Persecution of Christians Continues

On November 7 Asia Bibi was sentenced to die. I reported on Asia’s tragic plight just over a year ago in this paper. According to published reports Asia, a Pakistani Christian, got into a dispute with her Muslim colleagues who were pressuring her to convert to Islam. She allegedly told her co-workers that Jesus had died, but had risen from the dead, but that Mohammed, the founder of Islam, had died, and had not returned from the dead. Her co-workers regarded her comment as an insult to their prophet. An altercation broke out; Bibi was beaten and charged with blasphemy. The 38 year-old mother of two was held in prison for more than a year, and on November 7 she was sentenced to death by a Pakistani judge.

Even if she escapes the death penalty on appeal the future does not look bright for Bibi as she would still be facing imprisonment for life. And in the unlikely event that the charges were to be dropped she would still be in constant danger. For in July of this year two other Pakistani Christians were shot and killed on the way home from the courthouse even though they had been acquitted of blasphemy charges.

Unfortunately this is only one more incident in a long list of cases of Christians being harassed and persecuted around the world. On October 31 fifteen Muslim gunmen entered the Syrian Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad during Sunday evening Mass. The terrorists during a four-hour siege murdered some 60 innocent hostages, and wounded 78 others before they themselves were killed. Since then attacks on Christian neighborhoods in the city have continued.

We in Canada have the notion that persecution ended when the Roman Empire officially became Christian way back in the fourth century under Emperor Constantine. And of course in this country we take it for granted that people have the right to freely express their faith and not endanger their life by doing so. But that freedom simply does not exist in many parts of the world.

According to the World Evangelical Alliance approximately 200 million Christians worldwide are denied fundamental human rights solely because of their faith. And a conservative estimate of the number of Christians who are killed for their faith each year is somewhere around 150,000.

This massacre in the Baghdad cathedral recently provoked a white-hot response from an agonized churchman. Father Raymond J. de Souza for the National Post blazingly wrote, “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord…But let us not blanch from raising our voices to the Lord, with righteous anger and hot tears, that He might visit His vengeance upon those who did this, bring down His wrath upon their heads and exact upon them a terrifying justice in full measure.” There are some Christians who would condemn de Souza for his cry for God’s justice on those who perpetrated this ghastly evil, but I am not among them.

Christians believe that Christ will execute perfect justice to all doers of evil when he returns as King and Judge. In the meantime surely we can emulate the prayers of many of the Psalms, asking that God would act sooner rather than later. Can it be wrong to pray to Christ as Judge that He would bring justice down on killers of the innocent, and on all who oppress through unjust laws?

Sunday, November 14 has been designated as International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Tomorrow, Christians will be especially praying for fellow believers who are being persecuted around the world in some 60 different countries. We do not know how or when God will choose to bring about his vengeance on evildoers, for that is his prerogative. But it is certainly appropriate that on one day of the year, at least, Christ-followers everywhere should particularly remember all the Asia Bibi’s living under the sentence of death. Let us never, never forget those living in dark places where to openly speak of Jesus Christ, Light of the world can land you in prison or put you in a hangman’s noose.

Published in Guelph Mercury on November 13, 2010

Reincarnation and Christianity

Just a few weeks ago a clerk in a local store was attending me. He looked familiar to me, so I asked, “Do we know each other?” After exchanging names we concluded that we had not met before. But then he brightened and cheerfully said, “Hey, maybe we knew each other in a former life.” I could see that he was serious and I responded by saying, “I don’t think so, but I’m very interested in your comment about reincarnation because I’m a Christ follower, and the Bible has some very definite things to say about what happens after we die”.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, some 25% of Americans (more women than men) now believe in reincarnation. It seems plausible to me that a similar number of Canadians also embrace the notion that we die more than once and are born anew in some form.

So what gives? Why are so many gravitating toward an Eastern worldview that in the past was considered strange at best, if not an alien way of thinking?

From various conversations I’ve had I think that many people simply cannot accept that this life is all there is. I’ve heard this said by people with doctorates as well as ordinary store clerks. It appears to be a kind of a gut-level, intuitive thing. It reminds me of the text from the Bible that says, “God has put eternity in their hearts.” A Buddhist website I consulted opined that the strong interest in reincarnation, “is perhaps due to the comfort found in believing that each of us continues on in some form and that we have the opportunity to continually improve…increase our good karma and correct mistakes….”

