My one powerful conversation with Tony Campolo

 

Today many of my friends and collogues in ministry are sharing wonderful stories of their many interactions over the decades with American Baptist pastor, scholar, and advocate Tony Campolo.  As most of you know, I didn't grow up in Pennsylvania, nor in an American Baptist Church.  Tony's name was not one that I ever heard discussed, in fact I knew little about him until he was invited to speak at First Baptist Church of Linesville (in our French Creek Association) for the Spring Gathering of 2013.  Being new to NW PA and the kind of fellowship that associational events and relationships can offer, I had every intention of attending.  I'll share the text from my 2013 post on the evening next, but after that make sure you read the next portion because there was a lot more to that story that I didn't share back then.

From 2013: This past spring our regional Baptist association invited Tony Campolo to speak at our annual gathering.  The suggested topic for Tony was the problem of complacency among Christians (in other words, what do we do to get people on fire for serving God?).  Prior to going to the event, I received a letter written by one of the pastors of our association and signed by all of his board members that condemned the invitation of Tony and warned us that his teachings were dangerous.  The letter included snippets of quotes from a variety of Professor Campolo's books, many of which seemed to be out of context.  As a former English teacher, seeing quotes taken out of context sends up a huge red flag to me.  I went to the meeting, having heard good things about Tony's presentations from my friends, Pastor Jeff Little (First UMC) and Mother Holly (St. John's Episcopal).

What type of message would we hear?  Would the Gospel be clear or lost in the social efforts that Tony's critics accuse him of replacing it with?

It is amazing what you can learn when you give someone the chance to share what is on their heart.  Throughout his presentation, Tony Campolo gave a heart stirring call to the Church to truly be the servants of Jesus Christ that we have been called to be.  The Evangelical nature of his message was beyond doubt, there at the heart of everything he was preaching was the need for each man, woman, and child to find a relationship with God, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and to turn that relationship into a life-altering experience of righteous living.  What more could any believer in the fundamentals of the faith want?

The hype, fodder for television commentators and blog posts, was entirely overblown.  The venom directed at Tony from his critics was a farce.  If this man's commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not genuine, then nobody who publicly declares their faith in Christ can be trusted.  If this man's passion for the Lost is not acceptable to you, then your problem is with the call of Jesus to champion the poor.

Which brings me to his book, Speaking My Mind, which I finished reading today.  I won't claim that everything in the book made me happy, nor am I in agreement with all of it, I will however confirm that the passion for the Gospel I found while listening to Tony last spring is part and parcel of his written works as well.  Are there things in the book that will cause some Christians to write Tony off as a liberal?  Yes.  Are there things in the book that those same Christians need to hear because they echo the words of the Gospel?  Yes.  Do yourself a favor, read the book, think about it, weigh what it says by the scale of Scripture, and then decide what God would have you do about poverty, nationalism, homosexuality, environmentalism, politics, etc.

If you close your mind, you won't be listening to God either.  If you truly are committed to being a disciple of Jesus Christ, don't you owe it to God to admit when you are in error?  Speaking My Mind may not have all the answers, but at least Tony Campolo was brave enough to ask the questions.

Listening to Tony Campolo in-person certainly put to bed any hesitation to think of him as a positive force for the Church today.  He was that and then some.  There are two other aspects of that story I'd like to share now in his memory.  The first is that I went to the gathering at Linesville with Arlene Harrington.  Those from my church remember Arlene fondly, she was the widow of our long-time pastor, John Harrington who served my church for twenty years from 1964-1983.  After his passing she moved back to Franklin and rejoined the church where they had spent so many years together.  Arlene was a pistol.  When I arrived here she told me, "Let me know if you have any trouble with anyone, I lived in that parsonage before you did, I'll handle it."  Thankfully, I never had to take Arlene up on her offer, but I appreciate her passion for protecting me as her pastor.  We had a wonderful conversation on the drive there about how she used to go to French Creek Association gatherings as a child in her parents' model-T.  On our way home after hearing Tony's message we were in the middle of another conversation when I pulled the car over and told Arlene, "I need to go back."  She graciously allowed me to follow what my conscience was saying to me, fifteen minutes later we reentered the church to find Tony still talking with the people that remained.

What made me turn the car around?  During his message Tony had offered up supporting Compassion International as one way in which those attending could make a difference for the Kingdom in this world.  He encouraged us to sponsor a child, holding up pictures of several to inspire us further.  I hadn't responded.  The reason was simple, my wife and I were still massively in-debt from the decade of multiple part-time jobs that I had struggled through in Michigan before we moved here.  The math just didn't work, that's what my mind told me.  We were living without much fluff, I couldn't justify $30 per-month, I just didn't have it to spare.  But God spoke to me as I drove away from the church, it wasn't an audible voice, but it was real, it was a gut-check moment, and I responded to it.

I told Tony this when there was a break in his conversation with the others who remained, and took one of his cards.  I don't remember the words we exchanged 11 years ago, I just remember the impact that his passion for those in need had on my heart.

There is an epilogue to this story.  My wife Nicole told me she was pregnant in the Fall of 2014.  As previously mentioned, we were still trying to claw our way out of debt, perhaps 50% of my paycheck went to that cause each month.  I knew we'd have to tighten our belts even further, and that's what we did.  I didn't want to, but I called Compassion International, told them what we were facing, and let our then 18-month-old sponsorship lapse...Fast forward to 2019.  We had finally put our debt in the past, our beautiful daughter Clara was 4 years old, it was time to find a way to sponsor another Compassion International child.

That's Sonite.  She's the child that my daughter chose to sponsor.  I showed Clara pictures of a dozen or so girls born on the same day that she was, and she chose this precious child from Haiti.  Clara and Sonite exchange letters, our small connection to her life circumstances teaches my daughter valuable lessons about how blessed we are in life and our obligation to share some of that blessing with the many in our world who are much less fortunate.  It is one of the ways that we're trying to mold Clara into the kind of kid whose heart and mind beats like that of Tony Campolo.  

"Well done good and faithful servant."

Why I wrote the Pastoral Letter to the Cornerstone Board of Trustees

This video delves into the passion and concern that inspired and shaped the letter, as well as that of my collaborators in the project, Pastor Noah Filipiak and Dr. David Turner (thank you both).  This is from the heart and deeply rooted in the valuable education I received from 94-98 and 2000-01 at Cornerstone University.

A Pastoral Letter to the Cornerstone University Board of Trustees - Fall 2024

 

Pastoral Letter to the Cornerstone University Board of Trustees - Word version in Google Docs

*This letter, with signatures, will be sent to each member of the Board of Trustees after the 1st of December, 2024.*

To the board and administration of Cornerstone University,                             

This letter is written on behalf of the undersigned alumni who have been called to serve in the role of pastoral leadership within the Body of Christ.  

We write to express deep concern, as shepherds of the sheep, about the conduct of Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño as President, the approval of this conduct by the board of trustees, and the transformative vision that has been set forth for the future of Cornerstone University as first and foremost a market-driven career preparation institution with an identity defined by a political agenda.  We believe that on its current course, many pastors like us, and parents, will be unable to in good conscience recommend Cornerstone University.

Our experience at Cornerstone (and/or GRTS/CTS) involved much more than gaining knowledge and marketable skills that would enable us to have a successful career.  We learned these things, certainly, but they were not the heart of our experience.  We were not taught what to think from a singular viewpoint, but how to think critically and biblically in ways that would fortify us for the challenges of ministry.  We treasured as mentors and friends the professors and staff that were a part of our faith journey.  These God-honoring men and women were one of the primary reasons why Cornerstone was a valuable partner to the Church in furthering the gospel.

Our love for this institution and what it has meant to our lives and ministry has led us to react with sorrow and concern to the numerous credible reports of fundamental changes to the university and seminary, and the conduct of its leadership in effecting these changes.  These changes, and how they were made, do not reflect well upon the institution of higher Christian education that we once knew, or upon the reputation of the gospel.

Our concerns are centered around the following areas:

1. Toxic leadership that has manifested itself in repeated examples of the treatment of professors and staff in ways that are unworthy of an organization acting in the name of Jesus Christ.  This includes, but is not limited to, demands for unquestioning loyalty, intimidation of staff and faculty as well as ignoring their concerns, the purging of voices attempting to respectfully express differing viewpoints, and most recently, the abrupt revoking of the signed contracts of eight faithful faculty members, including nearly the entire Humanities Department and the seminary Dean.

