Tried With Fire

Thanks to technology, nothing ever goes away. It has come to light that a seminary president - Advised a woman to go back to her abusive husband and to just pray, knowing full well that this would subject her to further abuse. I had a woman who was in a church that I served, and she was being subject to some abuse, and I told her, I said, “All right, what I want you to do is, every evening I want you to get down by your bed just as he goes to sleep, get down by the bed, and when you think he’s just about asleep, you just pray and ask God to intervene, not out loud, quietly,” but I said, “You just pray there.” And I said, “Get ready because he may get a little more violent, you know, when he discovers this.” And sure enough, he did. She came to church one morning with both eyes black. Referred to a minor in sexually objectifying terms. Remarked that everyman should own at least one woman. This sounds more like the misogynistic remarks of Archie Bunker than a Christian leader. ...

As February is Black History Month, the following is the 1851 speech by Sojourner Truth, former slave and civil rights activist (1797-1883): Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and wh...

I was in the 5th grade at my elementary school. I don't remember much about the actual building, but I remember the stairwells. Metal hand rails with chipped paint, well-worn steps, and the combined odor of sneakers and Janitor-in-a-Drum. There were swinging wooden doors with glass panels at each floor so you could see if someone was on the opposite side and not knock them over by accident. I was getting ready to go down the stairs and was in the process of pushing the stairwell door when I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the glass. I will never forget the shock when I saw my face. I saw an Asian girl with glasses looking back at me. It may sound crazy, but I was so used to being around white kids that I forgot I was Chinese. I don't know what I expected to see, but it wasn't me. The Immigration Act of 1965 had been in place for several years, but you could still count the Asian families on one hand. White students outnumbered black students probably 5:1, if not more...

These excerpts from Rosaria Butterfield and Francis Schaeffer are rather uncanny given the latest round of Christian scandals. I have no intention of discussing the scandals themselves. Neither do I intend to gloat over anyone's moral downfall. But I think it is worth taking a very hard look at the movements in the Christian subculture that all but guarantee the perfect Christian family. There are conferences and books galore which play off of fear, especially the fear that our kids will fall into sexual immorality. This is a legitimate concern for parents, which I do not want to make light of, but the solutions are often long on rules and short on gospel. Success is achieved and measured by external behavior, and shame is used to enforce the methodology. When a person falls, he/she needs to own that sin without shifting the blame. But I can't help but wonder if these systems set up their adherents for failure. Moralism never kept anyone from sinning. From Rosaria Butterfield...