Somehow the party commitments piled up this weekend in this multi-national, multi-cultural 'wonderland' that is Dubai. First we'll be at a Filipino 18year old Debutante Party. Next, it's a stop over at an Indonesian (late) Christmas party, and we'll cap it off with a Romanian Pig Roast.
All should be fun with friends from around the world... stay tuned for insights and pictures :)
First, pictures from the 18 year old Filipino Debutante Party... I was one of few people there over the age of 30. :)
18 young men (including myself) each brought a rose and danced briefly with the honored girl. I was asked while there... first time in a while I've danced with an 18 year old girl.
Guess what her favorite color is :)
Next on to the Indonesian Christmas party... hundreds were there.
Can't remember what the soup was called but it was fantastic!
And lastly, the Romanian pig roast. I only got a picture of the (poor) pig. But it was fun being with "frisbee" friends that evening.
I apologize for the long absence of entries in the blog. I've been traveling for over a month now and will likely not have much time to blog until mid-August. That's bad for viewership :) But not much I can do about it. I'll throw some pics and quotes to you in the meantime.
Here we are below in the French Alps. Glaciers behind and below us. Amazing views of God's creation. Psalm 19:1..."The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
A good friend here in Dubai, who happens to be Muslim, sent me a link to the video below and asked me to comment. I couldn't resist. Here are my extended thoughts below.
First the video...
First, the method of teaching these children seems to be theologically deficient at best. The first thing I disagree with is the emotionalism that is employed in teaching them. The leaders seem to focus on emotional expression to a fault. I'm concerned that they're teaching them merely religious practice and a particular brand of religious expression. The Bible teaches that the true effect of regeneration in a person will be Godliness or God-like-ness. The scriptures teach this in many places but one is Galations 5:22-23...
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The scriptures don't teach that the fruit of the Spirit is necessarily training in conjuring up tears during worship services, shaking on the ground, or zealous and loud proclamations of allegiance to God.
Secondly, I'm concerned that the kids in the video are prone to being emotionally manipulated by the teachers at this church. Children generally seek the approval of their elders and if they sense that their elders desire a particular type of behavior then the kids will produce it to gain acceptance. I'm concerned that the leaders are merely teaching a particular type of religious practice and the kids are ready to comply. I'm not saying kids shouldn't be taught spiritual truths and expected to obey adults. But when they are told that you should act like "this" or "that" to demonstrate a genuine religious experience in a meeting then I think they are going too far. This all arises from deficient theology.
Some of what you are seeing is the product and practice of a famous "revivalist" Charles Finney. Google him if you like. He promoted a bad form of emotional manipulation in Christian services adopted to bring people to a point of emotional decision to pledge their lives to Christ. His theology was terrible and his practice was just as bad. And the modern day evangelical church is much influenced by him as are these people in the video.
Thirdly, you of course heard lots about military and war in the video. Some of this is because the Bible has stories of military exploits and has military images and allegories too. As you know, the Old Testament has stories of armies and battles. And the New Testament uses military images to describe aspects of Christian life at times as in Ephesians 6:10-18.
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Churches, like the one in the video, often appropriately teach about Biblical history including the battles and fighting. But some (and I fear this one in this case) teach only moral lessons from the Old Testament. In the end they do not teach about the Gospel and Jesus Christ the Messiah in light of the Old Testament. And this is exactly what Jesus himself felt was important. He says in John 5:39-40.
39You diligently study[a] the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
And in Luke 24:27.
27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
I believe that Old Testament Israel was a "type" which would be mirrored and fulfilled in the New Testament by all the followers of Jesus Christ: the Church. So the Gospel should be proclaimed in light of these passages in the Old Testament. Churches should not merely teach moral lessons about courage, dedication, and holiness from Old Testament stories of military battles. This is a big mistake I think.
Fourthly, the filmmakers emphasize the encouragement of political involvement for Christians. The modern day Evangelical church misses the point and gets their theology wrong often on this too. I believe the Bible teaches that their are two Kingdoms; a Kingdom of God and a Kingdom of the world. Christians live in both. But the Kingdom of God is the only one that we are taught will last. So, the Church is the physical expression of the Kingdom of God in the Kingdom of the world. The Church is called to be an influence in the world through the proclamation of the Gospel and living a life obedient to Christ. Today, many evangelicals are tempted to influence the world primarily through politics. This is a temptation from Satan. Christians should vote their conscience at the polls and even be involved in politics. But the Church proclaiming the Gospel and living for Christ is how the world will know God; not through political power. Christians in public office or laws that uphold Christian moral values can restrain evil. But they do not proclaim the Gospel. I would agree with this statement included in a recently released "Evangelical Manifesto" which speaks about this Kingdom confusion among evangelicals. It says,
Christians from both sides of the political spectrum, left as well as right, have made the mistake of politicizing faith; and it would be no improvement to respond to a weakening of the religious right with a rejuvenation of the religious left. Whichever side it comes from, a politicized faith is faithless, foolish, and disastrous for the church – and disastrous first and foremost for Christian reasons rather than constitutional reasons.
Called to an allegiance higher than party, ideology, and nationality, we Evangelicals see it our duty to engage with politics, but our equal duty never to be completely equated with any party, partisan ideology, economic system, or nationality. In our scales, spiritual, moral, and social power are as important as political power, what is right outweighs what is popular, just as principle outweighs party, truth matters more than team-playing, and conscience more than power and survival.
This idea of Two Kingdoms was first advanced by Augustine if I'm not mistaken, but is continues to be discussed today. I would encourage you or anyone to listen to this 30 minute discussion by some good Christian theologians about the Two Kingdoms idea and the temptation of political power for the Church. The show is called "White Horse Inn". And here is the episode to listen to. It's really worth it and will help you understand this issue immensely. You can also get more resources on this topic at the show's website here. Scroll down to the January episode for more.
Lastly, I want to comment on the video as it was uploaded to Youtube. The uploader took the promo video for the movie and added at least one clip of George Bush talking about the "War on Terrorism". You can go to the Jesus Camp movie website and see the original. I would have posted it here but it automatically plays when you navigate to my blog... and that's annoying :(
The Jesus Camp clip doesn't include the Bush clip. It seems like the uploader wanted to convey the idea that these conservative Christians were teaching about how to literally make war and participate in the "War on Terror". This is misleading. And for all the theological confusion represented in the teaching at this church I'm 99% sure they would not be teaching anything about literally making war, like how to shoot a gun, how to throw grenades, and how to sign up for the American military.
The uploader has also interspersed clips from news show interviews with the female teacher talking about Muslim jihadists and how Christians need to teach their kids to just as dedicated. (you can search the ABCNews website and find some of them there) The short clips seem to be intended to show that Christians are training their kids to be "Christian Jihadists" of a sort. This just isn't happening. I think it is legitimate to ask the question whether we as followers of Jesus are willing to die in the service of the Gospel in comparison to Muslim jihadist's dedication to Islam. But no one is teaching their children that "dying for Jesus" involves taking up arms against Muslims. They DO talk about being willing to die taking the Gospel into a hostile world. You might recall the female teacher yelling, "this means war!". This clip is set alongside the Bush clip to imply that she was teaching that the church is literally joining up in the War on Terror and sending their children to fight. We don't know from the clip what she said but I would bet that she was teaching about making war on sin in our lives. That's generally what these types of children's programs teach. Believe me, I've seen lots of them.
So in conclusion, I think there is lots of theological error and unbiblical types of teaching revealed in the clips but also a dishonest (or at least horribly misguided) attempt by the uploader to imply that the literal training of children for war is going on in American churches. That's just not true.
Between a week of vacation, a week to catch up at work, a week and half of a bad stomach virus, and a half week to catch up from that... I've lost a month of blogging. I'm 'bummed' but there's nothing to do but start back into it. So here's a light first post.
The picture below is of three of my daughters at sunrise out in the desert back in March. We had spent the night in a tent with some other dads and their daughters from our church. It's called the Father-Daughter Campout and it's been going on for quite a few years now. Notice the hot air balloons in the background. I believe it is this company, Amigos Balloons, or Balloon Adventures Dubai, running the flights.
The picture below is a few days later on the beach in Jumeirah, Dubai. These seaplanes flew by as we enjoyed the breeze. This service is operated by a company called Seawings. A friend from church owns the charter company that actually flies the planes.
I am still trying to get some things up on the blog from a couple months ago. One of those is the sermon I gave on Christmas Eve. The title is "The Faith of a 13 Year Old Girl" and it focuses on the announcement that the angel Gabriel gave to young Mary.
I have four daughters aged 10 to 17 so I'm somewhat of an expert on teenage girls :)
The whole talk is about 22 minutes long if you want to know in advance. Hope you enjoy it. I enjoyed giving it.
Interesting policy implemented at the Mall of the Emirates last month. If you're feeling amorous with your shopping partner (or someone you meet there :) you should take note of the second prohibition listed... "No Kissing or Overt Displays of Affection". You might also get stuck at "Please Wear Respectful Clothing" too.
This raises a number of questions. Does this apply to all kissing? Like the "peck on the cheek" kind? Or just the 'extended lip-lock' kind? Who makes this decision? Is hand-holding an overt display of affection? Is an arm around the shoulder? Exactly where can a hand be put?
And what is respectful? Of course I assume they mean respectful to the host culture. But that is a tough thing to do when you (Dubai) are setting your goals on drawing hundreds of thousands of tourists to your country. Tourists by definition almost always see themselves as not a part of the culture they are visiting. It's as if they think of themselves as viewing everything from behind a glass window.
When I first moved here I used to not wear shorts except to the beach and to the park. But I've loosened up about that over the last 5 years. I wonder if I ever offend anyone when I go to the store.
As a Christian I'm eager to keep the commandments of the Bible as an act of gratitude to God for what he's done for me through Christ - the forgiveness of sins and the adoption into the his eternal family as a son of the King. The Bible would teach "let there not be a hint of immorality among you." (Ephesians 5:3) But the real challenge is that immorality has some culturally defined boundaries. Or at least the "hints" are culturally defined often.
So, even when I take my family of all women (4 daughters, 1 wife) to the mall they don't go in shorts or sleeveless shirts just out of respect for the host culture in which we live. But even then I wonder if people see my daughters, know we're from the west, and then just assume they are immoral. What can I do about that? Nothing I think. Other than to live it down among the people who really know us.
When we go though, we'll just have to make sure... no kissing!
I don't post much here about my family... kind of a privacy thing. But my two oldest daughters (I have 4 total) age almost 17 and 14 recently tried out for the Honor Choir which will sing in London in March 2008. I was pretty impressed so I've put up their tryouts here. The recordings are a couple minutes each at most. They sing scales first to warm up and then sing a song portion toward the end. Wonder where they get their talent :)