2. A lack of honesty and transparency when communicating with Cornerstone’s employees, students, and alumni.  This includes, but is not limited to, the financial status of the university, the way in which professors and staff were terminated, projects and initiatives that were abandoned, and policies that were changed without input from those affected by them.

3. The vision championed by Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño {As expressed in his 7/27/24 Fox News essay} that leans heavily upon more profitable asynchronous online instruction, cheaper adjunct professors, and the purposeful diminishment of the Humanities Department.  We recognize that financial realities must be taken into account, but these realities cannot be the driving force behind what Cornerstone is and does.  Quality instruction for all students in the humanities is essential to the development of a robust Christian Worldview and ethic.  Without this instruction, Cornerstone University is losing one of the pillars of its character. 

4. Significant steps in the direction of aligning the school with one political party and one cultural viewpoint, instead of the Kingdom of God. Politicizing the gospel, by bending it to the right or to the left, is a grave theological error that marginalizes true brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world whose faith and hope are in Jesus, but whose politics or culture may differ.  Like the Church and all of its members, Cornerstone should seek first the Kingdom of God, not any transient human political agenda.

It is our hope that this letter will speak to the hearts and minds of board members, administrators, and Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, and lead to meaningful conversations with concerned students, staff, and alumni in the hopes that the future of Cornerstone University will remain firmly connected to the Christ-honoring qualities that have been its hallmark for generations.

Respectfully submitted in our effort to serve and support the Church and the gospel,

To sign the letter, click on this Google Form link: Signature Page for alumni pastors

To sign the letter if you are a non-pastor CU alum or any concerned CU-stakeholder (parents, non-CU pastors, prayer supporters, former staff, donors, etc.), click on this Google Form link: Signature Page for all other stakeholders

For further information about the issues addressed in the letter: Voice of CU

The Voice of CU website has testimonial and documentary evidence that demonstrates how grounded this wording of this letter is in reality.

Pastor Noah Filipiak's podcast: 

Ep. 99 & 100: Dr. David Turner on Christian Higher Education + Power & Politics at Cornerstone University

Pastor Powell's previous blog posts on this topic:

The Cornerstone University I graduated from is no more, my daughter won't be going there.

"A singular focus on preparing students for meaningful jobs and careers" would be the death of Christian Higher Education - A response to the essay by Cornerstone University's President Moreno-Riaño on Fox News

What is happening at Cornerstone University??

For whatever reason, I can't share this link directly to Facebook; it was removed as spam.  So I'll write a quick block post and encourage anyone who clicks on my post to go to the webpage below and look at this long list of unethical and unacceptable behavior on the part of the current administration.

Why does this topic matter to me?  Cornerstone University was deeply influential on my intellectual and spiritual development, it was a major step in the road that led me to where I am today as an ordained minister serving the Church.  As such, watching this institution that I love, that once was something that I was proud of, become something that fits snuggly into the politics and culture war tainted world around us is heartbreaking.

Voice of CU: Documentation and Testimony

Note: I don't know who the anonymous alumnus behind the Voice of CU is, he/she attended the school long after I did, but I understand the desire to remain anonymous given the culture of fear created by a willingness to retaliate against any/all critics.  

To read my previous posts connecting to this current unfolding sad drama:

"A singular focus on preparing students for meaningful jobs and careers" would be the death of Christian Higher Education - A response to the essay by Cornerstone University's President Moreno-Riaño on Fox News

The Cornerstone University I graduated from is no more, my daughter won't be going there.

"A singular focus on preparing students for meaningful jobs and careers" would be the death of Christian Higher Education - A response to the essay by Cornerstone University's President Moreno-Riaño on Fox News

 

Here's what American universities should teach instead of activism Industry and moral skills are essential for our students and the future of our country By Gerson Moreno-Riaño Fox News Published July 27, 2024

Honestly, when my alma mater, Cornerstone University sent me an email touting this essay by President Moreno-Riaño and asking me to share it on social media, I don't think they had this in mind.  However, the excellent professors of the Humanities Department, the one that President Moreno-Riaño demolished this year {The Cornerstone University I graduated from is no more, my daughter won't be going there.} me how to think, so that's what I'll do.

{The Fox News essay is below in italics, my commentary will be in brackets [and bold]}

Colleges and universities are failing our country. This seems to be the growing consensus among an increasingly large percentage of Americans and business leaders.

[From the very start this essay bothers me a great deal.  This is being written by the President of Cornerstone University, I had great respect for this university's past presidents, but I have no respect for the attitude of President Moreno-Riaño which in this essay is being derived from business concerns and survey results.  Why?  Because Cornerstone University is supposed to be a Christian organization.  That's why it was founded, that was its mission for generations, and that is one of the main reasons why most of its students chose to go there, it brought me there in 1994.  A Christian organization, be it a church, a publishing house, a homeless shelter, or a school, is not supposed to be swimming with the current of our culture, business world, and politics, instead we are to serve a different master, on a different mission.  As an essay about secular Higher Education this opening line would still be disturbing as it frames the conversation about higher education as an ordinary business, which it is not, but coming from the President of Cornerstone University, it is ominous indeed.]

The recent Gallup and Lumina Foundation report shows that an increasing number of Americans have little to no confidence in higher education. For the first time since Gallup begin to measure the confidence level in higher education, America is "now nearly equally divided among those who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%), some confidence (32%), or little or no confidence (32%) in higher education."  

This finding represents a seismic shift from 2015, when almost 60% of Americans had a high level of confidence and 10% had little or none. 

[Opinion surveys reflect what the people who respond to them are ingesting, not necessarily what is real.  It isn't a coincidence that Fox News and similar outlets run stories and opinion pieces attacking higher education (and public education in general) on a regular basis.  Perhaps this steady drumbeat of doom and gloom has something to do with the changing attitudes found in the survey?]

Many business leaders equally reflect the growing lack of confidence. In a recent interview, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, criticized colleges and universities for the little focus they place on helping graduates find good employment. 

This unwillingness, so argues Dimon, not only places an exorbitant amount of pressure on businesses to train their employees – something pre-employment education should do – but also disenfranchises large sectors of society.  

Kiersten Barnet, executive director of New York Jobs CEO Council – a group of 30 of America’s top CEOs and their companies – was perhaps more direct than Dimon, stating: "When you think about what you need to do a job, it is skills. It's not a degree."

[I don't know Jamie Dimon or Kiersten Barnet, so this is nothing personal about either or them, but is the goal of higher education to please the CEO of a giant corporation or the executive director of an organization representing our nation's largest business interests?  Again, this may legitimately be one of the goals of secular higher education, to bolster the economy by providing workers suitable to what businesses want, but nowhere in this essay is the question asked, let alone answered, "What kind of students ought Christian Higher Education be aiming to form?  What role does Christian discipleship play in the process of educating young people?  How can our professors be mentors to students, not simply teaching them job skills but how to mature into God-honoring adults?"]

America’s growing doubts about colleges and universities are rooted in a list of causes too long to detail here, but it is worth noting that the lack of confidence is connected to certain factors. The most notable of these being what colleges and universities teach and do not teach. 

In Gallup’s report, of the Americans who register little or no confidence, almost 40%, criticize colleges and universities "for not teaching relevant skills, for college degrees not meaning much, or for graduates not being able to find employment."

Indeed, a new survey released this week by Cengage Group found that 55% of recent graduates said their degree programs did not prepare them for the workforce, with 70% saying basic AI training should be taught. These are, in essence, the same concerns of business leaders like Dimon and Barnet.

[Basic AI training?  God help us.  So much for being taught how to think biblically.] 

Gallup’s report goes a step further, however. Slightly over 40% of Americans in this same low to no confidence group think that our colleges and universities "are pushing certain political agendas." In short, many believe that higher education is miseducating our students. Rather than preparing for careers and a productive life, colleges and universities appear to be preparing students to be radical activists.  

[I don't disagree that today's students could use less politics in their lives, so could the millions of adults who spend way to much time engaged in the bashing of "them" and uncritical praising of "us."  Politics is a drug, much of America is addicted, and it isn't healthy.  But is the answer to focus on job skills and give up on the Humanities??  Such a notion would have horrified our ancestors in the faith, men and women who were deeply educated in languages, art, history, philosophy, music, and more.]

Further, the miseducation of our students as it relates to gainful employment – "good jobs" – is a serious problem since it robs from our students the opportunity for a fuller humanity. Jobs and compensation are essential for our humanity. But good jobs and good compensation are even more essential for a flourishing humanity and, by extension, a flourishing society. 

Amid its many laudable goals, higher education must focus on preparing students for good jobs and compensation. To do any less is to perpetrate a great injustice on our students and our future. 

[A good job is better than a bad job.  Is that all higher education should be about?  If people earn more money will they have better lives, will society be uplifted if our graduates have career success?  The answers to such questions aren't simple, at least they shouldn't be.  The university that I graduated from in the 1990's had a much more holistic approach to the flourishing of its students, both while they attended and preparing them for the future.]

When students are miseducated to become radical activists, the injustice perpetrated is even greater and the damage is even more corrosive. Students are duped into believing that radical activism adds value to their own life and to society when in fact it is the opposite. Such pursuits rob from students the exercise of their productive full potential, thus undermining their good as well as that of all society.

[That is a really bold statement, one worthy of a pundit or politician, but one that should be unworthy of a university president.  You know what adds value to life?  Having a purpose greater than earning money.  You know what uplifts society?  People willing to sacrifice for causes they deem greater than themselves.  I'm too young to remember college campuses in the 1960's, but would our country really be better off if students there had focused on job skills and not worried about Civil Rights or the Vietnam War?  Should students stick their heads in the sand and shut up about the injustices they perceive in the world?  You know what else is radical?  Following Jesus.  Not saying that you are a Christian, but really and truly following Jesus, living like him.  Thinking and feeling like Jesus, trying to echo his passion and compassion.  Radical activism, when propelled by truly Christ-honoring worldview, is the stuff of legends.  If you seek to starve the activism you don't like (because it is blue not red, or red not blue), you destroy the activism that the world truly needs alongside it.]

To re-ignite public and business confidence in their work, colleges and universities must have a singular focus on preparing students for meaningful jobs and careers. This begins with implementing industry-ready skills-based educational outcomes for their general education curriculum and all academic majors. 

[A singular focus on jobs and careers is the death of Christian Higher Education.]

Colleges and universities should also require internships or apprenticeships for the honing of soft and industry-specifics skills as well as to create employment opportunities. And colleges and universities should require all academic departments to have industry and business partnerships for the continual refinement of curricula and preparation of students for the market.

While there may be additional market-related refinements that could be implemented, there is no doubt that the above initiatives would go a long way to re-igniting our confidence in higher education.

[I understand why business leaders would cheer this essay, workers ready to do their job is what they want the most, but don't we want more out of education than job skills?  Aren't we trying to foster holistic human beings and not just employees that help keep corporate costs low and profits high?]

 The focus on jobs and market preparation must also consider and integrate the enduring questions and answers to what it means to be human. This is what the humanities used to address.

Today, much of the humanities are characterized by a turn toward a contrarianism and deconstructionism that emphasize moral ambiguity and skepticism. Such an approach has resulted in generations of students who at best are sophisticated critics and at worst are radical activists. These students are too often unable to discern, affirm and defend truth and what it means to be human. 

A case in point are the recent protests in which students were clearly unable to discern good from evil. Some college presidents also fared no better. 

Colleges and universities must develop and implement moral skills educational outcomes for their general education curriculum and all academic majors that prepare all students to discern and affirm what is true, beautiful and good.  

[And how will Cornerstone University's students develop these skills without a Humanities Department and with only part-time adjunct professors teaching these classes??  That President Moreno-Riaño has chosen to publicly rail against the Humanities Departments of other unspecified universities while gutting that of his own, one that had been both high class and high quality for generations, is deeply upsetting to alumni such as myself, truly it is heartbreaking.]

All students should also have a significant service requirement during each year of college that is a prerequisite for graduation. This service requirement would be connected to the moral skills outcomes allowing students to apply and refine their moral reasoning and judgment in preparation for life beyond college.

[One brief moment of agreement.  My cross-cultural ministry experience, a month in Guatemala, was a life-changing positive experience.]

Our colleges and universities must educate students with industry skills that position them for great market contributions. This education must also include moral skills that position our students for living a great life characterized by truth, beauty and goodness.  

[At the end of the essay, the idea of truth, beauty, and goodness as part of education is briefly mentioned, but only after declaring that Humanities Departments are what is wrong with higher education, and only in the context of what has happened to Cornerstone University under his tenure.  It rings hollow.]

Both industry and moral skills are essential for our students and for the future of our country, and a serious focus on these would go a long way in re-igniting the confidence in America’s colleges and universities.

[It is sad for me to say it, but I don't have any confidence in Cornerstone University under its current leadership.  I know that good people remain, although many good people have been fired or forced out since President Moreno-Riaño took over, but this current direction is watching a train-wreck in progress.]

To learn much more about how Cornerstone University has been reduced to a shell of its former glory (I don't say that flippantly) through censorship, firing, and politics, please listen to the podcast of Pastor Noah Filipiak a fellow Cornerstone graduate as he interview Dr. David Turner, former professor at the seminary: The Flip Side podcast

The difficult truth about the role of women that was lost in the outrage for/against Harrison Butker's speech

 

It was entirely predictable that NFL kicker Harrison Butker's commencement address would be condemned in most blue circles and lauded in red ones.  The click-bait outrage fueled Culture War industry needs new topics on a daily basis, and this one is a near-perfect Rorschach Test that allows both sides to see what they hope to see in it.  For example:

Chiefs' Harrison Butker 'said nothing wrong' during faith-based commencement speech, religious group says - Fox News

vs.

Backlash over NFL player Harrison Butker’s commencement speech has reached a new level - CNN

To read the full text of the speech: Full Text: Harrison Butker of Kansas City Chiefs Graduation Speech - National Catholic Register

While Harrison Butker said a lot of things in his speech about politics, COVID19, and the Catholic Church (especially the Traditional Latin Mass), some of which was good and true but parts of which were conspiracy-theory driven and dangerous, it was his address directly to the graduating women that caught the attention of most:

For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.

I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. I'm on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I'm beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker...

I say all of this to you because I have seen it firsthand how much happier someone can be when they disregard the outside noise and move closer and closer to God's will in their life. Isabelle's dream of having a career might not have come true, but if you asked her today if she has any regrets on her decision, she would laugh out loud, without hesitation, and say, “Heck, No.”

Here is the difficult truth that Butker didn't mention in his speech: For most young women in America today, there is no choice between being a homemaker and having a career.  Most won't get to choose because they will have to work throughout the years in which they may or may not be also fulfilling the role of mother.  Economic realities are, in fact, realities.  

When I was growing up I was blessed to have a mother who was, mostly, able to be at home before we went to school and when we came back home.  My mom, Kathy, worked a few odd-jobs during those years, but it was mostly running day-care out of our home that helped to pay the bills.  My dad, Walt, worked hard for over 40 years at Amway, working his way up the ladder and teaching himself the math that his high school education didn't include.  I'm exceedingly proud of the hard work and dedication of both my dad and my mom during the decades when my brother, sister, and I were growing up.  We were blessed to have both of our parents so involved in our daily lives.  

That was then, it was tight for us with my dad's income as the primary, supplemented by what my mom could earn, but the economic situation for most of my generation-X, and certainly the generations after, has gotten more difficult.

The reality is, most of the women hearing Harrison Butker's speech will need to work full-time, or close to it, if their future family has any real chance of owning a home and paying the bills.  It won't be about choosing the "vocation" of being a homemaker, but the juggling of multiple roles and responsibilities, something women have known about for centuries.

The stay-at-home mom may be an ideal among Christian conservatives {and not just Catholics, see: Why does John MacArthur think it is ok to tell Beth Moore to 'Go home'? - blog post 10/19}, but the economic choices facing would-be mothers and fathers don't care if you root for the blue team or the red team.

I'll let a story from my own life and marriage to Nicole be the last thought here: When we were first married in 2001, my wife worked full-time as a teacher (first at Saranac High School, then Pewamo-Westphalia, both in MI).  That continued for the first 9 years of our marriage.  It wasn't because she wanted to work full-time, but because even with my own multiple jobs added to the mix we struggled to pay our modest mortgage each month, and in fact had a significant debt-load to climb out from under when we moved to PA in 2012.  We both worked hard, but we were spinning our wheels financially.  To make matters worse, from 2010-2012 we didn't have any health insurance.  I was working multiple jobs but none of them had benefits.  I know that this story will sound familiar to a lot of people.

