text:
Sunday, November 16, 2008
God's foreknowledge as a result of his sovereignty
The classical view of God's foreknowledge, which Boyd describes well, seems to me to imply that part of the foundation of God's authority rests on the fact of his settled foreknowledge about all that will happen. Though I am vastly oversimplifying, in essence the thought seems to be that God's power and/or authority depend at least in part on God's omniscience--his ability to see the end from the beginning--to "know all things."
I submit this is getting the cart before the horse, and the fact that Boyd does not point this out complicates his own explanation about the future being "partially open" and "partially settled." I suggest rather that God has settled in his mind that there are certain things he's going to do, and certain outcomes that he is going to ensure take place. Those things are "settled" for the simple reason that God has resolved that he will do them. Isaiah 45:23 is a great example of this, where God says "I swear by myself" that one day everyone will acknowledge he's the only God. This is not conditional on anything, but nor is it a passively-settled future event. It's something God is going to accomplish, and he knows he can and will do it. His foreknowledge, therefore, is absolutely settled because God the omnipotent can deliver on his commitment.
In the same vein, however, those things that God in his sovereignty has delegated to his creatures to decide, remain uncertain until his free moral agents choose among the possibilities. Here Boyd makes a very plausible case that God, being infinite in knowledge, can forsee all of the possible choices we might make, and even rank them in probability based upon our character and the character of other players, environmental factors, etc. that lead us to decide as we do. This perspective permeates the book, but one good place to see it is in his question 6 discussion on pp 126 and following, where he offers the analogy of God as the "infinitely intelligent chess player" who can anticipate all our possible moves. As Boyd correctly points out, this actually requires a lot more intellectual horsepower than simply to know the one fully-determined script that everything is going to follow, and thus an open view of God actually posits a more intelligent, more wise, more glorious perspective for God than that of exhaustive, settled foreknowledge.
Even if the choice we make from among the possibilities is one that God did not expect or desire (and Boyd makes an unambiguous Scriptural case for this happening), this does not diminish the fact of his sovereignty in the slightest, because regardless of the outcome of our choices, he is confident in his power (and so ought we to be) to take whatever mess we make and still accomplish his good purpose. Put crudely, we have the ability to screw things up because that's one of the possible consequences of the freedom to choose, which God has granted. However--and this is cause for joy--we don't have the ability to screw them up beyond repair. THAT is God's sovereignty (and his grace) in full force!
The Sovereignty of God
I've just finished Greg Boyd's lay treatise on the Open Theism entitled "God of the Possible." In the main I think Boyd has laid out an excellent perspective that conforms far more closely to my understanding of Scripture and my observation of the world, than does the classical view that God has exhaustive foreknowledge of a settled future. I definitely recommend the book.
However correct he is about the openness of the future and of God's knowledge of that future, I think Boyd misses the significance of God's sovereignty as it informs God's future knowledge. It is not wholly unaddressed—Question 16 in chapter 4 deals in some degree with the objection classical evangelicals raise, that the open view of God somehow demeans God's sovereignty (pp. 147 and following in the paperback edition). Nevertheless I suggest that if Boyd were more fully to consider the basic nature of God's sovereignty, he could present a more forceful response to this question.
We Americans (perhaps others, but I know "us" best) don't get the concept of sovereignty in anything remotely approaching a Biblical sense. It's not our fault exactly, it's in the DNA of our nation. The American Declaration of Independence illustrates my point, when it states that governments ". . .deriv(e) their just powers from the consent of the governed." This concept, that we, the ruled, are in fact the source of the ruler's authority, is a fundamental American belief, but it was wildly revolutionary in the context of European monarchs whose sovereignty was derived, either from divine right (that is, conferred upon them by God), or by their own self-existence. Interestingly, even now the term "Sovereign" in a monarchy refers, not to the state or the nation, but to the person of the monarch him- or herself. This contrasts sharply with our constitutional republic in which the people themselves are the sovereign (I speak, of course, of the governing philosophy with no comment on how it is—or isn't—reflected in reality).
But all too often--and in sharp contrast to the way any Biblical contemporary would have understood it--American Christians' description of God's sovereignty falls into the trap of imputing to God's authority the same source as human governments—namely us. This is true any time anyone makes the claim "if God weren't this way (pick the theological trait of choice), he wouldn't be sovereign." This is hubris of the highest degree. What we're really saying is that we couldn't possibly grant the sovereignty of anybody who doesn't measure up to our standard. In other words, God Himself is presumed to derive HIS just powers from our consent. Now, no good Evangelical would actually admit that is what he is saying; in fact he'd rightly counter that it was heresy. But when we attach conditions to the sovereignty of God, that's exactly what we're doing.
What I'm getting at is that God is sovereign simply and completely because he is—full stop. There are no conditions, no criteria that define or justify the fact that God is supreme over all things in heaven and on earth. God doesn't derive his power or authority from anything at all. Rather it is one of the truths of his self-existent being. If nothing else we believe about God were true, his supreme authority would not be affected in any way, because it stands on its own. Therefore, any pronouncement of the sort "If X were not true, God's sovereignty would be diminished" is sheer nonsense.
This brings me back to the open view of God, and Boyd's book in particular, but I'll save that for the next post.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Insight from Boyd on Bringing Our Presuppositions to Scripture
Boyd clearly espouses a tighter view of Scriptural inspiration than I do--that is, he consistently refers to the whole Biblical text as the Word of God rather than searching for the Word of God WITHIN the Biblical text as I propose. Nevertheless I am in full agreement with the following statement (p 56-57 of the paperback edition), which he makes in partial response to the objection that if God regrets a decision he has made, he "must not be perfectly wise":
. . .it is better to allow Scripture to inform us regarding the nature of divine wisdom than to reinterpret an entire motif in order to square it with our preconceptions of divine wisdom. If God says he regretted a decision, and if Scripture elsewhere tells us that God is perfectly wise, then we should simply conclude that one can be perfectly wise and still regret a decision. Even if this is a mystery to us, it is better to allow the mystery to stand than to assume that we know what God's wisdom is like and conclude on this basis that God can't mean what he clearly says. (emphasis mine)
This quote highlights a problem that I believe pervades a great deal of theology, both modern and of long standing. Two observations that I think are key:
- Our theology is far too intolerant of mystery. We seem to operate under the assumption that unless our system of belief has a complete explanation for every conceivable objection, we have not got it right. I regard it as the height of arrogance that finite humans could presume to fully understand the ways of an infinite God, yet in questions such as God's sovereignty we insist on explaining and analyzing it as if we were in fact the arbiters of God's authority.
- The plain reading of Scripture is frequently far simpler (and, I submit, more likely to be true) than the contortions we force it through in order to fit our systematic theology. While it by no means always holds true, we would do well to start with the assumption that if a simple explanation fits the facts (or in this case, the Scriptural texts), it makes no sense to look for a more complicated one.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Eternal destiny, part 4: What about those who've never heard?
There are several passages that may be inferred to include those who have never heard, including Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats, as well as John 5, Hebrews 9, and Revelation 20. There are vastly more passages which describe only the fate of those who have turned their back on the Lord—a far more active thing. But even from the few passages that do seem to include all people everywhere, we can infer that all flesh will be subject to judgment. Moving from this inference to the conclusion that those who have never heard are subject to the same punishment as those who actively oppose Jesus, requires a leap that Scripture does not make.
Scripture is quite clear that only those who have believed in the Lord receive eternal life (though I must qualify that the conventional evangelical definition of the term "believe" as "intellectual assent to orthodox propositions" is wide of the mark). Universalism is not a Biblical concept. But to say with certainty that the ignorant unbeliever will languish in eternal, conscious torment along with the one who has rejected and opposed Christ, is not a conclusion Scripture supports.
Finally, although this last point is a logical one and not a scriptural one (and therefore I offer it as a point to consider, not a doctrine), I have been struck by a number of cases over the years where the Spirit of God has clearly prepared a people group to receive the gospel, in some cases generations before any missionary arrives. Repeatedly I have read of missionaries arriving in a place to find people to whom elements of the truth of God have been revealed without any clear knowledge of the gospel, but who as soon as they heard the word of Christ have realized that this is what they were waiting for. It seems to me that we should be careful not to seal up our doctrinal boundaries so tightly as to exclude from our belief system those in whom the Spirit of God has been working without the benefit of a flesh-and-blood missionary.
None of this excuses us from our mandate to spread the gospel. As I said at the outset, our king has given us marching orders, and they are to be followed, not because of what will happen if we don't, but because he's our king. But as to the fate of those we don't reach before they die, perhaps the most relevant scripture is Jesus' counsel to Peter when he asked about John's fate: ". . .what is that to you? You follow me."
Eternal destiny, part 3: Eternal what?
Furthermore, numerous passages in both the Gospel of John and the epistles, seem to set up a contrast between death or destruction on one hand, and eternal life on the other. The classic John 3:16 is a good example of this. The contrast is not between "eternally conscious punishment" and "eternal life," but rather between "perishing" and "eternal life." "Eternal death" (my phrase, not in the Bible) is also eternal—that is, death from which there is no resurrection or reprieve. The "second death" of Revelation may be just that.
I'm not necessarily advocating annihilationism (although I find it logically compelling). As my notes on individual passages will show, I in fact came across a variety of places in both the gospels and the epistles, some of which might be taken more to indicate an ongoing punishment, and others of which seem more to suggest a finality to the punishment—rather like the contrast between life in prison and the death sentence. Both are final, complete, and irrevocable, and nothing I found in Scripture suggests anything less.
