christianityandme

Christianity and Iraq

Filed under: News — admin @ 3:00 am

Every month Reverent Andrew White AKA Canon White travels to Baghdad to minister to the faithful, including Western Protestants and Iraqi Assyrian Christians, who must be bused into the U.S.-protected Green Zone, to hear him preach after al-Qaeda put a price on his head! Because killing obviously is the solution here (not).

Over the past three years, the number of Iraqis attending his services has grown to about 900, said the 41-year-old British Anglican priest. “People turn to religion when they are desperate,'’ White said in a Green Zone coffee shop after conducting three Easter services.

The apparent Christian revival takes place against a backdrop of resurgent Muslim religiosity. Sunni and Shiite Muslim deaths are mounting daily in sectarian violence and there is massive attendance at both Shiite and Sunni services.

The tall, bespectacled cleric began visiting Iraq regularly in 1998, and he has witnessed profound changes since then. During those early visits, he would preach at St. George’s Anglican Church, an arrangement facilitated by Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the most prominent Christian in the national leadership and now a U.S. detainee.

Under Saddam, White said he found a more secular society where tensions between religious groups seemed nonexistent. But over time he began to realize that divisions were there - Iraqis were simply too terrified to speak frankly.

White recalled a grim memory of receiving a dinner invitation from Odai Saddam Hussein, Saddam’s most ruthless son. He declined, but the man delivering the invitation began to weep, pleading him to accept. Otherwise, Odai would kill the messenger, White said.

Quickly bookmark "Christianity and Iraq" via:                                                

Comments (0)

Christian preachers arrested in India’s Hindu nation

Filed under: News — admin @ 3:00 am

Police arrested two women in central India yesterday for allegedly violating state laws on the preaching of Christianity. “The women were distributing pamphlets telling people how they may overcome their problems by following the Bible,” said D Srinivas Rao, police chief of Jabalpur district in Madhya Pradesh state.

“Several other objectionable pamphlets have also been seized from their possession.” The official said that under a state law anyone planning to preach religion must get permission first from authorities. “The offenders had not sought any permission,” Rao said.

The women were identified as Mariamma Mathew, 36, and B Godwil, 65. The arrests are the latest in a series of similar moves by police in the state, where the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for more than two years.

Last year the Madhya Pradesh government set up a panel to look into reports of what rightwing parties call “forced conversions”. The panel said in its report that in another state district, the Christian population had gone up by 80% in the past two decades.

Christians make up just over 2% of India’s 1.1 billion population, but some have been criticised for aggressively recruiting converts among the country’s majority Hindu population. A Christian leader in the state said the group is a target of the BJP.

“Christians in this state have been under pressure for long and such atrocities on them have increased further under the BJP rule,” said Anil Martin, general secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Christian Association.

Quickly bookmark "Christian preachers arrested in India’s Hindu nation" via:                                                

Comments (0)

The history of how candy relates to Easter

Filed under: News — admin @ 3:28 am

Here’s the secret history of eating sugar to celebrate the resurrection of Christ:

In Europe, during the early 1800’s, Chocolate was all the rage. It was the treat of choice for most middle and upper class denizens. Chocolatiers sought to use the image of the egg as a way to celebrate Easter and sell their products.

The symbol of the egg, which was already being used in Easter festivities at this time, had been a pagan symbol representing fertility and re-birth in pagan times. It had been adopted as part of the Christian Easter festival and it came to represent the ‘resurrection’ or re-birth of Christ after the crucifixion and some believe it is a symbol of the the stone blocking the Sepulcher being ‘rolled’ away. It was during this time the first chocolate Easter egg appeared in Germany and France and soon spread to the rest of Europe and beyond.

Chocolate treats grew in popularity and became the primary Easter candy throughout the world and in America all through the 20th century. Chocolate treats would expand into all sorts of images beyond the “egg”, including bunnies, birds, and all other sorts of spring and Easter based symbols. 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies are currently made for Easter each year.

Quickly bookmark "The history of how candy relates to Easter" via:                                                

Comments (0)

Scum of the Earth shows 21st century Christianity

Filed under: News — admin @ 6:43 am

More and more churches are getting a new look. Walk right in and you might see people knitting, drawing, cooking, maybe even enjoying a massage, as part of what is called the “Emergent Church,” a new approach to preaching and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s not a denomination. What it is, is a loose network of churches nationwide, whose size and influence is on the rise.

Some are tempted to point to the Emergent Church as an example of Christianity Lite, but those who choose this path of worship say it is Christianity updated: taking the suit and tie off Sunday services, replacing pews with couches, taking out kneelers and bringing in easels, and interpreting the Gospel for a frustrated generation of faithful.