It may come as no surprise, then, that our daughter Clara wasn't born until 2015, after our financial situation had improved significantly (and when we had health insurance).  If God had blessed us sooner with a child, we would have celebrated and praised that blessing, but Nicole would have been forced to return to work as soon as she was physically able after that child was born.  I know many women who have done just that, returning full-time to the work force within a few weeks of giving birth.  I can't begin to imagine how difficult that must be physically and emotionally, they're amazing.

In the end, it doesn't really matter if the "ideal" family in Harrison Butker's view has a stay-at-home mom to the millions of families for whom that "ideal" can never be a reality.

Let us remember to support and encourage the young mothers and fathers in our own churches and communities who are trying to juggle all of the roles and responsibilities that reality has tossed at them.

My daughter turns 9 this week, what that makes this dad think about

It was in the fall of 2014 that I put Nicole's first sonogram into our Sunday worship PowerPoint and told the congregation that I had a picture to share with them.  There were gasps right away from the ladies who knew what they were looking at, everyone else needed an explanation.  Clara Marie was born in 2015, changing my wife Nicole's and my own life for good, and changing it for the good.

I spent a lot of time dealing with unpleasant ideas and people, that isn't an indictment of my congregation or this town, as they have been stupendous in their support of myself and my family, but a reality that reflects the human condition.  I research, write, and speak about racism, nationalism, sexism, corruption, abuses of power, heresy, greed, lust, and all the rest.  I also get to talk about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (the Fruit of the Spirit), but my own nature as a communicator and my personality often draw me toward those people and causes who need to be defended against evil.  What does any of that have to do with Clara?  Clara is a ray of sunshine and a breath of fresh air.  She hugs her dad with clinging arms and gives far too moist kisses.  She laughs with gusto, believes the best is possible, and doesn't know yet that life and people can really kick you when you're down.  I know that some day Clara will change, somebody will disappoint her, break her heart, but I'll appreciate every day that she has remaining with her youthful optimism, and pray that they continue.

That Clara is about to be 9 already also reminds me of our need to make the most of the time we have in this life, to borrow from Dead Poets Society, we need to "seize the day."  Clara being 9 reminds me that I came to Franklin more than 12 years ago, that now more than half of our married life has been spent here in PA.  Until 2023, the longest tenure of my career had been teaching at Portland Adult and Community Education, now it is being here at First Baptist of Franklin.  Unless God has plans for me that I don't know about, this will be the longest and most impactful chapter of my life; that it also happens to coincide with the years that I have been blessed to be called "Daddy" by my little girl only amplifies that thought.  

I also think at times of reflection like this about the men and women who haven't been blessed with the role of parenthood, and those who have become estranged from, or have mourned their lost children.  It was at a funeral a few years ago when a church member about my own age asked me to read a poem about her dad that I realized that being a dad had changed my emotional make-up.  Funerals can be hard for me, other peoples' grief can hit me hard (that's inherited from my mom) but this wasn't that, it was the thought that popped into my head of Clara having to grieve me some day that choked me up so thoroughly that day.  That being said about a child mourning his/her parent, I can't imagine what those of you who have carried the scars of a child who was only in your hopes, or who was with you for far too short a time, have been through.  May God grant you peace, that you still function each day with that pain is a testament to the strength you must have.

Lastly, being Clara's dad is one of the top three things I've ever had a hand in.  I say top 3 because I'm not counting being a child of God who was redeemed by Jesus as something I had a hand in, that was 100% God's grace, the Spirit's calling, and my parents' faithfulness; I don't take any credit on that one.  Those three things are, then, being the pastor of a congregation, Nicole's husband, and Clara's dad.  God has been good to me, I'm blessed with all three of those right now, and the knowledge that the one that was all grace (my salvation) will remain even if/when the others have come to a close.

If you read this someday, Clara, know that your dad is amazed by his Silly Pants* and loves you more than the words he's typing can ever express.

*The nickname Nicole gave her, appropriately she has embraced this accurate description and refuses to have any other nickname.

Is my role in the fight against the Torah Clubs (FFOZ) personal? Absolutely, and it should be, this is why.

 

The Mustard Seed Mission committee accepting an award for Outstanding Service from Venango County Human Services in 2012.  This was our team, and I'm proud of that team and what each member contributed, but this picture also includes, after they left us, those who went on to bring the Torah Clubs to this community.

On of the criticisms that has been aimed at the Franklin Ministerium following our decision to publicly warn the Christian community about the theology behind the Torah Clubs (First Fruits of Zion) {The Franklin Christian Miniserium's warning against the Torah Clubs and the First Fruits of Zion} has been that our action didn't arise out of sense of pastoral responsibility or Gospel fealty, but rather is personal in nature.  That criticism implies that a personal motive in such a case is a base motive, an unworthy motive, that somehow diminishes any claim to Truth we might be making.  While it is true that personal motivations can be the basis for abusing authority or power, it is also true that any confrontation that involves the people, places, and institutions into which we've poured our hearts and souls cannot help but be personal.  For us, as pastors serving in this community, to be dispassionate about this issue, and disconnected from it emotionally, would itself be a dangerous sign.  Do we really want pastors who aren't personally invested in what they do?  

The following reasons are why this issue is personal to me, it isn't an exhaustive list, and my fellow pastors who have taken this stand with me would have their own list (although no doubt with much overlap).  Consider it and decide if, "this is personal," really should disqualify us from speaking with authority; for all the reasons below I don't buy that at all.

These are fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

I'll lead with the most universal of motives, one that we all are required to share as followers of Jesus: Love for each other.  Given that Jesus commands us to love one another, in fact making the law of love the centerpiece of his New Covenant, it isn't optional, we have to love.  Therefore, anyone who has shown themself to be a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, someone redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, is my spiritual brother or sister.  We are family.  When an issue concerns our family, doesn't it need to be personal?

I can testify that those who have taken up leadership positions in the Torah Clubs (2/3 of them here locally I know well enough for this) have demonstrated over the 11+ years that I have been in Franklin, a love for Jesus Christ, a willingness to serve his Church, and a zeal for righteousness.  I have no doubt of this.  

Which is why it troubles me all the more when I see evidence that these brothers and sisters in Christ are embracing Modalism (A denial of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed), or elevating Torah above the rest of Scripture, or following an organization that claims only those who keep Torah (think kosher, Sabbath, festivals) are the ones who truly love Jesus.  These are real people, that I know, who have gone astray, watching them do so had better be personal to me, and it is.  As a shepherd of the sheep, while they may not be in my flock, watching them wander off into the wilderness while spurning our efforts to call them back to safety, is painful.

In addition to the leaders who are known to me, the Torah Clubs have pulled in a number of committed Christians whom I know, whom I respect, and for whom my concern for their spiritual well being is very real.

I've worked alongside them previously on behalf of the Kingdom of God.

As the captioned picture at the top of this post shows, I once proudly stood alongside two of the local Torah Clubs leaders back in 2012 when we were all honored by the county for our role in leading Mustard Seed Missions.  In that first year, and for some time after, we worked together weekly, sometimes daily, to help those in need as these two individuals held key roles in our organization.  As the President of MSM, I relied upon their work and dedication as we turned that idea into something that has now helped over 1,700 families in its ten+ years of existence.  To have once pulled on the rope together in the same direction, and to have had success in doing so, only to a few years later see these same people that I once strove with striving now against my work, my ministry, and my passion, is hard.  To be forced to call them out (not by name, that's a conscious choice here) because they're harming those same things, and to now oppose what they're passionate about and have dedicated their lives to, can't help but be emotional.  We once were on the same team, I didn't change what and who I represent, but we find ourselves in opposition now just the same.

This is my town, my community, my home.

Baptist polity makes this one different for me than most of my fellow ministers.  I'm a free agent when it comes to where I serve the Church.  I'm originally from Michigan, and Michigan will always be where I'm from, but at some point after my wife Nicole and I moved here to Franklin in 2012, this became our home.  It started for me with my opposite corner of the 11th and Liberty intersection neighbor, Pastor Jeff Little, who was the first to welcome us and has since become a "friend closer than a brother."  It continued on with joining the ministerium where I was welcomed by Pastor David Janz, Pastor Scott Woodlee, and Mother Holly, among others.  We formed a bond, worked together, dreamed of what might be possible in this community.