My point is that an equally-honest case can be made, either for eternal conscious punishment, or for annihilation, depending on the Scriptural passages to which one gives more weight, and no clear-cut, conclusive pattern emerges. I may decide the preponderence of evidence points one direction, and another believer may see it pointing the other way, and neither of us is conclusively on solid Scriptural ground. I cannot agree to a doctrine which attempts to clarify a point that I believe the writers of Scripture—under divine inspiration—left vague.
Eternal destiny, part 2: Begging the Question
A corollary to this point is that hell is also not used by any Biblical writer as a reason for us to evangelize. In the Great Commission, and in other places where Jesus commands us to spread his word, the reason is Jesus' authority itself ("all power is given to me, therefore go…"), not the eventual state of the unbeliever. Jesus' message to the unbeliever was an affirmative one—come, believe, repent, follow—not a negative one of fleeing punishment. Scripture is clear that God wants people to be saved, and we may infer that their eternal state is part of the reason, but Scripture itself does not link the two. That link, while reasonable, is a creation of human logic, not a Biblical one.
I freely acknowledge that there are many dedicated believers who first came to Christ out of a fear of condemnation. This is yet more evidence that God, in his grace, uses our flawed efforts to his glory. However, to argue as some have, that we need to use the "fear factor" to reach people who might not respond to a more affirmative presentation of the gospel, is to forget what we so readily claim at other times—that it is the Spirit of Christ who draws people to him, not the effectiveness of our words. If we believe in the Spirit's moving in our evangelistic efforts, we do not need to go beyond what is written to be effective messengers of the gospel.
So my first and most important conclusion is this: a doctrine of hell/punishment is not necessary to obedience, and it is not central to the message of the New Testament. I submit it does not rise to the level of doctrine at all.
Eternal destiny, part 1
The doctrinal statement goes something like this (this version taken from the new SOF of the Evangelical Free Church of America):
We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace.
The following posts are taken from a short paper I did on this subject in January, 2007 while I was in the process of pursuing a possible job in an international missions organization. Although the work I would have been doing was in the realm of health and development, the organization (not surprisingly) wanted to be sure my beliefs were in alignment with their doctrines, which as it turned out, they were not (I didn't get the job). Specifically, in the view of a statement that contained the above text, I was asked my position regarding the eventual state, both of the unbeliever who rejects Jesus consciously, and of those who never hear the gospel and therefore die "unsaved."
Not having fully studied the issue before (I have for a long time felt, as I said, that it was the wrong question to be asking), I committed to do a study of the Biblical texts for myself before answering. I did a complete survey of the New Testament, specifically looking for any text that seemed, to me, to be relevant to the subject. I'll post my annotated list of texts when I figure out how to do so, but I'll get the content up first.
As I said, my methodology here was simply a complete survey of the New Testament. In one or two cases I also referred to the Greek roots of a couple words. When I did this I used the Nestle Greek text, and Young's Analytical Concordance as my principal references. I deliberately did not consult with any theological references or commentaries for this paper. I chose to do this, not because I do not respect others' study, but because I believe it is important to approach a Scriptural question first and foremost by allowing the Scripture to speak for itself. I operate under the assumption that key Scriptural concepts (and consequently doctrines) must be derivable from Scripture itself. I do not presume to be superior to church fathers or traditions—but on the other hand I feel it is crucial to remember that nothing but Scripture itself carries Scripture's authority. In the next three posts, I'll lay out what I found.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Biblical Literalism according to Wright
I wish Wright went a little further than he has done in his analysis of the historical perspective on Scriptural authority. He does offer a great deal in explaining the ways in which the church fathers throughout the last twenty centuries saw that authority in a variety of lights, none of them much like the current perspectives of either "liberal" or "conservative" Christianity. However he appears (and I qualify this by saying I'm only about 2/3 of the way through at this writing) to completely hop over the synonymization of the concepts "authoritative scripture" and the "word of God," which concepts, as I have previously argued, ought not to be conflated. I had hoped that the evolution of this conflation would be part of his history and it is not.
Nevertheless, I came across a couple of very interesting passages today (pp 68-74 for those who have the book) in which he informs us that even the term "literal interpretation," so hot among fundamentalists in the past century and today, meant something very different to the 16th-century reformers, and before them, to medieval theologians. Medieval scholars saw four different "senses" in which to interpret various parts of Scripture: the literal, the allegorical, the anagogical, and the moral (Wright is not advocating this structure, in fact he points out potential error in it). In medieval usage, "literal" meant the original meaning of the words as actually written (same Latin root as our words "literature" and "literary"), as opposed to any other means of interpretation. As Wright points out, the "literal" interpretation of one of Jesus' parables does not mean that we approach the events of that parable as though they actually happened (which is what would mean in modern English if we took the parable "literally"). Rather, we accept that the writer is representing that Jesus told a parable--a story that may or may not be factually true but illustrates the real truth Jesus was trying to convey.
This sense, for the reformers, put them at odds with Catholic theology in that, to the Catholic interpretation, the literal sense of Jesus statement "this is my body" provided the foundation for the dogma of transubstantiation, while the reformers argued that the literal interpretation (remember that Wright says "literal" means "the sense that the first writers intended" rather than our modern definition of the word) recognizes that the text is relating truly a metaphorical statement by Jesus.
Obviously this difference in approach could be applied all over the place--so that a "literal reading" of the Genesis account of creation could be as the poetic narrative of God starting things out good, and humans jealous of God screwing it up, rather than justifying the seven days, the talking snake (apologies to Bill Maher), and other things that create so much heartburn in cosmological circles.
As Wright states, ". . .we need to note carefully that to invoke 'the literal meaning of scripture,' hoping thereby to settle a point by echoing the phraseology of the Reformers, could be valid only if we meant, not 'literal' as opposed to metaphorical, but 'literal' (which might include metaphorical if that, arguably, was the original sense) as opposed to the three other medieval senses (allegorical, anagogical and/or moral). This is one of those many points at which the later appeal to the rhetoric of the Reformation needs to be scrutinized rather carefully. Today, when people say 'literalist,' they often mean 'fundamentalist.' The Reformers' stress on the literal sense by no means supports the kind of position thereby implied."
I'm not suggesting that literalism in any form is necessarily a biblically-derived concept anyhow--although in its medieval sense I think it has a lot more going for it than in the modern sense of the same word. But it is important to understand how terms of art have evolved before going off half-cocked about what some historical authority is saying.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Personal Salvation
The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness.
So begins that modern mogul of megachurches, Rick Warren, in his bestseller "The Purpose Driven Life." He's right, of course, though I wish he would have expanded the thought in more directions than he did. But I'm afraid that though millions bought (and presumably read) his book, the Purpose Driven (tm) People haven't gotten the message. Whether it's in the old hymns of the faith:
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see. (Isaac Watts "Amazing Grace")
Or the spectacular navel-gazing of that new "praise chorus" "Marvelous Light:"
Lift my head and spin around
See the marvelous light I've found
Whether learning to claim Jesus as your "personal savior" or acknowledging that He died for "my sin," the stuff that comes across the pulpits and sound stages of churches new and old is most definitely "about me." And when the subject is sin, it usually falls into the camp of the stuff "the world" does, unless, like the various "Promise Keepers" and "Quiet Battles" and similar ministries, it deals with the private demons of addiction, sex, porn, etc. I find it interesting that most "sin" the church talks about is either sex, or voting Democratic (and Democrats like sex), but I digress.
I've been griping about this individuality for a long time, and the response is usually something along the lines of "of course, you're right," whereupon the hearers go back to their worship (another word that's been badly distorted, but one thing at a time) and that's the end of it. Meanwhile the gospel continues to be taught as basically Jesus' solution for each of our individual sinfulness, and if there is any collective or greater good to be had, it pretty well disappears into the self-contemplation of the devoted "saved." I came across a highly relevant passage this past week in N.T. Wright's "Surprised by Hope" that, I believe, clarifies the issue better than I ever have done. Consider:
"...to insist on heaven and hell as the ultimate question--to insist, in other words, that what happens eventually to individual humans is the most important thing in the world--may be to make a mistake similar to the one made by the Jewish people in the first century, the mistake that both Jesus and Paul addressed. Israel believed (so Paul tells us, and he should know) that the purposes of the creator God all came down to this question: how is God going to rescue Israel? What the gospel of Jesus revealed, however, was that the purposes of God were reaching out to a different question: how is God going to rescue the world through Israel and thereby rescue Israel itself as part of the process but not as the point of it all? Maybe what we are faced with in our own day is a similar challenge: to focus not on the question of which human beings God is going to take to heaven and how he is going to do it but on the question of how God is going to redeem and renew his creation through human beings and how he is going to rescue those humans themselves as part of the process but not as the point of it all."
This, I believe, gets fully to the point Paul was making in 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 (or 21) that God in Christ reconciled us to himself and then gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are saved, rescued, reconciled, not for any benefit of our own, but so that we, in turn, might become Christ's ambassadors and save, rescue, reconcile others. To the extent our faith is "personal" (by which I mean "private") it is irrelevant to God's purpose.
