Justice devotion: Gender Genocide - 1 Peter 1:6

1 Peter 1:6      In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

There is no rejoicing among Northern Nigerians whose daughters were brutally kidnapped recently by the Talibanic terrorist group, Boko Haram. While we are excited about final exams and proms, a whole community across the world is totally devastated. Almost three hundred girls, who were taking their final exams, were inhumanely abducted at gunpoint and are now suffering under the wickedness of this hostile group. Their families are anguished and, until the world rallies to their defense, their hearts will remain broken and their losses will be difficult to endure.

This kind of callous kidnapping has been going on for centuries. All over the world millions of women and young girls are abducted, sold into slavery, and trafficked as sexual chattels each year. Corrupt governments and greedy leaders turn a blind eye to what’s going on in Africa, Asia, Europe, and even here in North America. It’s a scandalous situation, a shameful issue, and a sinful blight upon the whole of humanity. Until women are properly treated as equals across the entire planet, these inhumane practices, which really should be called ‘gender genocide,’ will tragically continue and never be resolved.

As Christians, we need to advocate on behalf of women everywhere, not solely in a feminist way but in an entire human way, where women and men stand together and truly fight for these inalienable rights. Those who hide behind religious doctrine or masculine supremacy need to be totally confronted and made to change their ways or pay for their crimes. We cannot wait for another century or even another millennium for this to occur. We need to act now; we need to pressurize our politicians and write to our representatives, boldly demanding these changes and continually calling upon them to actively advocate for women in this land and everywhere else.

This may not seem to be much of a devotion to you, today; but sometimes in our devotion to God we need to actively practice our faith by being advocates for freedom and equality, faith and love. If not, then all that we have is a heavenly faith that is no earthly use at all.

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, You treated women as equals and honored them for their gifts, their love, and their faith. Help us to do the same in our churches, communities, nations, and continents. Keep us mindful of the inhumane trafficking of people, especially women and girls across the world. Grant us the courage to stand together against these sinful, ungodly, and wicked practices. In Your Holy Name, we fervently pray. Amen.

Why I’m Boycotting the Olympics - Reason #3: Christians being targeted

Breaking news from China reveals that authorities are clamping down on Roman Catholics who wish to worship at a Marian shrine during the month of May. The xenophobic Chinese leaders fear Christians mingling together for worship because they are afraid that it might lead to protests.

Here’s what Bernardo Cervella had to write in yesterday’s edition of Spero News

There is a subtle war underway against pilgrimages to the Marian shrine of Sheshan, the national Chinese shrine that is typically visited during the month of May. The war is being waged by the government and by the Patriotic Association (PA). Both "recommend" (meaning: order) that people not visit Sheshan for the entire month of May.

The government cites safety problems, while the PA does not give any reason, but wants to block any mingling among official and underground Catholics, who meet each other every year at the shrine, above all on May 24, the feast of Mary Help of Christians, to whom the church of Sheshan is dedicated. Moreover, this year Benedict XVI has asked Chinese Catholics to celebrate May 24 as a Day of Prayer for the Church in China, praying for its unity and for its persecutors (cf. Letter to the Chinese Catholics, no. 19).

For the entire month of May, the local government of Shanghai has placed restrictions on traffic and the movement of the faithful on the roads to Sheshan, about 50 kilometres southwest of the city.

According to reports sent to AsiaNews, the authorities have also asked the various dioceses, especially Shanghai, Wenzhou, Ningbo - the dioceses closest to the shrine - not to go on pilgrimage this month.

Read the rest of the report here…

How To Tame a Dragon

The Olympic Games are just a season away and within the next couple of weeks athletes from around the world will be competing for places on their national teams. For years, many of these young people will have been preparing themselves to physically and mentally peak during this summer. They will have lofty ambitions and seek to gain international reputations by the winning coveted medals for their countries.

They will represent the best of humanity’s strongest, fastest and most competitive people. They are the elite athletes of the world. Throughout the summer, the hype, publicity, and commercial exploitation of the Games will take place in practically every nation on earth. Theoretically, it will be a time to lay down our arms and pick up our running shoes. It is a quadrennial event when we aspire as a species to live at peace with one another and joyfully compete. The Games symbolize the greatness, grandeur, and godliness of humankind.

