Kevin DeYoung on Patriotism and the Church

There are approximately 25 nationalities in the church where I'm an elder. Every Friday (we worship in a Muslim country) is a little vision of Revelation chapter 7:9-12.

Last year there was a young man from the US who was doing a semester internship in Dubai and attending out church. He had never had an extended experience outside the US and God was teaching him some important things about his heart for the ALL the nations.

One Friday after the service he said, "It's amazing to experience this church... You don't pray for the troops (like my church back home). But if you did, who's troops would you pray for?!"

Along that theme, Kevin DeYoung, a US pastor, author, and blogger writes on Memorial Day celebrations and the church...

We (Americans) should pray for service men and women in our congregations. We should pray for the President. We should pray for the just cause to triumph over the evil one. We are not moral relativists. We do not believe just because all people are sinners and all nations are sinful that no person or no nation can be more righteous or more wicked than another. God may be on America’s side in some (not all) her endeavors.

But please think twice before putting on a Star Spangled gala in church this Sunday. I love to hear the national anthem and “God Bless America” and “My Country, Tis of Thee,” but not in church where the nations gather to worship the King of all peoples. I love to see the presentation of colors and salute our veterans, but these would be better at the Memorial Day parade or during a time of remembrance at the cemetery. Earthly worship should reflect the on-going worship in heaven. And while there are many Americans singing glorious songs to Jesus there, they are not singing songs about the glories of America. We must hold to the traditions of the Apostles in our worship, not the traditions of American history. The church should not ask of her people what is not required in Scripture. So how can we ask the Koreans and Chinese and Mexicans and South Africans in our churches to pledge allegiance to a flag that is not theirs? Are we gathered under the banner of Christ or another banner? Is the church of Jesus Christ–our Jewish Lord and Savior–for those draped in the red, white, and blue or for those washed in the blood of the Lamb?

In some parts of the church, every hint of patriotism makes you a jingoistic idolater. You are allowed to love every country except your own. But in other parts of the church, true religion blends too comfortably into civil religion. You are allowed to worship in our services as long as you love America as much as we do. I don’t claim to have arrived at the golden mean, but I imagine many churches could stand to think more carefully about their theology of God and country. Churches should be glad to have their members celebrate Memorial Day with gusto this Monday. We should be less sanguine about celebrating it with pomp and circumstance on Sunday.

You can read the rest of his post here.

(ht: Justin Taylor)

A Christian's View of Osama's Death - Part 2 (Thankful)

As our dinner conversation continued I interjected, "As much as I'm sad that he was not a Christian before his death, I'm also thankful upon hearing this news".

"Why thankful Dad?"

I'm thankful because the Bible teaches that God has put governments and earthly powers in place to restrain evil and even punish evil, at least in an 'earth-bound' sense. God even uses governments and leaders who do not believe in him and do not submit to his law or believe his gospel.

Osama bin Laden was a man who ordered the murder of thousands of people. I believe it was right to order that he be hunted down and stopped. That is the role of the state, as fallible and imperfect as it is.

But I don't think that my thankfulness should turn to jubilation or celebration. That implies vengeance and that is not something that Christians are to take on (Rom 12:19). As thankful as I am for this event, the scenes of partying, flag waving, and raucous singing of songs like "We Are the Champions" seems grossly inappropriate for Christians because even God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek 18:23).

These two feelings, sadness and thankfulness, remind me of the two Kingdoms of which I'm a part. First I'm a part of the heavenly Kingdom because of faith in Christ. My citizenship is ultimately in heaven. This is my most important citizenship (Phil 3:20) and my desire to see all men come to a saving knowledge of Jesus is the sentiment that brings sadness at Osama's death.

But I'm also a citizen of an earthly Kingdom; the United States. And I'm commanded by God to obey the authorities over me in this Kingdom as well, in as much as they don't force me to disobey God. So I'm glad when the government restrains and punishes evil as God has intended it to do. (Incidentally, I'm also a resident of the United Arab Emirates and I see it as my duty before God to obey their laws and be subject to their government as well, in as much as they don't command me to refrain from doing something that God has commanded me to do).

The goal of the people in the first Kingdom, local churches, is to spread the knowledge of God and his Gospel (see Matt 28 again). And a major goal of the second Kingdom, the State, is to uphold earthly justice, restrain and punish evil (1 Peter 2:14). It's the proper role of militaries to defend, protect, and restrain evil but the role of the church in the world is take the Gospel to the nations.

And so you and I live with a cross section of responsibilities and citizenships, both "in the world but not of the world". That's how I can be both sad and thankful for Osama's death.

Note: Some of you have commented on what it means to "love your neigbor" if your neighbor was Osama bin Laden. I would hope you would share the gospel with him (if possible). Or at least wouldn't you want the gospel shared with any jihadist? One popular account these days is of the conversion of son of a Hamas leader. What if no one had shared the gospel with him? And I would hope too that you would pray that any murderer would be caught and punished for his actions. Loving people doesn't mean we let them do whatever they want to do, but it doesn't include withholding the message of hope from them either.

A Christian's View of Osama's Death - Part 1 (Sad)

We finished thanking God for our dinner and then began eating.

"So Osama bin Laden was shot and killed yesterday. There are pictures all over the internet of cheering Americans waving flags celebrating. What do you think a Christian should think about his death? How should we think about this event in a Christian way?"

"We should be sad because he wasn't a Christian" piped up Emma, my youngest and only not-yet-a-teenager.

As much as I'm glad that a mass murderer has met with justice (more on that in another post) I agreed with her. To think about the world from a Christian perspective means to think about it from a Gospel perspective. And anyone who has not repented and believed in Christ still has the condemnation of God to face. (John 3:18) That's true for him and it's true for everyone else as well. It's why we share the Gospel with everyone and anyone. (Matt 28:18-20/Acts 4:12) Because the gospel message is the only thing capable of removing the condemnation of God from us and making us adopted sons and daughters of the King.

In the 2 Chronicles 33 there is a story of King Manasseh. If ever there was a despicable human being it was him. Charged with leading the nation of Israel in the ways of God, he did the exact opposite. He led Israel away from God. Injustice, murder, immorality, and idol worship all grew during his reign. And as if to characterize his evil reign with one sentence, it says he sacrificed his own children on the altar of foreign gods. (2 Chronicles 33:6) He literally put his children to death in a selfish attempt to gain favor with the foreign gods of the nations around them.

So God brought other nations to conquer Israel in judgment. And Manasseh was led away in chains and thrown into the prison of his captors. That seems just doesn't it?

But God is so rich in mercy that he moved in Masasseh's heart to truly and deeply repent of his sin. Sitting in that dungeon was the mercy of God to awaken him to his own wretchedness. He truly and deeply repented. And God forgave him.

Not only that but God eventually had him rescued from prison and restored to the throne in Jerusalem.

Now that's amazing grace.

If God can forgive Manasseh then there is hope for everyone else on the planet. People like Osama bin Laden and even me.

Dubai Muslim Christian Dialogue - Raw Audio

The following is the 3+ hour audio of the recent Muslim-Christian Dialogue held in Dubai on March 6, 2011. The event featured Thabiti Anyabwile and Bassam Zawadi as speakers. Video is being currently produced and will be available in April.

http://www.mediafire.com/?83g6artz4tsp1p9

Great Quote: The Aim of Music

The aim and final end of all music should be none other
than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed
is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical
bawling and twanging.
   
... J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Great Quote: The Limits of Logic

Every logical position ... will eventually lead into
trouble, and heresy, and chaos. Every logical position is fully
consistent, but coherence arises from the human mind, not
God's. The human mind is finite and cannot grasp eternity, and
therefore the finite mind sees the infinite as not graspable
coherently. If we could grasp it all coherently, without
contradiction, we would be God. The person who insists on being
logical to the end winds up in a mess. I am not saying that we
should not be rational. I am not anti-intellectual. I am saying
that the intellect by itself is helpless to arrive at total
truth.
   
... Kenneth L. Pike (1912-2001), Stir, Change, Create, p.
         44

History and Doctrine - J. Gresham Machen

"From the beginning, the Christian gospel, as indeed the name "gospel" or "good news" implies, consisted in an account of something that had happened. And from the beginning, the meaning of the happening was set forth; and when the meaning of the happening was set forth, then there was Christian doctrine. "Christ died"-that is history; "Christ died for our sins"-that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluable union, there is no Christianity.

It is perfectly clear, then, that the first Christian missionaries did not simply come forward with an exhortation; they did not say: "Jesus of Nazareth lived a wonderful life of filial piety, and we call upon you our hearers to yield yourselves, as we have done, to the spell of that life." Certainly that is what modern historians would have expected the first Christian missionaries to say, but it must be recognized that as a matter of fact they said nothing of the kind.

...The great weapon with which the disciples of Jesus set out to conquer the world was not a mere comprehension of eternal principles; it was an historical message, an account of something that had recently happened; it was the message, "He is risen." The world was to be redeemed by the proclamation of this event. And with the event went the meaning of the event; and the setting forth of the event with the meaning of the event was doctrine. These two elements are always combined in the Christian message. The narration of the facts is history, the narration of the facts with the meaning of the facts is doctrine. Such was the Christianity of the primitive church."

(Taken from J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism [Eerdmans, 1923], pp. 27-29)

On C.H. Dodd's Influence in the Revised Standard Version

For all you Christian theology buffs...

There's an interesting quote in the first chapter of the book "Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution".  It sheds some light on a bible translation that I've used often in the past.

"In the mid-twentieth century, the case against penal substitution was articulated most strongly by the Biblical scholar C. H. Dodd... his understanding of (texts referring to propitiation) was also reflected in the Revised Standard Version, produced in 1946."

This makes me want to go back and read some important passages in the RSV.  Passages like Romans 3:25, 1 John 2:2, and 1 John 4:10.

Sermon on Luke 7:1-10; The Centurion with the Greatest Faith

My latest sermon on Luke 7:1-10.

Evangelism and Social Justice

I recently read a 2009 Christianity Today editorial with which, for the most part, I really agreed.  It is entitled "The Greatest Social Need".  Here is a quote to help you know what it's about.

The greatest social need in the world today is not HIV/AIDS outreach. It's not hunger. It's not global warming. Not ending poverty or eliminating malaria or tuberculosis. Not clean water. Not racial reconciliation. Not sexual trafficking. Not abortion. And it's not peace in the Middle East, and not even world peace... That social problem is alienation from God.

I posted this article on my facebook page and it drew an interesting response from one young woman.  Here is her response.

She says, "strange, i've noticed the opposite. christians who evangelize to the poor without addressing any of their needs (except perhaps to put a band-aid on their problems by throwing money at them or going on a week or two trip). seems that there should be a balance between addressing both the physical and spiritual needs of a person. we do not fully know the gospel if we preach to the suffering, but leave them in it. we "do violence to the poor" by giving them a gospel that we do not live out."

I've written a response to her here.  Read it and tell me what you think.  It's a pressing issue in Evangelicalism today.

Let me address your comment and the article. The article argues that the spiritual problem of alienation from God is the biggest problem the world faces. Genesis chapter 3 (and onward) makes this clear. All other problems stem from sin and death being loosed into the world. And if you believe what Jesus and his apostles taught then you know that dying without coming into a saving relationship with Christ leaves people separated from God and eternally condemned. This is a terrible fate.

These days, the pressure from those outside our faith (and from many inside now) is to basically abandon sharing the Gospel with people and to emphasize things like eradicating hunger, disease, and things like sexual trafficking. These are all terrible things of course. All stemming from Genesis 3.

The article doesn't say that Christians should not help those in physical need. In fact, those who are truly regenerated by God through the Gospel and who understand the implications of the Gospel for their lives will begin to work for these issues of social justice but they continue to understand the proclamation of the gospel is the greatest pressing need of the people on our planet.

So why are there lots of people who are rich and go to church and do nothing in the way of physically loving their neighbor? I think that's what is bothering you. My opinion is that there are many who are not truly regenerated; they are not really Christians. The other problem is that they are not being taught well and discipled in the implications of the Gospel for their lives.

But the answer for both these categories of people is not to just demand that they begin to feed to the poor. That is what seems to be happening in evangelicalism. The drumbeat is to focus on social action. But in doing this many of these people are left unconverted and undiscipled with no real knowledge of the very Gospel that would produce sacrificial lives (Acts 2:42-47).

In fact, sidelining the true Gospel only produces self-righteous do-gooders, many of whom will meet Jesus on the day of judgement and point to their acts of service to others only to have Jesus say, "Depart from me, I never knew you." (Matthew 7:21-23)

If it's true as James says, "Faith without works is dead" then what people who have no true faith need is... faith! They need the transforming power of the Gospel. Remember, the Gospel is not just how we enter into the Kingdom of Christ, it's how we're sustained and grow too. Titus 2:11-14 reminds us that it's grace (or the Gospel essentially) that teaches us to live godly lives, i.e. feeding the poor and healing the sick. 

Teach the Gospel to transform people and the world; to both save people for all eternity and unleash a community which will serve others sacrificially.

Great Quote: "He Who Through Faith is Righteous, Shall Live"

In Romans 1:17, we are accustomed to find the words, "The
just shall live by faith." This declaration has been a clarion
call to faith and has been the text for many a sermon on the
necessity of continued faith throughout life. It is true that
this verse may have this meaning, but it is more probable that
it means, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." This
is in keeping with the whole emphasis of Paul throughout
Romans, which has as its theme "justification by faith" (Romans
5:1). Paul does not present two themes in Romans: the one,
"living by faith," and the other, "justification by faith." His
purpose was to emphasize one great primary truth of Christian
doctrine: the righteousness which comes by faith in God. It is
a kind of imputed righteousness, which has its origin in the
grace of God and its response in the faith of man. Not only is
this translation more in keeping with the Pauline context, but
it is more faithful to the Hebrew of Habakkuk 2:4, of which it
is a quotation.
   ... Eugene A. Nida (b. 1914), God's Word in Man's Language,
         Harper, 1952, p. 73

Sad But Funny Satire on Contemporary and Relevant Church Services

It's been another long stretch of time since I posted to the blog. Kinda feeling the "itch" to restart. Of course long layoffs are not good for building faithful readership :) Oh well.

Just saw this today. Pretty funny stuff.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Quranic Instructions for Muslims Encountering Christians During Christmas

Christmas has past but I wanted to pass on an interesting article that was sent out on a local Muslim email listserve. It's instructions for Muslims about how to respond to Christians during their Christmas holidays or other Christian celebrations.

It might sound harsh to some of you Christians out there but, in all honesty, I think if Muslims are going to be true to their holy scriptures then they should follow these guidelines.

I did have an observant Muslim friend talk to me on chat a few weeks back. He asked me how my Christmas was. I thought this was a very friendly yet perhaps Quranically acceptable way to handle the situation. Although you could possibly argue from the Quran that he is in grave danger having me as a friend in the first place.

See what you think about the article:

AssalamualaykumwarahmatAllah!
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked about the ruling on greeting the kuffaar on the occasion of Christmas and how we should respond when they greet us on this occasion. Is it permissible to go to the parties that they hold on this occasion?

Is a person sinning if he does any of the things mentioned without intending to, and he only does it to be nice, or because of or shyness or embarrassment or other reasons? Is it permissible to imitate them in that?

He replied:

Greeting the kuffaar on the occasion of Christmas or any of their other religious holidays is haraam according to scholarly consensus, as was stated by Ibn al-Qayyim in his book Ahkaam Ahl al-Dhimmah, where he says:

"Congratulating the kuffaar on the rituals that belong only to them is haraam by consensus, as is congratulating them on their festivals and fasts by saying ‘A happy festival to you’ or ‘May you enjoy your festival,’ and so on. If the one who says this has been saved from kufr, it is still forbidden. It is like congratulating someone for prostrating to the cross, or even worse than that. It is as great a sin as congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone, or having illicit sexual relations, and so on. Many of those who have no respect for their religion fall into this error; they do not realize the offensiveness of their actions. Whoever congratulates a person for his disobedience or bid’ah or kufr exposes himself to the wrath and anger of Allaah." End quote.

Congratulating the kuffaar on their religious festivals is haraam to the extent described by Ibn al-Qayyim because it implies that one accepts or approves of their rituals of kufr, even if one would not accept those things for oneself. But the Muslim should not accept the rituals of kufr or congratulate anyone else for them, because Allaah does not accept any of that at all, as He says (interpretation of the meaning):

"If you disbelieve, then verily, Allaah is not in need of you, He likes not disbelief for His slaves. And if you are grateful (by being believers), He is pleased therewith for you.  .
[al-Zumar 39:7]

". . .

 This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islaam as your religion . .

[al-Maa’idah 5:3]

So congratulating them is forbidden, whether they are one’s colleagues at work or otherwise.

If they greet us on the occasion of their festivals, we should not respond, because these are not our festivals, and because they are not festivals which are acceptable to Allaah. These festivals are innovations in their religions, and even those which may have been prescribed formerly have been abrogated by the religion of Islaam, with which Allaah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to the whole of mankind. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

"Whoever seeks a religion other than Islaam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers."

[Aal ‘Imraan 3:85]

It is haraam for a Muslim to accept invitations on such occasions, because this is worse than congratulating them as it implies taking part in their celebrations.

Similarly, Muslims are forbidden to imitate the kuffaar by having parties on such occasions, or exchanging gifts, or giving out sweets or food, or taking time off work, etc., because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "Whoever imitates a people is one of them." Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah said in his book Iqtidaa’ al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem Mukhaalifat Ashaab al-Jaheem: "Imitating them in some of their festivals implies that one is pleased with their false beliefs and practices, and gives them the hope that they may have the opportunity to humiliate and mislead the weak

End quote from Majmoo’ Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 3/44.

From IslamQA.com
http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/69811

Great Quote: A.W. Pink on Saving Faith

The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented
by the present-day "evangelist." He announces a Saviour from
hell rather than a Saviour from sin. And that is why so many
are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to
escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from
their carnality and worldliness.

... A. W. Pink (1886-1952), Studies on Saving Faith,
Swengel, Pa.: Reiner Publications, 1932, p. 9-10

This is one of the most interesting quotes I've run across lately. Like all great quotes it sums up a simple but profound truth in a short form.

It helps me answer many Muslim friends who ask me "what would motivate a person to live for God's glory and seek holy living after having their sins forgiven?". They see the forgiveness of sin (past, present, and future) as giving license to continual sinning. "If God will forgive all your sins why would someone stop sinning then?" they ask.

This quote provides a clue to at least one answer to my friends. The saving faith that God grants to those who put their faith and trust in Christ's sacrifice, is faith in a Savior who saves from sin and it's consequences. He's not a Savior who merely saves us from the consequences themselves. Sin is what brings condemnation to us all. It seems reasonable and logical that if Christ only saved us from an eternal hell then the Christian would indeed feel the freedom to continue in sin. But being saved from sin is what true saving faith brings through Christ's death on our behalf.

If the faith I have in Christ is a belief in being saved from sin then that faith will produce in me an ongoing desire to fight against sin in my life rather than just mere belief that I will avoid an eternal hell. This saving faith motivates the Christian to fight sin throughout their lives. And it is sustained in them by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

A second reason that the Christian is motivated to fight against sin rather than giving in to sin is that when we put faith in Christ for salvation we are bound to him as Lord. He is the source of our new life as it says in Colossians 3:3 "For you died and your life is now hidden in Christ with God." Romans 8:1 says "For now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus".

If we are "in him" then we are bound to him and are constantly and eternally with him. We don't just receive something from him. We are with him and in him. And the person who is with him will be motivated to continually fight against sin by his holy presence in them. Just like if a coach or parent were with us in every and all situations in life. If we truly loved them and had faith in them then we would be motivated to live for them at every moment as they urged and encouraged us. So it is all the more with Christ who is with us and in us all the time.

Each of these two reasons and explanations of why the true Christian fights against sin rather than welcomes it need some illustrations but I'll have to supply that later.

Great Quote: C.S. Lewis on God and Impossibilities

God's omnipotence means [His] power to do all that is not
intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him,
but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose
to say, "God can give a creature free will and at the same time
withhold free will from it," you have not succeeded in saying
anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not
suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the
two other words "God can." It remains true that all things are
possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things
but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the
weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually
exclusive alternatives--not because His power meets an
obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we
talk it about God.
   ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Problem of Pain

Great Quote: C.S. Lewis on Humility

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the
virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.
You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I
warned you that the centre of Christian morals did not lie
there. Well, now we have come to the centre. According to
Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is
Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are
mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the
devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is
the complete anti-God state of mind.
   ... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Christian Behavior

Ravi Zacharias on "Maintaining a Christian Worldview in the Classroom"

Good stuff from Ravi Z. And maybe this is helpful for people in other intellectually restrictive environments as well.

Great Quote: Yearnings for Paradise

What a great quote from C.S. Lewis!

A man's physical hunger does not prove that that man will
get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the
Atlantic. But surely a man's hunger does prove that he comes of
a race which repairs its body by eating, and inhabits a world
where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do
not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves
that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that
such a thing exists and that some men will. A man may love a
women and not win her; but it would be very odd if the
phenomenon called "falling in love" occurred in a sexless
world.
... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Weight of Glory, and other
addresses, Macmillan Co., 1949, p. 6

Great Quote: Unfinished Work (from a Great Man!)

I knew Charlie Hummel. I met him as a student at the University of Tennessee. What a humble and wise servant of God he was. Great words here to take to heart.

Jesus did not finish all the urgent tasks in Palestine or
all the things He would have liked to do, but He did finish the
work which Gad gave Him to do. The only alternative to
frustration is to be sure that we are doing what God wants.
Nothing substitutes for knowing that this day, this hour, in
this place, we are doing the will of the Father. Then and only
then can we think of all the other unfinished tasks with
equanimity and leave them with God.
... Charles E. Hummel (1923-2004), The Tyranny of the
Urgent, Chicago: Inter-Varsity Press, 1967

Stoplight Scolding During the Ramadan Fast

When Ramadan rolls around every year I always endeavor to not be an insensitive expat here in Dubai. I want to not cause offense to my Muslim hosts and friends by not eating in front of them if at all possible. Most restaurants are closed during the day but you can still find some open in the "free zones". Nevertheless, you can be arrested for eating in public during the Holy month.

So as my wife and I got into the car yesterday I thought to remind her about eating or drinking in the car since she had a small package of salted pumpkin seeds in her hand. I didn't say anything and, more than that, began to pop them into my mouth and chew as we drove down the road.

About 10 minutes into the drive I pulled up to a stop light, reached down to grab a few seeds, then began to chew them. I casually glanced to my left and promptly saw a man dressed in dishdasha glaring at me. He raised his hand and wagged his finger at me in disapproval. I was embarrassed and immediately wished to apologize in some way. I stopped chewing and swallowed. As I looked back at him he thrust his hand up in exasperation as if to say, "what are you doing eating during Ramadan?... you're obviously another insensitive non-Muslim unwilling to consider your host culture".

I wish I could apologize to the man. I have no desire to cause offense.

But later I began to think more about it. What is the good of fasting if all the "temptations" to eat are prevented by law or social convention? Why is it considered an offense if I don't participate in the practice of another religion; one in which I don't believe?

Again, I don't wish to offend and yet it seems inevitable that offense will be taken if we believe different things and live by them.

Your thoughts?