Dawn Treader’s magic | Zamperini’s Unbroken spirit
D ECE M B E R 18 , 201 0
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DECEMBER 18, 2010 / VOLUME 25 / NUMBER 25
CONTENTS F E AT UR E S
34 Daniel of the Year
COVER STORY The medical mission field, says Richard S. Bransford, comes with threats—and privileges
44 Card raiders
A small ministry learned what identity theft experts say everyone should know: Anyone with an card is a potential target of “skimmers”
46 ‘We had adversities’
Louis Zamperini’s long life has seen great highs, terrifying lows, and a “miracle of transformation.” A new biography tells his remarkable story
50 Morgan’s mission
The leader of a venerable Manhattan ministry to the poor has goals beyond behavioral modification: “We are snatching back souls from the enemy”
54 Treading carefully
After Prince Caspian’s disappointing results, Walden Media went back to the basics with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
58 Drawn by grace
Many Chinese immigrants hear the gospel for the first time in the United States—and many are responding
28
ON THE COVER: David K. Morrison/Genesis Photos for
BRANSFORD: NAT BELZ FOR WORLD
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DISPATCHES 5 News 14 Human Race 16 Quotables 18 Quick Takes REVIEWS 23 Movies & TV 26 Books 28 Q&A 30 Music NOTEBOOK 63 Lifestyle 66 Technology 68 Science 69 Houses of God 70 Sports 71 Money VOICES 3 Joel Belz 20 Janie B. Cheaney 32 Mindy Belz 79 Mailbag 83 Andrée Seu 84 Marvin Olasky
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Joel Belz Others in the street-corner group at Dealey Plaza had their own stories to tell about contemporary airport security. But even after scratching their gray heads, none could remember anything the government had done in the mid-’60s that was anything like the barrage of new regulations these days. To be sure, a puny Lee Harvey Oswald, even if he was a sharpshooter with his tiny arsenal of only a couple of guns, was hardly the same kind of threat as al-Qaeda and the Taliban represent these days. But there was consensus among our streetside conferees. If something like the Kennedy assassination were to happen today, folks would pretty much expect it to be followed by a catalog of new regulations and restrictions governing travel, banking, access to fuel, and access to ’m not sure I should have called it serendipitous, but it was food. at least an unplanned circumstance. Here I was, the morning of Most of us in that informal group were too Nov. 22, just a five-minute walk from Dealey Plaza in downtown young to remember Pearl Harbor and World Dallas. My day was busy, but the next hour wasn’t—so how could I War II—although our sense was that rations and not stroll over and re-live what had made Nov. 22 a famous date? restrictions were commonplace in those dire It was a simple but necessary pilgrimage. times. I do remember, soon after the war ended No crowds gathered there that morning; it was the 47th anniand I turned 5, that Dad was able for the first versary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, and folks time in several years to buy a set of new tires— don’t usually make big deals about 47th anniversaries of any before which he patched a lot of flats. events. Certainly none of us had made a point to be in Dallas that But all of us could remember Sept. 11, 2001. particular morning. And all of us feel, and are uneasy about, the But there we were—two or three dozen of us, no more—walking, decade of new restraints since then. None of us pointing, looking up at what used to be the Texas Book Depository, like it, and none of us feel particularly more then down at the grassy knoll just west and a little south, then secure as a result. walking again to get a feel for the close distances involved. If you tend toward paranoia, you’re pretty And then cautiously talking with each other. “You think he did it sure the big-and-all-powerful-government alone?” It’s hard to stand in a place where such history was made and talk collectivists are deliberately using all this to only to yourself. “Did the limo come around this corner—or that one over strip you of your freedoms. If, on the other there?” “Do you know where the theater is where they caught him?” hand, you’re a little more forgiving and Now there were half a dozen of us, sharing our limited recollections and matter-of-fact, you tend more to see our touristy ignorance. So I thought I’d test the waters a bit, asking a difWashington as a pragmatic bunch who believe ferent sort of question—maybe the kind you ask only on a 47th anniverthis is the only way they can protect you. sary: “Can anybody here remember,” I asked, “even a single example of But either way, it some new regulation or law or looks more and more like restriction or code that the a bad bargain. What government imposed as a result of followed the 1963 death the Kennedy assassination?” of JFK, as I recall it, My question, of course, came in certainly included confuthe context of the expanding sion, loss, vulnerability, brouhaha over the increasingly and dismay. But not once invasive inspection air travelers was there a sense that are getting these days at American there were folks willing airports. Indeed, just to get to to use all that—deliberDallas the previous day, I’d had to ately or otherwise—to stand spread-eagled before a minimize our cherished machine, exposing my inmost liberties. I wish I had that thoughts and inmost everything same assurance as we else, and assuming the pose of a PILGRIMAGE: People wait for a break in traffic to stand on the “X,” head into the year 2011. A man surrendering to arrest. which marks the spot where JFK was assassinated at Dealey Plaza.
On Dealey Plaza
Traumatic events we will always have with us, but the reactions to them have changed
Lara SoLt/the DaLLaS morning newS/ap
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Dispatches NEWS HUMAN RACE QUOTABLES QUICK TAKES
Big gulp NEWS: Slurpee Summit can’t overcome hard-toswallow measures ahead BY EDWARD LEE PITTS
KRIEG BARRIE
>>
. Then the Slurpee Summit. The first meeting between President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders after mid-term elections on Nov. was so named because Obama, before the election shellacking, had accused Republicans of standing around and drinking Slurpees. And true to the label, Obama and Republicans emerged from the private, two-hour White House meeting without much of substance. Obama bemoaned a political climate where “both sides come to the table. They read their talking points. Then they head out to the microphones, trying to
win the news cycle instead of solving problems.” Ironically, the president described what had just happened. The only decision to emerge from the meeting was an agreement to form yet another bipartisan working group—this time to look at tax cuts. Back on Capitol Hill, Democrats seemed determined to leave their liberal stamp on this legislative year, despite their rejection by voters—loading down this congressional session’s final weeks with transparent attempts to court their base. This push included attempts to force Senate votes on the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy
and on the Act, which would give U.S. citizenship to certain children of illegal immigrants. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid survived a tough reelection fight in Nevada by promising supporters that he would bring these measures up for votes in the abbreviated session. Those who favor overturning the ban on gays openly serving in the military seized on a Nov. Pentagon study on the long-standing policy. They heralded the report for suggesting that a majority of service members would support a change. But the percent figure cited also includes those who said they had mixed feelings. DECEMBER 18, 2010
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Dispatches > News
ministers meet When European Union ministers meet in Brussels on
Dec. , they will likely still be discussing the bailouts of weak and staggering members of the Eurozone like Ireland and Greece. Both France and Germany have called for a rewrite of the Lisbon Treaty to prohibit member states from bailing out fellow nations.
LOOKING AHEAD Oil spill report
A panel put together by President Barack Obama must report back by Dec. on the causes of the Deepwater Horizon blowout, fire, and ensuing oil spill. The report issued by the National Oil Spill Commission will also make recommendations on how to prevent disasters like the months-long spill that began with a blowout and fire on April .
Web turns 20 Two decades ago on Christmas day, professor Tim BernersLee and two others successfully linked an client and a server through an internet connection. The methodology of using internet connections to remotely access hypertext pages became popularly known as the World Wide Web. According to an August survey by the web analyst company, Netcraft, there are more than million websites in existence today.
Busy mailing day
People busy mailing Christmas gifts to friends and relatives will make Dec. the busiest day of the year at the post office, according to A busy postal the . season could be music to the ears of the Postal Service, which in November announced it would likely lose billion in the fiscal year.
Shortest day of the year The winter
solstice in the Northern Hemisphere arrives on Dec. and brings with it a lunar eclipse viewable in most of North America. The eclipse, occurring when the Moon slips into the Earth’s shadow, will last minutes. But for everyone in the Northern Hemisphere, today will feature the least amount of sunlight of any day in . And if you miss the sunlight, consider the , residents of Barrow, Alaska, where, because of its far-north position on the Arctic Ocean, the sun set around Thanksgiving and isn’t scheduled to rise again until mid-January.
EU: DIMITRI MESSINIS/AP • PACKAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK • OIL SPILL: GERALD HERBERT/AP • ECLIPSE/KRISTIAN DOWLING/GETTY IMAGES • CAKE: ISTOCK • WWW: ISTOCK
Buried in the nine-month report: Nearly percent of combat forces are concerned about serving with openly gay comrades—a number that climbs to almost percent of those serving in specialized frontline units. Republicans like Sen. John McCain, a former Navy combat pilot, question the Pentagon’s findings because the report focused on how to implement a repeal— not on whether a repeal should happen. Political maneuvering on other issues maintained a rapid pace: As Senate Republicans pushed to secure an agreement to extend temporarily the expiring Bush tax cuts for everybody, Democrats enjoyed their last days controlling the House by forcing a symbolic vote to make the cuts permanent for the middle class only. But it is the tightly divided Senate where the power lies during this lame duck session, and Republicans seemed to gain the tax cut upper hand by leveraging the still not ratified Treaty. Obama has said his top foreign policy priority is this arms treaty with Russia to reduce each nation’s nuclear warheads by up to percent. All GOP Senators signed a Dec. letter to Reid, vowing to oppose moving forward with any legislation that does not deal with funding the government or with the expiring Bush tax cuts. This pledge dims Democrats’ hopes to end the year with a liberal bang. “There’s a reason why we have Democrats and Republicans,” said future House Speaker John Boehner. “We believe in different things about the appropriate role of the federal government.” A voter mandate favoring the becomes real in January. If this Congress fails to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, then expect the first bill introduced in the new Republican-led House to be legislation making the cuts permanent. If a tax agreement can somehow be hammered out this month, then House Resolution No. will be a measure to repeal Obamacare. “Last month, the American people issued their verdict on the Democrats’ priorities,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “We need to show the American people that we care more about them and their ability to pay their bills than we do about the special interests’ legislative Christmas-list.” A WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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Dispatches > News
ILLINOIS VOTES
Reunification now
China called for resumption of six-party talks between North Korea and other nations following North Korea’s Nov. attack on South Korea—the first since the s. But U.S. officials called on China to exert its influence with its ally in Pyongyang to press for peace in the region. John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said neither option will work. He called for the United States to press China to help with efforts to reunify the Korean peninsula as power shifts hands in Pyongyang. It’s unclear whether China would consider such WRECKED: A road damaged by an option—or what it would take to a bomb on Yeonpyeong Island; reunify—but Bolton warned: “North a South Korean marine stands Korea’s threat will only end when it guard on Yeonpyeong Island (top). [North Korea] does, and that day cannot come soon enough.” The South Korean island of Yeonpyeong remained wrecked days after the November shell attack that killed four South Koreans and A North Korean soldier told the damaged nearly every structure on the island of Associated Press Television News Dec. , residents. The assault targeted one of five that he heard about the North Korean South Korean islands near a disputed maritime bombings that killed several South border between the two countries, and signaled Koreans over Thanksgiving, and said he the North’s attempt to gain control of waters in hopes that “such a military conflict between the area. The attack also likely signaled the the North and the South never happens North’s attempt to assert its strength as the again.” Such public comments are rare under reclusive regime’s longtime dictator—Kim Jong the oppressive North Korean regime, which Il—begins the process of transferring power to relies on propaganda and has maintained his son. A week after the attack, the country’s a bellicose stance toward South leading newspaper officially boasted of the Korea and the rest of the world. nation’s operational uranium enrichment Lt. Choe Song IlIl, stationed on the facility, a central component of any nuclear border between the two counweapons program. The stark but unsurprising tries, said he hopes the conflict news is disconcerting to both South Koreans and will be resolved “as soon as to U.S. officials who believe North Korea has possible, in a peaceful way.” plans to supply nuclear weapons to Iran.
RARE REACTION
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MARINE: BYUN YEONG-WOOK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • YEONPYEONG: JEON HEON-KYUN/EPA/LANDOV • SONG CREDIT IL: AP
Illinois legislators voted to allow gays the right to a civil union, putting Illinois on the path to becoming the th state to permit civil unions or domestic partnerships. The House passed the legislation -, sending it to the Senate where it has already passed a committee vote and is expected to pass quickly. The Catholic Conference of Illinois opposed the legislation, with Cardinal Francis George saying in a statement, “Everyone has a right to marry, but no one has the right to change the nature of marriage.” The bill declares that the act shall not “interfere with or regulate the religious practice of any religious body,” but the Conference still feared that the law would prompt discrimination against religious adoption agencies and social agencies that do not want to provide services to same-sex couples. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has promised to sign the legislation after winning a close election against a candidate who vowed to veto it.
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Dispatches > News
Aimed to kill
Been there too long
U.S. diplomats post-leaks are likely to ditch the cables An “attack on the international community” is what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (above) called WikiLeaks’ publication of , diplomatic cables after Thanksgiving—shaking international relations and altering the State Department’s information sharing. U.S. agencies are tightening access to classified information, and the Obama administration has told agencies to limit the use of external drives for transferring data. One man, Brad Manning, an Army intelligence specialist, is allegedly responsible for downloading all the files. Manning has been in military detention since May. Mary Manjikian, a former foreign service officer and now a professor at Regent University’s Robertson School of Government, outlined the long-term consequences for diplomacy: “Every time an analyst sits down to write a piece of analysis, they have to think to themselves, ‘Would I lose my job if this ends up on the front page of The Washington Post?’ They’ll have to censor themselves.” Manjikian imagines foreign service officers turning to phone calls to have candid conversations so there is no written record. “It’s going to be a tragedy for historians,” she said. “Imagine if we had no records of the Cuban missile crisis.” The State Department receives , to , cables a day, according to Manjikian, who used to write three or four cables a day herself. She called the leaked cables “a very, very small sample” and said Julian Assange, the head of WikiLeaks, was “irresponsible” for unveiling private conversations out of context. The U.S. government should “make an example of him,” she said. Top House Republican Pete King, in line to chair the Homeland Security Committee, urged Clinton to designate WikiLeaks as a foreign terrorist organization. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the agency didn’t consider WikiLeaks’ publication of the documents a “terrorist act,” though it was a “crime.”
MOHAMUD: AP • CLINTON/WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES • ELECTIONS: STR/AP • MANNING/AP CREDIT
Human -rights groups denounced Egypt’s parliamentary elections on Nov. , saying the government’s ruling party spent weeks before the elections harassing opposition groups. Amnesty International said allies of President Hosni Mubarak, whose party has been in power nearly years, arrested dissenters and suppressed opposing campaigns, and the group reported violence against opposition groups on Election Day. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. was “dismayed” by reports of flawed elections in Egypt—a key U.S. ally in the region.
Self-censored
WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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Mohamed Osman Mohamud, , pleaded not guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction four days after agents say the Somali-born U.S. citizen tried to use a cell phone to detonate what he thought were explosives packed into a van. Mohamud aimed to kill or maim thousands of bystanders at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., but undercover agents posing as terrorist contacts had intercepted the plan and provided the suspect with fake explosives. The thwarted scheme was the latest in a string of apparent U.S.-based terror attempts dismantled by undercover agents. According to a -page affidavit, Mohamud said he wanted to aid Islamic jihad, and that he found the / attacks inspiring, particularly when victims jumped from the burning skyscrapers. When it came to blowing up the Portland event packed with men, women, and children, the agents said the suspect told them: “I want whoever is attending that event to leave . . . either dead or injured.”
Justice delayed The case of Afghan convert gains attention without resolution By mindy Belz
mohamuD: ap • ClInTon/WIn mCnamEE/gETTy ImagEs • ElECTIons: sTR/ap • mannIng/ap CREDIT
AuréliA Du VignAu
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A heAring in the cAse of Sayed Mossa, the jailed Afghan convert to Christianity, had already been postponed twice when he entered the courtroom in downtown Kabul on Nov. 27. “I became very, very happy,” he wrote later that day, when a man and woman entered the room also, and one introduced himself as “your defense attorney.” Six months into his incarceration, the 45-year-old apparently had some legal counsel. But progress in Mossa’s case—which has come to symbolize how the Karzai government handles conflicts over religious freedom— remained halting. Both he and the defense attorney were denied access to his file that day— again—and the provincial judge refused to lay out formal charges, saying instead that the file contained “a mistake” and he was “rejecting” it and forwarding it to Afghanistan’s attorney general. That didn’t prevent the prosecutor in charge of western Kabul, Din Mohammad Quraishi, from telling Agence France Presse why Mossa and another prisoner, Ahmad Shah, are in jail: “They are accused of conversion to another religion, which is considered a crime under Islamic law. If proved, they face the death penalty or life imprisonment,” said Quraishi. Mossa has “confessed” to his conversion, Quraishi said, while Shah claims to be a Muslim and wants to defend himself against the charges at a trial. Mossa has accused Shah of being one of his “tormenters” in jail and a spy. Mossa entered the courtroom on Nov. 27 shackled to Shah and, according to eyewitnesses, appeared notably more nervous. Mossa is not the only Christian detained without formal charges. Shoib Assadullah was arrested on Oct. 21 in Mazar-e-Sharif, according to International Christian Concern, after he had given a New Testament Bible to a man who later reported him to local authorities. He is currently in a holding
jail in northern Afghanistan. A group of Mossa’s supporters was able to secure legal counsel through Advocates International—a faith-based association with 25,000 attorneys in 130 countries. But the judge denied the attorney access to the evidence against Mossa and informed him that Mossa must be represented by an Afghan (the attorney, who has asked not to be named publicly for fear of his own safety, is not an Afghan). At the same time, public interest has grown, particularly since Mossa wrote a letter in October describing his prison
STILL IMPRISONED: Mossa (left) helps a young Afghan boy with his prosthetic leg.
ordeal, which has included beatings and sexual assaults by Muslim prisoners. Mossa has since been moved to a highsecurity facility typically reserved for political prisoners. According to the attorney and other sources, Mossa’s case was to be a topic discussed in a meeting between President Hamid Karzai and Gen. David Petraeus, com-
mander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, on Dec. 1. Sources contacted within the general’s staff, the U.S. embassy, and the State Department could not confirm whether that discussion took place. The attorney told me he is torn about the prospect of a deal to secure Mossa’s release: “We believe the charges should be withdrawn altogether,” he said. “The right to choose who and what to believe is the most basic of rights, after the right to life.” The attorney said he remained eager to assist in the case: “How can I sit still when [nearby] a brother sits in prison despairing that he will receive a fair trial for doing something that in any society with God-values would not even be considered a crime?” Under Afghanistan’s Interim Criminal Code, Mossa’s case could be dismissed on procedural grounds. It
requires that a plaintiff be notified of the charges against him within 15 days (or 30 days under some circumstances) of his arrest and have access to the evidence on file—conditions plainly not met. Mossa was arrested on May 31 as he left his work with the International Committee for the Red Cross—part of a roundup of Christians accused of apostasy. Mossa has worked for 15 years as a therapist with victims of landmines and other amputees. A December 18, 2010
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Voting blocks For Haitians, peace may prove elusive this Christmas: Authorities said they would announce the country’s presidential election results by Dec. , leaving many citizens preparing for potential turmoil, and many candidates declaring they won’t accept tallies they believe are unfair. Turmoil marked the country’s Nov. Election Day: Voters spent hours searching for polling stations or wandered from station to station, finding that their names weren’t registered on any voting lists. Some found their names on lists outside of stations, but left when poll workers said they weren’t registered inside. The confusion turned violent: In one neighborhood, a group of some young men raided a voting station at a local school, dumping ballots in the street. Officials canceled
voting at the location, stranding at least people still waiting in line. Voters charged government intimidation in some quarters, saying observers for the ruling party stood near open ballot boxes. Others reported prestuffed ballot boxes in other locations. By p.m. that day of the presidential candidates gathered in a Port-auPrince hotel ballroom to read a joint statement demanding that officials scrap the election results: “We denounce a massive fraud that is occurring across the country. . . . We demand the cancellation pure and simple of these skewed elections.” The group accused outgoing President René Préval of tampering with the elections to secure victory for Jude Celestin, the president’s protégé. The electoral council immediately declared the
TURMOIL: A child plays in a polling station littered with unmarked ballots the day after general elections in Port-au-Prince.
elections successful, saying it found irregularities at only of , polling stations. The council—appointed by Préval—didn’t indicate how it calculated that number. observers pointed to “numerous incidents that marred the elections,” but didn’t immediately call for new contests. Even if Haitian authorities certify election results on Dec. , a close contest may lead to runoffs in January for both presidential and legislative seats—just as the island nation remembers the anniversary of its earthquake. But unrest may come
sooner if Haitians believe their government is trying to rig the election, especially after months of dissatisfaction with Préval’s response to the January quake. Celestin—Préval’s pick for president—was the only major contender who didn’t condemn the elections. But even Celestin encountered trouble voting on Election Day: When a poll worker tried to verify the candidate’s identity by looking up Celestin’s photo on the voting list, he said Celestin didn’t match the photo—leaving the candidate to vote by provisional ballot. —Jamie Dean
’Tis the season
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HAITI: JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES • BILLBOARD: SETH WENIG/AP CREDIT
Next to the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City, American Atheists has erected a confrontational anti-Christmas billboard. It shows the three Wise Men approaching the stable with a starry sky reading, “You know it’s a myth. This season, celebrate reason.” David Silverman, president of American Atheists, told FOX News the organization hopes the billboard prompts atheists to “come out.” The organization says Christianity “stole Christmas” by appropriating the winter solstice to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Christians are fighting back with ads of their own. One, from ChurchAds.net, drew national attention for using a sonogram image to depict Jesus as an unborn baby wearing a halo. Liberty Counsel released its “Naughty and Nice” list of retailers who “censor . . . or recognize” Christmas. Best Buy and Disney.com, according to the group, have moved to the “Nice” list by mentioning Christmas in their ads or stores. WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
12/2/10 4:28 PM
Q.
Q.
Who provides financial support for hundreds of indigenous missions that rescue thousands of helpless children from starvation and death?
Q. How is Christian Aid financed? A. Christian Aid is supported entirely by freewill gifts and offerings from Biblebelieving, missionary-minded Christians, churches and organizations.
CREDIT
Q. How many indigenous missions are in need of financial help? A. Christian Aid is in communication with more than 4000 indigenous missions, some based in almost every unevangelized country on earth. They have over 200,000 missionaries in need of support. All Christians who believe in Christ’s “Great Commission” are invited to join hands with Christian Aid in finding help for thousands of native missionaries who are winning souls, planting churches and caring for destitute homeless children.
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A.
Who has provided housing, food, clothing and education for many thousands of destitute children in poorer countries?
Native missionaries serving with indigenous evangelistic ministries based in those countries.
A.
Since 1953 Christian Aid Mission has distributed millions of dollars among hundreds of indigenous Christian ministries that care for impoverished children in over 100 of the poorest countries in the world. For more than 50 years Christian Aid has been sending financial help to indigenous evangelistic ministries based in unevangelized countries. More than 750 ministries are now being assisted in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. They deploy over 80,000 native missionaries who are spreading the gospel of Christ among unreached people within more than 3000 different tribes and nations. Most are in countries where Americans are not allowed to go as missionaries.
Christian Aid . . . because
Christian Aid Mission P. O. Box 9037 Charlottesville, VA 22906
434-977-5650 www.christianaid.org When you contact Christian Aid, ask for a free copy of Dr. Bob Finley’s 285-page book, REFORMATION IN FOREIGN MISSIONS. we love the brethren.
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Dispatches > Human Race AWARDED
JUDGED A Texas jury has convicted former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, , of illegally funneling corporate money to candidates during the state elections. DeLay, who resigned from Congress amid scandal in , told reporters the conviction is “a miscarriage of justice and I still maintain that I am innocent.” His sentencing is tentatively set for mid-December.
CHALLENGED Rahm Emanuel faces an uphill battle in his bid for Chicago mayor as questions about whether he meets residency requirements continue to dog him. Opponents argue that Emanuel
RELEASED Egypt has released a blogger who served four years in prison on charges of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak. Abdel Kareem Nabil, , who writes under the name Kareem Amer and was Egypt’s first blogger to face trial for online writings, said his imprisonment was a “cruel experience” that included beatings at the hands of security officers.
CONVICTED Nearly years after Washington intern Chandra Levy disappeared, a jury has convicted an illegal immigrant from El Salvador of murdering her. Although authorities
initially pegged former Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., as a prime suspect because he was having an affair with Levy, the discovery of her remains in a D.C. park refocused the case on Ingmar Guandique, who served jail time for assaulting two women in the same park.
INDISPOSED Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, , arrived in the United States on Nov. to seek treatment for complications stemming from a herniated disc. The news was followed by assurances that there would be no power vacuum in the world’s largest oil exporter: The monarch’s half-brother, Crown Prince Sultan, returned from Morocco to govern in the king’s absence.
DIED Actor Leslie Nielsen first gained fame for dramatic roles in the s, ’s, and ’s. But a hit role in the spoof Airplane! turned him into a comedy star. After Airplane!, the native of Canada gave life to several slapstick and spoof characters, including Lt. Frank Drebin in the cop show parody Police Squad! and in three Naked Gun films. He died of pneumonia on Nov. at age .
DIED Samuel Kunz, one of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s most wanted Nazi war crimes suspects, died Nov. just months before he was to face trial on charges related to the murders of , Jews at Belzec death camp in Poland. The -year-old had admitted to working at the camp and authorities had called him to testify in the trial of John Demjanjuk, the former U.S. autoworker accused of serving as a guard at Sobibor death camp. A
DELAY: BEN SKLAR /GETTY IMAGES • EMANUEL: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP • NABIL: AMR NABIL/AP • LEVY: GETTY IMAGES • ABDULLAH: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY/AP • NIELSEN: LISA LAKE: WIRE IMAGE/GETTY IMAGES CREDIT
Early next year President Obama will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to individuals, including former President George H.W. Bush, author Maya Angelou, and philanthropist Warren Buffett. One award will go posthumously to optometrist Tom Little, who died in August along with nine other humanitarian aid workers after the Taliban gunned them down in Afghanistan.
should be disqualified from running because he didn’t live in the city for a full year prior to February’s election as required by municipal code. Meanwhile, Rob Halpin, who is renting Emanuel’s Chicago home and refused to break the lease, has made things a little more interesting by throwing his hat into the mayoral race, too.
WORLD DECEM BER 18, 2010
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“THERE
IS NO “ GOD. . .
CREDIT
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11/30/10 2:38 PM 11/30/10 4:05 PM
Dispatches > Quotables “Anything less than execution is too kind a penalty.” Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate MIKE HUCKABEE, arguing that the person who leaked diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks is guilty of treason.
“My town was almost burned out. I thought it was an earthquake.” NOH MYUNG-SAN of Yeonpyeong, South Korea, after North Korea’s Nov. attack on the island (see p. ).
“No tax hikes on anybody. Period.”
Senate leader MITCH MCONNELL on attempts by Democrats to allow tax cuts to expire for high-income Americans but not for other Americans.
“When I hear Shakespeare, I feel like this big door is opening, and something terrible and wonderful is about to happen.” Iraqi student KHENDE ASAAD at auditions for an upcoming production of Macbeth at the American University of Iraq. Located in Sulaymaniyah, the school opened in with an American-style liberal arts program taught in English.
“Well, don’t worry about it. You should see what we say about you.” UNNAMED FOREIGN MINISTER to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a round of calls she made to world leaders ahead of a Nov. release of a quarter-million classified State Department documents by website Wikileaks.
MCCONNELL: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • HUCKABEE: MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES • DETAINEE: BRENNAN LINSLEY/AP • KOREA: YONHAP/AP • CLINTON: EVAN VUCCI/AP CREDIT
White House aide JOHN O. BRENNAN, responding to Saudi King Abdullah’s proposal that Guantanamo Bay prisoners get tracking chips, just like horses and falcons.
WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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CREDIT
“Horses don’t have good lawyers.”
CREDIT
MCCONNELL: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • HUCKABEE: MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES • DETAINEE: BRENNAN LINSLEY/AP • KOREA: YONHAP/AP • CLINTON: EVAN VUCCI/AP CREDIT
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Dispatches > Quick Takes
Fayette County, Pa., constables Hubie Coleman and Rocky Younkin spend their shifts knocking on doors, serving warrants, and hauling individuals to a district court. But getting people actually to open the door has been a problem for the two constables. “One guy told us he wouldn’t come outside because of our car,” Coleman told the Daily Courier, noting their cruiser looks very much like a police car. So the pair borrowed a van painted in Pittsburgh Steelers livery to see if that would draw perps out of their homes. “We sit outside and lay on the horn, and they come out. They’re interested and curious,” Coleman said. “It’s been working great.” But maybe too great. Local press attention to the Trojan van has blown the duo’s cover, leaving them to look for a fresh façade.
Dominick Sgobbo survived the beaches of Normandy and a Nazi prison camp. But while the -year-old Bronx resident arrived home safely from the European theater of World War II, one thing got lost along the way: Sgobbo’s mess kit. In October, Sgobbo received a phone call from a -year-old Dutch archeology student who had been working in Schomerich, Germany—the same place Sgobbo was taken prisoner. The Dutch student explained that he and other archeology students had uncovered Sgobbo’s missing mess kit during a recent dig. “When I got the call saying my mess kit was found, the hair stood up on my arm. . . . It was like I was in the Twilight Zone,” Sgobbo told the New York Daily News. The Dutch student mailed the mess kit to Sgobbo, and the old soldier has his property back after years.
One Boise student recently found his stolen car in perhaps the last place he’d expect to find it: his intended destination. On Nov. , Tyler Scoggins left his car running unattended in order to defrost the windows before heading to his classes at Boise State University. But when Scoggins wanted to leave for school, his car was gone. After quickly filling out a police report, Scoggins caught a ride to the university with his mother. But the pair hit traffic right near campus—traffic caused by nearly a dozen police cars gathered around his stolen vehicle. Even before Scoggins arrived at school, police had spotted the missing vehicle and arrested two alleged car thieves. “It was actually parked right next to my next class,” the student told . “So, I just put a couple quarters in the parking meter, and went to class.”
VAN: GUY ROSE • SGOBBO: VICTOR CHU/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS • RATS: JOSIE LEPE/SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS/AP CREDIT
After being featured on the A&E documentary series Hoarders, close to , rats are now up for adoption in San Jose, Calif. The rats were discovered living in a house belonging to someone featured on the A&E show about people who are compulsive hoarders. The Humane Society of Los Angeles transported the rats to a pet shop whose owner agreed to house temporarily , rats while animal welfare officials seek to find new homes for the rodents.
WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • WHITTINGTON: JED KIRSCHBAUM/BALTIMORE SUN/LANDOV • CHAN: MIKE CLARKE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ERICSON: NAWROCKI STOCK PHOTO/NEWSCOM CREDIT
VAN: GUY ROSE • SGOBBO: VICTOR CHU/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS • RATS: JOSIE LEPE/SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS/AP CREDIT
ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • WHITTINGTON: JED KIRSCHBAUM/BALTIMORE SUN/LANDOV • CHAN: MIKE CLARKE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ERICSON: NAWROCKI STOCK PHOTO/NEWSCOM CREDIT
First he has a gender. Then it doesn’t. Finally the Gingerbread Man is back to being male. Council bureaucrats from Lancashire County, U.K., ordered schools to alter menus in order to de-gender gingerbread men from the dessert listings. The move was reflected on weekly menus published by the schools, which renamed the cookies gingerbread people rather than men. “I am all for anti-discrimination but this is a pudding. The gingerbread man is a character from a rhyme in a book, for goodness sake,” one mother told the Daily Mail. The decision was quickly reversed.
SHOW HIM THE MONEY Bad: A New York City car service driver swiped a visiting businessman’s credit card information in July and used it to make large purchases. Worse: Despite having nearly , in fraudulent charges billed to his American Express card, the Hong Kong businessman didn’t notice he was being bilked. The problems for feng shui master Tony Chan began when he arranged a car service to take him miles from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport to Manhattan. But so rich is Chan—his home in Hong Kong is worth million—he simply did not notice the strange charges showing up on his card despite their , price tag. Now, after having been alerted by a third party, Chan has finally pressed charges against Queens, N.Y., resident Peter Rahhaoui, who authorities say perpetuated the fraud.
Charles Whittington’s college professor at Community College of Baltimore County asked him to write about his experiences while he was a combat soldier in Iraq. The -year-old veteran complied and turned in the paper. His professor gave him an A. Two weeks later, the school suspended him. Citing the violence Whittington wrote about in his school essay, school administrators told the Iraq veteran he couldn’t return to campus until he has a psychological evaluation that indicates he’s not a threat to other students. “We all believe in freedom of speech, but we have to really be cautious in this post–Virginia Tech world,” said college spokesman Hope Davis, making reference to the campus massacre in Blacksburg, Va.
The quandary began when scientists discovered genetic traces of native North American in one of the last places you would expect it: the genes of about Icelanders. But for Spanish researcher Carles Lalueza-Fox, there is a possible explanation. In a report picked up recently in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Lalueza-Fox proposes that the paleo-Indian became intermingled with that of Icelanders after Norse explorer Leif Ericson landed in modern-day Canada in about .. . Lalueza-Fox posits that Ericson must have brought back to Iceland a few paleo-Indian women. If true, that would mean nearly years before Christopher Columbus set foot in North America, North Americans had already set foot in Europe.
DECEMBER 18, 2010
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WORLD
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Janie B. Cheaney
PUSHING BACK GENTLY
A recognition of our own wickedness should give us patience with our cultural opponents
J
WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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But it made me think about when and how to push back. There are times to take a stand, to draw the line, to get angry. Before rushing to the barricades, however, Christians should take a deep breath and remember that the grace we’ve received is beyond human reason. The grace we extend should be the same, even, or especially, in our thoughts. I catch myself thinking, Yes, I have an evil heart, but I can’t imagine being like that . . . that liberal broadcaster, or that scheming politician, or that smut peddler. But God says I broke the whole law. Jesus says that even a lustful thought is the same as adultery, and an angry word is akin to murder. “Be holy, as I am holy.” To protest that nobody’s perfect misses the point. We were made perfect, and turned our backs on perfection. We owe God everything, and give Him almost nothing. If you are easily provoked— not by offenses to God, but by offenses to you— you’re forgetting something. Freely we have received, freely we give. It’s not just goods and money; it’s also patience when we’re overcharged, and forbearance when pulled aside in the airport security line, and charity when we don’t know all the facts. Who are we, to think we should never be doubted or delayed? Who are we, to be above insult? Knowing Christ gives us the security to know our evil hearts, and confront others as gently as we would ourselves. Rightly or wrongly, Christians are known today for what they’re against. God help us also to make known what we’re for: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control. A
KRIEG BARRIE
into a world dominated by Rome. There were benefits: Pax Romana, “all roads,” law and order. But Roman law was often cruel, and Roman order barely a step above savagery. Women, children, and slaves were disposable. Periodic bad harvests drove peasants to the city, where they crowded into apartments and were pacified by free food, obscene plays, and bloody “games.” In other words, Jesus had His work cut out for Him. But His work was not to reform society or any of its institutions. His work was to redeem people: to die their death, so they could have His life. Over the passing of many centuries, society would be reformed because the individual hearts of Christians were reformed. Christians would start the hospitals, educate the rabble, feed the hungry, and preach good news to the poor, generation after generation. As Jesus promised, a little leaven would work its way through the whole lump, and culture would rise. The late th century was probably as good as it gets for comfort, opportunity, benevolence, and freedom. Having enjoyed the benefits, we now face the challenge of what to do when culture appears to be falling. Previous generations have thought the country was going to the dogs, so things might not be as bad as they seem. But entropy teaches that nature tends toward disarray unless some force pushes back. For the last years or so, we have felt culture pushing harder against us, and our natural response is to push back by any lawful means. A couple of weeks ago I posted a polemic on the website about a book offered for sale by Amazon.com: A Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure. According to reports, the content lived up to the title, and Amazon had issued a statement about free speech and censorship. What’s wrong with these people? I fulminated. Why can’t they see that removing a pro-pedophile book isn’t censorship but common decency? After posting, I learned that Amazon had already removed A Pedophile’s Guide and the anti-censorship statement was a standard response to all challenges of controversial books, whether by Saul Alinsky or Sarah Palin. Mea culpa, for not pursuing the story a little further, and thanks to the million-volume bookseller for taking down a title that may have slipped past quality control.
Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
12/1/10 3:32 PM
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world_mag_worldview_8x10.5_fc.indd 1 Movies.indd 22
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Reviews MOVIES & TV BOOKS Q&A MUSIC
Outside the tower MOVIE: Disney makes the classic story of Rapunzel new again BY REBECCA CUSEY
DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC.
>>
the test of time because, underneath the bippity boppity boo, they’re always about something meaningful. Disney’s new princess movie Tangled is no different. At its core, it addresses the fear of growing up and leaving home, but it adds a big dose of humor. This story of Rapunzel (rated for brief mild violence) works on all levels, pleasing adults and children alike. It’s a Disney fairy tale the way fairy tales are meant to be. Rapunzel, the kidnapped princess of the kingdom, languishes in an isolated tower with only a wry chameleon for a companion. Rapunzel’s supposed mother, her kidnapper Mother Gothel, visits daily, controlling the young woman with tales of danger DECEMBER 18, 2010
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Reviews > Movies & TV dysfunctional Mother Gothel. Disney set out to make a movie for the whole family. It succeeded. Silly characters bring lots of laughs, from the relentless police horse Maximus to a tavern’s worth of burly thugs. Their inspired musical number “I’ve Got a Dream” slyly pokes fun at a Disney’s mantra. Rapunzel does more than chase her dreams; she faces her fears. The original fairy tale can be read to explore parents’ attempts to keep their daughter safe from men in an age when letting down your hair was an intimate act. However, Tangled’s Rapunzel, in leaving her tower, is neither rescued nor ravished. Instead, she overcomes her fear of leaving the safety of
tower also teems with beauty, adventure, friendship, and humor. Disney animators render the world in gorgeous 3-D animation. Zachary Levi (TV’s Chuck) and Mandy Moore are perfect as the voices of the leads, but Broadway star Donna Murphy steals the show as the delightfully
home. Part of coming to maturity is learning to discern whether a man like Flynn Ryder can be trusted. Disney found the right combination of heart, laughs, and fairy dust to make a princess movie with the appeal of its classics and that’s also right in 2010. A
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MOVIE
Love and Other Drugs by Michael Leaser
>>
“There is no right or wrong. It’s just the moment.” Such is the attitude often used to justify lustful desires, leaving a trail of broken and bitter human beings in its wake. Director and co-writer Edward Zwick displays that attitude in all its dissolute glory with his latest film. Like countless better-made romantic dramas, Love and Other Drugs champions the virtues of true love, but Zwick has so much fun indulging lustful vices that he diminishes its significance. Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal), the underachieving son of a prosperous couple, has just one marketable skill: the ability to seduce and exploit women. After several weeks of intensive training at Pfizer (and bedding his trainer), Jamie lands a position selling the anti-depressant Zoloft in the Ohio River Valley region. Tasked with convincing the region’s most influential doctor, Stan Knight (Hank Azaria), to start prescribing Zoloft instead of Prozac, Jamie sleeps his way into the good graces of the doctor’s secretary, gaining access to the doctor’s supply shelves, where he replaces the shelves of Prozac with his Zoloft samples. He eventually bribes Dr. Knight into letting him follow him on rounds, ostensibly to learn more about how his office works. In the course of his efforts, Jamie meets one of the doctor’s patients, Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), a worldly and cynical young woman suffering from the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. Carrying scars from a previous relationship, Maggie wants what Jamie wants: nostrings-attached sex. The film earns every bit of its r rating depicting the couple’s sexual escapades and the foul language surrounding them. (Hathaway remarked that she felt uncomfortable getting naked in front of the camera. Well, so will many of her Princess Diaries fans who make the mistake of seeing this film.) Pfizer eventually awards Jamie a new drug to sell that better matches his skill set, Viagra. While Jamie’s career takes off, his relationship with Maggie gets a bit more complicated. Gyllenhall and Hathaway deliver solid performances in their respective roles, but the lustful, vulgar, comedically decadent tone of the film undermines their characters’ emotional growth. Despite the director’s obvious efforts to contrast signs of true love with the selfish actions of characters living in the “moment,” the end result lacks the emotional depth and resonance of a romantic drama that does not deal so cavalierly with sex. Love may be healthier than Bacchanalian escapades, but Zwick likens it to the not-so-tasty medicine one takes after overdosing on sweets, medicine one could just as easily toss in the dumpster to make room for the next round of Zoloft. —Michael Leaser is editor of FilmGrace and an associate of The Clapham Group
love and other drugs : DaviD Jame/20th Century Fox/ap • tangled : Disney enterprises, inC.
outside the tower as well as with feigned affection. Gothel needs Rapunzel’s silky, golden, magical hair to keep looking young (and suspiciously like the botox-addicted actress Cher). Like other teens before her, Rapunzel longs to see the world despite the fear her surrogate mother has instilled in her. A thief on the lam, Flynn Ryder, bumbles into her tower. After she subdues him with a frying pan, the girl recognizes him as her guide to the outside world and they’re off on a journey of discovery. Danger does indeed lurk in the world she encounters, mostly due to the reluctance of Mother Gothel to relinquish her personal fountain of youth. But the world outside the
See all our movie reviews at worldmag.com
12/2/10 10:19 AM
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love and other drugs : DaviD Jame/20th Century Fox/ap • tangled : Disney enterprises, inC.
unleash the leader inYou
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Reviews > Books
Books explore Islam’s problems, conservatism’s canon, and Pixar’s wisdom BY MARVIN OLASKY
>>
N P R fired Juan Williams for reporting trepidation from seeing Muslimgarbed groups on planes; execs should read Eliza Griswold’s The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam (, ), a ground-level examination of skirmishes in Africa and eastern Asia. -ites who prefer academic writing might peruse Ibn Warraq’s Virgins? What Virgins? (Prometheus, ), a critique of the world’s most imperialistic religion from someone who grew up in it. Islamists who seem determined to kill Jews should see what happened to the last regime that had the same objective: Roger Moorhouse’s Berlin at War (Basic, ) is full of fascinating stories about Hitler’s capital from to . Moorhouse describes the city’s unhappy calm when war began, the frenzy when it ended in German disaster, and the
ACTION TRIO
astounding underground survival of some Jews, aided by some Aryans, in the heart of the Third Reich. Some conservatives stood up to Hitler, but more opposed another oppressive regime, the Soviet empire. Claire Berlinski’s “There Is No Alternative”: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters (Basic, ) is a delightful biography of a prime minister who charmed visiting leaders with her feet curled up under her. Berlinski’s writing is also charmingly unconventional: Instead of ruthlessly cutting to stay on topic, she shows personalities by displaying dinner table repartee and dining choices. Conservatism by itself does not stand up to evil as Christianity does, but those whose primary identification is “conservative” should read Benjamin Wiker’s Ten Books Every Conservative Must Read (Regnery, ). It’s a pithy introduction to Aristotle, Chesterton,
A fun read: Steve McLachlan’s Sons of Noah (PublishAmerica, ) stars Noah’s son Shem, age . Subsequent generations think of him as a legend and are surprised that he’s still around, with youthful vigor. He hasn’t seen his brothers for years, but Ham—propelled by a sibling rivalry as strong as Cain’s—is looking for him. A page-turner: In Jeff Nesbit’s Peace (Summerside, ), Israel bombs Iran’s nuclear facilities; Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas attack Israel, Iran
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stops tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and attacks the U.S. Navy; dirty bombs go off in U.S. East Coast cities; North Korea and Russia become involved; and (implausibly) a U.S. president personally takes a peace plan to Tehran and Pyongyang. A compassion-provoker: Sudan (Bay Forest Books, ), by Art Ayris and Ninie Hammon, has a Sudanese farmer-dad, aided by an American journalist, searching for his captured and enslaved daughter. Southern Sudan is scheduled to vote next month on whether to become independent from the Muslim north. —M.O. Email: molasky@worldmag.com
12/2/10 11:24 AM
GEOFF CRIMMINS/MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS/AP
Treadmill religion
Voegelin, C.S. Lewis, Edmund Burke, de Tocqueville, Belloc, von Hayek, The Federalist Papers and their AntiFederalist opponents—with material about Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Tolkien, and the Bible tossed in, and a concluding poke at “one imposter,” Ayn Rand. In recent years a new canon has arisen to challenge the classic one, and Robert Velarde sings its praises in The Wisdom of Pixar: An Animated Look at Virtue (, ). His are Toy Story; A Bug’s Life; Toy Story ; Monsters, Inc.; Finding Nemo; The Incredibles; Cars; Ratatouille; Wall-E; and Up, all of which exist in a moral universe that has in its very fabric “an understanding of justice, courage, love and more.” (Andy Crouch notes that many Christians work at Pixar. Coincidence? I don’t think so.) Larry Stone’s The Story of the Bible (Thomas Nelson, ) is a beautiful coffee table book with chapters about the writing of the Bible, its use in the early years of the church and the Middle Ages, its translations during “the remarkable century from Gutenberg to Luther,” and developments in recent centuries. Its unique feature is replica pull-out pages from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Chester Beatty Papyri, the Codex Sinaiticus, the Geneva Bible, and so on. To learn more about those who still read the Bible and not only display it, check out Christopher Catherwood’s The Evangelicals (Crossway, ), an easy-to-read introduction to evangelical thought and practice.
NOTABLE BOOKS Four new novels > reviewed by
Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English
Natasha Solomons In this delightful novel Jack Rosenblum, a German Jew, flees to England with his wife Sadie and infant daughter. Upon arrival he receives a brochure of helpful information and guidance about living in England. Determined to assimilate by following the list scrupulously, he even adds to it as he learns new things about his adopted country—yet, despite his best efforts to fit in by buying his clothes at the right stores and sending his daughter to Cambridge, Jack can’t gain admittance to a golf club. He’s unwilling to give up the dream, so he moves to Dorset and sets out to build his own course, risking everything and gaining some unexpected rewards. Note: When severely provoked, Jack does very occasionally use bad language—sometimes in German.
The Blind Contessa’s New Machine
Carey Wallace Carolina Fontini, a young contessa in an idyllic corner of Italy in the early s, has one friend, Turri, an eccentric inventor who is years older and married. The contessa falls in love with a rich young neighbor, but before they are wed she begins to go blind. She warns her fiancé, but only Turri believes her. After she’s completely blind, she and Turri commence a passionate affair. He creates a typewriter so she can write to him, and it sets free her imagination. Wallace takes a nugget of historical truth about the invention of the typewriter and fashions a fairy tale rich with images of light and darkness, sight and blindness (of both a physical and moral kind).
Romancing Miss Brontë Juliet Gael
GEOFF CRIMMINS/MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS/AP
Gael could have written a biography of Charlotte Brontë—she certainly did the research—but instead chose to write a novel. For the most part her attempt works, although occasionally she settles into biography mode and in several places lapses into bodice-ripping romance novel territory. Set primarily in the Yorkshire parsonage where Charlotte lived with sisters Emily and Anne, her crotchety father and wastrel brother, the book begins when a new curate (who much later becomes Charlotte’s husband) comes to their bleak village. Gael convincingly depicts the relationships between the Brontë sisters and recreates the literary world in which they published. She also tells a convincing love story, although in more detail than required.
The Convent Panos Karnezis A half-dozen nuns live in a crumbling convent in the mountains of Spain in the early years of the th century. Eight times every hours they gather for prayer, but one day they find a baby in a suitcase on the convent steps. The Mother Superior immediately sees in the baby a sign that God has forgiven her for a sin committed decades earlier. Another sister sees a sign of Satanic activity. We eventually learn the baby’s history and see people who gave in to temptation and then tried to cover up their sin. Whether intentionally or not, Karnezis shows how religious systems are unable to take away the guilt and shame of sin—and often compound it. Email: solasky@worldmag.com; see all our reviews at mag.com/books mag.com/books
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SPOTLIGHT Pastor Douglas Wilson writes in the acknowledgments of his book What I Learned in Narnia (Canon Press, ) that he “grew up marinating in the Narnia stories.” In this book, based on a series of talks Wilson gave to the children in his church, he explains how the books deepened his understanding of seven themes—authority, confession of sin, nobility, spiritual disciplines, love of story, thorough grace, love for Aslan/ love for God. Each chapter explains one of the themes and shows how Lewis developed it throughout the series and in various characters. Wilson writes with a direct style that should appeal to young people and their parents. By quoting generously from the Narnia books and drawing attention to Lewis’ use of particular words and phrases, Wilson also shows how to be a more discerning reader.
DECEMBER 18, 2010
WORLD
12/2/10 11:28 AM
Reviews > Q&A
Pro-Christianity Christianity
atheist
S.E. CUPP says the media are not fair to a religion that she believes is not true BY MARVIN OLASKY
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A Christianity is like a man biting a dog: It’s news. Atheist Sarah Elizabeth “S.E.” Cupp’s book Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity (Harper, ) is attracting second looks because it’s a pro-Christianity book by an atheist. Cupp, , is a regular guest on News shows and a much-read blogger and columnist: She was a classically trained ballet dancer, graduated from Cornell, and enjoys fishing, target shooting, and races.
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Everybody does. Every time I’m on Sean Hannity it’s “S.E., what do I need to do? You’re too smart for this, way too smart for this.” There are a lot of Christians at , and they are lovely and nice, and I always think, “How nice that someone is thinking about my soul.” Really, it’s lovely. Losing Our Religion is wellwritten but puzzling: As an atheist, why are you making statements about media bias similar to those made by conservative Christians? It’s inarguable. All you have to do is have eyes to see that and The New York Times are absolutely threatened by
MICHAEL BENABIB
Earlier this year you earned a master’s degree in religious studies at New York University, but I gather you made it up as you went along? I did, I made it up. You
could design your own curriculum. I did a comparison study on the devotional practices of sports fans and the religious faithful, and that’s what I got a degree in. I call it religious studies. Now you work with . You must be good because you’re not blonde. Or cosmetically enhanced. It’s true. They all look alike. But I know most of them, and they are great people. It is a good place to work. It might look easy, but it’s not. Mike Huckabee works there and wrote the introduction to your new book. Did he try to evangelize you?
WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
12/1/10 11:36 PM
Michael BenaBiB
Christian America. They’re threatened politically. They’re threatened ideologically. And it’s not just attacks, it’s lies. They’re lying about the genesis of our American beliefs. They’ll tell you, “Oh, the Founding Fathers weren’t Christians, they were atheists.” That’s crazy. It’s a lie, it’s a total lie. You note that they’re wrong about the First Amendment. You have people saying that the whole point of the freedom of religion clause was to say that you should be doing religious things in private. That’s an absolute lie. The Founding Fathers wanted you to be free to be a public Catholic, to be a public Protestant. The liberal and secular media turn that around, imploring you to be faithful in private and to take religion out of the public sphere. That’s simply not why this country was created. Many atheists see Christianity as intellectually inferior and see themselves doing a public service by enlightening people. Why don’t you see it that way? They’re proselytizing. I don’t believe in God but I’m not mad at Him. I don’t think He’s dangerous. It’s a really unenlightened view to think that 95 percent of the world doesn’t know what’s going on, but that I am part of the 5 percent of the world that doesn’t believe in God and knows the truth. For atheists to pretend to have all the Email: molasky@worldmag.com
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answers while religion is on the fringe is not only incredibly presumptuous but a lie. Sigmund Freud saw God as an illusion. Do you think that, or do you think He’s there and you just haven’t noticed yet? I don’t have kids, haven’t lost a parent yet, don’t know what kind of curveballs life is going to throw me. I don’t know how I’m going to feel tomorrow. It’s really arrogant to say that I’m right and you’re all crazy, that I’ll always feel this way and the book is closed and you’re delusional. You’re very complimentary to President Bush and his allusions to a Higher Power. If the Higher Power doesn’t exist, isn’t he a nutcase? It doesn’t exist for me. I fully believe it exists for him. You’re saying that subjectively it exists for him, subjectively it doesn’t exist for you. So objectively, do you think there’s a God? No. So if President Bush acted in certain ways because of his belief in something that doesn’t exist, doesn’t that sound like making policy decisions based on belief in the Easter bunny? No, because when you say you’re a Christian, there’s a value system implied. You may not live up to it, but the attempt is there, and I can look at it and understand your worldview. There is none of that in atheism. When you say that you might be a sinner, is that subjective or objective? My values are probably very close to yours. They’re Judeo-Christian values. We all agree that murder’s not great. . . . But don’t we define murder in different ways, depending on our values? We do. But I think we agree at the end of the day that murdering people for no reason, not in self-defense but in cold blood, is bad. What about very tiny people? Doesn’t it depend on our definition of people? Yes. So how universal are your values? Well, we all have caveats—cultural, logistical, legal—but I think that people generally have the same impulses. Moving on—I was struck by your answer to a question about death. You said that death was a peaceful thing to you, that the idea of nothingness was a very peaceful idea. That’s unusual. I don’t think anything happens. I’m not worried
about judgment. Frankly, life is really hard. The idea that it will end at some point, that this trial will end, is reassuring. The only thing that scared me was I wanted to be published before I die. Once my book got published, huge sigh of relief. It was important to you because . . . I wanted to leave a legacy, and that was the kind I wanted to leave. For some people it might be having children, or having money, or making contributions to causes. For me, I wanted to at 25 feel like I’d left something in print that captured my beliefs at the moment. That mattered to me a lot. More than anything else. Tim Keller wrote a book called Counterfeit Gods. Can you make an idol out of publishing books? Oh it was, it was a golden calf. Absolutely. I feel like a good person to a large degree. I feel like I’m good to my family, like I’m charitable, like I give back to my friends. That was the one area I felt like I hadn’t done what I wanted to do, and I was afraid to die before I had the chance to do it. So having that put aside, knowing I had a book out there, was a relief, and I could focus on other things that are important to me. If there were a God, would He love you more because you’d published a book? Oh I hope not. This was for me. It was a reward for 10 years of school and hard work and sacrifice and not doing some of the things that my peers did, and a private acknowledgment of hard work and discipline. It meant something to me. I was proud of myself. You’d really like to believe in God? Oh yeah. What kind of God would you like to believe in? A benevolent God but a challenging one. Someone who challenges you to a fight but is rooting for you to win. That’s who I’d like to imagine God is, someone who wants you to be your best and is going to push you to be your best, but is unconditionally going to be there for you when you fail. That sounds great. That sounds amazing. I’d love that. What comes to mind when you think about Jesus? I’ve seen some really great movies about Jesus. I collect religious kitschy objects, so I have a lot of Jesus dolls around the house. When I think about Jesus, I think about one of my dolls. It’s terrible. A DeceMBer 18, 2010
WORLD
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Age of ambiguity
SUFJAN STEVENS keeps fans and critics guessing BY WARREN COLE SMITH
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WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
Some of the songs on The Age of Adz have blatantly religious themes. “Get Real Get Right” exhorts: “I know you really gotta get right with the Lord/You know you really gotta get right with the Lord.” That’s normal for Stevens. But these words are spoken by space aliens, so it’s hard to know whether they are meant to be taken straight, or with an ironic twist. And speaking of straight, or not: Friends and critics have been lighting up fan sites and message boards at least since about lyrics that are—or perhaps are not—homoerotic. There can be little doubt that he sometimes sings with a lush romanticism about male-male love. The music website www. last.fm features Stevens on its “homoeroticism” channel. All that said, The Age of Adz is undeniably interesting—down to the cover and the album’s -page liner notes— both of which feature the art of Prophet Royal Robertson. Robertson is sometimes called a “primitive artist,” after the school of Howard Finster, whose art once graced an album by .
MARZUKI STEVENS
W of Sufjan Stevens? He’s mentor to Christians who see themselves not as “Christian artists” but as “artists who are Christians.” His own indie label, Asthmatic Kitty, has a stable of more than a dozen musicians—including The Welcome Wagon, a duo made up of Stevens’ Brooklyn pastor Thomas Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique. