What Difference Does it Make?

Time does not allow me to elaborate on an issue I've been pondering for many weeks now as I read the world news. In so many countries around the world I see hatred, violent clashes, murder and terrorism wrapped up in various forms of "Jihad." WHY ARE CHRISTIANS SO PERSECUTED IN SO MANY PLACES? ARE CHRISTIANS (JESUS / GOD) TO BE SO FEARED AS TO MAKE THEIR PRESENCE DANGEROUS? The following story by Michael Ireland is but one of perhaps hundreds I have read in recent months from numerous sources, but it illustrates the common thread.

"HOUSTON, TX (ANS) -- They call him "The Ghost" -- the preacher who started 400 churches in Uganda -- and cannot be killed.


"Pastor Zachariah and his wife have 12 children, he oversees 400 churches, and his home church has 2,000 members.

"Pastor Zachariah Sserwadda has survived three assassination attempts on his life, the latest of which was March 4, 2000. Local radio reported that he was dead, according to Christi Myers reporting for TV station KTRK in Houston, TX.

"Myers says that nine years ago the African pastor was left severely injured in a terrorist attack that killed an American missionary in Uganda. Since then, the pastor has suffered continuing pain.

"She states that Pastor Zacariah's car was hit intentionally in a head-on crash with a truck driven by Muslim extremists. He and a front seat passenger were seriously injured, but American missionary Anita Liebl was lying dead in the back seat. Liebl was on a visit to help in his ministry to Muslims.

"'So when she left I said, 'Lord, you have taken her away. It's up to you,'" said Pastor Zacariah.

"Pastor Zacariah suffered a fractured pelvis, damage to both hips, and broken ribs.

"'The bone was out for 24 hours," he said.

"'The first announcement that came over the radio was I'm dead, and the Muslims were very happy I was dead," said Pastor Zacariah.

"'My kids went into their room they were crying and praying," said Zacariah's wife, Robina, about the news that was broadcast over the radio that day.

"Myers reports the outspoken Christian pastor is a target in Uganda because he is actively converting Muslims to Christianity. In other attempts on his life, his car has been sprayed with bullets and a man tried to put a bomb in his house.

"'There are several mosques, they come together to plan for my assassination," he said.

"The truck crash left him in pain for nine years.

"Myers also says the Houston Metropolitan Baptist Church brought him to Houston, where a surgeon and a hospital donated hip surgery.

"Two days ago, orthopedic surgeon Brian Parsley and Foundation Surgical Hospital gave the pastor the gift of hip replacement surgery, she reported.

"'You're already on a cane the second day after surgery, which is outstanding, so I don't see any reason why you shouldn't walk normal," said Dr. Parsley.

"The surgery means much more to the pastor than just relieving his pain.

"Pastor Zacariah said: "Muslims have been ridiculing me saying even though you never died, we've crippled you with that limp, because if that limp isn't going to be there I'm going to be a perfect person. It's very important."

"Myers says Zacariah prays for his attackers.

"'Jesus save them, save them," said Zacariah."

It is a regular event in countries that are predominantly Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic. I conclude that there is something inherently wrong in the DNA of a religious system that cannot coexist with people of a different faith. Christians believe Jesus is THE WAY to God, but Christians do not believe they need to "delete" non-Christians.

To LIVE is to know God. The alternative to that is EVIL! from Wayne
Warner's World

Franchising God

Ban Lifted on Malay Section of Catholic Newspaper is the headline announcing Government maintains newspaper cannot use "Allah" for God.

Jeremy Reynalds, Correspondent for ASSIST News Service KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (ANS) reported earlier this year: “Nine days after imposing a ban on the Malay-language section of the Herald, a Catholic newspaper, Malaysia's Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday lifted the ban - but mandated that the publisher must not use the word "Allah" for God in its Malay section until the matter is settled in court.”