By this I do not mean to deny our own accountability for our actions. I do not mean to suggest that we don't at some point need to confront the reality that either Jesus is Lord, or he isn't. But acknowledging his lordship is supposed to take us out of ourselves. . .not just give us the quiet assurance that, for us at least, it'll be all right.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
A word about creeds
The word "creed," of course, comes from the Latin "credo" which simply means "I believe." So at its simplest a creed is simply a summary of those things an individual or group believes to be true. Depending on what follows the "I believe" statement, however, a creed can--and often has--become a list of what is important to the particular believer(s) to the effectual exclusion of those things not on the list. At its worst, then (and here I'm speaking strictly of Christianity, though I am sure similar things can be said in and of other faiths), subscribing to a creed may tend toward a form of reductionism whereby any concerns not on the list--however relevant or scriptural--are excluded as of lesser (or no) import.
Creeds need not be reductionist. The only creed that we have recorded in the Gospels as being endorsed by Jesus himself is simple, yet all-encompassing:
Hear, o Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. . .and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mark 12:29-31
I have represented this as a creed, and yet that's not entirely accurate. Jesus actually spoke these words (quoting from the Hebrew scriptures), not in terms of "what should we believe?" but rather "what is the greatest commandment?" This difference is actually quite important, because particularly in our current definitions of faith, "believe" is something one does in one's head, while a "commandment" implies action. In fact, the love of God and neighbor are necessarily active things that cannot exist in an intellectual vacuum apart from deeds and lifestyle. This is vitally different from, for example, the statement of faith recently adopted by the denomination of the church I currently attend. Have a look at this fairly-typical evangelical statement of faith here. Interestingly, nearly all of the points in this statement, and certainly all of the specifics, involve propositions to which one must give intellectual assent to be a member in good standing. Very little is said about the way one might live as a believer, and what is said is in the most generic of terms. (To those who would suggest I'm selling the church short by oversimplifying its SOF I would add that in my personal experience, I have been excluded from certain opportunities to serve based solely upon my failure to give assent to points in that statement about which we can do nothing EXCEPT agree or disagree intellectually)
The history of creeds in the church needs far more detailed analysis than I shall attempt here, but I think it's interesting to note an unsubtle trend in the church's use of such statements. We begin, of course, with the concise, yet all-encompassing "Love God, love your neighbor" summary Jesus himself preached. The early church was similarly broad but simple with its revolutionary claim "Jesus is Lord," which could not have been mistaken by any first-century hearer--"Caesar is Lord" being both a theological and political pledge of allegiance in the Roman empire of the day (citations welcome; I don't have one readily at hand).
But by the time of the second century, looking at Iraneus' Rule of faith and the Apostles' Creed, we see something interesting has happened. Gone from Iraneus are any references to discipleship, lordship of Christ, or anything of the sort (the Apostle's Creed still calls Jesus "our Lord"), replaced entirely by things one either thinks are true, or not. The Nicene Creed, a hundred-plus years later, perpetuates this loss while further defining what must be believed, but it gets really interesting in the sixth century when we look at the Constantinople "anathemas," in which we are informed that (if I may crudely, but not inaccurately, paraphrase) "if you don't believe and say these things, you can go to hell, and if you aren't sure that certain people (names are listed!) are going to hell, you can go to hell, too!"
(Lest the reader fear that I am overdoing the sense of "anathema," have a look at this document which clarifies what the term means and meant in the time those anathemas were written. Consider this language from the anathematizing ritual: "...we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church...")
I am sad to say that this latter has pretty much become the standard. Sure, just what is on or off the list has varied somewhat through the centuries, but the core is still there: what counts is what you think and say, and if you don't think and say the right things, you can (and will!) go to hell.
How far we have strayed from Jesus' "Come to me!" And how many may we have driven FROM him with our creeds? Christe eleison (Christ, have mercy)!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Atonement as Evangelism???
- God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life;
- Because you are sinful, you can't experience God's plan for your life;
- Jesus has the solution to your sin and is the only way you CAN experience God's plan for your life; and
- You must "receive" Jesus so that he can put God's plan in action for your life.
Now, at least numbers one and three have some basis in fact--I contend 2 is distorted and 4 is totally off-base--but the biggest problem here is not the accuracy or inaccuracy of the Four Laws as factual propositions, but that they have been represented and taught as the way one who has not previously believed in Jesus Christ comes to be his follower. I must hasten to add that, like all flawed human endeavor, God in his grace has frequently used the Four Laws in all their faulty inadequacy as a "foot in the door" to bring people to him, but this is a testimony to God's mercy, not to the efficacy or truth of the Four Laws or the underlying doctrine they promote.
The doctrine to which I refer, of course, is the concept that coming to Christ is primarily about dealing with this sin barrier between God and humanity. I've seen it expressed in other places that a holy God cannot abide or associate with sin, and only by having his Son die on the cross to atone for our sins, can God even look at us. In its most foolish form, people describe the imputation of Jesus' righteousness on us as almost some sort of adolescent trick where Jesus aids those who are "in" with him in some cosmic bait-and-switch on his Father, whereby the Father sees only his Son's righteousness and not the actual filth of his Son's buddies. I think that's an insult--God isn't that gullible or blind.
But there is a bigger issue here. Ancient religions, Judaism included, had a real issue with sin. Much, if not most religious practice involved appeasing the appropriate deity somehow--usually through sacrifice--in order to atone for some slight or anger or offense that the humans had caused. One didn't have to be Jewish to realize that God or gods were upset with human behavior and required payment.
Characteristically, Jesus came along and turned that whole concept on its head. He actually had the audacity to up and forgive people's sins unasked, as he did for the paralytic in Matt. 9:2-7. No sacrifice, for that matter no demonstration on the part of the forgiven man that he had either asked for forgiveness, or acknowledged his sinfulness. No, Jesus just flat-out forgave him, citing as his authority his ability to heal the man.
I think we miss the significance of Jesus' behavior in this situation when we get all wrapped up in doctrines of the "atonement." Atonement, or sacrifice to pay the debt of sin, is not an unknown concept in the old or new testaments, to be sure. Nor, as I said above, was it at all strange to the people of Jesus' time, even the pagans. But Jesus offered FORGIVENESS, not atonement. His authority to deal with sin was already established long before his trip to the cross.
Importantly, however, while Jesus definitely and repeatedly preached forgiveness of sin, it was not the core of his message the way it has become in Christianity. Jesus' own message was one of repentance and the simple call to "follow me." The key point of both of these things is that they involve an active change of lifestyle and direction, not simply of belief. Sure, you have to believe something pretty radical about Jesus if you're going to submit to his lordship, but it's that submission, not the belief, that is Jesus' call. Never in all the gospels or Acts do Jesus or his apostles invite people to acknowledge their sinfulness and "accept" Jesus. No, they are called to repent (turn around), be baptized, and follow. When "belief" is part of the equation, for example Paul & Silas preaching to the jailer in Acts 16:31, the phrase is "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Given the common usage of "Lord" as the term for Caesar in those days, the jailer (himself a government functionary) could not possibly have confused this command with a proposition for intellectual or spiritual assent. He was being invited to change his ultimate allegiance--perhaps even to go AWOL.
Back to my main point. I am contending that, while Jesus certainly did and does forgive our sins, that fact is not the centrality of the gospel, that Christianity has made it. Even the many Pauline discourses on Jesus' atoning death, I have observed, occur in the context of Paul defending the gospel he preached to the Gentiles, against the legalism of the Judaizers--people who were trying to drag the Way of Jesus back into the old paradigm of rituals to atone for sin. When Paul speaks of Jesus' death atoning for our sins, he is trying (hopelessly, it sometimes appears) to demonstrate that the whole model of sin and sacrifice-atonement has been done away with by Jesus.
For us to turn around and make sin and its atonement a central element (at times it seems, the ONLY element) of our gospel is to preach a gospel fundamentally at odds with the one Jesus and the apostles preached. And we know what Paul said about that. . .see Galatians 1:8.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Required reading by N.T. Wright
Thanks to my friend Ben for sharing it. Wright has outlined so many things in this piece, that have also been bugging me, that I don't even know what highlights to quote. It's long and a bit heavy at times, but seriously, take the time to digest it.
I will offer a couple excerpts that, to me, resonate with some of what I've been trying to say here:
Consider: How does what we call 'the authority of the Bible' relate to the authority of God himself – and the authority of Jesus himself? When the risen Jesus commissions his followers for their worldwide mission, he does not say 'all authority in heaven and earth is given to – the books you people are going to go and write.' He says that all authority is given to him. When we say the closing words of the Lord's prayer, we don't say that the kingdom, the power and the glory belong to the Bible, but to God himself. And when Jesus commissions the disciples for mission in John 20, he doesn't say 'receive this book' but 'receive the Holy Spirit'. Authority, then, has a trinitarian shape and content. If we want to say, as I certainly want to say in line with our entire Anglican tradition, that the Bible is in some sense our authority, the Bible itself insists that that sentence must be read as a shorthand way of saying something a bit more complicated, something that will enable us to get some critical distance on the traditional shouting-match.