But there is a shadow over this year’s Games. The host nation, China, is an unworthy venue for the Olympics. China’s human rights abuses, religious persecutions, and contempt for democracy and liberty makes it the 21st century’s equivalent of Nazi Germany. Despite giving assurances that they would do something about these internal problems eight years ago, the Chinese authorities have instead increased their inhumane practices of political executions, religious intolerance, and tyrannical policing of their nation.

In a civilized world, the evil excesses of China should not be condoned by presenting the Games in the heart of an oppressive regime. The dictatorship of Communist China dishonors the heart, spirit, and majesty of the Olympics. They are abusing the privilege of hosting the World. They should be held accountable for their human rights atrocities and boycotted for their abuse of religious minorities.

I will not watch the Olympics, nor will I esteem any new sporting records or applaud any athletes who accomplish their goals. I will not buy into the “let’s keep politics out of sports’ mentality that passes for civilized sophistry amongst sports commentators, newspapers, and television channels. China, under its present totalitarian leadership, is a bloody stain upon human rights and freedom. I will not make myself a hypocrite by watching an oppressive nation use the Olympics as propaganda to deceive its own people.

In the 20th century, the whole world made terrible mistakes by allowing Nazi Germany to host the Olympics. It seems that in the dawn of this new century, we are about to embark on a course that will see us make the same mistakes. If there is no boycott of the Games by our leaders, then we had better prepare ourselves for war in the next decade, because the Beijing will treat our acquiescence as decadent weakness, just as Hitler did in the 1930s.

Remember this: after the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, the tyrannical Soviet Union collapsed within a decade; but three years after the participation of all nations at the 1936 Berlin Games, the World was involved in total war.

If we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat history.

Britain Becoming An Atheist Society

London • Freedom from religion in Britain is becoming as important as freedom of religion, according to a United Nations investigation into religion in the UK.

In a 23-page report published yesterday, a UN rapporteur claims the 2001 Census findings that nearly 72 per cent of the population is Christian can no longer be regarded as accurate. The report claims that two-thirds of British people now do not admit to any religious adherence.

The report also calls for the disestablishment of the Church of England. The role and privileges of the established Church are challenged because they do not reflect "the religious demography of the country and the rising proportion of other Christian denominations."

The report also warns that measures to combat terrorism in Britain could be undermined because of discrimination against Muslims.

According to the report into the freedom of religion and belief in the UK, there is an "overall respect for human rights and their value." But the report warns that Muslims in particular face screening, searches, interrogation and arrest.

Read the rest of the article here…

Religious news: Egypt Torturing HIV Sufferers

HIV-positive Egyptian men are tortured and chained to hospital beds while awaiting unfair homosexuality trials, a human rights group has claimed.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) decried the "ignorance and injustice" of a case in which a group of arrested men were given HIV tests without their consent.
They were also subjected to anal tests to "prove" their homosexual conduct.

Two of the men tested HIV-positive and are now handcuffed to hospital beds for 23 hours a day, HRW said.
"These men have been subjected to anal examination without their consent which amounts to torture," Gasser Abdel-Razek, HRW's acting director of regional relations in the Middle East, told the BBC on Wednesday.

"Egypt should release the men unconditionally and put a system in place that does not deal with HIV-positive individuals as criminals but as patients who require medical care and attention."

Egypt's Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the case.

Read the rest of the story here

Religious News: The Horror of Dr. Moreau a New Reality?

British Scientists in hybrid embryos plea

Leading scientists have urged peers not to block the use of human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

From BBC News

Amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill would restrict the use of such embryos, which contain a small amount of animal DNA.

But the scientists say they are vital to the development of new treatments.

The appeal comes from the Medical Research Council, the Royal Society, the Wellcome Trust and the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Contentious proposals

The government's bill attempts to update the current rules on the use of embryos for research in light of recent scientific advances.

One of the most contentious proposals is to enable researchers to create animal-human hybrids for research purposes - a move that some in the House of Lords are keen to overturn.

Read the rest of the story here

The Day is Almost Here

There was a lot of talk this week about finding the solutions to Middle East peace. Our president tried to get various Arab groups together, along with the Israelis, to sit down and hammer out some sort of agreement that would ostensibly bring peace after 60 years of hostilities.

