Jonah and that Boy Who Went to Heaven

You may be familiar with the story of Colton Burpo, the now eleven-year old boy who tells of “going to heaven” when he was four years old. The book, Heaven is For Real, is at the top of every best-seller list.

Colton’s appendix burst when he was four and by the time his family and doctors had figured out what was going on, he was a very sick little boy. He had what has come to be called a near-death experience, and it was vivid and clear and he came back to tell his parents and friends, and now the whole world, what he saw. It was heaven. He met Jesus, a miscarried sister he never knew he had and a grandfather he had not known but whose features he could describe precisely. Continue reading →

Donald Trump – He’s One of Us

It turns out that the news about Donald Trump running for president is true. He’s giving it some thought and doing all things people giving it some thought ought to do. He’s visiting the early primary states and has stopped by all the morning news shows. Last week he agreed to an interview on CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network.

And it seems that Donald Trump is one of us. At least that’s what he says. “I’m a Christian …I’m a Protestant, I’m a Presbyterian,” he told the interviewer.

He went on to say, “I think religion is a wonderful thing. I think my religion is a wonderful religion.” So not only is he one of us, he seems pretty wonderfully happy about it. He also likes the Bible and says he has a “very nice place” where he keeps all the Bible people send him.  Except, oh yeah, he gives some of them away. Continue reading →

Overcoming Evil with Good – the example of the Dekasseguis

When my Brazilian pastor friend wrote a couple of weeks ago to say that he was on his way to post-earthquake Japan, I wondered what in the world he was up to now. Maybe I should have asked what God was up to.

In the early Twentieth Century tens of thousands of Japanese citizens migrated from Japan seeking opportunity elsewhere.  They settled in the western United States where many became farm workers and the parents and grandparents of the Nisei who were interred during the Second World War.  But the largest group made their way to Brazil where they worked on the coffee plantations under oppressive conditions and were slowly, but never completely, assimilated into Brazilian society. The huge Japan Town in Sao Paulo is the largest Japanese community outside of Japan. Continue reading →

Sex, Booze and Jesus

A church in Southern California decided that they would advertise their upcoming Easter worship services by buying a 30-second spot during the coming attractions segment played at the local theater before the feature film begins.  They’d join Coke, Pepsi and the Sudsy Bubbles Car Wash in trying to catch the attention of the just arriving movie-goers. Continue reading →

Will Fido Make it to Heaven?

CNN is reporting that PETA, the animal rights group, “is asking to the translators of the New International Version (NIV) to remove what it calls ‘speciesist’ language and refer to animals as ‘he’ or ‘she’ instead of ‘it.’” The article goes on to quote a PETA spokesperson as saying, “Calling an animal ‘it’ denies them something. They are beloved by God. They glorify God.”

I’d like to make fun of the request.  Why limit it to animals?  What about trees and mountains? After all the trees of the Psalms clap their hands in praise of God and mountains skip like sheep before him. If we are going to repent of our speciesism, why not, also, of our vegephobia and our mineraphobia? I just don’t know how to tell a “he” tree from a “she” tree. Continue reading →