And a little further down:
When we say 'the authority of scripture', then, we mean – if we know our business – God's authority, Christ's authority, somehow exercised through the Bible. But what is 'God's authority' all about? To look again at scripture itself, it is clear that one of the most common models assumed by many in today's world simply won't do. We have lived for too long in the shadow of an older Deism in which God is imagined as a celestial C. E. O., sitting upstairs and handing down instructions from a great height. The Bible is then made to fit into the ontological and epistemological gap between God and ourselves; and, if it is the Deist God you are thinking of, that gap has a particular shape and implication. The Bible is then bound to become merely a source-book for true doctrines and right ethics. That is better than nothing, but it is always vulnerable to the charge, made frequently these days, that it is after all only an old book and that we've learnt a lot since then. The Left doesn't get it, and often all the Right can do is to respond with an ever more shrill repetition of 'the Bible, the Bible the Bible'.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Spiritual Innoculation
I do not discount that familiarity with and study of the Biblical texts is essential to anyone who intends to model his or her life after Jesus--for as I said before, the Biblical record is the most complete account we have of Jesus' life and teachings. Nor do I disallow the possibility that the Holy Spirit may prompt vital thoughts or guidance in the believer while reading their Bible, though I believe the Spirit may just as well guide one's thoughts while one is reading non-Biblical literature (even the news). But the mystical properties often ascribed to the Bible are silly at best, and are certainly not supported by the texts themselves.
The most compelling argument against the mystical efficacy of Bible reading has got to be the ol' "by their works you shall know them" one Jesus used so effectively in his dissertation about false prophets in Matt 7:15-20. The "wolves in sheep's clothing" likely refers to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, as he used similar terms to describe these groups elsewhere. They were among the most scripturally-trained and studied individuals of the time, and perhaps any time. These were the guys of whom he said:
"You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf." (John 5:39, NRSV)
Just as in Jesus' time, so also in ours, there is no correlation between people who regularly read their Bibles and discipleship behavior. Though there are certainly many people trying their level best to follow Jesus, many of the purveyors of the greatest hatred and vitriol in the name of Christianity today, are people who at least publicly subscribe to the regular-time-in-the-word discipline. I'll bet that George Bush reads his Bible regularly, and it didn't help him in the slightest to see past the perpetration of endless lies and the shedding of a great deal of innocent blood in the name of a "Christian" nation. Nor did it prevent him from blasphemously replacing Jesus with America when he misquoted John on 9/11/02 "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it" (last line of the speech--cf. John 1:5), or when he misquoted Isaiah while promoting his education program (note, this document is no longer on the White House website and I can't find another online archive - it was Bush speaking at the White House Education Summit in 2005 or 2006, I believe) "children living in darkness would see a great light" (cf. Isaiah 9:2). Not only Bush, but American Evangelicals, also supposedly regular readers of their Bibles, have failed to call him on repeated, blasphemous conflation of America with Jesus.
Of course I'm not blaming the Bible for the sins of its readers. I'm merely arguing that it's got no intrinsic power apart from (1) the working of the Holy Spirit in the mind of the reader, and (2) the openness of the reader to be worked upon. But it's worse than that. Misuse of the Bible--that is using it other than it was intended, can actually work at cross purposes to God. Here, finally is perhaps one of the greatest insults to God's word committed by the church.
My professional background is in public health, and for a number of years I worked in the field of immunization. As most readers will know, the process of immunization involves taking a bacterium or virus that causes disease, either weakening it or killing it, and then innoculating a person with a small, controlled quantity of that weakened (attenuated) or killed disease agent. When the body is exposed to the vaccine, the immune system generates antibodies which are then available to respond to the full-strength "wild type" agent if ever it is encountered.
This is such a parable for the way the Bible has been used on and by Christians. Our sermons, Sunday Schools, and devotionals extract bits of the Bible, strip them of any properties that might do any harm, and then repeatedly expose believers to this attenuated gospel until we've built up such an immunity that the real thing has no effect on us.
Like most analogies, this one breaks down if pushed too far, so I will refrain from expanding it further. However, we do need to carefully re-examine our use of the Bible, not only to discern the will and word of God within it, but to be sure that we are not perpetuating the process of innoculating ourselves or others against the genuine movement of God.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
A different take on Inspiration - Blumhardt
People speak much these days about "the inspiration of scripture"; and this is good. However, I prefer to speak of "inspired people." God be thanked that we have scriptures that came from those through whom God's Spirit spoke the truth. Yet it is the prophet who is inspired, not the letter of scripture. And if the letter is to lead to the truth, so must you also be led by the Spirit of God as you read.
Conversely, today's natural man knows nothing of the Spirit of God and so gets himself quite confused regarding the words of the inspired prophets. But thus, also, a man like Luther could, for his time, personally witness to the God-intended truth of that for which other writers of his time could find no meaning nor make any sense. He was ruled by God and the Spirit, not by biblical texts. But if we all attend only upon the revealed life of God, and if each person is zealous only for his own gifts regarding God's truth and steadfastness, then we do not need to be in conflict over the inspiration of scripture. We then can find ourselves in reciprocal agreement.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Why it matters
Nevertheless there is another reason to which I have alluded several times: Many (perhaps most) of the doctrines taught in our churches today, are based on a few Biblical passages--even single verses--taken out of their larger context and expanded into complex theologies. (I should clarify here that I use the term "doctrine" not in the literal sense of the Greek didache, which is simply "teaching," but rather in the more-common English sense of basically a synonym of "dogma:" that is, a proposition to which the believer is asked--or even required--to give intellectual assent).
By contrast, the passages highlighted in both Old and New Testaments as the "word of God" tend to have a great deal more to do with how we live, than what we think (I know, this brings up works-vs-faith salvation for many of you. I'll address that in a few days). Particularly with the prophets, but also in Jesus' own words, we learn a great deal about what makes God happy, and what pisses him off. A reasonable person, reading these words, would probably conclude that making God happy is a good thing, while upsetting him, not so much. It's not rocket science.
Let's look at a couple of examples. According to at least one source, the Bible references money over 800 times, and whether his numbers are correct or not, he's on the right track. Quite a few such references are by Jesus himself, or in the prophetic "thus saith the Lord" passages I referred to in my prior post. Even a cursory survey of such verses gives us a pretty good clue what God thinks about money: we shouldn't be driven by it, we should be careful not to harm others in the acquisition/use of it, it easily becomes an idol, etc. In other words, taking these passages seriously leads to ACTION: doing some things, and not doing others.
On the other hand, the contention that God knows the whole future (whether because of his planning or simply divine foreknowledge), while not absent from the Bible, is much less common. Though I have yet to do a full survey of the subject, I strongly suspect that:
- It's mentioned a lot less than 800 times and probably less than 100
- Mention of God's foreknowledge generally (not exclusively) is not in the "thus saith the Lord" parts of the Bible so much as in literature of other types
- Most importantly, it does not occur in passages--regardless of who's talking--that carry an expectation of behavior that would change because of God's knowledge.
Nevertheless, I have heard more teaching on God's omniscience than I have on God's opinion about economic justice. If you attend (or know someone who attends) an American evangelical church (maybe a lot of other churches too), I'll bet you've been exposed to a similar imbalance. This is one way the church grossly misrepresents the God it claims to worship.
When God actually took the time to speak, and to make clear to his hearers that he was speaking, it was not to get their "doctrines" as we use that term, in order. It was to get them to do something or to stop doing something else. Perhaps the greatest violence that theology has done to the faith of Jesus, is by re-defining faith as a mental exercise in believing propositions, more than a lifestyle of discipleship. Though this redefinition has many roots, I believe one of the keys has been the misapplication of the "word of God" imprimatur to the Biblical canon, which in turn resulted in theologians feeling the compulsion to tease out the meanings of isolated phrases and concepts found in every corner of the text.
Years ago I was given a quotation that I have since lost, which says it best. I believe that the author may have been one of the Blumhardts, but sadly I cannot say for sure, and so far Google has been useless in turning it up. If anyone can help me with a citation I shall be grateful:
"God's word is given in order that we shall act in accordance with it, not that we shall practice the art of interpreting obscure passages."
Monday, July 21, 2008
Biblical Inspiration part 4 - Rightly Dividing the Word
If we simply let the Biblical texts speak for themselves, this isn't really terribly complicated. First and foremost, of course, as John makes abundantly clear at the beginning of his gospel, the ultimate word of God is Jesus himself, the Word become flesh. Anything we presume to understand from the written Biblical texts (or for that matter from anywhere) must be subjected to the character of Jesus as he lived and taught while present on earth. In any case where there is any perceived disagreement or discrepancy, Jesus wins because Jesus is the fullest revelation of God in history. So for example, when Jesus taught a variety of "you have heard it was said. . .but I say to you" throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7), it doesn't really matter whether what he was doing was clarifying an earlier point that God had revealed, or correcting a human doctrine. Either way, Jesus' own authority was and remains paramount. It is impossible to make a Biblical case for rejecting or discounting a teaching of Jesus, and it is equally impossible to be obeying Biblical teaching in any way that leads one to live or behave contrary to Jesus' character.
In this regard, we must operate under the faith position that Jesus' words and actions, as represented in the four gospels, are faithfully recorded. Without these, Jesus is no more than a significant historical legend who may or may not have taught certain things or done certain deeds. The various revisionists that try to parse out the "historical" Jesus from that recorded in the Gospels may be performing an interesting academic exercise, but faith in Christ depends on a faithful account of who Christ was.
(I should note here that there are plenty who get into the subject of apologetics to determine the historicity of Jesus. This is an interesting subject, and one I may take on at some point. But it's not the point of this series. I am speaking here to those who accept--or at least are willing to entertain the possibility of--the divine nature of Jesus' life and work on earth. My argument is which parts of the Biblical text are to be taken as the word of God, which PRESUPPOSES that there is a God, there is a word of God that must be followed, and so on. This is hermaneutics, not apologetics).
