The Care and Cure of Souls

When I first went onto a staff of a very large church as a "Full Time Minister" the Rev. Bob Strain was the Minister of Pastoral Care. Historically that position has been responsible for "The Care and Cure of Souls".

Think about that description. When does a person need someone to "Care and Cure" their eternal soul? Well, in some ways, we always need those functions but there are times when my souls is especially needy and desirous of care and other times it is in desperate need of cure. Many large churches of today have eliminated that position and I am sorry to see it go.

I once heard a wag note that the souls is never more in need of care than when we are lying flat on our backs and looking up at the ceiling. Over the past few years I have been sent to the hospital with a life threatening issue, usually my heart. I remember one night my wife took me to Bethesda North Hospital with chest pains and I was extremely anxious. Chest pains can be indicative of heart attack and my anxiety rose to dangerous heights. But because I know that anxiety actually causes our blood pressure to rise, it makes an attack more likely.

A trip to the emergency room alone is anxiety provoking but the cold, callous, uncaring welcoming of patients by the staff further provokes worry, fear and panic. The Bethesda staff was no help to me emotionally or spiritually. They appeared only to concern themselves with my insurance card and whether I could pay for my treatment. This angered me and caused me to wonder if they were able to treat me effectively. I needed hope at that point and what I received was hopelessness.

Then it happened. A man with whom I had been working came in the room and said, "Hi, Gary. What are you doing here?" At the same moment he came over and hugged me where upon I broken into tears of release and relief. MY anxiety dropped and my hope rose dramatically. "He said, I am in the Chaplain Training Program here and we just had a class. Let me pray for you."

The clerk looked at him and me in a disapproving manner because she wanted my full attention as she did an X Ray of my wallet. We ignored her and he prayed. What a wonderful, beautiful moment of caring and curing of my soul.

When does a person need someone to "Care and Cure" their eternal soul? Well, in some ways, we always need those functions but there are times when my souls is especially needy and desirous of care and other times it is in desperate need of cure.

Bob was a solid Christian, a wonderful man and a caring person who visited the sick, cared for the troubled soul and preached many funerals. Historically that position has been responsible for "The Care and Cure of Souls". I see that position as one of the most important in the church because it allows someone to focus all his attention on the members when they were most in need of care, compassion and wisdom.

As we interviewed the parents of children with serious disabilities we discovered that most had few if any visits of a member of the Pastoral staff to Care for their troubled souls. There is no doubt in my mind that the birth a child with a severe disability is a severe stress on the parents and family members souls. The church seems to be unaware of the need for Pastoral Care or ignore the opportunity to minister to the parents' souls.

Several of our parents had children of six to ten years old and had never received a visit from a Pastor or Lay Pastor and had never received prayer for the child or their spiritual needs. This speaks of a tragic flaw in the Pastoral Care of a congregation.

The parents we asked did not want much. They do not want the Pastors to do miracles or jump through hoops. They simply want someone to listen and to pray. Oh, sure, it would be nice if the church also helped with simple household tasks. But prayer and compassion are the #1. request but the church is absent and silent.

No Care and No Cure of the Members' Souls.

Where have all the Terrorists Gone?

Frank Goig, is a man I met when he was a Chaplain at Ground Zero. I was there ministering to the First Responders. Frank sent me a very interesting email. I must admit that the contents of the email shocked me.

It included a link to an Internet site that contains a report on the National Security Team that advised the President Obama as to what he needed to do after the Inauguration. The Internet site is run by George Washington University, one of the best schools in America.

I will let you read the report without my guidance or editorial input, but go to page 29, Appendix C and read the names of the members of the task force. Look carefully and see if you notice any names that have been in the news recently. Then write me a note and tell me what you think when you find the name of a man who was advising the new President and his team how to deal with terrorism.

Some days I think I am being a bit paranoid but others it seems as though I am not suspicious enough. Of course my many visits to the former USSR have taught me that authoritarian leaders will stoop to any and all kinds of evil.

Gary Sweeten

Rid Self of Stinking Thinking

Irrational Thinking that leads us to miserable feelings and unreasonable acts are a fact of life. I grew up in an area that prided itself on living in anxiety, fear and misunderstandings, especially in homes and churches.

About thirty years ago Margaret Josephson Rinck and Alice Petersen attended a seminar put on by Dr. Maxie Maultsby, a Plastic Surgeon who turned to Psychiatry because the people he operated on to make more beautiful were as miserable after the surgery as before. He decided that he needed to help miserable people stop making themselves fell so badly and he took up brain studies.

Meg and Alice returned from that workshop all excited about integrating Dr. Maultsby's insights with the Bible and we wrote manuals on the topic and taught hundreds of people how to be "Rational Christians". It was enormously successful.

I preached this morning at Tri-County Assembly of feeling miserable and start feeling joy. The Bible is the very best book of psychology ever written. Psychology means the study of the soul and who better that the One who created our soul to teach us how to heal it and keep it whole? God knows our heart and our soul and wants to replace lies with His truth that will set us free.

Ordinary People Work Miracles

Norman E. Borlaug, the plant scientist who did more than anyone else in the 20th century to teach the world to feed itself and whose work was credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives, died Saturday night. He was 95 and lived in Dallas.
He was widely described as the father of the broad agricultural movement called the Green Revolution, though decidedly reluctant to accept the title. “A miserable term,” he said, characteristically shrugging off any air of self-importance.
Yet his work had a far-reaching impact on the lives of millions of people in developing countries. His breeding of high-yielding crop varieties helped to avert mass famines that were widely predicted in the 1960s, altering the course of history.

Largely because of his work, countries that had been food deficient, like Mexico and India, became self-sufficient in producing cereal grains.

“More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world,” the Nobel committee said in presenting him with the Peace Prize. “We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace.”

The day the award was announced, Dr. Borlaug, vigorous and slender at 56, was working in a wheat field outside Mexico City when his wife, Margaret, drove up to tell him the news. “Someone’s pulling your leg,” he replied, according to one of his biographers, Leon Hesser. Assured that it was true, he kept on working, saying he would celebrate later.

World Views

In my last post I wrote about the four major ways to view the world. Some of my readers found it confusing. Poor writing always confuses so let me try to explain my interest in writing about these things.

I am trained as an Educator and Clinical Counselor. The foundational world views that underlie form the foundation of my life will always come out in the ways I treat people. For example, Secular Humanism does not believe that humans are any more important than a beetle or a worm. This is why some persons can argue that unborn babies have no intrinsic value and can be offed without any guilt or remorse.

On the other hand, I am convinced that God created the world and gave humans a special spark of Himself. Since all humans carry "the imago Dei" or image of God they are intrinsically of worth and value. To kill any person is fraught with danger and to kill innocent persons is especially odious.

This does not mean that all Secular Humanists are killers and have no conscience. But it does mean that a different world view informs their conscience. The philosophy that guided the most virulent pro abortionists was based on the idea that certain races were inferior and should be eliminated or at least reduced in number. Hitlers' "Final Solution" also arose from a world view that held some to be less worthy than others.

Think about it.

If you have a high view of all humans then your philosophy probably comes either consciously or unconsciously fro Judeo Christian ideals. Almost every charity hospital in the world arose from Judeo Christian thought. As C.S. Lewis said, "Nothing proves Christianity better than a hospital."

What about racist, slave owning Christians? They separated their daily behavior from their faith. The had to change the biblical story. The people in South Africa who treated Black Africans so terribly actually had to alter their basic theology to agree with their sinful actions.

This happens all the time, of course, for humans are quite creative in their application of biblical principles. Just look at how we have altered the Bible's teachings on sex, financial ethics and family life. But being inconsistent with a biblical world view does not make that view wrong. However, applying a Judeo Christian world view consistently can be challenging and lead to a lot of mercy toward those of us who fail.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and most other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were Christian Ministers. They were building on the shoulders of the Christian men and women who led the Second Great Awakening. These people provided the motivation, energy and demand that slavery be ended in America.

Christianity always leads to change.


Gary Sweeten

Was the Killing Cover Up Worth It?

It is sometimes difficult to come up with a eulogy about a beloved political leader by supporters who must also be reminded of the truth. In a funeral of an unknown person the Minister and family can easily "forget" the facts of the person's life. But how can we forget the deadly and public part of Ted Kennedy's huge lifestyle.

Well, some liberals have decided to act like Kennedy was a saint whose life mirrored Mother Teresa or St. Francis. Perhaps we shall soon see bronze memorials with him talking to the birds. But one very liberal blogger faced his obvious sins and dealt with it in a unique manner. So unique, in fact, that it backfired.

Here is what the Huffington Post had to say about the Senator.

But in all the florid or scalpel-sharp prose, there's one constant: Peeking out from the center of the story is the matter of his playing a major part in the death of a 28-year-old woman.

Mary Jo wasn't a right-wing talking point or a negative campaign slogan. She was a dedicated civil rights activist and political talent with a bright future -- granted, whenever someone dies young, people sermonize about how he had a "bright future" ahead of him -- but she actually did. She wasn't afraid to defy convention (28 and unmarried, oh the horror!) or create her own career path based on her talents. She lived in Georgetown (where I grew up) and loved the Red Sox (we'll forgive her for that). Then she got in a car driven by a 36-year-old senator with an alcohol problem and a cauldron full of demons, and wound up a controversial footnote in a dynasty.

We don't know how much Kennedy was affected by her death, or what she'd have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history. What we don't know, as always, could fill a Metrodome.

Still, ignorance doesn't preclude a right to wonder. So it doesn't automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded.

Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it.

This post originally appeared on Opinionistas.com.


So, maybe this young woman with a tremendous future ahead of her might speak from the grave after having her life prematurely ended by a drunken rich boy and say: "My life was a worthy sacrifice to give so your fame and fortune could grow."


I am constantly amazed at how far a worshipping political group will go to laud people who do not deserve it.

Gary Sweeten

White House Summit Great Relationships

A funny satire of the Beer Summit at the White House can be found at The Big Hollywood Blog

The Purpose of Abortion?

Reduce the population of unwanted persons in the USA. So suggests Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg.

Here’s a transcript of that portion of the Times' interview:

Q. Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?

Justice Ginsburg: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the Court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.”

Justice Ginsburg assumed that abortion was to kill off as many unwanted minorities as possible and yet, despite this assumption, she strongly promoted abortion rights as the counsel for Planned Parenthood.

That is callous.

Why Are Christians Behind in Innovation?

I just read the Ashoka story again and it is wonderful. Take a look yourself at their web page and see what can happen to bring great changes in a family, community or nation when ordinary people feel called to do something great.

I believe that the Christian community has the greatest power for good that the world has ever seen. Whey are we so far behind when it comes to developing ways to foster innovation and change. Maybe I am wrong, and I hope you will tell me that I am wrong, but commercial and secular non-profits seem to go all out to enroll people in programs and processes to change the world.

Microsoft spent $9,000,000,000.00 in 2008 on Research and Development. They are the biggest and richest group of software producers in the world yet they are spending nine billion dollars on ways to grow.

Asoka works hard to discover men and women who are making a difference and then funds their efforts. This is R&D in Social Innovation. What Christian groups seeks to find cutting edge ministries and creative innovators they can support financially? Most churches won't even honor and support their own people let alone strangers.

I will close by asking my readers to pray about supporting innovators wherever they can be found. I hope God's spirit raises up thousands of cutting edge men and women who will lead the way into the 21st Century.

Sex and Marriage

All of us can see the growing disintegration of traditional family life. It is occurring all around us and the long term consequences are dire. The primary reason why America and Europe have been the leaders in world economics comes from our tradition of Christian faith and its support of marriage, family life and hard work.

Over the past few years Europe and America have abandoned the value of sex only withing marriage. It is obvious that sex outside marriage has occurred forever, but only recently has it become acceptable by the media, politicians and even some church spokespersons.

A new term has even been invented to describe what is happening in the media and among the youth. The term is, Hooking Up" and means that men and women have sex without any pretense of caring for each other let alone a commitment to each other.