America is a country in which an overwhelming majority profess a belief in God. A CBS News poll found that 82 percent of Americans surveyed said that they do. But that same poll also found that nearly a third of those surveyed believe traditional religions are out of date.

The philosophy is more than a theory, it’s a call to action. At one church in Denver, the integration of life plays out at the dinner table. Congregants cook meals for the homeless as part of the church service. The church’s youth minister, Eric John Branch, explains why that is not the same as cooking meals at some other time, for instance, after services.

“You can’t just come and listen to a message and say, ‘Oh hey, I’m a Christian, I’m a follower of Christ,’” says Branch. “It’s gotta be in every aspect of your life.” The church’s name “Scum of the Earth” sounds odd in this message, but the name is a reference to both the church’s mission of reaching out to those who have not been reached by traditional churches, and who may be, or feel, cast out by society, and a Bible passage about man’s lowly status and need for God:

“To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.” (1 Corinthians 4:11-13)

“Scum of the earth” was used long ago as a term to describe the first Christians, whose beliefs put them on the fringes of society. “We were looking to build a place where folks who didn’t fit in other church settings would actually feel welcome,” says Mike Sares, the pastor.

Scum of the Earth uses many tools to accomplish that goal, including podcasts of sermons, creative writing classes, cooking and sewing classes, comic book clubs, bible study groups, exhibitions of poetry and art by church members, and a photo gallery of snapshots showing congregants enjoying the company of family and friends.

The pastor says that while the approach is new, the message is not. “It’s just church,” says Sares. “It’s not nearly as radical as you think it is - I mean there’s no moshing during worship.” Even the older members feel comfortable. “The worship for us,” says Janice Horsley, “is something that you’re a part of, and we’re all in that.”

Quickly bookmark "Scum of the Earth shows 21st century Christianity" via:                                                

Comments (1)

The Gospel of Judas papyrus televised on National Geographic

Filed under: News — admin @ 5:29 am

The Gospel of Judas tells a riveting story that many people find new. It says that Jesus asked Judas to betray him, thus setting the Passion into motion. But the gospel’s provenance shows that some things don’t change in a couple of millenniums, except for inflation. Thirty pieces of silver then, or $1.5 million now: It’s still about money.

Ordinarily, the discovery of something like the Judas gospel would be announced in a scholarly publication as a probable addition to the Gnostic Gospels — early Christian writings that were rejected by the church hierarchy. Instead, National Geographic gave it a public splash that rang more of commercial zing than scholarly thoughtfulness, with a glitzy TV special, two books and an exhibit timed for the week before Easter.

The 1,700-year-old papyrus was breathlessly described as possibly turning Christianity on its head. And the codex is an exciting archeological find. But the concept of Judas playing out a role that he perceives as Jesus’ desire isn’t particularly new, as anyone who ever watched “Jesus Christ Superstar” can attest.

The National Geographic Society’s involvement did help restore the papyrus and bring it to public light, and back to Egypt.

Quickly bookmark "The Gospel of Judas papyrus televised on National Geographic" via:                                                

Comments (0)

What’s up with Christians and celebrating Easter?

Filed under: News — admin @ 2:59 pm

Every religion has its collection of beliefs and practices. There may be so many, that members often find it difficult to list them in a priority.

For Christians, this weekend’s celebration of Easter (the resurrection of Jesus Christ) can resolve this difficulty. Easter is the bottom line of Christianity. It is its most important belief and its greatest feast (even greater than Christmas).

Everything in Christianity depends upon whether Easter is true or not. In Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 15), he says, “For if the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not been released from your sins. … If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are of all people the most to be pitied.” Rather “bottom line,” wouldn’t we say?

As the practice of religion wanes in our culture the fear of death intensifies. Without an authentic faith in God more people consider death as the end of life, as the edge off which we fall into oblivion.

Yet, despite religions decline, there still lingers in the human heart the hope that life goes on. The history of the word’s religions indicates the persistence of this expectation. Yet, at the same time, there has always been a struggle with this great mystery. Fierce energies run loose in the world that would have us doubt our hopes of ever possessing a complete joy of life.

To Christians, Easter means far more than just the resuscitation of the corpse of Jesus Christ. We see it as representing a passage and a promise. The passage is into a final stage of life that is the ultimate in existing. The promise is that this ultimate life is offered to all people. For the One standing alive on that first Easter morning had previously explained his mission as “I have come that they may have life, and have it to its fullest (John: 10:10).” Thanks to Father Lou Guntzelman, who is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, for these words.

Quickly bookmark "What’s up with Christians and celebrating Easter?" via:                                                

Comments (0)