Parenthetics out of the way, what am I saying? Very simply, if there is a "word of God" at all, at the very pinnacle it must be the words of Jesus, God's incarnate son.
After Jesus, there are other places where the Biblical texts explicitly say that what they are relating are the words of God. We find this mostly in the prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, and others say over and over in their texts "this is what the Lord says," or "the word of the Lord came to me," or similar phrases. These designators--highlighting that here it is no longer merely man's thoughts but God's own communication--are followed by very clear condemnation of evil, occasional praise for faithfulness, and unmistakable directions for action.
Frankly, if our churches spent as much teaching and study effort on these parts of the Bible where it actually says it's God's word, instead (or even in addition to) their emphasis on other parts that make no such claim, we would be looking at a radically different faith. The troubling, encouraging, exciting thing is that the places where we have these words recorded, tend to be passages that talk a lot about justice and right behavior, and not so much about belief in doctrinal propositions.
On the other hand, and in stark contrast to these declaratory passages, the Psalms are a man's words. They are full of David's praise to God, as well as his prayers, the venting of his frustrations, and so on. In many ways it might be accurate to look at parts of the Psalms as David's "prayer journal." But the Psalms also relate plenty that is flat-out un-Godly. Probably the best examples of this are the so-called "imprecatory psalms" such as Psalm 109.
When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin. May his days be few; may another seize his position. May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow. May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit. (v. 7-10, NRSV)
When David is saying these things he's being bluntly honest with his feelings toward his enemies. But no one who's paid any attention to the character and teachings of Jesus can make the case that these feelings are remotely Godly--certainly they're not something we are taught to emulate or bring about.
So are they in error? No, it's not an error to have included them in the text. While God may not have inspired David to write those words (evil thoughts like those have a very different inspirational source), I do believe God inspired the canonical council to include them. They are profitable for teaching, because they give us an unvarnished look at the range of feelings--perhaps the range of depravity--of a man who served God faithfully for much of his life. But this rant cannot in any stretch be characterized as God's word. It is, in fact, antithetical to God's very being.
So study your Bible, and learn to "rightly divide" that which is God's word from that which is also profitable for teaching. We'll talk more about what this division may mean in future posts. Peace until then. . .
Monday, July 14, 2008
Biblical Inspiration Part 3: But what about 2 Tim. 3:16?
"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. . ." (NRSV). Doesn't this verse conclusively state that our Bible comes straight from God?
Well, not exactly.
First of all we have to look at the word "Scripture." While in modern English that word has the meaning of "sacred writing," the Latin word "scriptura" is much more pedestrian--it just means the written word. In addition to the religious word "scripture," we also get our words "scribe" and "script" from the same root. Similarly the Greek word "graphe" used in the original text is a pretty generic word. You're reading my "graphe" right now, but at least it has some spiritual content. If my wife puts a note on my dashboard reminding me to pick up milk on the way home from work, that's "graphe," too. I doubt the grocery list is inspired by God!
Now it's true that in the first century a lot fewer people were literate. Added to the fact that pens and paper were a whole lot rarer and more costly, and writing back then was likely reserved (mostly) for more significant stuff than the grocery lists, but we have plenty of examples of "graphe" from Paul's time that were most certainly not holy!
But the real key to this passage leaped out at me when I first read it in the old American Standard Version from 1901. Though it's not the most readable version I've ever seen, the 1901 ASV is regarded by many scholars as possibly the most literal translation ever, of the Bible into English. Here is the same verse from the ASV:
Every scripture inspired of God [is] also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.
Notice the difference? That little verb "is" got moved three positions to the right, and it completely changes the character of the sentence. Instead of declaring that "every scripture comes from God," the ASV tells us the somewhat-obvious fact that "anything that comes from God is profitable." The ASV's translation is equally valid because the verb "is" doesn't appear in the original text at all, in either place. A literal translation of the Greek text is more like ". . .every (or "all") writing God-breathed and profitable. . ." Both the translators of the ASV and other English translations inserted the "is" because the sentence doesn't make much sense in English without it. But with apologies to Bill Clinton, where the "is" is, makes a huge difference in the meaning!
The more I think about it and look at this passage, though, the more I suspect that both sets of translators got it wrong. Their error (besides "already knowing what it means" before examining the text) was assuming that verse 16 and 17 are a single sentence separate from verses 14 and 15 before them (and forgetting that Paul is legendary for run-on sentences). If, instead, verse 16 is a dependent clause in the same sentence as 14, we don't need an "is" at all to understand it. Consider this alternate reading of the passage (picking up in verse 15):
". . .from childhood you have known the holy writings (which have the power of wisdom to produce faith in Christ Jesus): every writing inspired by God and useful for teaching. . ." etc.
In other words, the writings which Paul is saying have the power of wisdom to produce faith are those writings which (1) are inspired by God, and (2) are therefore profitable for teaching and all the rest of it. That is, Paul is using the fact that a given writing is God-breathed (as opposed to all th other writing "out there"), as a point of qualification for it's being used for teaching the believer. Stated plainly, "If God inspired it, then it's worth using for teaching." Put that way, it's kind of a no-brainer, don't you think?
To use this passage as it has been used for centuries, as a divine imprimatur over a Biblical canon that did not exist for another 200-plus years is nonsense. I have been told before that "God intended to inspire the canonical council to put all these books together as His word, and so inspired Paul to state that's what they were." This is circular reasoning. . .saying that "the Bible is the Word of God, therefore it says it is the Word of God" only makes sense if you start with the assumption that it's the inspired, inerrant word of God. Paul in this passage said no such thing.
For a correction based on better grammatical analysis, please see this follow-on article.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Biblical Inspiration - Part 2: The Foundation of our Faith
Greg Boyd said it better than I can, in a recent blog post (note that he qualifies his use of the term "infallible"):
"My belief that Jesus is the Son of God isn't rooted in my belief that the Bible is God's infallible Word. Rather, my belief that the Bible is God's infallible Word is rooted (mostly) in my belief that Jesus is the Son of God. I don't believe in Jesus because the Bible says so. I believe in the Bible (mostly) because Jesus says so."
We have got to realize that the Bible's authority depends on God, not the other way around. The old song
Jesus loves me, this I know
for the Bible tells me so.
actually has it backwards. Put another way, you could take the Bible away and still have a sovereign God; but take God away and the Bible is meaningless.
This is not to discount the value of Biblical texts--after all, most of the little we know about God's very identity and character, we learn from the Bible. I said in my last post that anything we can't derive from Biblical sources (as opposed to extra-Biblical) dare not rise to the level of doctrine, and I stand by that statement.
But I don't think that it's accidental (or in error) that one of the oldest creeds of the Christian faith, the Apostles' Creed, begins
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.
There is no mention of the scriptures at all in that early creed. This is right, because it isn't the Scriptures in which we believe. . .they are the source of information and teaching and the words of the One in whom we believe. It's not an idle distinction.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Biblical Inspiration, Part 1 - The Error of Inerrancy
There are, of course, widely divergent opinions even among those who claim to believe in Biblical inerrancy, as to exactly what they mean by the term. At the most rigid end are those who insist that every word and phrase in the Bible came directly from God, and must be literally true in the plain reading of it. At the other end are a number who develop a complex system of hermaneutics (fancy word for interpretation) that acknowledges that the Bible contains many forms of literature, including not only direct reporting, but also prophecy, apocalyptic (symbol-laden) writing, poetry, parable, and so on. This latter group may suggest that no Biblical passage is in error in what it says, though the immediate literal meaning may not be what it intended to say. One can debate whether this methodology really deserves to appropriate the "verbal and plenary inspiration" label (I think it's strained) but they still frequently make that claim.
Certainly, lots of Christians do not accept such rigid definitions of inerrancy. Some approach the Bible more devotionally than didactically; others interpret it all in terms of the culture of the times and/or try to adapt its message to our own culture and times. Among the more so-called "liberal" denominations there does not (to me) appear to be much of an issue with Biblical authority at all--if it doesn't seem right or reasonable, it must not be relevant today. It is not to this group that I speak.
But for those who consider Biblical authority important, I maintain that the doctrine of the Bible is still fundamentally flawed. Simply to apply the term "the Word of God" to the Biblical canon requires extra-Biblical authority, for nowhere in the entire text is there any evidence for that label. I have not yet had the time to research the historical use of the terminology, and I'd welcome comments with source material on this point, but I suspect that both the description of Biblical texts as "divinely inspired" and the label "Word of God" (not at all the same thing) come much later in church history--particularly as those words are now understood (more on Paul's use of "inspired" in another post).
There are numerous places within the Biblical record where certain messages are represented as God's word. Paramount of these are the recorded words of Jesus in the gospels. Close behind are the prophets in those instances where they state "Thus saith the Lord" or "the word of the Lord came to . . ." The apostle Paul himself clearly delineates places where he believes he has a word from the Lord vs. his own thoughts (see 1Cor. 7:10, 7:12, 7:25). Such delineation would be wholly unnecessary if the entire text were God's word.
