold bites and the traffic fumes choke if there was never an expectation that there would one day be a marathon to run and a medal to claim?\n\nAnd that is where I end up with this.  I long to make disciples, to teach them of the power of spiritual disciplines to form character and habits, to introduce them to how a progressive laying aside of lordship over one\'s own life is a journey of the most incredible becoming that ever was.  And, God knows, in this church we will keep trying.  But I am more and more convinced that what is needed more than anything else is a move of God where thousands upon thousands of this new generation have an encounter with Christ which is more real than Facebook, more tangible than instant messaging.  An encounter which will have them dreaming at night of crossing the finishing line, knowing whom they have believed.  An encounter which, in the daytime, will see them living and breathing the vision of what could be.  An encounter which will empower them to do the training because they now long for the goal like never before and know that training is the one thing in their power to do which will enable them to do that thing you cannot do by direct effort - getting out of bed each day and running the race.\n\nI long to see the work of God in this generation of twenties and thirties and in those who are still teenagers.  I long to see the things of which I first began to dream twelve years ago when I started to hear God speaking to me by his Spirit about the church in the UK.  And I am becoming increasingly convinced that - though the church\'s leaders may play their part, struggling as we toil - the work can only be achieved with his energy which he so powerfully works in us as we struggle to present everyone mature in Christ.  Today, perhaps like never before, I am utterly convinced that, in this disorientating new world of never-ceasing and rapidly speeded-up change, the future of the church in this nation depends on a move of God by his Spirit to give us a new encounter with Christ.\n\nAnd it breaks my heart to think what kind of church we will see in fifty years\' time if I don\'t see that in my lifetime.\n\nPicture credit: <a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/lievensoete/3063508196/\" target=\"_blank\">some rights reserved by Lieven Soete</a>\n\n&nbsp;','Does disciple-making have a future?','','inherit','open','open','','7725-revision-5','','','2012-09-12 11:23:38','2012-09-12 18:23:38','',7725,'http://provoketive.com/2012/09/12/7725-revision-5/',0,'revision','',0),