One Million Moms (40,000 members strong) is putting pressure on JC Penny to drop Ellen DeGeneres as their spokesperson. They claim customers with “traditional values” will be turned away. DeGeneres responded by saying “Here are the values I stand for. I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.” Continue reading
Author Archives: Clark Bunch
The Cross Isn’t Pretty
There’s a little icon on my desktop that represents a trash can. A real trash can would be showing its age by now, but my icon always looks exactly the same. It never gets filthy, never dents, never smells, and the lid always closes no matter how much “trash” is inside. The icon represents a trash can, but a real trash can isn’t pretty. So it is with the cross.
We wear crosses of gold and silver about the neck, carve them into our church pews, paint them in our artwork and place them above our church buildings. As an icon, the cross represents Christianity. But our images have no splinters, rusty nails, nor do they drip with the blood of the slain. The image of the cross is meant to remind us that the broken body of Christ was hung on the tree. Our communion wafers are perfect little squares, and the wine/juice tastes sweet, but the body of the Lord was broken and his blood poured out. Flesh was ripped away by the whip. Blood and sweat mingled and dripped to the ground. The air was ripe with the smell of blood and the stench of death. The cross was an instrument of torture and execution.
I’m not suggesting we do away with the symbols. It is our nature to forget, and we must be reminded of what God has done. Rainbows actually are beautiful, but they remind us of mercy in the face of judgment. Baptism represents death of the old man and rebirth of the new. Passover reminded the Jews of what God had done for them, just as communion does for us today. Our hope is in the resurrection, made possible by the crucifixion. We must remember what God has done. But remember as well… it wasn’t pretty.
Coffee with Jesus: Re-Posting
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I love Jesus. I am not ashamed of the Gospel. But I’m not guilted into copying & pasting nor reposting every lame statues update, jpeg image and gif file that tells me I have to. “If you love Jesus you will repost, if you love Satan you will keep scrolling.” Bull crap! Today it’s Facebook, but we went through the same thing for about a decade with e-mail. There is something that compels people to dream up new ways to get people to re-forward. It doesn’t have to be religious; Facebook is not donating 3 cents each time you retweet that sick image of the little girl with cancer (if that’s even what the picture is of).
The e-mail petitions used to kill me. Let’s say you get a petition in your inbox for a cause you really believe in. If you add your name and forward to 10 people, as soon as those people sign and forward you’ve just created 10 different permutations of the petition list. There is no way to consolidate that raw data back into one list. Even if the 1000th person forwards it to whomever, what they will end up receiving is hundreds, possibly thousands of different lists. Many of the names will be duplicates, especially of the early signatures, but each petition will be unique. If you sign and forward, a day or two later you will start getting the petition again, and no two will be alike even if your is signature is #25 on each one.
I am not ashamed Jesus, so not forwarding your email or reposting your status will not cause him to be ashamed of me before his father. You can read my Facebook profile or any one of 400 blog posts to know how I feel about Jesus. I teach Bible at a Christian school, and preach frequently in our chapel and at a small church nearby. I lead a youth group, play and sing praise & worship music, have driven a church van and some years ago played on a men’s church softball team. When I “keep scrolling” it’s not because I love Satan. Just for the record.
Surprised by Jesus
In the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry and gets right to it, so to speak. By the end of Mark 1 Jesus has been baptized by John, tempted by Satan, called the first 4 apostles, cast out a demon and healed many people, including Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.
Jesus’ apostles know that he can heal the sick and cast out demons. They were given power and authority to do those same things. But at the end of Mark 4 they are filled when fear when Jesus calms a storm. “Who then is this, that event the wind and sea obey him?” They were surprised by Jesus, their own leader and teacher. They had been given power to heal the sick, but seeing Jesus command the raging storm to be peaceful was more than they expected. It appears they woke him up to help bail water. He criticized their lack of faith, and it appears that even they don’t get.
I set out to write a sermon titled “Don’t be surprised by Jesus.” He was, after all, the Son of God. After everything else they have already witnessed and been a part of, how could they still not understand? Along the way I realized that it is unreasonable to not be surprised by Jesus. He is surprising, his grace is amazing, and his love and mercy surpass our understanding. Throughout his ministry he is talking to women, eating with tax collectors, and touching lepers. As he is nailed to the cross to die, he prays for the people crucifying him. “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” If you’re not surprised yet, read further into the New Testament where we are commanding to think that way. (Try Philippians 2)
We must not become so comfortable that we are not surprised by Jesus. We can be lulled into such a sense of complacency that we miss the spiritual warfare going on around us. There’s a line in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe that says of Aslan “He’s not a tame lion.” Jesus is incarnate deity, maker of heaven and earth, who will one day judge the nations. It’s a shame that after a time we get used to it. Just don’t be surprised when you get surprised.
Coffee with Jesus: Take Your Lord to Work Day
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Life Begins Before Conception
When does life begin? Consider Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah 1:5 ESV)
What about in the cases of rape or incest? What if the mother’s life is in danger? Does a woman not have the right to choose when it comes to her own body?
Abortion is used in this country as birth control. If allowing abortion for exceptional cases such as rape or incest would allow all other abortions to be made illegal in this country I would support it. The very vast majority of abortion procedures in this country are for birth control. Pregnancy is seen as a nasty side effect of a pleasure seeking lifestyle. A baby would “cramp our style” or “get in the way” so abortion is an easy answer for people that act like they don’t know where babies come from. For some women, who have had 10 or more abortions, that is their only form a birth control.
Of course a woman has the right to choose. How about choosing to honor God with your body? Men have always had it a little easier when it comes to “moving on” after a relationship, but each father will give an account of how many fatherless children he created or how many abortions took place to clean up his mess.
Each human being is created in the image of God.
God created life and it is precious to him.
Your life is a gift from God and someday each individual will give account with what they did with what was given. To whom much is given, much shall be required. The command in the Garden of Eden was to be fruitful and multiply. Our ability to procreate is God-given to fulfill his purposes, not simply to enjoy ourselves while we here.
God had a plan for your life before you were born. Before you were conceived he knew you; his plans are to prosper you, not to harm you. He gave his only son, and the Son gave his life, so you and I might live. And what some doctors would have you believe is tissue, nothing but a lump of cells much like a tumor? That is God’s gift also.
The Intersection of Gay Marriage and Tennis
I had never heard of Margaret Court until I read this story out of Australia. Apparently the Australian Open is played at the Margaret Court Arena. She is a professional tennis champion, holding 62 Grand Slam titles. Court is also a pastor with an uncompromising view on gay marriage. Because of her celebrity status in the world of tennis, her views on marriage and family have attracted what she feels is unwarranted criticism. There could be protests at the Australian Open next week, and some are calling for the arena to be renamed.
Read the full story here, via Utterance. Thank you Peter Hallett for the coverage.
The real shame would be if Court is denied the recognition she deserves from the professional world of tennis because of her convictions in her role as church pastor. Her views on marriage are based on scriptural precepts and have not changed. Only recently, however, have they become a thing of public scrutiny. The same protesters waving rainbow flags and claiming people should be accepted the way they are seem to be refusing to accept Margaret Court for the way she is. If her name is removed from the arena because of her views on marriage, which differs from some people, that almost smacks of prejudice.
Coffee with Jesus: Mission Trip
Will the real RM-2493 Please Stand Up?
Have you ever seen (or signed) one of those petitions supporting public broadcast of religious programs? I remember hearing as early as 1993 that Madalyn O’Hair, infamous for getting prayer removed from public schools, was engaged in petitioning the FCC to ban all religious programming from radio and television. Resolution Number 2493 has generated heated dispute for over 35 years.
Today you might get an email or see a Facebook message claiming Dr. James Dobson (or some other Christian leader) is pleading with American Christians to sign a petition or write the FCC. Dobson denies any involvement with such requests. Other preachers or ministries are sometimes listed as being in danger, and some versions are geared toward Christmas. 2493 would supposedly ban all Christmas programs and carols from public schools. Please don’t sign the petition, don’t forward it to anyone, and certainly DO NOT write a letter to the FCC. They have been inundated with thousands of pieces of mail for over 35 years for no good reason whatsoever.
The real RM-2493 was presented to the FCC in 1974 and denied in 1975. The real document was not sponsored nor endorsed by O’Hair in any way. It requested the FCC not give religious organizations licences to broadcast on channels reserved for education. Again, the resolution was denied by the FCC in 1975, but even at that time they responded to the thousands of letter received from misinformed citizens. The FCC clearly understood their role as an agency of the federal government was to neither promote nor inhibit religion.
RM-2493 did not call for a ban on religious programming on the airwaves. The resolution was denied in 1975. The FCC does not have the authority to ban religious programming even if it wanted to. Further, Madalyn O’Hair has been dead since 1995. Yet the rumor lives on. The FCC has received over 10 million letters, email and phone calls.
More at snopes.com
Can We Be Christlike?
We are commanded to be like Christ. We must imitate him and be conformed to his image; we must “put on” Christ. These are New Testament directives. But we will never really become exactly like him. So what is the goal?
I use artificial sweetener in my tea. It’s not the same as sugar, but I have tried and failed to drink unsweetened tea. Diet pop, Mrs. Dash and Smart Balance butter-flavored whatever that is are all examples of products made to imitate the real thing. While we endeavor to become like Christ, we will never do so perfectly. But it’s a progression; we’re on a journey. The real goal is to keep getting closer. Paul said has not achieved it yet but he continued to press on toward the mark and the prize. Continue reading
The Master's Table 