Forgive me for being cynical, but this has more to do with the President’s legacy rather than a strict desire to bring about peace in the Middle East. For three thousand years, Israelis and Arabs have been fighting each other, so what’s going to make anything different now? My main concern is at what cost will this great peace happen? And I’m not talking about the price of oil, or the cost of war. I’m talking about the cost of Human rights on both sides.

How can we get people and leaders to agree on peace when on the one side unmarried women are being flogged for sitting in a car with a man; a teacher is sent to prison for calling a teddy bear Mohammed; and on the other side, prisoners have been held in captivity in Guantanamo Bay for over six years, and possibly water boarded on a regular basis, trying to get information on a terrorist organization that has radically changed since 2001.

It may just be me, but I’m not seeing the potential for beating swords into plows or spears into pruning hooks here. All I’m noticing is a bunch of political leaders getting together for photo opportunities to take back home to their palaces and mansions, and pat themselves on the back that they tried to broker peace in their time. If they were all really serious about bringing peace to the Middle east, the whole area should be demilitarized with tanks being turned into bulldozers and missiles turned into medical supplies.

It kind of reminds me of when John Lennon and Yoko Ono brought out their Happy Xmas: War is over single at this time of year in 1971. Everybody was singing it thinking it was a jolly little song, sentimentally calling the world to seek peace at Christmas. Most of the population who sang Happy Xmas: War is over didn’t realize it was highly satirical and that John and Yoko were actually describing the hypocrisy of people at Christmas, who use this time of year to make themselves feel good by trying to maintain peace. Forget about the rest of the year, the song is actually saying, so long as we have peace for Christmas, we can all feel good about ourselves.

That’s why I’m very cynical about this latest round of peace talks at the Whitehouse and in other places around the world. It’s all for show and has no substance to it. It’s filibustering on a global scale. If the masses of people see their leaders trying to do something about peace, then maybe they’ll think their politicians are actually better than they really are.

As Christians, we worship the Prince of Peace, and we wait that special Day when Christ will return to establish His authority over the whole earth. That will be a time when Christ’s absolute rule is absolutely ruling the whole earth. There will be no more war because Christ will not allow it. We will not be able to choose to fight, rebel and argue because Jesus will not permit it amongst His people. His word will be absolute and His sovereignty will be complete. Peace will reign because division, schism, hostility, and war will be no more. It will be a day of reckoning for those leaders who publicly call for peace, but whose hearts glorify the scandal of war.

Romans 13:11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

We have begun the time of Advent in the Church year, and many people incorrectly think that we are looking ahead to Christmas Day and of Christ being born into the world. But how can we look ahead to something that has already occurred more than two thousand years ago? Christ has already been born. It all happened a long time ago. Advent is not about Christmas and how prepared we are for this busy season: Advent is all about preparing our hearts and souls for that time when Jesus will return to earth. It could happen before Christmas. It could happen next week. It could happen before this sermon ends – which may or not be a long time, depending upon how I feel.

What I’m saying is this: we all get so engrossed with preparing for Christmas that we forget to be ready to meet Jesus. All the lights and the tinsel, the decorations and the gifts, the food and the feasts are not important. And if we become obsessed with getting things ready and perfect for the family coming home this Christmas, but put Christ out of our minds and do nothing to be ready for Him, then we’ve lost our faith somewhere in the process.

It’s like the day after Thanksgiving, we all want to buy, buy, buy! We’ve just spent a whole day thanking God for the things that we need, and then we’re up early at 4am for things to satisfy our greed! Within 24 hours, we’ve ditched God altogether and replaced Him with a shopping card, Christmas list, and check book.

And I’m just as bad. I get caught up in the hustle and bustle as well. In fact, I was sitting in the West Town mall with a bunch of carrier bags at 6am in the morning waiting for Evelyn and Lynsey to finish their shopping. I was their designated driver and beast of burden. So I’m sitting right next to the place where all the kids get photos taken with Santa, which is decorated with gorgeous Christmas trees and beautiful giant sized characters from the Nutcracker ballet. This is where all the families gather with their kids to meet Santa Claus…and ten feet from where the kids are being photographed is a Victoria’s Secret Superstore with almost naked mannequins in lingerie. This is what we’ve let Christmas become – a time to spoil our kids rotten and to indulge in our sexual fantasies.

