Ministers...pastors...spiritual leaders: this is for all of you

One of my favorite books describes the anguish of a man who felt and followed the call. It reminds me of something Glenn Beck said within the last several years about Christian leaders ducking the responsibility of telling the truth to their flocks.

The Listener

By Taylor Caldwell

Excerpt, page 103, “Soul Seven, The Betrayer” (1960)

He waited. No one answered him. Then something rose in him like the high and thundering swell of a wave. He fought it down, but it rose high and higher, and out of its smothering he cried, “’Profession!’ I call it ‘profession’! But it is a calling—a calling!—isn’t it? That is what my father said—‘a holy calling’!”

He put the heels of his hands hard over his eyes. “Oh, my God,” he murmured. “To think that there were people long ago who thought God ‘called’ them! Now we gravely consider the impulse we have toward the ministry and wonder if we are well rounded enough, and fully psychologically educated, and adjusted, to become ministers of the Gospel! Are we good administrators? Do we like people? Do people instinctively like us? Are we excellently grounded in the social ethic? Do young people naturally gravitate toward us? Are we expert businessmen? Do women like us? Are we liberal in our ideas? Do we have good voices which inspire confidence? Can we meet men on their own ground easily and confidently, whether it is the golf course, the broker’s office, the club, the family living room, the parish hall, the community activities, the schools, the theater, the good restaurants? In short, are we ‘good fellows, sweet guys, regular people’? Are we enthusiastic about sports and take an active part in them? Are we ‘broad’? Men of ‘diversified’ interests? Conversant with television? Are we on the board of this and that? In short, are we ‘active’?”

He stood up, looking about him with a kind of wild hopelessness. “In short,” he cried, “must we be everything but ministers of the Gospel?”

The white walls were lined with his questions.

When the American church helped usher in Social Security, it abdicated its responsibility to care for the poor...

What is disturbing when reviewing the history of this time is how many Christian ministers defended the actions of government as fulfilling Holy Scripture's mandates to care for the poor, provide for parents in their old age and give to those who ask of you.

With this shift of thinking, the state began to function in roles once reserved for the church—to the detriment of any who would question the legitimacy of the legislation on theological grounds. The same reception awaits those in the modern day who seek to resist any "progressive" social policy in any way for fear that they will be branded as uncaring or un-Christian in their ideas.

Has government power expanded to such a degree that the church now has no voice at all in the public square? Perhaps, but the modern era of public policy reveals just how much the government has gained and how much the church has lost.

The Theology of Social Security

Pilgrim's Progress: 2/18/1678

Pilgrim's Progress was published FEBRUARY 18, 1678. An allegory of a pilgrim traveller named "Christian" journeying to the Celestial City, it was written by John Bunyan, born in Bedford, England.

At age 29, Bunyan became a Baptist minister and was imprisoned over 12 years for preaching without a license. While in jail, he supported his family by making shoelaces. His book, found in nearly every colonial New England home, was the world's best-seller for centuries.

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his Autobiography: "From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the Pilgrim's Progress, my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate little volumes."

Franklin continued: "My old favorite author, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress...has been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and suppose it has been more generally read than any other book, except perhaps the Bible."

In it, John Bunyan wrote: "Christian ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross...So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back."

American Minute with Bill Federer

The Muslim Mafia rides again

A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: ‘If you go back to the studio, we’ll break your legs.’

Pamela tells it like it is...as usual