Should There Be A Mosque Near Ground Zero?

From the desk of Tom Flynn:

This controversy has to be viewed in the context of New York City’s 9/11 trauma — and the context of one uncomfortable truth: 9/11 was a faith-based initiative. The hijackers were operating on strongly, perhaps primarily, religious motivations, and the religion that motivated them was Islam. To be sure, it was Islam as they understood it, and millions of Muslims do not understand their faith in that way. On the other hand, the number of Muslims who do understand their faith as Muhammad Atta did is far from insignificant. What we sometimes call “political Islam” is not a distortion of Islam; it is a particular understanding of Islam that crops up far too frequently to be so casually dismissed.

I’m willing to grant that the Cordoba House organizers have a very different understanding of Islam. For them it may truly be (pardon the politically correct phrase) a religion of peace. But Islam is not always so.

It’s time to acknowledge that the understanding of Islam that made Ground Zero into Ground Zero lies within, not outside, the spectrum of Islam as it is understood and practiced around the world.

Read more here. . . .

Beneath The Cross Of Jesus

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

“The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.”

Jefferson’s View Of The Judicary

Thomas Jefferson

Concerning the potential tyranny of the “despotic branch,” Thomas Jefferson warned:

“Over the Judiciary department, the Constitution [has] deprived [the people] of their control. … The original error [was in] establishing a judiciary independent of the nation, and which, from the citadel of the law, can turn its guns on those they were meant to defend, and control and fashion their proceedings to its own will. … The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch. … The Constitution on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please. … It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power [the judiciary] is independent of the nation. … It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression…that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary; working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped.”

Caring For The Sheep

We find that the Apostle Peter urges pastors to care for God’s flock like a shepherd (1 Peter 5:2). Caring is to really share in the joys and burdens of the individual members of the  congregation: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). Biblical pastoral care requires not only professional skill, but more importantly, an active caring concern and a shepherd’s heart.

The Christian pastor must beware of seemingly indifferent performance in ministry that does not enter into the personal lives of his people. The pastor is called to the high privilege of being with his people during the important times of life. Whether it is birth, conversion, baptism, marriage or death, there will be many occasions of celebration or crisis where the pastor must fulfill his role as the good shepherd. During these times, the pastor is a representative of Christ.

The caring pastor ministers to the flock in many ways. These also include the important tasks of  feeding the sheep with the Word of God, conducting worship, and overseeing the church administration. However, the loving concern shown to individuals by the pastor clearly demonstrates the active ministry of Christ and is remembered most by grateful church members.