We’re seeing lots of this kind of "funny business" these days, but it is kinda hilarious. Accordingly, Compass Direct News reported that the editor of the Herald, which publishes in English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, was notified by letter of the decision to lift the ban late yesterday evening.

Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, told Compass that the letter made clear that the conditions set out by the government in its earlier letter still stand: “The publisher must print the word "terhad" ("restricted" or "limited" in Malay) on the cover page of the newspaper to indicate that the weekly can only be sold in churches, and is meant for Christians only.”

That ministry has continued to prohibit the publisher from using the word "Allah" as the Malay translation for God. Now while this Catholic agency finds it necessary to comply with the local law, it seems humorous to the point of the ridiculous to think that anyone can legislate, franchise, or control the use of the word for God.

That is about as simplistic, writes Jeremy, as the British Bus Driver who refused to drive the bus that had a statement on the side of it saying there is no God.It seems to me it is about as ridiculous as our commercializing Christmas then reducing it to Kwanza, Hannukah, or whatever other ideology you want to promote.

There is no “Merry Christmas.” You simply cannot trace the DNA of Christmas without investigating the Christ-mas and its origins.When people refuse to praise God, Jesus said, the very rocks cry out in recognition of Him. In that biblical soap opera of suffering and diagnosing of God (as Jeremy Reynalds describes it), when God finally responded, he challenged Job to answer a few questions like,

1. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?
2. Who stretched a measuring line across the earth’s foundations and measured it?
3. On what were its footings set and who laid its cornerstone?
4. Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its proper place?
5. What is the way to the abode of light?
6. Where does darkness reside?
7. Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

We surely know more today, with our scientific discoveries, but we have a long way to go before we can capture God, own the franchise, and control the use of his name - authority - wisdom - justice et al.

Be you are a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, or an atheistic humanist, I see little chance of your buying the franchise or exercising your ownership of the word “God.” God is neither for sale nor copyright, let alone patent. Controlled use of the word
“God” is not a legal option, not even with a delete key!

Giving due credit to Jeremy Reynalds for his original reporting,
this is Wayne at Warner’s World
adding a few modifications of my own……like

“Merry Christmas”

Who's a Socialist?

There has been much discussion about Socialism since the election of President Barak Obama. Health Care Reform and a Public Option for Health Care have been denounced by some as “Socialism.” Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have no taxes to pay? Think about how much your pay check would increase if no federal, state, or local taxes were deducted. Thinking about how much your savings account would grow sounds too good to be true!

Or does it? If all taxes were eliminated there would be other issues to consider. For example: there would be no public schools to educate your children, no police force to protect your life and property. And who would respond to the fire alarm when your home catches fire?

Granted, welfare may be an abused system in need of reform; we all agree it needs some tweaking! But do we not all agree that a caring and compassionate society needs some means of providing for those who through no fault of their own cannot take care of themselves? That goes beyond being Christian; it speaks to human decency.

My family has visited and loved our national parks. How much their preservation has enriched our nation! We have benefited by traveling cross-country on our interstate highway--sure beats the slow-going on those narrow two-laners. We have reaped blessings from being protected by our armed forces, although some of the political issues involved remain a little too political.

Like it or not (and I have not always liked it), the undeniable truth is that all of us have reaped many benefits from our federal taxes. Without doubt, it is true that in some cases our taxes could be lowered. Perhaps the size of our government could be reduced (a basketball game does not require so many coaches, scouts, et al, either). Yet, it remains true, as others have observed, our system may not be a perfect system but it is better than any of the others and it is the system of choice.

It is also true that we cannot cooperate (govern) together without some degree of being “social.” The alternative is to be anti-social. Being anti-social drives us apart and disparages working together. Charges of “socialism” are politically motivated, promoted without thinking through, and calculated to prevent us from achieving a common good.

Together, we enjoy what individually only a select few could otherwise enjoy. From both a Christian perspective and from the view of the common good, all of us ought to be happy to contribute out taxes to the protection of the common good of all of us. We can be sociable together or unsociable apart; we can cooperate for the common good and enjoy our good game of life, or we can go our individual ways and be manipulated by those who would greedily grasp it all without sharing it.

