Gospel.com Blog

There’s been a lot of online chatter lately about bumper stickers connecting Psalm 109:8 to President Barrack Obama. Psalm 109:8 reads:

Let his days be few; and let another take his office. (Psalm 109:8, KJV)

As a post over on examiner.com points out, what’s more alarming than calling for President Obama’s swift removal from office is what follows in Psalm 109:9:

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. (Psalm 109:9, KJV)

Perhaps the makers of these bumper stickers are attempting to coyly express dislike of the President’s policies and leadership by taking a verse from the Bible out of its original context. Presumably they’re just looking forward to the psychological relief they imagine will accompany President Obama’s eventual replacement. However, if those that slap this on their bumpers include not only verse 8, but 9-20 as well, this starts to fall into imprecatory prayer territory.

An imprecatory prayer is a plea for God to come and take care of an enemy. They’re rare in the Bible and almost always defer to God’s wisdom and judgment in the matter. The destruction of an enemy is a very serious thing for which to pray. Outright hatred in the name of Christ should give us pause—after all, Jesus rather famously told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

While Psalm 108 happens to be an excellent example of an imprecatory prayer, it’s also a vivid picture of a man at the end of his rope with no other options before him. As bad as you might think the United States has become, it’s nowhere near the situation that David speaks of in Psalm 109.

Thankfully, from what I’ve seen googling around, it seems that few people are vociferously defending the bumper sticker’s statement; and let’s be honest—the bumper sticker by itself isn’t going to change anyone’s mind. At best it might spark a thoughtful exchange between two people (although I have my doubts).

Whenever topics like this come up, we have an excellent opportunity to evaluate why and for whom we pray. When we pray for those who persecute us, we pray that they might also find the grace and mercy we’ve received through Christ. The hope that God gives us is not that all who oppose us would be laid to waste, but that all who oppose us would also find forgiveness and life.

It’s a major accomplishment to have been doing anything on the internet for five years, and even more impressive if it involves blogging. And doubly so if it invovles religion as well.

A big congrats goes to GetReligion for crossing that five year mark this week!

GetReligion is a blog devoted to the tireless scrutiny of religion in the mainstream press. They expertly point it out when religion is written about and more importantly when it’s not. They’re spending this week highlighting favorite posts from the past year. You can check out Doulas LeBlanc’s picks today, but remember to check in and congratulate them throughout the week.

Is it accurate to say that Christianity is “under attack” by our society? Why would this be the case, and more importantly, how are Christians to respond to it? Is it possible to present an intellectually credible defense of the Christian faith in a postmodern, secular culture?

Two new essays at Ravi Zacharias’ website address the issue of defending, and living out, a Christian life amidst criticism and pressure from non-Christian philosophies and ideas. The first, Defending Christainity in a Secular Culture, is an interview with Ravi Zacharias in which he talks about the importance of earnestly defending the Christian faith—a task not just for theologians and preachers, but for everyday Christians! And in An Uncompromising Faith Lived Out with Grace, Michael Ramsden describes a uncompromising but grace-filled Christian life.

If you found these essays useful, there are plenty more in the Just Thinking archives at the RZIM website.

Quick: how many comics are sold in Japan each year?

2.1 billion

How many in copies of Korean comics Kai Hua Roh and Mahasanook are sold each month?

Over 8 million copies.

Those are huge numbers and translates into Comics being one of the most widely read and consumed mediums. That’s why COMIX35 “helps ministries and individuals produce effective Christian comics as part of an evangelism strategy and/or discipleship program for their own people.”

You can read more on their Why We Do What We Do page.

Right now they’re busy at work collaborating with people across Africa to create a comic to reach non-Christians in Africa. Right now they’ve started collecting art work and have the date of the end of 2008 to publish. Check out the main page for more information on this initiative.

If you’re at all interested in comics and evangelism, check out the different ways in which you can get involved.

Dan Merchant is an ordinary guy… as ordinary as a guy can be, that is, if you’ve spent several years working in TV production, put everything you own in hock to make your own movie, spent months walking around the country with inflammatory and contradictory bumper stickers pasted onto your coveralls, and then assembled it all into a powerful, moving, insightful, often hilarious, and yet somehow good-hearted skewering of the religious debates that have gripped America’s politics for the last two or three decades.

If Dan Merchant’s Lord, Save Us From Your Followers gets much exposure, Bill Maher’s Religulous—which has now slipped to this fall’s release schedule—is going to look quite petty by comparison.

Merchant has created a fine, fine documentary—one that looks deeply at the human cost of sectarian and partisan squabbling—the band arguing, as it were, while passengers are drowning (to borrow Titanic as a metaphor). The Church, it seems, has come to care more for causes than for actual people, and Merchant is here to try to get the band to start playing music once again.

Past the Popcorn Managing Editor Greg Wright talks with Merchant about what the Church is doing wrong… and the tools it has to do things very, very right.

If you’ve seen the Gospel.com homepage this week, you know that our focus this week is on God and politics. Is there any aspect of public life (save perhaps religion) that can energize, outrage, and divide like good old politics can?

Nobody will argue that politics isn’t divisive, and that the political arena doesn’t get vicious and unpleasant these days. But as tempting as it might be to divorce ourselves from these day-to-day political debates and candidates and votes and scandals, this isn’t a subject that Christians can ignore. Politics is an integral part of living in our society today, and if Christians are called to reflect the light of Christ into every part of our lives, that means we’re called to behave politically in a way that honors God.

And so this week, we’ll be featuring a few ministries and other resources that talk about how Christians ought to engage politics. We aren’t taking sides, and we’re not telling you how to vote—we just want to encourage you to think about government, political parties, presidential candidates, and the voting booth as a Christ-follower, not just a citizen.

We’ll begin by noting a blog—one that’s actually not precisely about politics, but which focuses on an institution that in the eyes of many Christians is is inextricably intertwined with the Culture Wars. The blog is GetReligion, and the always-controversial subject it covers is the portrayal of religion in the media. GetReligion doesn’t just sit back and complain about the media—it looks at how Christianity is discussed in the public sphere and how that discussion might improve.

Contributors like Terry Mattingly, Douglas LeBlanc, Daniel Pulliam, and others offer detailed analyses of how journalists talk about Christianity and religion—and since religion is front-and-center in a lot of political discussions these days, various political and public-square topics crop up a lot. See recent posts that talk about media coverage of the California marriage ruling, sex scandals in the church, and the religion in the US presidential race. And if you’re hungry for yet more, GetReligion contributor Terry Mattingly writes the weekly “On Religion” column, which addresses many similar issues in a slightly different format.

Take some time to explore GetReligion (and perhaps add it to your RSS reader), and tune in tomorrow for more politics!

Have you ever wondered how to respond to the increasing pluralism in today’s society? Just Thinking is a daily listener-supported radio show that comes out of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. The program “seek[s] to explore issues such as life’s meaning, the credibility of the Christian message and the Bible, the weakness of modern intellectual movements, and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.”

If you’re interested, you can find their complete archives online here. Or, search for a station near you using this page.

Recently they did a series called The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society. This presentation was formed from a series of talks by Itinerant team member Stuart McAllister, who is filling in for Ravi Zacharias. He focuses on Christian responses to an increasingly pluralistic world, and outlines how we need to begin interacting with the cultures and religions around us. His call is for Christians seek to understand the world they live in so that our defense of the gospel can be relevant. In his mind, there is far more happening on this earth than what we see from our own limited world-view.

The presentation is broken into five different parts. These links will take you to a page where you can select how you would like to listen to the broadcast:

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five

“The radio outreach of RZIM is a listener supported ministry that powerfully mixes biblical teaching and Christian apologetics. The programs seek to explore issues such as life’s meaning, the credibility of the Christian message and the Bible, the weakness of modern intellectual movements, and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ.”

What does the word “Christian” mean to you? What connotations does that term hold for you—positive or negative? Stonecroft Ministries hit the street recently to ask people what they thought of when they heard the word “Christian”, and the responses they got are both candid and enlightening. It’s the first of several online videos in their “Understanding Culture 101″ series. The second and third videos in the series are online as well, so go take a look!

Hollywood Jesus is a site devoted to pop culture from a spiritual point of view. Every week, they offer reviews and analysis of the latest movies, books, comics, and other pop culture artifacts.

You can keep up with their regular updates at HJ Live!. But in case you missed it, here’s a rundown of some of the new items at HJ this week:

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Christians often talk about the need to “transform” culture. But what does that actually look like? Do Christians transform culture by being a part of, by participating in it, or by commenting on it? In an interview at InterVarsity’s StudentSoul site, Andy Crouch (of Christianity Today International) talks about the need for Christians to become “culture creators”–to not just condemn or blindly participate in culture, but to actively create superior pieces of culture. Crouch notes:

…unfortunately right now Christians are kind of known for being critical and uptight, right? But we are not known as people who are creative. That’s too bad because I’m around so many creative, joyful, culturally-engaged believers. So the perception is not totally accurate, but there is some truth to it. The problem is that critique just doesn’t get you anywhere unless you create something that improves on what is already there.

Crouch offers some specific suggestions, especially for students who are looking to impact the culture of their school campuses.