I will get into specifics as to why I maintain the doctrines of inspiration and inerrancy are incorrect, in future posts. For now let's look at why our doctrine regarding the Bible matters. Bottom line there are three reasons:
- I maintain that if one is truly to respect Biblical authority, one must not assign doctrinal status to any proposition that cannot be derived exclusively from the Bible itself. In other words, if the Bible doesn't say itself that it's the Word of God, then we better not say it either. We must not go beyond what is written (1 Cor. 4:6).
- The reverence with which many people approach the written word of the Bible, at least in its most extreme form, comes dangerously close to idolatry. The Bible is not God; it is not a fourth person of the Trinity (we may discuss the trinity in a later post, but that's another subject). Many Evangelical statements of faith actually have the doctrine of the Bible as the first point on their list. . .even before a statement of belief in God himself. It may be paradoxical, but "no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) includes images, representations, even books of God himself, not just idols from other religions.
- Insisting on Biblical inerrancy provides the targets and the ammunition for numerous unnecessary fights and controversies within the church, and between the church and the world. Let's face it, much of the battle over creation vs. evolution would be a total non-issue if we weren't trying to defend Genesis. The raging debates between churches about millenialism are of no consequence unless one has to build a doctrine around two obscure phrases in Revelation. Requiring the belief in inerrancy produces lists of doctrines to which one must give assent, but it does nothing to advance the cause of behaving like a disciple of Jesus. It is at best a distraction; at worst it actually drives people from genuine faith.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Nailing it to the door
In 1517, a Catholic priest named Martin Luther realized through his study of the Bible that the current doctrine in his church was messed up--so messed up that some pretty central teachings of the church flew completely in the face of the God he saw in the Bible. For Luther, the issue was the way the church saw repentance and forgiveness: to make a (very) long story short he realized that nobody but God (and certainly not a priest or the Pope) can accept a person's repentance and forgive their sins. Luther drew his "line in the sand" on these teachings by writing up 95 "theses" or propositions for debate, and nailing them to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany (see this wiki for a nice summary).
The events set in motion by Luther's declaration and subsequent study/teaching/debating (as well as the work of others) grew to become what we today call the Reformation. While the Reformation was in many respects political as well as ecclesiastical, it represents a fundamental re-examination of basic, deeply-held beliefs about God and the church. A great deal of the teaching that Christians (Catholic and Protestant both) hold to be indisputable today stems from the Reformation, and would have been considered heresy by the church before that time. In short, it was a "soup-to-nuts" re-examination of some basic beliefs of the faith.
I believe that we need a similarly radical re-examination today. I am not so arrogant as to claim anything remotely like Luther's mantle. Heck, I don't think I could come up with 95 issues if I tried. But I'm growing increasingly convicted by several really basic differences with conventional Christianity that I believe desperately need to be rethought. In the following posts, I hope to nail a few of my own theses to the door, and invite your debate as Luther did.
Let me say at the outset that I welcome constructive dialog (whether you agree with me or not) on these issues. However, this is not a place for screaming matches about who's right and who's a heretic. If you aren't willing to consider that you may not have the handle on all revealed truth, save your breath and mine by finding somewhere else to shout. But if you, like me, have this inescapable feeling that there's more to the way of Jesus than His church has allowed people to experience in centuries, by all means come along for the ride!
In the meantime, Pax Christi vobiscum (may the peace of Christ be with you)!


text: Associated Press Writer Looking back, many of the candidates listed on the state's ballot 12 years ago could easily form a historical Hall of Shame _ a large proportion of them are behind bars or on their way. Along with former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who won his fourth term in 1991, two other winners in statewide races are in federal prison. A third now faces state corruption charges. And two election losers from that year, including former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, have either served or are about to serve federal terms. With statewide elections this fall, some are cautiously speculating that Louisiana is finally shaking its sorry legacy of political corruption. "We're basically at rock bottom," said Rafael Goyeneche, head of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans, a private watchdog group. "We're starting to rebuild our national reputation as a business community. The way we are going about it is to reform our politics, with an assistance from the FBI and the U.S. attorney," he said. In October, Edwards began serving a 10-year sentence for extorting applicants for casino licenses. About the same time, former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown went to prison for six months for lying to the FBI during an investigation of a liquidated insurance company. Brown was the third consecutive insurance commissioner to be put behind bars. Doug Green is still serving 25 years in federal prison for taking $2 million in illegal campaign contributions. His predecessor, Sherman Bernard, served 30 months for taking bribes disguised as campaign contributions. Duke, who once served as a state House member, is scheduled to begin serving a 15-month federal sentence on April 15. He pleaded guilty to a tax charge and a mail fraud charge stemming from abuse of his political contributors' money. Former Elections Commissioner Jerry Fowler is serving a five-year sentence from taking kickbacks from voting machine suppliers. His old office is being abolished next year with its functions transferred to the secretary of state. Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom currently is fighting state charges alleging bribery, misusing state property and filing false public records. Odom, who faces re-election this fall, has denied wrongdoing. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said he hopes the state's prosecutions of politicians have a twofold effect: deterring other corrupt officials and giving the public the faith to report bribe attempts. "We're demonstrating for citizens that corruption is not the order of the day and it will be aggressively prosecuted and punished," Letten said. "As a byproduct of that, we are seeing a push for reform and an end to citizen apathy." Last summer, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced a crackdown on City Hall corruption, swamping the crime commission with hundreds of tips, including many referred to the FBI, Goyeneche said. "There is a growing sense of urgency in the business community to change our image as the corruption capital of the United States. We have noticed a dramatic shift in public opinion with more high-level businessmen calling in and reporting corruption," Goyeneche said. Federal authorities also are looking at the operations of New Orleans public schools and allegations of corruption in the judicial system in suburban Jefferson Parish. There have been other successful prosecutions of state officials over the past 60 years, starting with the 1939 mail-fraud conviction of Gov. Richard Leche. But over the long term, the state's wink-and-a-nod attitude toward corruption remained largely intact. What's different now? "I believe people's expectations are higher and they are expecting honesty and integrity from our public officials," Goyeneche said. "They're beginning to get it." ___ On the Net: http:\/\/www.state.la.us

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Security Assistant (Peshawar)
United Nations PakistanFull time Full day
Job Description:
Purpose of the Position:
Support the country office and the Field Security Officer (FSO) in gathering information and in analyzing the overall security situation in his/her place of assignment; and make appropriate recommendations. Act as WHO security focal point in duty station; coordinate, monitor and initiate actions related to security management.
Objectives of the Program and the immediate Strategic Objective (Overview of the program):
The continued transmission of poliovirus in Pakistan is a national public health emergency. Pakistan is now only one of three countries with wild poliovirus circulation. The World Health Organization (WHO) together with other partners from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is supporting the government in its effort to end polio in Pakistan. As part of the National Emergency Action Plan for 2020, the program will continue to plan and conduct Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs). During each SIA round approximately 230,000 volunteers are hired as campaign workers for different tasks (vaccinators, supervisors and area in-charges). The Direct Disbursement Mechanism (DDM) is a system managed by WHO that ensures payment of frontline workers in an efficient and timely manner. WHO contracts financial institutions to deliver the payment to the beneficiaries.
Organizational context (Describe the individual role of incumbent within the team, focusing on the intricacy and difficulty of working environment):
Under the general guidance of the Provincial Team Lead, the technical guidance of the WHO Field Security Officer (FSO) and the direct supervision of the WHO Administrative Assistant, the incumbent will provide administrative support and guidance for accessing inaccessible areas of the Polio Program and make random visits to various regions to obtain information affecting program implementation, staff and non-staff security thus enabling access for better program delivery.
The incumbent plans and performs day-to-day routine tasks independently. Complex issues or deviations from established procedures are discussed and resolved with supervisor and the FSO. Some judgment is involved to determine appropriate methods to handle the various security issues and to adapt established practices to assigned work.
Summary of Assigned Duties
Within the framework of WHO's Security Management Structure, the duties are:
1. Collect, update and disseminate information regarding the security of WHO and sub-offices, as well as all staff and non-staff, including SOPs, security advisories, staff lists.
2. Conduct preliminary assessment of Security Risk Management measures (SRM) for WHO and sub offices; as well as the "threat assessment" of inaccessible locations required for the Poliomyelitis Eradication activities; submit findings to FSO for final assessment and implementation of mitigation measures.
3. Report security incidents affecting WHO staff and non-staff, offices and assets on a 24-hour basis. Respond to staff security emergencies, including follow up on arrests and detention of WHO staffs and eligible dependents in line with SOPs.
4. Participate in organizing and delivering security briefings, training courses on security awareness and preparedness, and radio communication for WHO staff and non-staff. Provide security orientation to newly assigned staff members as instructed by the FSO and in cooperation with UNDSS.
5. Support the operations and management of the WHO Security Contingency Plans as well as the WHO Warden System, including the conduct of exercises, and administer the Emergency Communications System:
6. Monitor adherence to UN Security Management System procedures and practice, including SRM and RSM compliance. Monitor existing security measures for the safeguarding of staff, visitors, WHO property and premises, as well as the emergency evacuation plans and report any discrepancies to the supervisor.
7. Establish and maintain effective relations, cooperation and liaison with local authorities and UN security cell members on issues of security.
8. Timely initiate and finalize action for security clearance for internal and external travel of staff and visitors.
9. Provide general administrative assistance to the Field Security Officer, attend Security Cell Meetings and Security Briefings in the absence of the Field Security Officer.
10. Perform other security related duties as deemed necessary.
Functional Skills and Knowledge:
§ Stress and time management skills.