This is Wayne at
Walking With Warner

A Tiger Tragedy

The seemingly invincible Tiger Wood struck an ethical IED! While Mr. & Mrs. Public buzz busily with excitement a hysterical Media titillates its verbal autopsy amid a fire storm of talk show hosts whipping up voyeuristic recipes ripe with gossip. The hubris of these professional busybody's absorbs the attention of the mindless and prostitutes the gossip of a busybody media by transforming it into financial profit.

Celebrity or otherwise, difficulties in a marriage are tough--for everyone. It pains me for the popular golf star and his stylish Swedish Model. Seldom does the Wedding Service transform the human heart. Translation: most couples finding their way to the altar of marriage bring considerable baggage from their differing worlds and this widely celebrated marriage relationship was no different. They brought their super-star status, including their previous lifestyles filled with numerous negatives needing negotiation if the marriage become successful and the new couple a real family. The oft-resulting children only further complicate the process.

At best, this couple invested their lives in the fruits of successful secular living, a veneer which failed to pay off in real or lasting personal values with a comfortable marriage.

I find it too much to hope that Nancy Grace, Joy Behar, and all the others of that ilk search out more important issues for exploration instead of digging around in rotten garbage. On the other hand, the insatiable appetite of the public to diet on personal tragedy and celebrity gossip seems endless.

Someone I know met Tiger Wood in the middle of the night, in her dreams. She saw him from behind her large window, pacing back and forth, all the while watching her. When she finally opened the door and asked him what he wanted, he stopped, looked her full in the face and said, “Pray for me.”

It was just a meaningless dream, I know. Yet for her, it triggered an automatic response, which she could-and-did follow. Only a dream, but dreams need not be meaningless. In her case, she followed her prompting and prayed for Tiger.

Although my estimation of Tiger has fallen a few notches, I have to admit I have not prayed for him, or any of his supporting cast. Thus, I ponder the words of Frances Barton's four line verse that says simply but succinctly,

Should I feel the need to judge how my brother fares or fails
Let me try him without grudge on the same forgiving scales
Where I balance my own cause and my purposes atone.
Father, may I weigh his flaws gently--as I weigh my own(Frances Barton).

We could go far in changing our world if we would change our own behavior. From Warner’s World, this is
Walkingwithwarner@blogspot.com

Terminally Ill

An online commentary I recently read relative to another issue came from an 8-year Viet Nam era veteran. This “American hero” admitted that "once upon a time" he bought into our "Great American Ethos" image and rushed off to “serve my country days after graduating from high school.” Now, he says, “I have earned the right to say the following," and I take seriously what his email said (I have added emphasis on some of his issues listed):

“For most of you out there, the good news is that capitalism is succeeding beyond its proponents wildest expectations on:

porn of the most degrading and criminal types

illicit drugs of all types to fill the corporate coffers of those who provide the logistics
profit from weapons (legal and illegal) to murder) (sometimes for that type of porn movie).

Corporate war profiteering with disregard for the life and economic costs

Boardroom fraud

political corruption

Hate crimes and those who hate with out carrying out the crime

etc. ad nauseam.

I say to you who have delusions of grandeur;

America is not what those corporate profiteering bumper stickers SAY !

AMERICA IS WHAT AMERICA DOES !

There are a million stories like the one this column addresses. When will the real Americans stand up to what's wrong INSIDE while they cheer the patriots who are defending against outside threats.

AMERICA IS WHAT IT DOES !

When I picture Americans as a collective society, my image is people in jail with Seinfeld, Cramer, George, Elaine, and the rest in their final episode.

Do you remember the charge they were guilty of?

CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE

AMERICA IS NOT WHAT ITS PEOPLE SAY,
AMERICA IS WHAT ITS PEOPLE DO !!”

Read his comments, then read the rest of the "news" for this day or most any day. As he concluded, “Anyone who can actually do that, and still have delusions of grandeur about this nation and its "citizens" is brain dead, in terminal denial, and has neither the guts nor the inclination to change that.”

Jesus taught his disciples a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, meaning our actions betray what we really are (Matthew 7:17-19 NCV). America parades its lack of character and integrity daily by the things it advertises and practices. Like a cancer in a terminally ill human body, the destructive parasite will eventually destroy the body on which it feeds, resulting in the death of the body.

Walking with Warner in
Warner’s World

Vietnam ... Afghanistan ... Next ... ?

Charles V. Weber was at the peak of his career when I launched into pastoral ministry. I never forgot my first encounter of listening to him deliver his series on “Living Out of the Overflow;” I was an eighteen year-old college freshman and appreciated his ministry ever thereafter. It also seems that Pastor Weber never forgot a certain San Diego parishioner that struggled with guilt throughout his adult life resulting from his experience as a GI in the South Pacific.

One day, the young GI topped a hill while on patrol. Approaching from the opposite side of the hill was a startled Japanese soldier. As the oriental youth dropped his rifle and raised his hands in surrender, the American soldier responded with “immediate and automatic” response: he lowered his rifle-bayonet, rammed it into the chest of his enemy, and watched him die (COGPF Newsletter, Winter 2009).

Reading that story brought to mind CNN reports I encountered recently, which gripped me with rapt attention - “Killings at the Canal.” After obtaining 23 ½ hours of taping, CNN aired stories on the three decorated American Army Sergeant’s charged in the assassination of four Iraqi prisoners

These young Americans, hardly more than boys, now face decades (reduced from life) of incarceration at Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary. A young bride lost the life she anticipated spending with her beloved, the victim of his tragedy. One single incident of war obliterated normality for several people forever.

These young lives might aptly be called casualties--the collateral damage--of the failed policies of war. The unanswered question asked by the CNN Reporter was “When does a soldier cross the line from being a soldier to a murderer?”

As we struggle nationally to determine a politically right and wrong way to relate to Afghanistan, I suggest the question asked by the CNN Reporter was the wrong question. Crucial to global relationships today is a consideration of when does war over cross the line from being wrong to becoming right?

Two recent presidents, George H.W. and George Bush Jr., found just causes for involving America in war abroad. Now we struggle with the cancerous moral malaise faced by President Lyndon Johnson when he attempted to justify the political pursuits begun by his predecessors in dealing with Vietnam.

When one studies the political intrigue and economic involvement of earlier wars, going back as far as World War One, we find ourselves still confronted by underlying political intrigue that leaves us still questioning “when is it ever right to violate our enemy through military violence?”

The two unfortunate incidents that introduce this article further substantiate what I have personally observed about wartime casualties and the lives of returned veterans. For years I have observed the guilt and turmoil, which we now neatly package medically as post traumatic syndrome, not to mention the brain disorders, and the broken bodies that support prostheses.

We were not created for the violence of maiming, warring, and killing. Although many veterans avoid becoming warped personalities, many do not escape. Needing our help, they never escape the nightmares and other horrors they wish they could forget. Like the young GI, they do with “immediate and automatic” precision that which they were trained to do, and forever suffer the undeserved hangover of guilt, anguish, and pain.

For America to continue to support its industrial-military complex with its huge economic benefits is to "enjoy life on blood money.” We cannot desensitize ourselves to the wrongness of war and not reap the whirlwinds of economic abuse, physical violence, and shattered relationships. We must return to the ways of peace, partnership, and people described by the one man in history (Jesus)who’s greatest fault became his unflinching refusal to compromise; he more than any other inspires others after 2 millennia.

No one else can make that claim, but no one ever “loved” as he “lived.” We need more living and loving and less hating and hurting,

from Wayne,
walkingwithwarner.blogsopot.com
Warner’s World