Other people cannot accept the idea that this life ends all because it would mean that instead of justice people will in fact never have to pay for their crimes and sins. Hitler sometimes surfaces in these conversations, always with the premise that he will obviously have to go through a great many lives and suffer a great deal in order to pay for his crimes. This notion ties in with the belief that bad karma is carried forward into one’s new life and that this karma will have to be paid down, either by doing good or through suffering.

Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University, believes that, “our fascination with reincarnation is related to Americans’ relative prosperity. Modern Americans, in their optimism and material success, see reincarnation as a chance to postpone eternity for another day.” Imagine it—a belief system that means you never have to say that you’re dead.

Some people reading this column may wonder what historic Christianity actually says about reincarnation. It happens that on this subject, in particular, the answer is startlingly clear. The Bible from beginning to end views time as linear, not cyclical. There is no vast system called the Wheel of Time that just keeps going round and round. We are born, we live, we die once and then we face the judgment of a fair God. The key scripture is found in Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment…”

Fundamentally reincarnation is an amazingly complex do-it-yourself project. The individual keeps cycling through birth and rebirth in order that he, himself, will get the opportunity to pay off bad karma while earning good karma so that one day he can finally break the cycle and go off to Nirvana.

But whatever else it is, Christianity is the opposite of a do-it-yourself mentality. Christians believe that every individual is born, not basically good, but rather basically sinful and desperately in need of outside help. They look then with delight to Christ who can destroy all bad karma in an instant of time, and who has all sufficient power to prepare them for one good death, and their one new life to come.

Published in The Guelph Mercury, Sept. 25, 2010

Anne Rice Rejects Christianity

Feeling Sorry for Anne Rice as she Quits 'Organized Religion'

By Royal Hamel

From time to time I run into sincere people who tell me, “Well I’m into spirituality, but I’ve got no use for organized religion.” Often I’m tempted to tease them by saying, “Look, if you think organized religion is bad, just think how much worse it would be if it were disorganized.”

But, jesting aside, many people are rejecting so-called “organized religion” and embracing a “disorganized,” self-made religion often referred to as “spirituality.” Just recently the well-known author Anne Rice, who wrote Interview with a Vampire, bailed out of her Christian faith. Despite returning to her Christian roots in 1998 she recently spurned that return to faith by writing on her Facebook site, “ In the name of…Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen”.

From other comments Anne has made it appears that she has no problem with Christ and maintains that she still believes in him, but she has major problems with Christians and Christianity. She further commented on her Facebook site, “It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.”

In a National Public Radio interview Rice insisted that while it was difficult for her to reject Christianity, yet the teachings of the church on a wide range of ethical and social issues including same-sex marriage were not teachings that she was able to accept and embrace.

She stated in the NPR interview that, “We have to differentiate between a conversion to Christ and a belief in God, and a conversion to organized religion.” So it seems that Rice is seeking a spirituality that will allow her to in some way believe in Christ, but one that at the same time will allow her to pretty much believe what she wants about major ethical issues. From my point of view she wants to keep her faith in God and Christ while rejecting the values of the church that Christ established.

I am certainly not unsympathetic to the fact that at times there is much controversy, battling within the church, and even hurt as the church seeks to hold to truth in an age that widely rejects the very concept. And don’t get me wrong. In no way am I defending all the deeds of Christianity throughout its history. For on those occasions when she has acted against the clear teaching of scripture in violation of her own standards people certainly have a right to critique her. However I feel sad for Anne Rice for I think she is profoundly misguided in thinking that one can pick and choose, cafeteria style, what is right and what is wrong, and in the meantime somehow hold on to Christ. Does she truly believe that at the end of time Christ is going to be fine with that?

Suppose that people came up to me and praised me as a minister and said things like, “We just love you, we believe you are right on, we want you to know that we are right behind you, and we are going to continue to follow you”. So far so good--but what if they went on to say, “But we do have a problem with that wife of yours. Sorry, but she is old, out-dated, and way behind the times. Frankly we don’t want anything to do with her. Yes, we’ll accept you, but frankly she’s a hag.”

That’s exactly what people do when they say, “We want Christ without Christianity”. But here is a huge problem. For Christ gave his life for his body, the church; he loves his church with an eternal love; she is his beloved bride and he is the bridegroom. I wonder what Christ will say to people on that final Day of Judgment who claim to have loved him, but freely admit they despised his church and the values it stood for? Just wondering.

