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Issue 017 <previous< Issue 018 November 1998
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Ten Things to
Light Your Fire “There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not,” said the wise man, “the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid” (Proverbs 30:18-19). Well, there are five things that are too wonderful
for me, yea ten, that light my fire. I share them here in the hope that your
own imagination will be stirred to conjure up some goodies of your own. Is It Murder?—The Problem of
Ethical Language Missing page 5 One of the most distinctive attributes of the human race, setting men and women well apart from any other species, is the power of verbal communication. While some experiments have seemed to show evidence of rudimentary communication among animals such as chimpanzees by means of signs and grunts, and while some people have fantastic theories about dolphins, the human ability to communicate not only simple facts but complex ideas remains unique. The entire area of human language is still, in many ways, a puzzling mystery to psychologists, neurologists, and linguists. While human verbal and written communication is a
highly developed and distinctive skill, it is not without its problems. Sir
Francis Bacon, the 16th century lawyer and philosopher (whom some people believe
wrote Shakespeare’s plays), recognized those problems when he wrote in his
influential treatise, The Advancement of Learning, “The first great
judgment of God upon the ambition of man was the confusion of tongues; whereby
open trade and intercourse of learning was chiefly embarred.” It’s Okay to Be
Extravagant The young woman poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and bathed them with her hair. One of the disciples tried to stop her saying “Master, we could buy food for the hungry with the money that perfume costs. “She’s giving the best she has. Let her alone.” In relationships, particularly in marriage, it is all right be extravagant once in a while. It is an effective way to express your love. Bill Clinton, Ken Starr, the
Gospel, and God’s Salvation Army
We could be undisturbed by what has been happening the national scene? I am just heartsick over recent events in Washington. For months this debacle has been building until it has reached a crescendo. The media have had a field day; and, apparently like most other Americans, I resent this and find them despicable players on this sorry stage. We are sitting around pondering a salacious account of tawdry misbehavior which even horny teenagers ought not to indulge themselves in, worrying about what we should say to our children and grandchildren, anxious about what it says about our country, concerned about what the world thinks about us. Never have I felt this way about my country, except perhaps that awful weekend in November of 1963 when a President lay dead in Dallas, felled by a cruel assassin’s bullets. Then, not knowing what to do, we gathered in front of our TV sets day after day. And on Sunday we filled the churches across the land. We came hoping for some word from the Lord, hoping somehow that we might make sense out of that violent madness. We came, as Unamuno suggested years before, to grieve together—to weep in common for ourselves, for the Kennedys, for our children, and for our country. I feel some of those same feelings today. So I
come here and open the Book, hoping on such an occasion as this that there will
be some word from the Lord. Some Things I Wish I Had
Said to My Father When I first read the play I Never Sang For My Father, I remember I cried. What was going on here? I never cry. But something about that sad story of a boy who never got to finish his business with his father brought tears to my eyes. My father has been dead for 20 years and I still carry around a lot of grief because we never got to finish our business. Maybe that’s where the tears come from. I still have a lot of things I have to say to him. I would like to tell my father that the tree he
planted on the day I was born brings me joy to this day. My parents had been
married 17 years. Doctors told them there would be no children. Then, out of the
blue, I came along. And, on the day of my birth, my father knelt in front of the
little four-room white clapboard mill house that would be our home, and planted
a tree. It was an oak. I don’t know what he thought as he dug in the ground,
carefully placed the sapling, watered the little tree and stepped back. Fundamentalism’s Noble
Forebear: Curtis Lee Laws
Fundamentalism today is committed to
ecclesiastical establlishmentarianism in the American educational system through
such things as state-sponsored prayer, tuition tax credits, and vouchers. We
think our readers will be surprised and encouraged to discover that the forebear
of fundamentalism was a true Baptist guided by historic convictions. This piece
by Laws (and forty-nine others) is included in Baptist Roots: A Reader in the
Theology of a Christian People by Curtis W. Freeman, James Win. McClendon,
Jr., and Rosalee Velosso. It is due to be published by Judson Press in April
1999. We encourage readers of Christian Ethics Today to get a copy and be
like the wise kingdom scribe who brings out of the kingdom’s storehouse things
new and old (Mt. 13:52). An Ethical Approach to Enmity
One of the great stories in the Bible is about war, enemy intelligence, and the peaceful resolution of conflict. In Second Kings, chapter 6, Syria and Israel were at war: This idea, that enmity can be resolved by feeding your enemy, appears also in Proverbs 25:21-22: “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire upon his head.” This is supposed by some to be an Egyptian proverb. When Jews repented they put on sackcloth and ashes or dead coals. When the Egyptians repented they put live coals on an earthen tray on their head and walked toward the person or those they had wronged. So the Apostle Paul’s reference to this in Romans 12, is obviously influenced by Kings and Proverbs: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” The ethical question raised by these passages is
one of practicality. Would this advice, if followed today, be effective in
resolving disputes between nations? Is it the right thing to do?
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Adultery: How to Affair-Proof Your
Marriage Anatomy of an Affair
Avoiding an Affair
Pastor Search Committee
Do the People in the Pew Want to Be
Told the Truth? Last Sunday l was the substitute teacher for one of the Sunday School classes in our department. They are all in their late sixties or older with only a member or two who have not yet retired. They have been professors, surgeons, public servants, homemakers, business people, and farmers. Members of the group had held almost every office or responsibility in the church and almost all of them had been Christians for years. The lesson in the quarterly was from Jeremiah, at
the time when Jerusalem was under siege and about to fall. The Prophet had been
placed under arrest by the king because he had announced that God had already
given Jerusalem into the hands of the Babylonians. The members of the class had
probably heard this text preached on or had studied it dozens of times. My first
thought was that there was no aspect to the lesson that they had not already
beaten to death and I wondered how to involve them in any relevant discussion. A Book Review by Darold H. Morgan Seeking Peace
A fly responsibly written book on peace
should be welcomed and frustrated age especially when something really significant is said. You will not be
disappointed when you open and begin reading this fresh, vital, stimulating
volume. In fact you will be genuinely surprised by several practical, yet
obvious, conclusions. The author draws from a surprising variety of spiritual
traditions. There is a major input from the experiences of ordinary people.
There are exceptional and relevant quotations from an array of familiar and
famous writers. Anecdotes and personal experiences abound which are
appropriately related to the main theme. The book is eminently readable. The
author’s writing style, characterized by rather short essays, is never tedious.
Written beautifully in measured and balanced cadences, the author’s reasoning is
authentically Christian. Is Suicide
Changing?
Watching the World Go By
Two late books—one on American social-economic problems and one on the impact promised by science in the near future—have set me to wondering if responsible religious leaders should not organize to study and propagandize in these areas as some are doing now in church/state relationships. The authors of these two admirable books have done impressive research and have consulted all sorts of modern oracles except for their regrettable neglect of the voices of the religious. David M. Gordon’s 1996 book, Fat and Mean: The Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans and the Myth of Managerial “Downsizing, “is a picture of the last fifteen years of our economic history. The following statements give the flavor of his book: Michio Kaku’s 1997 book, Visions: How Science
Will Revolutionize the 21st Century, is a fascinating, frightening,
informed, responsible attempt to tell us about our near future. You Can’t Go Home Again
I. Home for Southern Baptists II. A Look at Our Effort to Go Home Again. III. Toward Our True Home, the City of God.
CONCLUSION
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