Evangelization: July 2003 Archives

The mostly black Baptist church in Louisiana that plans to pay white visitors for attending reminds me of the first time I went to a mostly black church.

When I was a catechumen, my sponsor and I visited various congregations' services, and one of them was at a "Jesus-only" United Pentecostal church. The congregation was small, maybe 30 people: just a few extended families, it seemed. During the sermon, the black minister looked down at us amid his flock and said, "You boys: don't think you're saved just because you're white!" We answered, "A-men!" and everyone laughed.

A German scholar of Near Eastern languages proposes a solution to the many incomprehensible passages of the Qu'ran. Since Syriac-Aramaic was the written language of Arabs in Mohammed's time, and written Arabic did not yet exist, Christoph Luxenberg (a pseudonym) re-interprets the existing Qu'ran as a document originally written in Syriac and finds that this approach clarifies puzzling passages.

It took 300 years until the Qu'ran's transcription into Arabic became stable and, as an academic reviewer puts it, one "cannot assume that the earliest Arabian commentators understood correctly the grammar and lexicon of the Arabic of the Qur’ān."

The popular implications of this approach are enormous: some of the most controversial passages in the Arabic Qu'ran are affected by the new interpretations this theory proposes. Would Wahhabi terrorists blow themselves up if they were promised a reward of "raisins" and "juicy fruit" in paradise instead of "72 virgins"?

Even more surprisingly, Luxenberg suggests that Mohammed may have been a Christian describing himself as a "witness to the prophets" rather than the "last of the prophets".

(Thanks to CWN for mentioning the story.)

I was having lunch with a spirit-filled co-worker and we were talking religion. He mentioned that Jesus was the New Adam. I said, "If you say Jesus was the New Adam would you accept that Mary was the New Eve?"

"I don't know what Mary has to do with it," he replies.

"Mary's obedience as the New Eve was instrumental in healing the wound that Eve caused by her disobedience," I said.

"Hmmm."

"Saying Mary is the New Eve doesn't take one bit of glory from God, in fact, it's shows how much of His glory he would share with us by allowing one of us to play such an important role in our redemption. How about that?"

"Hmmm."

(Link via it's a mystery)

A good little article over at shipoffools.com.

I BECAME A CHRISTIAN because of the rapture. When a youth leader told my 12-year-old self that he would "stake his faith on it" that Jesus would soon return preceded by cars and planes crashing as the holy inhabitants were taken to heaven in a flash of light, it was only sensible to agree and take the red pill. It would have been rude to turn down the offer of eternal life for those who agreed, burning flesh for those who didn't.

After this seminal experience, I lived in fear of the future moment when all of us would meet our good Christian friends in the sky (and never asked who would be controlling the air traffic).

Thank God I found a way out.

My wife Teresa is in the cosmetic and fragrance business. One of the products her company makes is a lotion that helps relieve razor burn. Every now and then, she looks at my neck and says, "You still using that Razor Burn Relief? Because right now, you're not a good advertisement for me."

I normally don't think of myself as an advertisement, it seems a little cheap and cheesy. But the business of advertising and sales is alot like evangelization - it's something that can be lost of some of the most sincere Catholics. Every day is an opportunity to meet and have an impact on people that are not living fully in Christ.

I'm writing these tips because I've been running into people who are good, active Catholics but aren't going to get people to buy what they are selling. It's not a holiness issue, it's a communication issue. Here's Tip one:

I got this via an email list this morning.

NOW's annual convention is being held at the Doubletree Crystal City Hotel, located at 300 Army-Navy Drive in Arlington, VA July 11-13. Janet Baker is organizing a picket against their rabidly pro-abortion stand outside the hotel which will be held on Saturday July 12 from 3-5pm. Everyone willl meet down there. Some signs will be provided, but depending on numbers, folks may want to bring their own. (How about Pro-choice is no choice or Pro-choice = Poor choice or some of the website addresses: www.afterabortion.org or www.hopeafterabortion.com or www.lovematters.com ) There is meter parking on the streets (won't have to feed them since it's Saturday). City of Arlington guidelines include: 1) no bullhorns 2) no blocking sidewalk 3) no blocking entrances - none of which they are planning, anyway. Call Janet for more information at (301) 208-9180 or email her at jmbaker@erols.com. Janet would like to have an idea of attendance, so please, if possible, let jer know who's attending.

In last weekend's general assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, fittingly held in Boston and reported in the Globe, some startling language was heard.

I don't mean the common words that punctuate rap records -- no, these words really got the attention of the audience:

[Rev. Victoria Weinstein:] "I'm talking about the hot-button words, like `God' and `spirit' and `spiritual' and `soul' and `sacred'...."

...there was some audible gasping during [UUA president William] Sinkford's opening speech yesterday, when he remarked that 'souls are saved one at a time.'...

Prodded by a new president, a onetime atheist who had a conversion experience in a hospital room, the Unitarian Universalist Association is embarking on a freewheeling debate over whether to reverse its decades-long drift away from what...[the Rev. Mr. Sinkford] calls the ''language of reverence'' and instead begin to ''name the holy.''