In all honesty, and I've written and spoken about this before, Franklin was the first community that ever treated me with respect, that every cared about my ideas, and that accepted me in a leadership role.  That I was able to help create Mustard Seed Missions in this community, less than a year after moving here, is a powerful testimony to how gracious the people of God have been to me in this place.

For much of my time here I have also served as a member of the Venango County Christian Ministerium, an organization I helped start.  We bring together the Christian community throughout Venango County for a joint worship service on Thanksgiving and Palm Sunday, and have also over the years organized the observance of the National Day of Prayer and the 40 Days of Prayer during Lent.  It is known in this community that I have put significant time and effort into building ecumenical bonds among our churches.  The Church in Venango County matters to me.

This is also where my daughter, my precious Clara Marie, was born, this is her home, if I needed any more motivation to be invested in what happens here, that's one more reason.  Is it any wonder that when I see a threat to this area's Christian community it feels deeply and painfully personal to me?

This is my Church.

As a minister ordained to serve the Church of Jesus Christ, in my case as an American Baptist minister, the universal Church is my Church.  Whenever I hear of false teaching, of dangerous charlatans milking it for money, or demagogues using it for their own ends, it touches a nerve.  I have written and spoken against such many times over the years, but these dangerous always originated elsewhere, were a greater danger to other local churches than our own.  That doesn't make doing our small part any less important, each one of us who serves this Church faithfully is diminished by each person who uses it as a means to an end.  Each time it is harmed, our small piece of it is harmed too.

Whether we, as a ministerium, can convince the Christian community of this or not, everything in our education, training, and experience is telling every one of us that what the Torah Clubs (FFOZ) are teaching, and what they're aiming to do, will harm the Church.  That this movement is outside of the historic, orthodox, and apostolic tradition and teaching of the Church.  We also know that it is rejected by the history, theology, and leadership of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Churches.  Should not harm caused to the Bride of Christ be personal to every one of us who belong to it?  

This is my church.

Within that universal framework exists an untold number of individual churches.  First Baptist Church of Franklin is my church.  This is true on two levels: (1) This is where I worship, fellowship, pray, and serve, and (2) this is the congregation with whose care and protection I have been entrusted.  Thus both my own personal Christian discipleship which takes place within this congregation that I belong to, and the people for whom I will one day give an account before Almighty God as to how well I served as their shepherd, are at risk when a dangerous idea aimed at the Church takes root in our community.  For my own sake, and for the sake of my people, this fight is deeply personal.

The Torah Clubs are being presented as just another Bible study.  In reality, it is an effort to proselytize within the local church.  By the admission of the founder of First Fruits of Zion, the Church is the mission field.  It is not the Lost who are sought after to join this movement, but those already in fellowship within local churches who are being told that the Church (and their pastor by extension) has been lying to them about Jesus all along.  We are purposefully the targets, and taking us from the historic, apostolic, and biblical faith and practice in which we were raised is the goal.  I wouldn't make this claim lightly, but having read such things in their own published works, I'd be a fool to not take the threat seriously.  This is an organization that believes it will bring about the End Times by converting the Church to the practices of Judaism.

{The evidence of this motivation and goal:An Examination of the unorthodox beliefs of the First Fruits of Zion, their Torah Clubs, and the Hebrew Roots Movement in general} 

Let me add this, each of us who has accepted the role of pastoral leader has taken up a sacred trust.  We must not only preach, teach, and demonstrate the Gospel to our people, but we must also go forth, thankfully in this case not alone, to protect the sheep from the wolves.  Whether or not this is dangerous to us is not really a question we can entertain, it must be done.

This is my Gospel

The reason why protecting the Gospel is personal to me is clear: It saved me too.  At this point in my life I'm an ordained pastor, a leader within the Church, but I too was once just a kid who learned that Jesus died upon the Cross and rose again from the dead to save me from my sins.  I put my hope and trust in that salvation, was baptized, and began a life of fellowship in the community of believers.  Like that old commercial where the guy says he liked the product so much he bought the company, I'm a defender of the Gospel because I know what it has done for me.  When I sing Amazing Grace, the words are my words too.

So let me count the cost

We could, as a ministerium, have done nothing, we could have remained silent, we could have hoped that this movement would prove itself to be the latest fad, here today, gone tomorrow.  Lord willing, when we look back on this moment in ten years it will be with relief, it will be with God-honoring stories of how some of our fellow Christians lost their way for a time, but how the grace of God once more brought them home.  We pray that this will happen, but after many hours of discussion and research, as a ministerium, it was clear to us that we had a role to play, "for such a time as this," that we would have to take a stand.

If the local Torah Club leaders continue to embrace the notion that the proper form of Christian discipleship is to 'live like Jews' {Which is the bedrock belief of the organization whose teaching they chose to bring to our community}, doing so in the face of everything we as this community's pastoral leaders are able to do to show how false and dangerous this path is to them, if they will not repent, and personal and painful as that will be for me and the rest of the local pastoral leaders, our other task remains and cannot be set aside: We must protect the sheep from wolves that would devour them, and I make no excuse for that being entirely personal to me.

Afraid of being called 'woke' or 'conservative'? Preach the Whole Counsel of God - Wisdom on this issue from John Piper

 

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (NIV) In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Acts 20:25-31 (NIV)“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

At times it seems I'm writing a lot more, 'watch out for this craziness', and a lot less, 'amen to that brother/sister'.  The pessimist would say that there's more crazy floating around right now than wisdom, what choice have I?  The optimist would be sad that the crazy floats to the top and gets more visibility.  So when a story or article comes up that deserves our attention for speaking the truth, I'm happy to both read it for myself and comment upon it for others.

In recent years I have taken John Piper to task when he whitewashed the slave owning of Jonathan Edwards {The troubling whitewashing of Jonathan Edwards' ownership of slaves by John Piper} or when the President of his seminary went after Empathy as a Sin with Piper's support {The folly of the "Sin of Empathy" - A self-inflicted wound to Christian Fundamentalism}, and I cannot walk with him on his road of strict Complementarianism, although I was raised with this view and understand its argumentation.  However, the conviction offered up on this short interview is both timely, powerful, and biblical.

I've been preaching and leading Bible studies this way my whole life for good reason.  The pastor who mentored me as I grew up in his church, Pastor James Frank of Galilee Baptist Church in Saranac, Michigan, was a verse-by-verse exegetical preacher.  Uncomfortable verses?  Can't skip them when you're working your way through the text one phrase and sentence at a time.  Selective topic choices?  That's not in your hands, when you preach this way you speak on each topic as often as the Word of God chooses to do so.

John Piper Chides Pastors Who Ignore Biblical Topics So They Won't Be Called 'Woke' or 'Conservative' - by Michael Foust, Christian Headlines

Pastor and author John Piper says too many of today's pastors are ignoring certain texts and topics within Scripture out of fear of being given a political label they reject.

Piper, the former pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the founder of DesiringGod.org, urged pastors at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, Ky., this month to be "radically committed" to preaching all of Scripture, no matter the subject.

There are plenty of uncomfortable passages depending upon the church that you as a pastor have been called to serve.  And in case you're wondering, there are uncomfortable passages depending upon the failures and temptations that have, or still do, cause you particular grief as a sinner saved by grace called to shepherd God's people.  Avoid the hard ones?  Skip the ones that might make things difficult?  If you're the one choosing a topic each week and choosing the scripture you want to use to support it, the opportunity to pick/choose looms large.  I know that some people preach powerfully and biblically using a topical model, I myself believe that working your way verse-by-verse through the Scriptures offers a discipline and a guardrail that benefits both preacher and hearer alike.

I sympathize entirely with men and women in vocational ministry who fear for their job and worry about their family should things go sour.  As an American Baptist minister my employment is at-will.  The church's members of churches like mine could (by-laws vary on the fraction needed: 2/3, 3/4) vote at any point to end our season at the church and send us packing.  For many of my brothers and sisters serving in this employment model, that can become a heavy weight to carry.

My wife and I spent the first half of our marriage (to this point) living paycheck to paycheck, putting things on a credit card so we could pay the electricity and the mortgage.  Now that I'm a father, with a daughter who loves her hometown, her school, and her friends, I can't imagine how I'd explain that we have to leave Franklin because dad told the congregation something they didn't want to hear and they voted him out.  It is because my congregation has given me no reason to believe in my 10+ years here that they want honey dripped in their ears that I can write freely about my brothers and sisters in ministry who tread upon thin ice.  If a congregation won't listen to the Word of God, they need to be challenged by it, if they reject it from the one called to shepherd them, they need to be broken by a spirit of repentance.  To skirt the issues and hope for the best is not a solution.  Healthy churches don't function this way.  For the sake of long-term ministry viability, some pastors are better off preaching the Truth, getting fired, and moving on to a church that is more concerned with what God has to say that hearing what they already believe reinforced.

Before continuing to interact with Piper's words, a reminder: There's a right way and a wrong way to approach any topic in preaching and teaching.  Discernment, humility, patience, and the like can go a long way toward bridging a gap between a preacher and his/her congregation on a topic, and tactlessness, arrogance, and a hot temper can turn even a minor difficulty into a full-blown crisis.  In other words, if you're being a jerk it may not be God's Word they've got a problem with. 

"Some pastors are so fearful of being labeled conservative, or fundamentalist, or progressive, or woke – or whatever the circles you care about [and] would look down upon – that they're going to avoid any kind of biblical command that would put them in some camp that they don't want to be part of," Piper said.

He then provided examples.

Given the climate you can see why numerous pastors are afraid.  The faculty of Grove City College just learned how dangerous even an anonymous charge (that turned out to have no real evidence) of being 'woke' can do, and how people they trusted can turn on them when such a politically charged bomb is being thrown.

I know that some pastors embrace being on the Red Team or the Blue Team, they proudly wave that flag.  Yet, as Pastor Piper is reminding us here, those who thump their chest the most about which team they are on would be the most fearful of having people think that they, gasp, have switched sides.  That pastors shouldn't be on political teams in the first place is a topic I've hammered at (going against the tide) for years, this is another danger that reminds us why: it corrupts your ability to offer Truth when your team embraces a lie. {The Myth of a Christian Nation - by Gregory Boyd: a summary and response or for a whole lot of depth, my six hour seminar: The Church and Politics}

"[They're] just not going to deal with racial discrimination, because they're going to get called 'woke,'" he said. "They're not going to deal with modesty or nudity in movies because they're going to get called 'fundamentalist.' They're not going to deal with the fact that we are citizens of heaven before we're citizens of America because they're going to get called 'unpatriotic.'"

Pastors should never be held "bondage to the opinions of others," Piper said. Instead, they should follow the model of Jesus, who did not care about anybody's opinion, Piper added.

In 2020 I was told (from outside my own congregation) that writing about racial reconciliation and the need for COVID-19 precautions was damaging my reputation/witness.  Except both of these truths were based upon the combination of factual evidence and biblical principles.  I love the people who offered to me that advice, because they thought they were saving me from myself, but I cannot agree with the assessment.  I may have on occasion not articulated myself in the best manner, but how could I pretend that God's Word offered nothing on either topic when our whole nation was talking of little else?  To offer truth without being political about it was no small task {since pundits have a $ interest in making everything political}, and I did my best with that self-imposed limitation, but my congregation and community needed leadership in both areas, if not for things such as this, why am I here?

I would add that in addition to not avoiding political hot button topics, a pastor must also be aware of his/her own biases and work to ensure that the way in which difficult topics are addressed reflects the text of scripture not our own personal beliefs on the subjects.  If you preach the 'whole counsel of God' but only from a Libertarian, Socialist, Fundamentalist, or Progressive viewpoint, thus explaining away or twisting the portions of Scripture that contradict and refute those viewpoints {And believe me, every human created political or philosophical viewpoint is in conflict with Scripture at some point, often many points}, you haven't given your congregation the Word of God, you've given them what you think the Word of God should say, a BIG difference.

James 3:1 (NIV) Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

"Don't you want to be free like that?" Piper asked.

This is the part of what Piper has to say that warms my heart.  There is tremendous freedom when you open God's Word and ask it to mold and shape you rather than trying to wrangle it to fit your desires.  For one thing, wrestling against God is a fools errand, you're not going to win.  For another, it elevates us above the petty, personal, transitory, and self-interested positions and policies that infect contemporary discussions of the issues.  Having a historical perspective is another big help, but nothing can compare with being able to say to yourself, "God wrote this, it has served the Church for two thousand years, my task is to simply walk the path laid before me."  

Additionally, pastors should be "so radically committed" to "all that the Bible teaches" that "just when people think they have you pegged, and in some camp, you bring something out of your Bible treasure that just throws them totally off balance."

I've surprised people over the years.  A number of those who knew the teenage version of me shake their heads when they hear or read what the version of me that God has been working on since has to say.  That hurts, I'm not going to pretend it doesn't, but my oath is to follow where God is leading, even if it puts distance between myself and friends, colleagues, even family.  Several years ago I wrote on a difficult topic, one that upset someone here in Franklin that up until that point thought, "I really like what this guy has to say", and while I always reserve the right to have been in error about something, I was writing according to my best understanding of what God's Word has to say on the subject.  Thankfully, after some productive back and forth, and even a few edits for clarity after talking to people about how my initial wording was received, we came to an understanding and were able to move forward knowing that we're both serving the Kingdom of God as best we are able.  Not every 'confrontation' with a congregant, community member, or especially social media commentor, on a difficult topic will end well, in fact most probably won't.  The call to speak the Truth in Love remains. 

"You've got to displease everybody sometimes, or you're probably not getting it right," Piper said. "... Bible people will love you for that. Partisan people who are more Republican or more Democrat than Christian, they won't love you for that. [But] you don't want them to love you. You want them to be converted."

Amen to that.

I am a Minister of the Gospel: called, ordained, and entrusted to shepherd the sheep

I may not look the part yet, but perhaps someday

In recent conversations, primarily online, a number of people have 'warned' me against speaking out about the reality of systemic racism and/or the deadly nature of COVID-19 and the efficacy of the vaccine.  Some of these conversations have included predictions that doing so will damage my ministry, my Gospel witness, and call into question my integrity.  Some have suggested that wanting to be right (i.e. know and share facts and truth) is a character flaw, or at least a waste of time when such issues are only matters of opinion.  I would be sugarcoating it if I said these responses didn't bother me; some of them, given my relationship with the source, have been deeply disappointing and emotionally painful.

What then is my response, how do I evaluate this advice in light of my own call to ministry?  The following is an attempt to respond, if you are one of the people referred to in the paragraph above, please read this in the spirit and heart in which I write it, as much as I value our relationship, these issue demand more of me.  If what you wrote/said was coming from a place of genuine concern, I value that.

Therefore, as a minister of the Gospel:

1. I will NOT disregard, dismiss, or 'other' those in need

When we first began working on getting a homeless shelter operating in Venango County {now called: Emmaus Haven of Venango County a wonderful organization my church and I are committing to supporting} there were a number of local people who shared a variation of this idea: "There are no homeless in Venango County, what are you going to do, bus them up here from Pittsburgh?"  This was factually inaccurate, those who work to help solve housing issues in our area were well aware that there are in fact a significant number of homeless individuals (and families) on any given day in our county.  Many of them are temporarily homeless, as opposed to chronically, but they certainly needed shelter.  Additionally, are we as Christians supposed to care less about those who are homeless in the Pittsburgh area?  Are they not our neighbors too?

Thankfully, the local churches of our county, together with our partners in the county government, were able to continue to move forward and eventually open Emmaus Haven.  Whether we see them or not, whether we know them or not, those in need in our community are human being created in the image of God, they are not an 'other', not a 'them' to be ignored.

I will not consider less worthy of compassion, help, and prayer:

A. Immigrants, refugees, and other non-citizens

B. Those who are homeless, downtrodden, and desperate

C. The who suffering with physical or mental handicaps

D. Those living in poverty

E. Those battling addictions

F. The unvaccinated or those otherwise lacking healthcare

G. Those who don't look, act, or think like me.

The list could be longer, or more specific, but you get the point.  As a minister of the Gospel, called to live by the Law of Love, setting up barriers to that obligation is a direct violation of my oath before God.  I cannot allow them in my own heart or mind, and am called to confront them when the people of God wrongly exhibit them.

Psalm 82:3     New International Version

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

2. I will NOT excuse, utilize, or encourage lies and falsehoods in the name of the 'greater good', in a misguided attempt to bolster my ministry, or protect my country.

This is the part that frightens me about the health of much of the Church in America today.  I see 'Christian' websites willingly spreading falsehoods because they bolster the Culture War narrative of the moment, 'Christian' leaders embracing easily disprovable ideas for financial or political gain, and much of it without significant pushback.  We seem to care more about 'winning' than the Truth, and that guarantees that the last thing we will be doing with respect to the Kingdom is winning.

A. Truth matters, honesty and integrity do too.

B. We all have opinions, we don't all have facts to back them up.  Opinions are not created equally, authority, experience, and expertise have weight.

C. A disregard for the Truth is a cancer within the Church, WE must always want to be, strive to be, and pray to God that we will be, walking in the light of truth and not the darkness of error/lies.

Titus 1:2  New International Version

in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

Hebrews 6:18  New International Version

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.

The cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is NOT advanced through lies, end of story. 

3. While matters pertaining to God, the Church, the Bible, and Christianity are my area of special concern, training, experience, and relative expertise, that does not mean I will MYOB or 'stay in my lane' regarding the issues that confront me, my family, community, country, or the world.

A. A prophetic voice is a calling from God.  My particular calling, as evidenced by my passion, the testimony of other Christians who know me, and my ability is to be a Teacher.  I will not ignore it or muzzle it.

B. When a minister of the Gospel grounds his/her opinion in a biblical, orthodox, and historic understanding of the Church, the burden shifts to the people of God to evaluate, weigh, and respond to it.

C. If you disagree with my conclusions without offering a biblically, orthodox, and historically Christian alternative, you haven't responded to the prophetic voice God has laid upon me {and tens of thousands of others, I am but one of God's servants}.

Putting B and C together, this is what frustrates me about much of the online, in particular, 'debate'    between Christians.  I see little evidence of attempts to ground opinions in biblical interpretation or the teaching of the Church.  I see ample political argumentation, far too much actually, and plenty of economic or philosophical viewpoints, but very little of it grounded in a Christian worldview, expressing a desire to evidence the Fruit of the Spirit.  It is not the secularists on the outside who are a significant threat to the Church in America, but those who have abandoned a Christian Mind within.

D. There is ample room to disagree within a Christian framework, even strongly disagree.  A healthy Church has diverse opinions within a Christian worldview.

Feel free to disagree with me, if you do so within a Christian framework at least we're having a healthy discussion, an 'iron sharpens iron' type thing, even if we cannot agree.

E. Opinions which are contrary to biblical, orthodox, and historic Christianity are NOT healthy for individual Christian or the Church and should be challenged by every minister of the Gospel.

Such opinions included, but are not limited to, those based in

    (1) Individualism

    (2) Consumerism/Materialism

    (3) Nationalism

    (4) Racism

    (5) Sexism

Philippians 2:1-5  New International Version

2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

I will continue striving to fulfill my calling, hopefully speaking the Truth, and hopefully doing so in love.  As Luther was purported to have said, "here I stand, I can do no other."  May God enlighten us all through his Spirit at work within us.

My thirty year journey away from Rush Limbaugh

 

As a public persona, Rush Limbaugh changed very little in the last thirty years, his philosophy regarding government, animosity toward political opponents, and bombastic style was rather constant despite the significant changes that occurred in America from the early 1990's until the present.  Rush Limbaugh didn't change very much, but I did.

Picture it: 1991, a high school sophomore, 16, listens to Rush Limbaugh on the radio, lives in a small rural town that is almost entirely white, attends church three times a week at an independent Baptist church, and begins to be involved in a weekly student led bible study at a teacher's home that will continue through high school when he begins to lead the group while in college.  That skinny kid, smart but arrogant, quick with a retort as a defense mechanism, steeped in bible knowledge, but light on biblical wisdom, loved Limbaugh's passion and humor.  He laughed at the feminists (he didn't know any), had high hopes for the power of politics to change things for the better, and flirted with the idea of majoring in political science and making a career out of his own hopes for America's future.

Icing my knees in 92 or 93 after a run at the Sanford home where our bible study was held

What changed?  First of all, I didn't major in political science, I realized that two major things would stand in the way of a career in politics: I hated asking for money, and I had no penchant for dissembling.  The other factor was the bible study that I mentioned previously.  Beginning my sophomore year, myself and a group of fellow students that grew to over twenty met weekly at the home of Mrs. Sanford, our Advanced English teacher, to do a verse by verse study of the bible.  We didn't use prepared materials, we simply read a verse and people commented upon it.  Because of my background in Sunday school, junior church, youth group, 5 day clubs, and especially AWANA, I had more bible knowledge than most, and became one of the regular commentators in our group.  I probably talked more than anyone else during our hour each week, that's sounds like me.  It was through that group that my eyes began to open to the possibility of ministry as a career, a calling.  Eventually, I called my pastor, James Frank, and told him that I felt called to be a pastor.  At this point, I was very conservative in my politics, although I had suffered my first disillusionment about the whole business when I voted for the losing candidate in the 1992 presidential election (on my 18th birthday), and I still listened to and enjoyed Rush Limbaugh, I even had both of his books.

One incident that happened at Bible study sticks with me, although at the time it didn't have much of an impact upon my thinking.  We were reading Galatians 1:8, But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  and like normal, I shared my viewpoint on the meaning of the text.  Unbeknownst to me, there was a Catholic student in our group, and after I proceeded to excoriate the Catholic Church for perverting the Gospel (a very typical independent Baptist viewpoint: see John MacArthur, James White, or Steven Anderson) Mrs. Sanford took me aside and informed me that my words could have hurt that other student.  But I was 18, and I knew everything, I brushed it off, my mind was firm.  Looking back on it, I wish I had listened to her, but I'm not surprised that I didn't.  I really only knew one family that was Catholic, who had a daughter in my grade who was one of my friends, and almost every Christian I knew belonged to an independent church because they were the only ones that our church 'fellowshipped' with.  My horizons were narrow, indeed.

Things began to change, although I was still listening to Limbaugh regularly, when I arrived at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Not because the school was liberal by any means, all of its faculty were Baptists, and when I first arrived it was still against school policy for students to go the movies (something I had enjoyed since my mom took me to see the Dark Crystal when I was 6, fortunately those scars healed).  It was only years later that I found out that Cornerstone was pesona non grata to many from the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARB) or the Independent Fundamental Churches of America (IFCA).  How did my education at Cornerstone begin to change my attitude toward Rush Limbaugh?  The first thing that it did was expose me to the reality of diversity within Christian history, theology, and the Church today.  New books, new authors, new arguments and viewpoints, even when you yourself don't change what you believe very much, your eyes begin to open to the possibility that God could be working with/through Christians whose backgrounds and attitudes differ significantly.  At Cornerstone I had amazing professors, they were all conservative by any broad definition regarding theology, culture, and politics, but they were committed to teaching their students HOW to think, not WHAT to think.  It was a profound attitude, and a gift from God.

So there I was at Cornerstone, working toward a degree in religion, with a minor in philosophy, more interested in the kingdom of God than the kingdoms of men, and inching away from the certainty and antagonism of Rush Limbaugh.  I listened less, I was annoyed more often, but the space between his certainty and my budding realization that other perspectives could honor and please God was not yet very wide.

Two things happened during my senior year in college that moved me further down the path to where I am today.  The first was a month spent in Guatemala on a cross-cultural missions trip, and it was indeed an eye opening experience on many levels.  The second was the ending of a year and a half's relationship with my college girlfriend, Elizabeth.  She and I had similar backgrounds, being raised in Baptist Churches and attending conservative Christian schools (she went to Cedarville in Ohio).  Whatever path the two of us might have trod together, it was not the same one I'm on now.

The kids who came to our program at Dios Es Amor Church in Chichicastenango, Guatemala

While at Cornerstone, I also saw a glimpse of ministry being done in a way that transcended politics in the person of Ed Dobson.  Not the Focus on the Family Ed Dobson, but the Blinded by Might Ed Dobson, the pastor of Calvary Church whose mega church (before mega churches were everywhere) neighbored the campus of Cornerstone.  Pastor Dobson, who went home to glory in 2015 after a courageous battle with ALS, impacted me, although the closest we came to meeting was me sitting in his congregation listening to him preach a couple times.  {I highly recommend his The Year of Living Like Jesus, it is very powerful and touches on some of the themes I'm trying to elucidate here}

After graduating from Cornerstone, I made the momentous decision to seek real-world experience for my resume before continuing on with Seminary training; it was choosing the hard road, though I didn't know it.  It did have an impact on my journey away from the politics-centric certainty of Limbaugh because it eventually brought me to both Caledonia United Methodist Church and Oakview Reformed Church, where I worked as a youth pastor/leader for about a year and six months, respectively.  It was another step away from a narrowly defined Church toward one that more faithfully encompasses the breadth of God's grace in our world

While working at Caledonia UMC and living in Grand Rapids, I met a soon-to-be Calvin College graduate and future teacher, Suzanne, who ended up moving back home to Minneapolis, MN after we had dated a few times.  She found work at a school there, and I considered moving to MN to see if the relationship had long-term potential, but I was stymied by the MN director of GARB because he was unwilling to help a graduate of Cornerstone find work at one of their churches because of how 'liberal' the school was.  Flabbergasted at this, and without means of finding work in MN, I remained in MI and continued working as a substitute teacher while trying to secure a more than part-time ministry position.

During this time of transition in 1999, I met the woman who would truly bend the direction that my life was heading, my future wife, Nicole Brzezinski.  Nicole, in addition to being a free spirit, was (and is) a devout Catholic.  At first, neither of us considered our relationship to be anything more than a friendship, because we couldn't see how any romantic relationship would have a future.  As friendships among 20 somethings sometimes go, we found ourselves together, wondering what to do next.

How could I hope to find work at a Baptist church as a pastor if I brought along with me a Catholic wife?  How could we get married if I didn't have a full-time job?  Life's questions were paramount at the time, politics was far from my mind, and I no longer listened to Rush Limbaugh.  Eventually, Nicole and I made our commitment to each other, and were married at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church on June 30th, 2001.  

My future as a pastor seemed unlikely, work was not to be found, so I took the few classes I needed to obtain a teaching certification in Social Studies and English, and found work at an unlikely place: Portland Adult and Community Education.  This began a ten year stint there that was as much of an eye opening experience for me as my month in Guatemala.  Guatemala had shown me the reality of Third World poverty and a church operating faithfully in a significantly different culture from my own; working at P.A.C.E introduced me to students with backgrounds and experiences that had been all around me growing up in rural Ionia County, but outside of my limited church/nerd/runners social circle.  It had always been taken as a given by the philosophy of Rush Limbaugh (inspired by Ayn Rand: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand: Hatred of the authority of God) that America's greatness was due in large part to 'rugged individualism' and those who had 'pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps'.  At P.A.C.E. I saw generational poverty firsthand, learned what it was like for my students to have none of the support system that I was blessed with growing up, but instead to need to overcome the presence of drugs and violence in their lives in order to reach for a high school diploma.  Life was not as simple and people were not as easily categorized, as the pundits would have us believe.  People, experience was teaching me, are not wholly responsible for their own 'success' or 'failure' in life; individualism is not the panacea.

Five years into my teaching tenure at P.A.C.E. I was invited to preach at the First Baptist Church of Palo, MI.  The next Sunday I was offered the position of pastor to this small, very rural, congregation.  I was there for five years, learning on the job.  It was at Palo that I was ordained, although one of the local ministers that I asked to sit on my ordination council abstained from voting in favor because he was unaware when the process began that I had a Catholic wife.  I was happy at P.A.C.E. and at Palo, but I needed full-time ministry, and additionally neither position had benefits like health insurance.

Nicole and I struggled during the ten years that I worked at P.A.C.E (five of which I was also at 1st Baptist of Palo), we couldn't keep our heads above water financially, even though our home was a modest one, and when Nicole's health necessitated the end of her 10 years of teaching high school English, we lost our health insurance as well.  The school board at Portland didn't consider the P.A.C.E teachers to be worthy of the same pay as other teachers (we made only 1/2 as much), and didn't provide any benefits.  My dad worked for Amway for 44 years and that company had treated him well, he was never out of work, and even though we were far from rich, we didn't struggle nearly as much as many others.  If not for the kindness of my parents in offering us assistance, we would have lost our house during those hard years after Nicole quit teaching.  I was working three jobs, but we barely could pay our monthly bills.  If this could happen to the guy voted 'most likely to succeed' who graduated Summa Cum Laude from college, it was further proof that 'rugged individualism' wasn't the whole answer.  Our personal struggles opened my eyes further to the needs of those around us, to the structural causes of poverty, and questions about how the Church should respond.

Nicole's Catholicism prevented us from receiving offers from a number of churches, one in Indiana and one in New York both in the fall of 2011.  It was heartbreaking, and tearful questions of 'why?' abounded.  Thankfully, not every church felt that way.  When I told the search committee of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA that my wife was Catholic, they were unfazed.  We moved here at the start of 2012 with a new 'lease on life', it was a much needed turn for the better.

Western PA is very similar to western MI, but with one significant difference: Baptists and independent bible churches are a small minority (and there are few Reformed Churches), and those churches that are here have a much more ecumenical attitude toward each other.  Here in Venango County we joke that you can't throw a stick without hitting a Methodist Church (mostly UMC, but Free Methodist too).  In fact, across the corner from our church is First UMC, and halfway down the block is Christ UMC.  In response to my choice to move forward with Nicole I had researched and written a 'book' about the ecumenism of 1 John {Christianity's Big Tent: The Ecumenism of 1 John} while we lived in MI, but here in Franklin I saw the reality of that thesis in practice.  What was the thesis?  According to the Apostle John, there are three tests of faith/fellowship that determine if someone is a genuine Christian: (1) Do they acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? (2) Do they have genuine love for fellow Christians? And (3), do they 'Walk in the light', that is, live righteously?  That's it.  That's the whole list.  Nothing about baptism or communion, nothing about church polity, and absolutely nothing about politics.  Here in Franklin I began working with committed and God-honoring Christians who were Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Christian Missionary Alliance, Church of God, and on and on.  The narrow, us vs. them mentality of my youth, and the certainty with which I responded to Mrs. Sanford's attempt to pour cold water on my self-righteous zeal, were long gone.  Here was a community that did not agree on many minor things, but were able to work together because they agree on one very important thing: Jesus.

Somewhere along this journey, between college and moving to Franklin in 2012, my attitude toward Rush Limbaugh soured more than just no longer listening to him or others like him, hyper-partisan punditry began to show itself to me to be a part of the problem, not the solution.  In the fall of 2012, having been in Franklin mere months, I became involved in the effort that would lead shortly to the creation of Mustard Seed Missions of Venango County, an ecumenical para-church charity focused on helping the 'least of these' in our community in partnership with our county's Human Services Department.  I've been the President of Mustad Seed Missions since its inception, and we've helped over 1,500 families without a drop of partisanship, replacing it entirely by building relationships within the organization, with the partners we work with, and the clients we help.  The Culture Wars didn't create MSM, ecumenism and compassion for those in need did.  In other words, it was the Church being the Church, serving the Kingdom of God, not fighting for control of the kingdoms of men.

In the years since the founding of MSM, we also began in our community a homeless shelter, Emmaus Haven, also built upon ecumenism, community support, and partnerships with the local government.  This was yet another step away from the philosophy of Rush Limbaugh, as both of these organizations have demonstrated in concrete terms that the government need not be the enemy, and that poverty isn't simply a matter of people not working hard enough.

Thirty years ago Rush Limbaugh was much the same as he was in 2021, the year of his death.  I was a lot like him in attitude and philosophy back then, but see very little that we might have had in common anymore.  He didn't change much, but I did.  How?  Why?  It was a journey of education, maturity, and discipleship, but mostly it was the 'school of life' teaching me humility and compassion through my own struggles, teaching me ecumenism and cooperation through my marriage and my ministry.  It was, I believe, in the end, the journey that God wanted me to take, the person he wanted me to become, it was like so much else, God's grace.

See Also: "You do you, I'll do me" - Quintessentially American, but incompatible with the Judeo-Christian worldview which touches upon both Rush Limbaugh and Ayn Rand.

And, Pope Francis' views on capitalism and Rush Limbaugh which was the proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back'.