Oregon Faith Report News Note: A white nationalist group called the Pacifica Forum has been hosting meetings at the University of Oregon which sponsoring the neo-Nazi National Socialists Movement.   Also occurring have been incidences of antisemetism and anti-gay vandalism.

Joseph A. Lieberman of The Jewish Review reports, “..University of Oregon janitors found swastikas spray-painted on a carpet, a computer and a television screen of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Alliance office in the Erb Memorial student union building. This is the same building where in December Jimmy Marr delivered an inflammatory presentation before the Pacifica Forum that sparked weeks of protests, UO policy reviews and student senate confrontations. During that appearance by Marr, a half dozen individuals from Portland and elsewhere in Oregon who were believed to represent the National Socialist Movement shouted “sieg heil” in unison prior to a showing of slides and videos of NSM rallies.

Pacifica member Valdas Anelauskas claimed the LGBTQA swastikas were more likely done by anti-Pacifica Forum student protestors “as a publicity stunt to make it look like a hate crime and falsely blame us.”  Read entire article here.

Eugene has been hit with a rash of fires over the past few days which included multiple times at the Eugene Faith Center.   Police believe they have a suspect who was caught in the act.

KMTR News Reports, “Eugene (KMTR) – After a string of arson fires in west Eugene police have made an arrest.  Eugene officers say a trespasser was at the Eugene Faith Center on West 13th Avenue and arrested Monday night. Two suspicious fires were discovered at the church Monday morning, following a fire on Saturday. Police helped security officers at the church detain Mathew Wayne Rossi, 31, of Eugene.  Police say he was found under a building on the church campus with rolled-up newspapers and several lighters. Police arrested Rossi on charges of first-degree arson, burglary and assault.”  Continue reading.

The phone line, called “Le Fil du Seigneur,” or “The Line of the Lord,” was set up at the start of the Christian fasting period of Lent by a group of Catholics working for a small Paris company that provides telephone messaging services.It doesn’t claim to offer absolution for sins — that’s still left to a priest — but a woman identified by AFP as one of the line’s creator said the idea is to confess minor sins directly to God. The Confederation of French Bishops said the line had not been approved by the Catholic Church in France. Continue reading.

Georgene: Give us just a brief glimpse into the teenage world boys face today and the “code of cruelty”.

Ross: Boys are not quite adults. They are playful one minute, but yet think very deep thoughts and very much moving toward an adult world. So, it’s this mix, this pull that they have to deal with. Let’s talk about the physical stuff they deal with. Men have a secret “Guy Code” that expects them to be rigid—don’t blink, don’t show emotion, never look weak, always be a tough guy, always be in control. Sort of the survival of the fittest with the weak being preyed upon.

Georgene: How can a mom help her son see who he really is and talk about your chapter “father hunger and guy time”?

Ross: In the book we talk about five ways that a mom really influences a teen boy and works out his rough edges. Surprisingly, moms play a big role in busting the myths about what it means to be a man. She can help him turn away from myths such as “a real guy lives in the moment”, and “a real guy hides his emotions”.

One of the most important things we heard from boys was that they hunger for guy time. They want to be with their dad and men in their lives, when they can take off their masks and talk about whatever is on their minds.

Georgene: At this time in their lives a lot is going on hormonally. How can parents pull the plug on angry blowups?

Ross: Three things that parents can do: empathy, trust and consistent connections. Empathy is really understanding your son is a work in progress. The Nat’l Institute of Mental Health says the parts of the brain that handle self-control, judgment, and organization have the greatest changes between adolescence and adulthood than any time in life. Trust is a two-way street. Parents need to set the tone and be consistent, setting the parameters and knowing when to step back.

Georgene: Your book gives great practical insight in how to relate to our sons. You have a chapter I especially love, “Eight things I need you to know about me”. What are some of those things that a teenage boy would want to be known about himself?

Ross: I’m visual. I’d rather experience a lesson than hear one. I have a fragile ego despite my tough exterior. I need to be close to God. I need you to be close and to listen. I yearn for adventure. I need my space. I may not always talk a lot, but I hear you, and especially, I am watching you.

Georgene: You also address topics that are especially troubling to parents. You have a chapter on lust, sex, and dating. What do parents and youth leaders need to know about boys.