§ Knowledge of UN field security operations and policies are an asset.
§ Basic First Aid skills are an asset.
Education (Qualifications):
Completion of secondary education supplemented by training in security management
First level university degree or equivalent in Political Science, Military Studies, Security Management or relevant field
At least Eightyears relevant experience in security operations and management or equivalent functions
Working experience with WHO/UN system
Very good knowledge of English and local language
WHO Core Competencies:
1. Fostering integration and teamwork
2. Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
3. Communicating in a credible and effective way
4. Producing results
Potential female applicants are highly encouraged to apply for the position
Required Skills
This job is expired. Please use the search form to find active jobs or submit your resume.


text:
Complete Solution to Uninstall Startjoytabsearch.com
What is Startjoytabsearch.com:
Startjoytabsearch.com is a dubious website which seems as a genuine search engine such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing etc. It promises to improve the browsing speed by getting best and quick searching results. But unfortunately it's all promises are fake and bogus. While users search something on this site it always gets unreliable searching results as well as redirect to the other sponsored website once click on those searching results. Actually Startjoytabsearch.com is a third party program which has been invented by the team of cyber crook with the intention to makes money through scam online users. it usually attaches itself with the System toolbars, browser extension, Plug-in, add-on, open torrent files, and mostly visiting suspicious sites.
Malicious activities doing by Startjoytabsearch.com:
Once Startjoytabsearch.com gets enters in to the System successfully it starts to do malicious activities. Some common activities are given below.
• It will hijack well known web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari and others.
• It will change the default setting such as internet, browser, Homepage and DNS setting etc that's why users are unable to reset the setting as previous states.
• It will redirect users to the other harmful webpage and default search engine with own domain without any users permission.
• It will disable the System security and privacy as well as inactivates the System files and Windows registries.
• It will block firewall, internet security and real antivirus programs.
• It will keep an eye on every stroke to gather private and sensitive details like as password, bank account details, IP address etc which forwarded them to the remote server places for evil use.
• It will take huge resources of the running System to downpour over all performance.
• It will also generate web traffic to slowdown the surfing speed and makes the browser useless.
Removal steps to delete Startjoytabsearch.com:
If you want to keeps the System safe and secure thus you are highly suggested to remove Startjoytabsearch.com as quickly as possible. Thus here is given below removal steps to delete this virus easily and instantly from System. Please follow carefully.Leave a reply


text:
Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is an American opera company based in Miami, Florida. It is the oldest performing arts organization in Florida and the seventh oldest opera company in the country. FGO stages productions at the Ziff Ballet Opera House, located in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, and also at the Au-Rene Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale.
Looking to get more involved? Crescendo Circle reduces the barriers toward becoming a lover of opera and spreads the word to bring fellow influencers together, giving you elite access to the artists of Florida Grand Opera, as well as interactive social and fundraising events. Florida Grand Opera is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of opera lovers. From drinks on the beach to networking mixers, a wide variety of exciting events make Crescendo Circle one of Miami's premier young professionals groups for the arts.
Previous Events
MIA: Culture Night - A Masked Ball @ Florida Grand Opera
Saturday, April 29, 5-10:30PM
Thought Leader
Carlton Ford
Individual Giving Officer
Member Contact
Tony Gonzalez
Donor Services Officer
IVYcard Perk
Florida Grand Opera
20% discount on tickets (limit 4 per IVY cardholder)


text:
Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection
» Text List » Image & Label » Description record 43 of 76
View larger image
Object Information
Between 1877 and 1879, William Michael Harnett produced a number of images known as writing-table pictures, of which the Addison's painting is an example.1 These works are strikingly similar in size and composition and in the particular combination of objects depicted. Books, an ink bottle, a quill pen, and a letter, sometimes out of its envelope, are arranged on a marble shelf or marble-topped table and set against a bare background, presumably a wall. A variable element, either money or a newspaper, completes the composition.
One of the earliest-known of these paintings is The Banker's Table (1877, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), which, in addition to the books, ink bottle, pen, and envelope, features a stack of coins in a torn paper wrapper and several currency notes. Of the same year is Still Life—Writing Table (Philadelphia Museum of Art), in which money appears again but in which the letter has now been removed from its envelope. American Exchange (1878, The Detroit Institute of Arts) also shows a letter and envelope separately, but it lacks the quill pen. This reappears along with the other items in Philadelphia Letter, Books, and Writing Paper (1879, private collection).
The Addison's painting, Still Life with Letter to Mr. Clarke, is one of the first in the series to include a newspaper and is therefore especially close to two other works that Harnett painted in the same year, 1879: Still Life with Letter to Mr. Lask (private collection) and Still Life with Letter to Dennis Gale (private collection, Chevy Chase, Maryland). Each of the three paintings includes a letter addressed to the specific individual—Clarke, Lask, Gale—whose name serves to identify the still life; in this, the three works are distinct from their predecessors, mentioned above. The letters, which are covered with a script in Harnett's own hand, are folded and placed upside down, presumably to prevent them from becoming too dominant within the overall composition.2 While the writing is legible, the messages in all cases are cryptic and give no precise or conclusive information about the artist, patron, or painting.
The Addison's painting and Still Life with Letter to Dennis Gale are near replicas of one another, the major differences being changes in the patron's name, the titles of the books, and the shape of the ink bottle. The two works are similar in another way: it is known that each was owned by the man named in the still life, although it is not clear if Clarke and Gale commissioned their respective paintings or if they purchased these after Harnett had completed them. In the latter case, it is possible that Harnett included the names of potential patrons as a way of encouraging them to buy the finished works.3 It is interesting to note that Harnett may have referred to Clarke in another painting of 1879, The Secretary's Table (Santa Barbara Museum of Art); a memo pad therein bears the inscription, "June 28/See Mr. Clarke/at St. George Hotel."
By the time Thomas B. Clarke (1848-1931) acquired the Addison's still life, he was on his way to becoming one of the most important collectors of American art of his day. In fact, it was in the very year in which Harnett painted his Still Life with Letter to Mr. Clarke that the first published notice of Clarke's significance as a patron appeared. "A number of gentlemen in this City are making private collections exclusively of American painting," stated a writer for New York's Evening Post. "One of the freshest and fullest of these private collections is that of Mr. Thomas B. Clarke … which now contains one hundred and ten works."4 Harnett was, at least for a time, among Clarke's favorite artists, and the collector acquired no fewer than nine of his works between 1872 and 1881. In fact, Clarke seems to have had a special interest in still-life painting, at least during his early years as a collector, and, according to one contemporary source, the first painting he bought was a still life.5 But as his tastes changed and became more sophisticated, he grew less interested in this genre, which was not considered high on the scale of what was most acceptable or sought after in art. As far as is known, Clarke made no further purchases of Harnett's works after 1881, a situation which was probably compounded by the fact that Harnett left for an extended stay in Europe in that year.
Compositionally, Still Life with Letter to Mr. Clarke can be read as a simple and successful structuring of diagonals, which move across and parallel to the picture plane in the forms of the envelope and quill pen. This arrangement is interrupted by the diagonal placement of the letter and the books, which act as spatial markers to lead the viewer's eye back to the additional diagonals of the folded newspaper. All of these straight and active lines are offset by the rotundity and verticality of the ink bottle and the more complicated linearism of the masthead on the New York Times. The almost stark whiteness of the marble shelf contrasts with the unusually dark background, which allows the objects to be spotlit by a rather intense light which comes directly from the left.
The year which appears on the newspaper corresponds with that inscribed below the artist's signature at lower right, and the address on the envelope is that of Clarke's residence at the time. In fact, Clarke moved his family into the house at 203 West 44th Street in New York in the same year that Harnett painted this picture.6 Yet whatever care Harnett took to identify his patron within the painting itself, it was evidently not enough to make Clarke feel that he had to retain the picture for long. In 1881, barely two years after acquiring Still Life with Letter to Mr. Clarke, he sold it to his friend Oliver Durrell (whose son, sixty years later, gave it to the Addison Gallery). This is in keeping with what we know would become Clarke's habit: building up a collection and then selling it for a profit.
David B. Dearinger, Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years, A Selective Catalogue (Andover, Massachusetts: Addison Gallery of American Art, 1996), pp. 385-86
1. This classification was first used by Alfred Frankenstein, whose pioneering research and writing on Harnett is basic to any study of the artist. See especially Frankenstein's After the Hunt: William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters, 1870-1900 (1953; rev. ed., Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969).
2. Ibid., p. 44.
3. This point is discussed by Doreen Bolger, "The Patrons of the Artists: Emblems of Commerce and Culture" in William Michael Harnett, ed. Doreen Bolger, Marc Simpson, and John Wilmerding (Fort Worth, Texas, and New York: Amon Carter Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), p. 73.
4. New York Evening Post, 22 April 1879, p. 3. It has been suggested that the author of this article was the critic George William Sheldon; see H. Barbara Weinberg, "Thomas B. Clarke: Foremost Patron of American Art from 1872 to 1899," American Art Journal 8 (May 1976), p. 56.
5. George William Sheldon, Recent Ideals in American Art (New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1888), p. 22. The painting was a still life of a dead trout by Wakeman Holberton. Sheldon noted that Clarke's interest in the painting arose from his being an avid fisherman.
6. Weinberg, p. 55.
Exhibition History
This object was included in the following exhibitions:The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 150th Anniversary Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1/15/1955 - 3/13/1955
Recent Rediscoveries in American Art, The Cincinnati Art Museum, 10/3/1955 - 11/6/1955
What Do You Paint, Madam?, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/18/1956 - 6/11/1956
Scope in Collecting [25th Anniversary Exhibition], Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/19/1956 - 12/24/1956
Artistic Highlights of American History, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/10/1958 - 3/23/1958
Major Works in Minor Scale, American Federation of Arts, 12/4/1959 - 12/22/1960
The Newspaper in American Art, The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego/The Fine Arts Society of San Diego, 10/12/1965 - 11/7/1965
The Newspaper in American Art, Lakeview Center for The Arts and Sciences, 10/8/1966 - 10/30/1966
The Works, Addison Gallery of American Art, 11/7/1969 - 2/22/1970
The American Still Life 1879-1979, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/26/1979 - 12/12/1979
Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., 10/6/1981 - 10/31/1981
Read All About It, Williams College Museum of Art, 1/7/1989 - 2/12/1989
American Masterworks, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/5/1990 - 12/16/1990
The Still-Life Paintings of William M. Harnett, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3/16/1992 - 6/13/1993
Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 10/29/1993 - 1/9/1993
Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/13/1996 - 7/31/1996
Framework: American Pictures and Frames, Addison Gallery of American Art, 1/16/1999 - 4/4/1999
Masterworks from the Permanent Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 2/22/2000 - 3/26/2000
Eye on the Collection: Copley to Hopper, Addison Gallery of American Art, 12/21/2004 - 6/12/2005
Eye on the Collection: West to Hopper, Addison Gallery of American Art, 6/17/2005 - 10/16/2005
Toward Abstraction, Addison Gallery of American Art, 12/23/2005 - 3/26/2006
Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s, American Federation of Arts, 9/9/2006 - 9/7/2009
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/27/2013 - 7/31/2013
Peindre l'Amérique. Les artistes du Nouveau Monde (1830-1900), Fondation de l'Hermitage, 6/27/2014 - 10/26/2014
Searching for the Real, Addison Gallery of American Art, 5/30/2015 - 7/31/2015
Eye on the Collection, Addison Gallery of American Art, 4/1/2017 - 7/30/2017
Your current search criteria is: Exhibition is "Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection"


text:
Information Possibly Outdated
The information presented on this page was originally released on September 25, 2009. It may not be outdated, but please search our site for more current information. If you plan to quote or reference this information in a publication, please check with the Extension specialist or author before proceeding.
Relentless rain keeps mature corn in fields
MISSISSIPPI STATE – Nearly 80 percent of the state's corn crop is safely in storage, and the remaining acres are ready for harvest but stuck in wet fields getting rain-drenched for days.
Erick Larson, grain crops agronomist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the corn harvest is largely complete in the southern part of the state, including the south Delta. However, the corn in the northern areas of the state was planted later and most remains in the fields.
"All the corn is mature," Larson said. "Corn is naturally protected somewhat from rainfall if the ears tip over after the plants reach physiological maturity. Not all ears do that, and the number of ears tipping over can vary substantially from field to field. If it doesn't tip over, water can collect and the husk holds it in the ear."
Kernels that stay wet for too long may sprout, and Larson said he already has heard reports of that happening. A sprouted kernel is considered damaged, reducing the overall quality of the corn.
"The biggest problem we have with sustained rains at this point is grain sprouting and reduced test weights," Larson said. "The grain begins to deteriorate if it is continually exposed to this wet environment."
Larson said the entire year has been tough for the corn crop. Soils were too wet to plant during the optimum planting window, then May was an extremely wet month.
"Wet weather during the spring, especially during May, stunted the crop in late vegetative stages and restricted root growth. This substantially reduced yield potential before it faced difficulties later in the summer," Larson said. "Spring rains also limited both fertilizer and herbicide applications during key times."
June's weather turned off extremely hot and dry, and the drastic change of environmental conditions shocked the plants, Larson said.
"When the hot, dry weather came, the corn suffered because it did not have the root system it needed," Larson said.
Yields have been lower than average on the corn harvested to date, and Larson said yields on dryland and irrigated fields varied from what is typical.
"Irrigation helps minimize drought stress during June, but drought stress was generally not our most limiting factor this year," Larson said. "The wet May stunted the plants and limited our yield from the outset."
Early-planted fields and those in southern Mississippi generally suffered more because they matured before the rainfall and cooler conditions of late July and August. Most corn in the northern part of the state was planted later. Larson predicted those fields will yield better than what that region has seen for years if harvest is not hampered substantially by recent, monsoon-like weather.
"Their corn was able to take advantage of some timely rainfall in June and some pretty abundant rainfall and relatively cool temperatures in July and August, which benefitted that crop much more substantially than it did the crop in other regions of the state," Larson said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting yields of 137 bushels an acre, but Larson said he expects actual totals to end up lower than that. State corn fields yielded a record 148 bushels an acre in 2007 and dipped to 140 bushels an acre in 2008.
"We hopefully won't dip below the five-year yield average of 131 bushels an acre, but the profit margin is so slim that we really hate to lose that much potential," Larson said.
John Michael Riley, Extension agricultural economist, said December corn futures prices are at $3.26 a bushel, which should be about a break-even price for growers. Corn prices have remained fairly steady this year, but they are down drastically from the just under $8 a bushel price corn reached in 2008.
"Not including last year, corn prices had averaged about $2.25 to $2.50 across the nation in previous years," Riley said. "Although we're above that average, a lot of people are seeing this $3.26 and saying that it is too low. When the crop was planted, input costs were high -- not as high as last year, but still high."


text:
Editor, Who can say no to puppy kisses? It's the rare person who does not melt when confronted with a darling puppy full of energy. But it also is the rare person who stops to think about the origin of that puppy.
It would surprise most people to learn that there is a huge commercial kennel industry in the United States that mass produces puppies for pet stores and flea markets.
The numbers truly are staggering. There are hundreds of breeder dogs caged at their facilities, and the conditions often are horrific. There are seriously ill dogs living in filth, trapped in small wire cages, being bred time after time until their little bodies wear out, and they either die or are killed after failing to produce.
Studies by the Centers for Disease Control have shown that approximately 50 percent of puppies in pet stores are incubating disease. This does not include the number of dogs who have genetic conditions that were not yet obvious.
Kennels, brokers and pet stores are fond of saying that the kennels are licensed and inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture, implying that this offers some level of quality assurance.
The USDA is tasked with enforcing the Animal Welfare Act to promote a minimum standard of care for the dogs in kennels.
Through its rural-development loan program, the USDA gave at least $3.5 million in loans to one of the largest puppy brokers in the country — a broker with $26 million in sales in 2002. This clearly is a conflict of interest.
The only way to be sure that puppies do not come from commercial kennels with horrific conditions is to see the parents. Don't believe the pet-store owner or seller at the flea market who says the puppies were raised in a loving home. Buyers need to see the parents and conditions where they live.
Even better than buying a new puppy is rescuing one from a shelter or rescue organization.
Millions of dogs are killed in this country every year. The mass production of puppies is morally and ethically reprehensible when there is a mass slaughter of perfectly wonderful dogs.
Pet stores and puppy brokers at flea markets contribute to this mass slaughter because they cater to the impulse purchase.
To help resist the darling little puppy in the pet store or at the flea market, visualize the puppy's parents in a cage in the relentless Georgia heat, or the freezing cold in winter, covered with filth and profoundly dejected.
Dogs are our companions and best friends. Please be their friends by not contributing to the mass production of puppies, which leads to the mass slaughter of innocent animals.
— Petra Brooks
Editor, Who can say no to puppy kisses? It's the rare person who does not melt when confronted with a darling puppy full of energy. But it also is the rare person who stops to think about the origin of that puppy.


text:
Superior Quality Refurbished & Re-conditioned Compressors
Rebuild Ammonia And Freon Compressor
At Jyoti Engineering Combine, we have mastered an exclusive re-engineering process that replicates the performance of a new factory compressor at the most economical price. All our re-manufactured compressors are fitted with new crankshafts and standard OEM quality parts.
As part of Jyoti's focus on quality, our team ensures that each re-manufactured unit is accurately assembled with computer-aided inventory and in accordance with ICRA-OEM level specifications. Likewise, our compressors are tested at various levels of fitment to check oil throw, pressure and leak testing. An additional round of testing is again completed before the product is shipped.
In this way Jyoti certifies all compressors parts & refurbished compressors are inspected and tested to meet the highest quality and industry standards. We stand by our product, which is why we include the longest warranties on the market.


text:
Mississippi College School of Law
677 Completed Applications 423 Offers 62% Acceptance Rate 119 Enrolled MC Law is interested in students who demonstrate not only the intellect needed to succeed in law school, but the character, leadership skills, and drive required to succeed in life. MC Law looking for well-rounded people of promise. That attitude is reflected in the law school's application process, which considers not only your LSAT score and your GPA, but also your life experiences and the potential you bring to the law school and the legal field. Students accepted to MC Law will find that the whole person approach doesn't end with the admissions process. Our professors are available to work with students one-on-one to identify individual challenges and enhance areas of strength. From opportunities to study law abroad to participating in public interest work to competing on our nationally-recognized appellate, trial, and arbitrations and dispute resolution teams, MC Law offers opportunities for each student to explore the specific areas in which he or she excels.