Published 14/8/2010 in Faith Section of Guelph Mercury

Truly Prepared to Die

Preparing to Die
Atheist Paul Quarrington put time into thinking about his impending death, but he died not knowing where he’d land.
by Royal Hamel

Some folks think that only religious people are concerned about being ready to die, but that’s not the case. Perhaps nowhere is this more eloquently expressed than by the former, self-professed atheist, Paul Quarrington, who died January 21, 2010 at the age of 56.

It’s hard not to admire this man who so thoroughly enjoyed life.

I first encountered Quarrington in a moving article in Maclean’s magazine, written by his long-time friend, Dan Hill.

Though diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and given less than a year to live, Quarrington lived ardently to the last. Remarkably, right to the very end, like the true artist he was, he creatively wrote songs and books, ate and drank with gusto, fished and played, and traveled to see beautiful places. It’s hard not to admire this man who so thoroughly enjoyed life, and who delighted in giving back more than he took out. This well-loved performer, author, and playwright obviously put time into thinking about crossing over the divide of death. And, about ten days before passing, he expressed those thoughts in a song he performed with his friend, Dan Hill, entitled, “Am I ready”?

The first stanza offers these words: “Trying to hold it off, still I know/ It’s like trying to hold back that old freight train/ Coming down on me, still I’m not afraid/ Got this feeling that I can’t explain/ Like I’m falling through the evening rain? Wash me clean, before I make my stand/ Are you ready, am I ready/ I believe I am.”

Quarrington made no claim to be a Christian. How very fascinating that he should choose to use the language of “washing”—because for Christians there is absolutely nothing more crucial than having their souls washed by Christ prior to their meeting God the Father. But, I doubt he had that in mind here.

In his second stanza, Quarrington sings: “…No one can tell me where I’m gonna be, as I sail into this mystery/ I know I’m falling, don’t know where I’m gonna land/ Are you ready, am I ready/ I believe I am.”

In sharp contrast, Christians confidently confess that, yes, we know where we’re going, where we’re going to land. Oddly enough though this song is all about being ready for death, it’s author confesses he’s actually not prepared—for he has no clue where, “he’s gonna land.”

When Quarrington asks, “…am I ready, I believe I am,” it seems to me by the context that he’s actually saying, “I think I am.” In other words there was no certainty. I suspect a huge number of people think like this. My impression is that Quarrington was doing the best he could given the content—or lack of—of his atheistic worldview.

By contrast Christians believe we can be thoroughly ready to ford death’s dark river, indeed that there is such a thing as full assurance, even now in this life. To be sure this is more of a historic Protestant/Evangelical belief than a Catholic one. That said, it’s a widely held Christian view.

No doubt some may view this notion of complete assurance as triumphalistic, or perhaps even arrogant. But Christians understand they are made right with God not on the basis of how much good they have done, or how much evil they have shunned. They are made right by receiving the benefit of Jesus dying on the cross to make cleansing for our sins. In short, by putting faith in Jesus and the meaning of his death, Christians are washed clean, made acceptable to the Father, and are made ready to meet Him without fear. No, this doesn’t mean that good deeds, and virtuous living are unimportant, only that they are not the basis of our ultimate acceptance with God.

Quarrington was a remarkable talent in many ways. And we are poorer for his death. But in the end I’m not sure that the lyrics in his affecting piece give anyone much to hold onto as we all look ahead to our own death. The song seems tentative, uncertain, carries a mixed message, and gives no clue as to where Quarrington himself thought he would land.

A few years ago I spent some hours in hospital at the bedside of a young man who also was dying of lung cancer. At first he was not sure at all where he was “going to land.” But upon embracing the Jesus way, he was brought to remarkable readiness and peace for that dark journey that all of us shall one day face.

Royal Hamel is a former pastor and missionary. At present he is the director of Light the Darkness Ministries,www.lightthedarkness.org. He can be reached at watchman2003@sympatico.ca.

Originally published in the Guelph Mercury, June 25, 2010

New Tool For Evangelism

I recently bought the evangelism tool called H2O. It's a DVD series similar in form to Alpha and Christianity Explored, but way, way more contemporary. It makes extended use of story telling and parable in its presentation and I think is much, much more likely to elicit discussion from those in attendance. I can't give it a total ten in terms of rating for I have not had a chance yet to use it with a group. But, it looks very promising and is certainly worth checking out. Best price I have seen is to order it directly from Amazon.com

Some might think that session two is a little too gutsy and sharp-edged. And personally I think that session ten goes over the top with a sometimes over-critical portrayal of present day church practice. But, don't be turned away, the series has been extensively used by a pastor friend of mine in his community groups with much success.