Ross: Battling lust is the number one issue, across the board, for teenage boys, no matter the economic level or the part of the country they live in. Fighting thoughts and trying to live a pure life, especially with the abundance of pornography on the internet.

Again, empathy is important. Come along side them and teach them what is right and wrong. Don’t just assume they’ll grow out of it. Arm them with the truth. Bring accountability in their lives and connect them with people they can talk to, such as a pastor or counselor. It’s hard for young guys to sometimes talk about these issues with their parents.

Georgene: Let’s talk about your final chapter “Lost in Space, if a boy rejects Christianity where you encourage parents to think practically.

Ross: You arm the troops. As Christians we are meant to live in community with other people who can come into your teen’s life. Involve the troops.

Ruben Proietti is a 32-year member of the Palau team and one of the most respected Christian leaders in Latin America. He was in Santiago working on the upcoming Chile Festival when the February 27 earthquake hit. This is a condensed account of his report to Luis as he finally made his way out of the country:

March 3, 2010: On the evening of Friday, February 26, we returned to our apartment on the sixth floor in Santiago, Chile. At 3:30 in the morning we were thrown from our bed. The floor was heaving. We didn’t know what was happening. It was accompanied by a deafening noise. My wife says it is impossible to describe what we went through. You had to experience it. And we can tell about it because the powerful hand of the Lord protected us.  The noise was like ten locomotives racing down the rails at full speed, said one survivor. It was horrific. The movement in the apartment was not just of things, but a total displacement of the building. Earthquakes usually last about 30 seconds. This one went on for more than two minutes. It seemed to be endless!

We could do nothing but cry out to God, and the movement gradually ceased. We didn’t know what to do. Walk down six flights of stairs in a building that had moved? There was no light. We could see people congregating below in the parking lot amid cries, shouts and sirens. We decided to go down. We waited throughout the rest of the night, alarmed by the aftershocks and unsure of the stability of the building.

On Saturday evening we went out with the festival coordinator, his wife and two children. The cityscape was ghostly. Everything was closed. There were no people in the streets. We could not get money out of the ATM and there were no gas stations operating.

It is important to note that the Chileans are in denial. They understand nothing. They cannot believe it. The last great earthquake was 25 years ago, so many had never experienced an earthquake.

We finally found a restaurant in the city center where the owner said he had nothing but four steaks left. So we shared them among the six of us.

I spoke with several members of the executive committee of the festival and later with the executive director. There was a general feeling that we could not continue with the meeting on March 2, as all the attention was centered on how many members of the churches in the southern cities were still standing.

The executive director took an offering for provisions in his church and it was sent to the south on Monday. On Tuesday, each bishop left for his churches in the south.

On Sunday we decided to return home, by car, through the shaky mountains. On the way, we had to make some detours because of broken roads, and we crossed bridges that had been tossed about by the earthquake, as well as get through landslides. Santiago was not the epicenter, but there were dramatic consequences in the capital. We safely reached home, by God’s grace, having gone through Mendoza, where many Chileans had fled to escape the consequences of the earthquake.

I have encouraged the leaders of the evangelical church to have a presence in this crisis. They were already dealing with some difficult problems, so it is hard for them to now take the initiative. I encouraged our executive director, Bishop Rivas, to assume the leadership role, and he has done that.

The action of the Salvation Army is noteworthy, as they moved rapidly to help the victims. But, as in Haiti, there are different stages of action. There is the first, crucial moment but later the evangelical churches need to have mid- and long-range goals. Anything the Church can do will be little, but we need to organize and work strategically.

The Luis Palau festival is going to depend very much on how we can obtain the resources needed. It will be possible because all the Body of Christ is united for the preparations for the great battle for souls against the power of Satan.

# # # Give now to bring immediate support and relief to Chile.

A senior at Mississippi Itawamba Agriculture High School has been told that she cannot bring her girlfriend to the upcoming High School prom. The ACLU has sent a letter in protest and threatening a lawsuit.   Supporters of the policy say that schools have a right to make their own rules.  A final or change of decision has yet to be announced for the April 4th dance.

From WXVT News, “ACLU Legal Director Kristy Bennett says school officials told McMillen she couldn’t arrive with her date and might be asked to leave if others complain about their presence. The ACLU says the school also wouldn’t let McMillen wear a tuxedo. District Superintendent Teresa McNeece didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. In its letter, the ACLU says the school’s decisions violates the student’s constitutional rights.”

From One News Now:  “Mat Staver, founder of Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, says school districts have the right to set policies for events such as the prom. “Obviously individuals can come alone; they could even come with a friend,” says the attorney. “But when it becomes more sexual, as it relates to a prom — and [when] it becomes same sex — I think the school has the legitimate right, particularly within the law, that allows it to define the kind of event that it is going to sponsor.”

Alice in Wonderland—Very loosely inspired by, but not recklessly departing from, Lewis Carroll’s famous books, this 3-D fantasy-adventure mixes animation and live action as it follows its plucky Victorian heroine (Mia Wasikowska) — here a 19-year-old — down the rabbit hole into a strange, nonsensical realm where she conspires with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and various frazzled fauna to end the despotic rule of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). Although younger viewers will be frightened by certain sequences, director Tim Burton refrains from indulging in the more macabre or avant-garde aspects of the tale; and yet, while it conveys a salubrious message with vaguely Christian echoes, the film’s aesthetic impact is lessened by the lack of a coherent visual style. Sequences of fantasy action and violence, including a skewered animal eyeball, human characters striking one another; images of mild animal cruelty, some discussion of beheadings, a character smoking a water pipe and one instance of light profanity.  A-II — adults and adolescents. (PG) 2010. Full Film Review of Alice in Wonderland here.

Cop Out—This vulgar buddy comedy follows two unconventional New York police detectives (Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan) as they try to recover the valuable baseball card Willis’ character was planning to sell to finance his daughter’s wedding but which was stolen by a petty thief (Seann William Scott), and passed on to a memorabilia-obsessed drug lord (Guillermo Diaz). As penned by Robb and Mark Cullen and directed by Kevin Smith, foul-mouthed dialogue and bullet-riddled action sequences drown out the mostly smile-free script’s faint messages about marital trust and self-sacrificing parental love. Considerable, sometimes gory, action violence; a scene of torture; pervasive rough and crude language; about a dozen uses of profanity; and much sexual and scatological humor.  O — morally offensive. (R) 2010.  For Full Review of the movie Cop-Out click here.

The Academy Awards are just hours away and it is too bad that many of the movies up for Best Picture provide such poor role models in the view of both religion and sexuality.

On religion, the film “A Serious Man” delves into Jewish philosophy by offering up diatribes of painful nothingness and then decides to make the climax of the movie about a teen who tries to get through his bar mitzvah while stoned.  Avatar jumps into the environmental spirituality arena. It approaches the historic debate over the balance between man and nature by overloading the scales.   Man (as represented by business, the military and America) is portrayed as recklessly and pervasively evil while nature is seen as a holy shrine where even the smallest of animals and plants are sacred.   Avatar seemed way too preachy and unbalanced for my taste.

On sexuality, human sexual relationships are tossed around like trash.   In, Up in the Air, a wife flies around the country having an affair, the main character is portrayed as a frequent flyer philanderer, and a husband character bows out of his wedding at the last minute because he is basically unexcited.   In An Education we have an older man pressing sex with a teenage girl.   In a Serious Man, the wife leaves her husband like she was changing her hair color and the husband has sex with the neighbor on a whim.  In Avatar, the leading lady falls for a guy who forgets to tell her up to the very last day that his people are going to destroy their world.   Her people are almost entirely wiped out and she takes him back.  District 9 features an alien prostitutes, and the list goes on.

There are quality movies up for Best Picture, but the often repetition of the same bad religion and sexual themes is a rut Hollywood needs to get out of.

This entry is a sort of preface to a series I’ll be beginning next week:  My Unabashedly Biased Top Ten Spiritually Significant Films of the Past Two Decades.  While I was writing about the first film on the list, the video (at the bottom of the post) of Mark Driscoll’s comments on “Avatar” during a sermon came to my attention.  Instead of spending much time criticizing it, I’ll just present it below and add that, based on Driscoll’s criteria for accusing “Avatar” of being demonic, “The Lord of the Rings” series should be seen as an equally pagan, modernist-industry bashing movie that hooked audiences through special effects.  Hopefully the absurdity here is evident.

