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Table of Contents - October 2003
Is Life A Trophy Hunt? At the funeral I conducted last week, a devoted daughter’s eulogy included: “He loved hunting, but he only killed for meat!” She said it twice. In her mind, her father was a true gentleman of Texas—he only killed animals for food, not for fun. I thought of a conversation two years earlier outside of the Methodist Community Church just south of Austin, where I preached for the Baptists every other week. An old-timer, but not a native Texan, shared stories of hunting coons at night, vividly describing how he enjoyed seeing his dogs tree and finally devour the trapped raccoon. I noticed the story seemed only to please the storyteller. Yes, I know that ‘Dan’l
Boone kilt a bear’ and young David slew both lions and bears in Israel, but it
was not for sport, but out of necessity (1 Sam. 17:35). True, the priests in
the Temple in Jerusalem sacrificed animals as an act of worship. But killing
animals for the fun of it is something different from these examples. We’ve Got Mail and Questions Letters From Our Readers
The Book of Revelation and the
Global Conflict in the Middle East The Prayer of Job
When our son totaled our car the other day, my wife and I should have been dismayed. But we weren't. Instead we just looked at each other and smiled . . . knowingly. We knew it was The Prayer of Job coming to pass. Ever since I picked up The Prayer of Job at our local Christian bookstore, our family has been reciting its words almost as a mantra. The small but powerful devotional book is climbing the best-seller lists and transforming lives by re-adjusting people's attitudes toward success and tragedy. Long hidden in an obscure
part of the Bible just before the Psalms (you may have to consult the table of
contents to find it), the Book of Job is a revelation to many churchgoers. The
book is based on statements of Job recorded in Chapter 14: vss. 1, 10, 22: “Man
that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. Man dieth and wasteth
away; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? His flesh upon him shall
have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.”
From Afghanistan to Georgia
Dorothy and Gwen Hennessey, sisters both biologically and as members of Dubuque's Sisters of St. Francis, received the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award last October. The Roman Catholics nuns share company with a distinguished list of other recipients: Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sister Helen Prejean, Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day and many others. The Sisters’ Hennessey also happen to be recent convicts. After being banned from the
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (originally named the School of Americas),
the sisters violated the ban by joining in with more than 5,000 other
demonstrators advocating for the school’s closure. Following a six-month prison
sentence, the sisters have been released and are now being honored with the
award that commemorates Pope John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical letter, Pacem in Terris.
It is in this letter that Pope John invites all people—regardless of particular
faith or nationality—to strive for peace. It has been in the sisters’ active
persistence for ending those things that perpetuate violence that have led them
both to prison and this award. It is precisely such service to what the
sisters’ claim is simply “faithfulness to Christ” that truly renders them, in
the words of Aristotle, “political animals.”
Christian Schools Don’t Always
Practice Values They Preach As a product of Christian schools, it’s obvious to me that U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige has a few things to learn about religious schools and values. I agree with his preference, though poorly stated, for schools with traditional values, strong discipline and high expectations. Had Paige stopped there, he wouldn’t have stirred up a hornet’s nest. But he took it further. “All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith,” Paige said in remarks first reported last week by the Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
He went on: “In a religious environment, the value system is set. That’s not the
case in a public school where there are so many different kids with different
kinds of values.” Dealing with Depression Linda stuck her head in the door. “There’s a lawyer in the waiting room who wants to talk to you. He doesn’t have an appointment.” She handed me his card and went back to the reception desk. Andrew Wilson was with one of the largest law firms in Dallas (not his real name or location). My “international” law practice took me as far as Bastrop, Elgin and Lampassas . . . never Dallas! Attorneys don’t usually show up without an appointment. This was unusual. I walked to the reception room and introduced myself to Wilson. He was about 40 years old, well dressed, with an appropriate lawyer-like appearance. He appeared to be nervous and upset. We sat down in my
office and he apologized for not having an appointment. “I’ve got to talk to
you.” Dealing with Depression Linda stuck her head in the door. “There’s a lawyer in the waiting room who wants to talk to you. He doesn’t have an appointment.” She handed me his card and went back to the reception desk. Andrew Wilson was with one of the largest law firms in Dallas (not his real name or location). My “international” law practice took me as far as Bastrop, Elgin and Lampassas . . . never Dallas! Attorneys don’t usually show up without an appointment. This was unusual. I walked to the reception room and introduced myself to Wilson. He was about 40 years old, well dressed, with an appropriate lawyer-like appearance. He appeared to be nervous and upset. We sat down in my
office and he apologized for not having an appointment. “I’ve got to talk to
you.”
Updated Tuesday, February 03, 2004 |
A TRILOGY ON FREEDOM
SBC Leader Applies Church-Christ
Analogy to Bedroom A Southern Baptist Convention leader says that if a husband reads his Bible enough, then he will have a good sex life. Writing in Unbreakable: The Seven Pillars of a Kingdom Family, Tom Elliff said a Christian man complained to him that “his wife was rejecting his overtures of affection.” “She's always too tired,” Elliff quoted the man. “Or she has a headache or too much to do or too much on her mind at the moment. I don't know what the problem is.” Interpreting the man's
plight, Elliff wrote, “I could tell he was even wondering if he had married the
right woman.” Book Reviews
Trivial Pursuits
For most of my life, I have worked too hard, too long, and too much. I never got much into games. The more the pity. Since retirement, however, I have made it my business to set aside an hour or so after supper almost every single day to spend with Mary Louise, my wonderful wife of 56 years, for playing a rousing game of Scrabble. She enjoys it and so do I. It would be easy for me to feel guilty about this indulgence, to think that it is a foolishness that ought not to be embraced seeing that there is so much stuff that ought to be read, so much stuff that ought to be studied, so much stuff that ought to be cleared off my desk, and so much stuff that ought to be done in the house, around the house, in the garage, and to the yard. I keep playing Scrabble with Mary Louise, though, for I did not give her anywhere near as much time as I ought to have done for the first 40 or 50 years of our married life, and because I have finally found out that too much work and not enough play, as the old saying might be revised to go, “makes Jack a dull old dodder.” Some of my more trivial pursuits come to mind.
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