It’s not Christmas that we have to reclaim. It’s Advent. Instead of saying that there are only 23 shopping days to Christmas, we as Christians should be expressing what Paul has written: The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

As each day passes, we’re all one day nearer to the time when Christ will return, but are we honestly one day better prepared for that possibility? If Jesus came to earth right now, would we be prepared – or would we be fiddling about with our Blackberries and cell phones, our text messages and emails, our Tivos and DVRs? We’ve already been given a text message and God has already recorded what is going to happen. It’s all in the Bible, but we’ve stopped reading it.

I read somewhere that Woody Allen, whose middle name is Stuart by the way, celebrated his 72nd birthday this weekend. He’s made many off the wall movies, which you either like or hate. The first movie that I can remember seeing with Woody Allen was one called “Sleeper.” It’s highly irreverent and the tagline for the movie is A love story about two people who hate each other – 200 years in the future.

It’s about a person who awakes from cryostasis and is used by revolutionaries to overthrow an oppressive government. I think it’s very funny and very clever. It’s also about someone from the past being resurrected in order to save the future of humankind. It’s a Messianic movie, although most people miss that when they view it.

The Church of Christ has been sleeping for decades and has allowed Christmas to spin out of control. We’ve become oppressed by capitalism and commercialism which is coming home to bite us. We all get into a frenzy trying to find the perfect gift for everyone. We put ourselves into terrible debt in order to keep up with our neighbors. We feel as though Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas if we didn’t give our kids everything that they want. We’re being led like lambs to slaughter on the altar of excessive expenses and being sold into the slavery of sophisticated shopping in order to make us feel good.

Advent is not a feel good time. It’s a season of realizing that we are not perfect. It’s a time to understand that we all have faults. It’s a month of perceiving that we need Jesus in our lives because our lives are meaningless without Him. The adventure of Advent is to wait for the Lord and to expect His Coming. If we dreaded the return of Christ as much as we dread our credit card bills in January, then we would probably be better prepared for His arrival. But because we take so much for granted in this life and are fuelled by our need to possess, we disown Christ in our lives and precariously place ourselves on the margins of salvation.


25 years ago today, the world’s best selling album by a singer was released. It was called “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. I can still remember the frenzy of excitement in Britain and around the world as people lined up for hours to purchase this vinyl album. Millions of people throughout the nations had been teased into buying the album because of a great video of the title song. Jackson’s singing and dancing in the video was electrifying. The use of werewolves and zombies in the video, as well as using the voice of great Vincent Price on the album was an amazing commercial coup for Jackson. Everyone that I knew, relatives and friends, neighbors and working colleagues purchased the album. People couldn’t wait to get their hands on a copy after seeing and hearing the video. Millions upon millions of people were enticed into record and music stores all over the world, just hoping to get a copy of “Thriller.” It was one of the best marketing ploys that the world has ever seen.

The Christian Church has the best message for the hope of humankind in all of history. We have been given the good news that all our past mistakes can be forgiven and forgotten by God. We are eternal beings, who will not be extinguished by death, but rather will be granted everlasting life through Jesus Christ. This is the best news in existence this very day, and yet we are slumbering and sleeping through it.

What will it take for us to market the message of Christ throughout Advent? What will it take for us to invite our families and friends to church on Sundays to hear this message, so that when Christ returns they will be ready. If Jesus were to return to day, I guess we would all be ready, for we are here worshiping the Lord; but what of our loved ones who are elsewhere this morning? What of the dear friends we love? What of the brothers and sisters, the parents and children, the grandparents and grandchildren in our lives? If Christ were to arrive today, would we be taken and they left behind?

Advent is the time when the Church awakes from its slumber and takes the message of Christ seriously. It’s not about the baby Jesus; it’s not about Santa Claus; it’s not about feasting and partying, the giving of gifts and the buying of goods. It’s about being ready for Christ’s return. It’s about being a Church that cares about the salvation of the souls of the people we love. We may be ready, but are they? If we don’t bring them in, they are lost to sin. What’s the most perfect gift we can give to our loved ones: salvation – but it’s not wrapped up in pretty bows and colored paper. It’s a covering of blood of a crucified Christ, who becomes our eternal Savior and welcomes us to His Kingdom…but we can’t win it, unless we’re in it. Sin can’t be repaired unless we’re prepared for Jesus. It’s called Advent, not Christmas. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee