Blog - Page 285 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Radical Islamic Violence Erupts in Lebanon

By John Armstrong|2006-11-22T20:43:29-06:00November 22nd, 2006|Categories: Islam|

Pope Benedict XVI, in his general audience today, condemned the assassination of Lebanon’s industry minister, Pierre Gemayel, a Maronite Christian and member of the Phalange party. (Pierre Gemayel’s father, Amine, was president of Lebanon from 1982-1988.) Benedict warned citizens of Lebanon that there were "dark forces who are trying to destroy the country."

The pope firmly condemned "this brutal attack" and assured people of his prayers and "spiritual closeness to the family in mourning and to the beloved Lebanese people." He added: "In the face of the dark forces that seek to destroy the country, I invite all Lebanese not to allow themselves to be overcome by hatred, but to reinforce national unity, justice and reconciliation, and to work together to build a future of peace.” Benedict XVI also urged "leaders of the nations that have the fate of this region at heart to contribute to finding a global negotiated solution to the various situations of injustice that have existed for too many years."

Do we realize that Christians are being driven out of this great land of Lebanon every single […]

Proclaiming Good News to Mal-Mart?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:54-05:00November 22nd, 2006|Categories: Homosexuality|

Wal-Mart has been the favorite target of the left for some years. Most of the time the fire has been rooted in criticism for how it treats it workers. Now the retail giant is under fire for the right for its corporate response to homosexuals. The protest comes from the American Family Association, which asks its supporters to boycott Wal-Mart stores during one of the busiest shopping weekends of the entire year, this Friday-Saturday. A second group, Operation Save America, plans prayer-and-preaching rallies outside Wal-Mart stores.

What triggered this response? Wal-Mart paid $25,000 this summer to become a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and donated $60,000 to Out and Equal, which promotes gay-rights in the workplace. Some conservative Christian groups see these actions as a betrayal of the family-friendly stance of Wal-Mart. One minister accused homosexual groups of “extorting” stores with their radical agenda. Maybe, and maybe not, is my response. My guess is that there is much more to this than people on either side understand.

Wal-Mart’s spokesman said the company’s outreach to the gay-rights […]

The ELCA and Church Renewal

By John Armstrong|2006-11-21T20:10:31-06:00November 21st, 2006|Categories: Renewal|

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is fairly typical of the many older churches in America these days. I recently looked at some ELCA "quick facts" about membership and clergy and discovered that the ELCA has 4.9 million baptized members, making it the eighth largest church grouping in America. (Catholics are number one, with 67.2 million members, while Southern Baptists are second with 16.4 million members.) But only 2.3 million of the ELCA members, i.e., less than half, are communing and contributing members, a far more important category it seems to me. What is even more telling in these numbers is that the average weekly attendance in ELCA churches: 1.5 million, or only 30% of the total membership. There are 10,585 congregations in the ELCA thus the average ELCA congregation on Sunday morning has 142 people present. There are 17,696 clergy in the ELCA, which comes out to about 1.65 clergy per church, still a fairly significant number it seems to me. Only 54,000 of the ELCA members are African-Americans, while 38,000 are Hispanics and 22,000 are Asians. So, very simply put, the […]

Signs of Reform in Islam?

By John Armstrong|2006-11-21T11:26:22-06:00November 21st, 2006|Categories: Islam|

Can Islam reform itself? One has to believe that it is possible, or at least hope that it is possible. Whether it is likely or not is an entirely different question. I think history bears out the fact that reform has happened within Islam and could happen again.

Even USA Today admitted in yesterday’s edition (November 20) that efforts to change and modernize Islamic societies "haven’t borne much fruit" since 9/11. USA Today’s editorial team adds: "[The] basic truth is that if Islamic societies are going to reform, change has to come from within. Over the weekend, there were two hopeful signs."

The first sign of reform, noted USA Today, was in Egypt. There the growing popularity of the veil was openly challenged last Thursday by the culture minister, Farouk Hosni. This kind of response encourages dissent against the powerful clerics who are presently hijacking the modernization of Islam and seeking to turn back positive changes made in the late twentieth century. The second sign of reform USA Today noted came in New York where Muslim feminists from around the […]

Why We Need One Another

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:54-05:00November 21st, 2006|Categories: Race and Racism|

The race issue continues to plague American Christianity, as I noted in passing in my recent post regarding emancipation and Abraham Lincoln. Rather than offering real solutions to the race issue the church has all too often perpetuated this problem. I do not suggest that we emotionally flog ourselves over the past but it would be a good place to start by honestly recognizing the problems. Ask the question: "What have our respective churches done, or not done, to cause or solve these problems?"

Understanding our racial and ethnic differences is vital to understanding how we can learn to serve and help one another. The simple fact is that we still worship in racially and ethnically separated churches. I know all the reasons that we offer for why this is the case but I still can’t shake the sense that in most instances this happens because we do not care enough that Christ has broken down the walls between us. (I also realize that many of us live in communities where only people like us live!) We ought to live within our Christian […]

Was Lincoln Really the Great Emancipator?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:54-05:00November 20th, 2006|Categories: History|

There has been a debate for 140-plus years regarding whether Abraham Lincoln was really an emancipator, much less the Great Emancipator. We all know the facts: He signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. His reluctance and prevarication about abolition, and his willingness to not free the slaves if he could save the Union, are well known to those who study the man in his actions and words. So, should African-Americans be grateful for the work of "Father Abraham" to free them?

Last evening I had the oportunity to think a lot about this question. Drs. James and Lois Horton, two really superb historians and speakers, gave the annual Gettysburg College Remembrance Day lecture on Abraham Lincoln at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Gettysburg. The evening included a special award given to novelist E. L. Doctorow for civil war fiction. His recent book, The March, is about U. S. Grant’s march to the sea. This is the work that gained him the evening’s honor. (I have not read the book yet but I did get a signed copy, along with several of […]

Passing On the Ability to Tell a Story

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:54-05:00November 18th, 2006|Categories: Baseball|

I had the priviledge of meeting the award-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin at the Lincoln Forum this morning. She gave a wonderful lecture based on the title of her book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. She underscored how Lincoln was able to work with his rivals in order to accomplish much good during his years as president. She further suggested that Lincoln’s quiet self-confidence and temperamental abilities allowed him to judge people and issues with peaceful fairness. She added, intestingly, that this intense president also learned how to relax (carriage rides, reading and the theatre) in the midst of great pressure.

At the end of her lecture Goodwin spoke about how she became a writer. She traced it back to her dad teaching her how to score a baseball game as a child. She would score the game day-by-day, listening to the Brooklyn Dodgers on the radio in the afternoon after school. When her dad came home she could retell the story of the game with her scorecard. She learned the skills of research and story telling through […]

A Day at the Lincoln Forum: The Real Greatness of Our Greatest President

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:55-05:00November 17th, 2006|Categories: History|

I am attending the Lincoln Forum this weekend at Gettysburg. This is a superb event in every way. I so enjoy this time each year with about 200 people who love all things Lincoln as I do. The lectures and conversations here are always superb. Lincoln, in my judgment, was our greatest president. He is still a man who attracts incredible scholarly and popular interest the world over, 141 years after his death.

The lecture tonight was titled: "Abraham Lincoln: The Humble Military Genius." The presenter was Dr. John Marszalek, a professor of history (emeritus) at Mississippi State University. How could Lincoln, clearly a political genius by all accounts, also be seen as a military genius? He had no military training and learned everything that he knew on the job (during his presidency). He had no combat experience either. (Lincoln actually went to the Library of Congress on a number of occasions to study military tactics during his time in the White House.) The answer to this question, said Professor Marszalek, lies in the word "humility." Lincoln learned how to develop […]

My Final Post-Mortem on the Recent Elections

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:55-05:00November 16th, 2006|Categories: Politics|

The recent election post-mortems have strongly suggested that the Religious Right is not dead, but it will either change in the next few years, or it will die. Its importance in terms of real accomplishment in public policy is less and less prominent in the big picture of things. Many have strongly suggested that this change is already underway in less strident quarters. These changes have many stories within their larger story but I will list a few I see for further thought:

1. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson do not speak for most conservative Christians, if they ever did. The coalition of Christians who believe that they should actively engage the culture within the public square politically is much broader, much deeper, and far more ecumenical than anything represented by these strident voices.

2. Roman Catholic social thinking has filtered into evangelical thinking and the result is a much more mature and balanced Christian response in the larger public arena. I believe we will see this coalition grow (informally in almost every case I am quite sure) in the […]

How Postmodernity Serves Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:55-05:00November 15th, 2006|Categories: Postmodernity|

Postmodernism is discussed and debated in almost every church-related setting in our day. Part of me wonders if this is simply the church catching up to a philosophy that has come and gone. Another part of me, the part that believes something significant has clearly shifted in Western thought, believes postmodernism is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.

What is postmodernism? This is part of the problem. It is notoriously hard to define but I would say that it was a term first appropriated by German and French philosophers to designate the criticism of reason which had come to be regarded as a universal and certain foundation for knowledge and morality in modern culture. (The target of postmodernism appears to be the thought of Kant.) What postmodernism deeply questions is whether or not reason can establish a complete and coherent system of thought.

What does this have to do with the Christian gospel? Many suggest that it means postmodernism is the avowed enemy of the gospel in every possible way. I am not so sure. I am […]