While an Associate Dean at the University of Cincinnati i listened to a "famous" author from Yale University who traveled from campus to campus spreading his message of free and open sex. Like Johnny Appleseed, the famous evangelist of an earlier era, this man was planting seeds that would grow and produce a very lively crop.

Although I can't remember the man's name but he made millions of dollars and ruined millions of lives by telling college kids what they desperately wanted to hear. Namely that sex is just like breathing and it would be crazy to restrict either.

I can only hope that man has come to faith in Christ and repented of his gross sins because there must be a special place of heat reserved for him and his ilk.

The "sex education" classes at UC were also hot beds of hot beds. I know of many young men who took those classes over and over again just to meet the female students who were being stripped of their mental reservations about sex outside marriage. Those profs knew what was going on and happily took part in the charade of education while promoting what is essentially rape of unsuspecting young girls.

Why aren't we doing a better job of telling about the cost to women of these ideas? Why do we let old men teach such destructive myths and pay them with our taxes?

What is Important?

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

All the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself, adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups...and then began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."
God brews the coffee, not the cups..........enjoy your coffee.

Gary Sweeten

Poverty and Christians

What social needs are churches supposed to meet? Are we supposed to eliminate Hunger, Homelessness, Abortion, Addiction, violence, Adoption, Pornography, Domestic abuse, Divorce,Ignorance,?

Which are we to focus on at church and in life? The answer is: YES.

But the core of these issues is a lack of salvation and mature Christians.

Here in Cincinnati, we are seeing an increase in deadly conflicts among young men and women. Almost daily we get images of families crowding around a crime scene weeping and wailing about the loss of a child or young person.

Many of the comments coming from the adults call on God and ask for His protection, yet the ones involved in the killings seem clueless to God's love and life. Another thing is missing: Males. Rarely do we see males in these photos. I would be willing to bet that over 90% of the youth involved in these killings came from homes where the father was absent most of all of their lives. I hope someone can prove me wrong.

Salvation is not enough. We must also have changed lives that bring dads back into the families they have fathered. Unfortunately, we have spawned a culture of polygamy without marriage and children without love. The rule is too often "hooking up" sexually and fathering a child with no personal responsibility to rear that child or model personal responsibility to him or her.

With abortion we also see a culture of death and despising children. The pro death politicians and feminist ideologues have brought such evil upon our nation that it is almost impossible to stop the carnage. We Christians must pray hard to reveal this deception and regain the culture of love, life and nurture we once enjoyed.

My dad had a favorite saying about this. "When we remove sex from marriage we will see the men become tom cats who kill their offspring and show no love to their partners." My dad was a prophet and it will get much worse in the years ahead.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the principalities and powers and spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:10 ff

Our enemy is not Obama or even the NARAL groups that promote killing and death.

Ministry for the Long Haul

While in Norway I was struck by the importance of continuing God's call for the long term. Maybe that is why Paul said that we ought not grow weary when we are doing good thing.

It takes a long time for the seeds to fall to the ground, get covered up, bloom and grow and then produce fruit of their own. It was over twenty years ago That I met Jens-Petter Jorgensen in Nairobi, Kenya. We became friends and he invited me to teach in Oslo at a Pastors' Conference in 1986.

Many of the people who came to our many teaching and equipping sessions have grown in maturity, insight and wisdom and God has placed them in positions of influence. They have grown and developed in new ways because of the Holy spirit not me. God brought healing and power to so many good people back in the Eighties that something good had to happen! It did because they are spread out all over the world doing good things for Jesus.

So, don't grow weary as you keep the flock of God covered with grace and power.

Gary Sweeten

Preventing AIDS

In one of the best articles I have read about this subject, Christianity Today, tells about how one of the most important AIDS experts in the world supports monogamy and other faith based ways to prevent the spread of AIDS in Africa.

I hope you will read the article and report it widely among the media.

Gary Sweeten

Seek First the Kingdom of God

Did you read about the man who lost his job and went home to see his wife and five kids? He killed them and himself because he was so upset about losing his job. I would say that this is an extreme example of loving and serving mammon more than God.

In Matthew 6 Jesus offered us a beautiful and healthy way to look at material things. It is the way we can keep our wits about us during this economic slowdown.

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. (If you want security do not place your mind on getting it from material goods. Mold, rust, inflation and a lowering stock market can take our material treasures away from us. No body can take heaven's treasures from us.)

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (My dad always said, "The pocket book nerve is the nerve closest to a man's heart.)

22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (This is powerful. The eyes are windows to the soul. If they are filled with evil, greed, mammon and self service the soul will be in a dark dungeon!)

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Not long ago Bernard Madoff, a very wealthy investor, was found to have been ripping off his investors for some 50 Billion dollars. They included his own family, his Rabbi and Congregation as well as numerous Jewish and secular charities.

How dark would a man's soul need to be to do such a thing? He had many houses, yachts and assorted luxurious items while stealing from charities. He attended Synagogue, gave to their charities and yet was so greedy that honoring God was a complete fake.

But to a lesser extent, many of us choose mammon over God. We worship the things money will buy and long for it in the bank or retirement account so we will feel secure. Is my security in things or in God. Jesus gives us this advice.

32 The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Is my security in things or the God who supplies all my things?

During this financial meltdown I have seen my retirement fund almost disappear. I was very anxious and I sought the Holy Spirit's guidance. He spoke to my heart and comforted me. (I'll tell you later what He said to me.)

Have you sought the Lord and His Kingdom during the meltdown? Did He comfort you?

Are you trying to operate in His kingdom rather than the political kingdom?

Are you exceedingly worried about your things? Does the worry help you or increase the bank account?

Let me know what you are experiencing.

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

Thoughts About Right and Left

“I think the phenomenon of the religious right in the U.S. (we really have no parallel in the United Kingdom) may be construed as a clumsy attempt to recapture the coming together of God and the world, which remains stubbornly in scripture but which the Enlightenment had repudiated, and which fundamentalism itself continues to repudiate with its dualistic theology of rapture and Armageddon.

It is as though the religious right has known in its bones that God belongs in public, but without understanding either why or how that might make sense; while the political left in the U.S., and sometimes the religious left on both sides of the Atlantic, has known in its bones that God would make radical personal moral demands as part of his program of restorative justice, and has caricatured his public presence as a form of tyranny in order to evoke the cheap and gloomy Enlightenment critique as a way of holding that challenge at bay.”

N.T. Wright

Innovation in Life

If I’d asked customers what they wanted,

I’d have developed a faster horse.

Henry Ford

It is very hard to see the future

when your ear is always on the ground.

Gary Sweeten

How to be a Christian Leader

Tim Keller, a Presbyterian Pastor in New York, is witty, insightful and powerful. I am jealous of his gifts. I covet them. I am a sinner.

Tim writes a lot about what it means to be a Christian leader but rarely dose he use the term, "Christian Leader". In a recent posting on Christianity Today's web Dr. Keller writes about humility and why it is essential to evangelism. Here is a little of what he has to say.

Grace, Not Goodness
We are on slippery ground when we discuss humility, because religion and morality inhibit humility. It is common in the evangelical community to talk about one's worldview—a set of basic beliefs and commitments that shape the way we live in every particular. Others prefer the term "narrative identity." This is a set of answers to the questions, "Who am I? What is my life all about? What am I here for? What are the main barriers keeping me from fulfillment? How can I deal with those barriers?"
There are two basic narrative identities at work among professing Christians. The first is what I will call the moral-performance narrative identity. These are people who in their heart of hearts say, I obey; therefore I am accepted by God. The second is what I will call the grace narrative identity. This basic operating principle is, I am accepted by God through Christ; therefore I obey.
People living their lives on the basis of these two different principles may superficially look alike. They may sit right beside one another in the church pew, both striving to obey the law of God, to pray, to give money generously, to be good family members. But they are doing so out of radically different motives, in radically different spirits, resulting in radically different personal characters.
When persons living in the moral-performance narrative are criticized, they are furious or devastated because they cannot tolerate threats to their self-image of being a "good person."
But in the gospel our identity is not built on such an image, and we have the emotional ballast to handle criticism without attacking back. When people living in the moral-performance narrative base their self-worth on being hard working or theologically sound, then they must look down on those whom they perceive to be lazy or theologically weak.
But those who understand the gospel cannot possibly look down on anyone, since they were saved by sheer grace, not by their perfect doctrine or strong moral character.

The Stench of Moralism
Another mark of the moral-performance narrative is a constant need to find fault, win arguments, and prove that all opponents are not just mistaken but dishonest sellouts. However, when the gospel is deeply grasped, our need to win arguments is removed, and our language becomes gracious. We don't have to ridicule our opponents, but instead we can engage them respectfully.
People who live in the moral-performance narrative use sarcastic, self-righteous putdown humor, or have no sense of humor at all. Lewis speaks of "the unsmiling concentration upon Self, which is the mark of hell." The gospel, however, creates a gentle sense of irony. We find a lot to laugh at, starting with our own weaknesses. They don't threaten us anymore because our ultimate worth is not based on our record or performance.
Martin Luther had the basic insight that moralism is the default mode of the human heart. Even Christians who believe the gospel of grace on one level can continue to operate as if they have been saved by their works. In "The Great Sin" in Mere Christianity, Lewis writes, "If we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good—above all, that we are better than someone else—I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the Devil."
Gracious, self-forgetful humility should be one of the primary things that distinguishes Christian believers from the many other types of moral, decent people in the world. But I think it is fair to say that humility, which is a key differentiating mark of the Christian, is largely missing in the church. Nonbelievers, detecting the stench of sanctimony, turn away.

Some will say, "Phariseeism and moralism are not our culture's big problems right now. Our problems are license and antinomianism. There is no need to talk about grace all the time to postmodern people." But postmodern people have been rejecting Christianity for years, thinking that it was indistinguishable from moralism. Only if you show them there's a difference—that what they rejected wasn't real Christianity—will they even begin to listen again.

Dr. Timothy Keller

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To be an effective change agent we need to be humble. If we are not, our failures will surely lead us to be more humble of die trying not to be.

Humility comes from knowing God's grace.

Grace comes from knowing the depth of my sin and powerlessness.

Gary Sweeten

Offering insights on how to be humble when you are perfect.

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

Hopeless for 2009

Atheists are sick and tired of aggressive Christians talking about God. So, they are raising money to put on a hard hitting campaign to rebut our faith.
According to The Herald American paper, militant atheists and humanists are spending lots of money to spread their powerful message: "There's probably no god; now stop worrying and enjoy life."

According to the Herald: Next week, the Atheist Bus Campaign plans to place 1,000 advertisements in the subway system, featuring enthusiastic quotations from Emily Dickinson, Albert Einstein, Douglas Adams and Katharine Hepburn.


An interesting element of the bus slogan is the word "probably," which would seem to be more suited to an Agnostic Bus Campaign than to an atheist one. Dawkins, for one, argued that the word should not be there at all.


But the element of doubt was necessary to meet British advertising guidelines, said Tim Bleakley, managing director for sales and marketing at CBS Outdoor in London, which handles advertising for the bus system.

I wonder if thousands will rush to convert to doubt after this campaign.

Gary Sweeten
www.sweetenlife.com

Prayer is Popular

The United States may be a secular nation, but its people are anything but. In fact, 90 percent of Americans have a spiritual interlude with God every day, according to a new study released last week and covered in the Washington Times. "Most prayer writers imagine a God who is accessible, listening, and a source of emotional and psychological support, who at least sometimes answers back," said Wendy Cadge, a sociologist who directed the research for Brandeis University.

The findings, though, have been supported for years. In 2004, a survey of more than 31,000 adults released by the National Institutes of Health found that prayer is the most commonly used "alternative medicine." It's even more popular than acupuncture, chiropractic, yoga and vitamins.

Why do so many media outlets talk about accupuncture, yoga, meditation and Eastern mysticism? Any bias here?

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/