Though he may not appreciate the category, Mark Driscoll is, here at least, a poignant example of someone who is taking a “Worldview Approach” to cultural engagement.  He sees the world as a battleground between competing worldviews.  One convinces another to become a Christian by pointing out the flaws in their worldview and demonstrating the reasonableness of their own.  Part of a pastor’s job is to attack worldviews that may be influencing his flock.

Another typical evangelical method of engaging culture is known as the “Market-Driven Approach,” or also the “attractional model.”  In this method, one sees what is culturally popular and attempts to use that as bait to draw people in.  For example, there is (was?) a church in Chicago that regularly has a raffle for cash prizes (with the “Price is Right” music playing in the background, nonetheless) during services in order to attract people to attend their church.  There’s nothing more popular than money, and as long as it gets people in the door…

The last method I wish to highlight is what New Wine tries to espouse, however unsuccessfully, the “Incarnational Approach.”  The Incarnational Approach (also known as missional), looks to build relationships in the community.  While hopefully also showing the reasonableness and attractiveness of the faith, one simply loves other people in word (and so verbal evangelism is not left behind) and in deed.  Despite the fact that this seems to more closely resemble Jesus’ and the apostles’ ministry, people are rarely argued into a different position anyway (especially emotionally laden beliefs like religion or politics), and rarely stick around when the “raffle” is over.

I hope the following series will be an imperfect example of how the church can engage the arts, and specifically films, in an incarnational way.  I hope it shows how each of these films get at profound questions that the gospel is dying to answer.

To our great sorrow, we have learned that Matthew Bouthillier, a Medical Teams International volunteer, died March 1 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

“We are shocked and saddened beyond words at this enormous loss,” said Bas Vanderzalm, president of Medical Teams International, who recently returned from Haiti. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Matt’s wife, Melissa, and his family, as well as our team in Haiti.” Matt, 36, served as an emergency-room nurse at Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah, Wash. He had been treating earthquake survivors on a Medical Teams International mission in Haiti since February 20. Matt was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest at the University of Miami field hospital in Port-au-Prince.

Bill Essig, vice president of international programs for Medical Teams International, and Steve Brodehl, chaplain for Hillsboro Fire and Rescue, left immediately for Port-au-Prince to assist staff and volunteers in Haiti.

Please join us in praying for Matt’s family and our team in Haiti at this most difficult time.

PLAINS, Ga. (RNS) With its aging storefronts and small train depot, its graceful pecan trees and clipped fields of peanuts, cottons and hay, peace still seems possible in this tiny town.  And nowhere is that peace protected more fiercely than at Maranatha Baptist Church, where former President Jimmy Carter teaches adult Sunday school class two or three Sundays of every month.  Jan Williams, who taught Amy Carter when she was in fourth grade, is the head peacekeeper at the simple country church set in a grove of pecan trees. At 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, Williams—known universally as “Miss Jan”—steps out the church’s front doors and encounters a line of visitors already forming.  “Are you a member of the Secret Service?” a woman in the line asked, noting the men wearing earpieces who stepped out behind her.

“No, I’m Jan Williams. I’m in charge,” Williams said. “They say I’m too dangerous to carry a loaded gun.”

Even though Carter left office 30 years ago, security remains tight at the church, which is open to anyone who wants to come to Sunday school. But first they have to get past Miss Jan and the Secret Service.

(BEGIN FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

A civilian Marine and a bomb-sniffing dog check each vehicle. Secret Service agents comb the church, sometimes checking each hymnal in the pews. Everyone who comes in, including regular members and Williams herself, is stopped as their pockets and purses are checked with a metal-detecting wand.

(END FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

Williams was one of the Maranatha members to realize early on that if they were going to continue to enjoy Carter’s Bible-based teaching, and also keep their church open to visitors, there would have to have some rules.

“It was a circus,” Williams said. “People were standing up to take pictures. They were talking. It was not worship; it was entertainment. We had members going home because there was not room to sit.”

That’s when Williams took charge.

“My church maybe will have the one-time witness to someone who has never had the opportunity to hear the gospel,” Williams said. “For many, it is the first time they have ever been to church or to a Christian service.”

The line moves inside, guided by other members, including Williams’ husband, George, who hands out bulletins. Six visitors are seated on each row in the center section of pews; portions of the side pews are reserved for members.

Williams walks the conglomeration of visitors from around the world through the steps. She practices how Carter would ask where they were from and orchestrates as each section called out: China, Korea, Denmark, Brazil, and every state, it seemed, from Alabama to Wyoming.

Williams shows off the mahogany offering plates, and the new wooden cross hanging behind the choir loft, both of which Carter turned in his own shop. She walks through the process of staying after church if you want a picture with the Carters.

“Whatever you do, do not attempt to shake his hand unless he extends his first,” Williams said. “People, he’s 85 years old. How do you think germs are passed?”

Williams pauses in her list, lowering her gaze.

“Do not think that you can leave this church after Sunday school, go on down to Mom’s Kitchen to eat and then attempt to jump back into my picture line after church.”

Also on Miss Jan’s list of rules: “Whatever you do, do not applaud when he walks in or after the lesson,” Williams says. “He hates that. The kind of applause President Carter wants from you is that when you leave here, you will go out and live the Christian life.”

And that, in many ways, is what animates this small rural church. Founded in the 1970s with 29 members who split from Plains Baptist Church, Maranatha never expected to be huge; membership is now at about 130, with about 40 members coming each week.

But as long as Carter’s here—and hopefully, they say, even after that—the church’s outreach will arrive, quite literally, at Maranatha’s front door.

“This is one church that does missions without having to go anywhere,” says pastor Jeffery Summers, 36, who’s led the congregations for five years.

Williams closes her briefing with prayer for the guests, those in the military, and thanks God “for the man who comes to give a lesson to us today.”

Carter, who entered quietly during her prayer, is suddenly standing by the podium at one side, checking his microphone. On cue, he asks, already knowing the answer, “Do we have any visitors?”

Carter braces as cameras are raised in what Miss Jan had said would be the only photo opportunity in the church. Violators would have their cameras confiscated and turned over to the Secret Service.

As the cameras are put away and the Sunday school quarterlies opened, Carter becomes much more comfortable. And he should be: he’s been teaching regularly since he was 18. The text was from the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus calls Matthew, a despised publican, as his disciple.

“Jesus taught that what is most important is the love—of whom? Of people who are not lovely. Of people who didn’t love him back, necessarily,” Carter says.

“Jesus picked out the scum of the earth as an example of a person who had the proper relationship with God. He came to show that all people are equal in the eyes of God.”

Carter pauses and looks at the crowd.

“I think that’s a very disturbing lesson. If you’re a Republican, it’s hard to believe that a Democrat is equal,” he says in the only political references he made. “And I know from experience that if you’re a Democrat….”

The chuckles from the congregation complete his sentence.

Carter teaches for about 50 minutes before the organist begins a prelude of lively hymns. “You will sit down and be quiet,” Miss Jan warns, and then moves to the piano for the opening hymns. Carter takes a seat in a side pew with Rosalynn, who is on the list to provide flowers for the sanctuary May 30. A Secret Service agent stands quietly at the end of their pew.

Miss Jan and other members know their church functions as merely a tourist attraction for some guests, but also as a pilgrimage site of sorts for others. Why people come isn’t their problem, she said. Their mission is to do what they can to serve them once the Secret Service lets them in the door.

“People sometimes come looking for one thing—to see a former president and first lady in person—but when they leave, they leave with so much more,” Williams said after the service. “It is just such a blessing to provide this service to people.”

(Kay Campbell writes for The Huntsville Times in Huntsville, Ala.)

NEWBERG, Ore. – Holocaust survivor Ursula Bacon will visit George Fox University on Wednesday, March 3, to tell of her experiences of fleeing Nazi Germany. Bacon will speak at 7 p.m. in Room 103 of the university’s Hoover Academic Building. The public is invited to attend at no charge.

Bacon fled Nazi Germany with her parents in 1939 and landed in Shanghai, China, along with more than 18,000 other Middle European Jews. The family spent most of the war years in a Japanese-controlled “designated area,” often referred to as the “Shanghai Ghetto.” She came to the United States in 1947.

She has written a book about her experiences, Shanghai Diary, A Young Girl’s Journey from Hitler’s Hate to War-torn China.

Ursula Quote: “Germany, February 1918: In the coming months the Great War would come to an end. People dared to think about the future. Irene Burger and Martin Blomberg found each other against all odds as the war ended, and although her rigidly orthodox Jewish parents objected, they were married. Irene, the daughter of an innkeeper, and Martin, a soldier stationed at an nearby garrison, shared a few idyllic years together, but their joy would be short-lived, as the embers of anti-Semetic hate were being stoked even then by Adolf Hitler and the machine he would raise into the Nazi Party, fanned into a flames that would erupt and consume Europe and virtually all who would stand in its way in an inferno of pain and misery. As the horrors of World War II loomed on the horizon, Irene and Martin, two people like millions of others, would be forced to wander, and struggle to stay together, eternal strangers in search of a safe haven to call home.”

For more information, contact Clint Baldwin, director of the university’s Center for Peace and Justice, at cbaldwin@georgefox.edu or history professor Caitlin Corning at ccorning@georgefox.edu.

George Fox University is ranked by Forbes as one of the top 100 colleges in the country and highest among Christian colleges. George Fox is the only Christian university in the Pacific Northwest classified by U.S. News & World Report as a national university. More than 3,300 students attend classes on the university’s campus in Newberg, Ore., and at teaching centers in Portland, Salem, and Redmond, Ore., and Boise, Idaho. George Fox offers bachelor’s degrees in more than 40 majors, degree-completion programs for working adults, five seminary degrees, and 12 master’s and doctoral degrees.

An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era. If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C. That’s a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible’s account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

…Speaking to reporters at the site Monday, Mazar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called her find “the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel.”"It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction,” she said.”

Read the whole article here.

An international epic will explain the Buddhist concepts behind Tiger Woods’ apology. It will also view recent headlines by Michael Jackson, Roman Polanksi and our soldiers through the laws of Karma.

Beverly Hills, California—February 26, 2010—As the world analyzes Tiger Woods’ apology, the international epic “Karma: The New Revolution” will explain the Buddhist approach to Atonement and Redemption that will play an important role in his comeback. Filmed in over a dozen countries—from the Louvre Museum in Paris to the Sal forests where the Buddha taught in India—the film will combine the teachings of the Buddha, Bhagavad-Gita, Upanishads, Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda as well as some of the greatest Western philosophers including Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, Bertrand Russell, Mark Twain, Carl Sagan, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Voltaire and the like.

The film’s Presenter and one of the only Buddhist-Brahmins in the West, Acharya Zen elaborates, “One of the most powerful stories of redemption in any religion is the inspirational saga of Angulimala who overcame a life full of depravity to become one of the Buddha’s best-known disciples. In fact his lesson is highlighted in Verse 173 of the Dhammapadas where the Buddha states that ‘a person who makes amends for the wrong he has done can light up the world like the moon merging from the clouds.’ This suggests that Tiger Woods has a real opportunity to become an even bigger inspiration by proving that a true role model is not one who never makes mistakes; but one who always makes amends.”

Acharya Zen adds “The Buddhist Path is based on Shakymuni’s last words “Appo Deepo Bhava” or “Be a lamp unto Yourself.” Tiger Woods referred to this by admitting that he was examining himself in a manner he has never done before. The 4 Noble truths at the heart of Buddhism also teach us that Tanha and Trishna (Craving and Thirst) always lead to Dukka (dissatisfaction, stress and eventually sorrow). The Dharmic Law of Detachment can thus cushion the Law of Attraction by cultivating contentment and continence over constant craving. The Upanishads refer to this as choosing Shreyas (self-discipline) over Preyas (self-indulgence).”

The film will also feature powerful real-life examples of diverse Westerners who have used these concepts to overcome unfathomable odds from escaping a war-torn refugee camp to battling cancer. It will also discuss these principles in the context of present-day events from the War on Terror and the death of Michael Jackson to the arrests of O.J. Simpson and Roman Polanksi.

“Karma: The New Revolution” will be available on Blue-Ray, DVD and iPhone formats in March and more information is available at www.rightkarma.net.

Acharya Zen is one of the only Buddhist Brahmins from the same distinguished lineage that authored and maintained most of the Buddhist and Hindu scriptures over the centuries. He can be visited at AcharyaZen.com and AcharyaZen.org.

Do you believe God created the earth in six literal 24-hour days?

First let me say that many sincere people believe in the Bible and also believe in an old earth. They do this via the gap theory or day age theory or some other means of interpretation.

Secondly, let me say that I am not certain about the age of the universe, the age of the earth, or when the first humans walked the earth. I have read very persuasive scientific arguments for an old earth, and have read some counterarguments that may have merit. I don’t feel qualified scientifically to make the judgment.

But when I am asked what Genesis appears to be saying, it is not so vague. To me it just seems so difficult to find other positions in Genesis 1, other than the literal 24-hour days position, without importing them. Hard to see them there to export! I have read widely the Intelligent Design material and I like it. I believe it certainly serves a good purpose, but its assumption of the old universe may not be valid.

I get concerned when we accept as givens premises that seem out of tune with Scripture. Yet I also recognize people’s genuine concerns about the extreme apparent age of the earth. So I respect friends who hold to the gap theory and day age and the variants, and appreciate their insistence on inspiration. But when I listen to the proponents of these theories, I’m still left feeling it’s obvious that no one would ever have come up with such interpretations except to solve a problem. And how many problems of one era of history disappeared on their own, only to leave believers with a strange biblical interpretation the text doesn’t and never did support?

I particularly cringe when I hear evangelicals view Genesis 1-11 as poetry or allegory and talk about God using macroevolution to “create” the first man and woman, which is basically “stick a soul in a sufficiently evolved primate.” What are the implications of Jesus and his obvious belief in the first man and woman, and Paul’s explanation that we all sinned in Adam? If God created Eve out of Adam, then that is an explicit disproof of God choosing two primates to honor as the “first man and first woman.”

If Paul was wrong, then so much for inspiration. If Jesus was wrong, so much for salvation. Yet, I know evangelicals, including some bestselling authors and prominent influencers—who though they avoid saying these things publicly—nonetheless, believe them privately, or at least consider then viable positions. But without the biblical doctrine of creation, there is no doctrine of redemption.

Speaking of this subject, I’m presently leading a group of mostly younger men in a study of creation, using two books: Schaeffer’s Genesis in Space and Time and Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator, which contains interviews with a number of the major Intelligent Design proponents (and assumes an old earth, not a young one). They’re both great books, which I would encourage you to pick up from your local Christian bookstore.

By Randy Alcorn
Eternal Perspectives Ministries
Sandy Oregon

GEORGENE: Years had passed since the World Trade Center was first bombed in 1993. I think everyone was surprised because they thought our government had it under control. Then 9-11 happened.

McCARTHY: It was an interesting evolution for me. I had no familiarity with Islam and Islamic motivated terrorism before the ’93 bombing. I wanted to believe all the admirable things that were said about Islam. I believed when the government said it was important in terms of our reputation in the world that we show the civility through our legal system of how we treat our enemies in contrast to how they treat us.  Going through a trial like that showed me the naivete’ of that thinking. By ’98 we should have known it was something far bigger than we thought in the beginning.  And the criminal justice system was not an adequate way of dealing with the challenge we were up against.  After 9-11 no one sat behind a table and said, “Was this a war or a crime”.

GEORGENE: When would you say the “War on Terror” in this country first began and should have thought more critically about what we were facing.

McCARTHY: I’m comfortable in calling the ’93 bombing radical Islam’s Declaration of War against the United States because it took things to a different level. That bombing was their way of saying, “We can hit you in your own back yard in the beating heart of your financial center”. It is a much missed point that radical Islam has a big problem with capitalism. Hitting the financial capital of the West was a big deal to them and why they came back and hit it a second time.

GEORGENE: The title of the book, Willful Blindness, makes the point that there are things our government consciously fails to do that makes us vulnerable.

McCARTHY: At the time ’93 happened we didn’t know who had attacked us when we started taking people into custody, so I don’t know that we would have ever treated it as an act of war and who to declare war against. In the ’93 bombing only six adults were killed so it may not have been considered a crime rather than an act of war. But, in the trial we exposed that the place they set the bomb and the use of cyanide in hopes of aerating in the explosion was intended to reach out to kill tens of thousands of people. That they killed only six which was a miracle. By 9-11 the trend was apparent and we should have known that it we were up against much more than a crime wave.

We continue to look at the religion of radical Islam in mainstream terms. Rather than terrorism we are referring to it as violent extremism. The Christmas bomber was instantly called an isolated extremist. This came just weeks after Fort Hood which no one wanted to acknowledge as a terrorist attack, yet he killed twice as many people than those at the ’93 bombing.

The first rule of warfare is to know your enemy. If you won’t even acknowledge who your enemy is and what motivates him, you don’t have a prayer of stopping what he’ll do next. But religion, and particularly radical Islam has become such a third rail for us we refuse to acknowledge it.

GEORGENE: How do the terrorists view our failure to acknowledge them? What difference would it make for us to recognize this war.

McCARTHY: If they drop bombs and we hit them with subpoenas and indictments, as Osama Bin Laden said, they see us as the weak horse and they are the strong horse. There is a reason we haven’t had a reprise of 9-11. We were willing to treat it as a war. Appreciating the problem and dealing with it in military actions and the justice department as a subordinate, rather than the other way around, lessens the chance of further attacks being carried out. Dead and captured terrorists don’t blow things up.

Percent unaffiliated with religion by generation

Washington, D.C. - By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans, according to a new report released by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Fully one-in-four are unaffiliated with any particular faith. The report is part of a Pew Research Center series exploring the behaviors, values and opinions of the teens and 20-somethings that make up the Millennial Generation.

“Religion Among the Millennials,” based on data from a variety of sources including Pew Research Center surveys, explores the degree to which the religious characteristics and social views of young adults differ from those of older people today, as well as how Millennials compare with previous generations when they were about the same age. According to survey findings, Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated than members of Generation X were at a comparable point in their life cycle and twice as unaffiliated as Baby Boomers were as young adults. Young adults today also attend religious services less often than older Americans. And compared with their elders today, fewer young people say that religion is very important in their lives.

However, on some other measures of religious belief and practice, members of the Millennial Generation are not so clearly different from previous generations. For example, young adults’ beliefs about life after death and the existence of heaven, hell and miracles closely resemble the beliefs of older people today. The percentage of young adults who say they pray every day rivals the portion of young people who said the same in prior decades. Millennials also say they believe in God with absolute certainty at rates similar to those seen among Gen Xers a decade ago.

Key findings include:

* Compared with their elders today, young people are much less likely to affiliate with any religious tradition or to identify themselves as part of a Christian denomination. Fully one-in-four adults under age 30 are unaffiliated.

* One-third of those under age 30 say they attend worship services every week, compared with 41% of adults 30 and older.

* Fewer than half of adults under age 30 say that religion is very important in their lives (45%), compared with almost six-in-ten adults 30 and older (59%).

* Sixty-four percent of young adults say they are absolutely certain of God’s existence, compared with 73% of those 30 and older.

* Adults under age 30 are just as likely as older adults to believe in life after death (75% vs. 74%), heaven (74% each), hell (62% vs. 59%) and miracles (78% vs. 79%).

* Nearly three-quarters of affiliated young adults (74%) say there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their faith, compared with 67% of affiliated adults 30 and older.

The report, including a summary of findings, is available online.

The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life conducts surveys, demographic analyses and other social science research on important aspects of religion and public life in the U.S. and around the world. As part of the Washington-based Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy organization, the Pew Forum does not take positions on any of the issues it covers or on policy debates. Funding for the Pew Forum is provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Shutter Island—Prolix psychological thriller set in 1954 follows a U.S. marshal (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) to a storm-swept island in Boston Harbor on which an asylum for the criminally insane becomes the venue for elaborately staged hysterics borne of trauma and guilt. Adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel, the picture amounts to a genre exercise for director Martin Scorsese, and affords DiCaprio and other respectable actors the chance to declaim excessively coarse dialogue in service of an overblown mystery. Pervasive rough, crude and crass language; frequent profanity; a number of sexual references and discussions of violent acts; many potentially disturbing images of corpses in a concentration camp setting and in connection with an act of infanticide; a number of fairly graphic episodes of gun violence; and an instance of partially obscured frontal male nudity.  O — morally offensive. (R) 2010
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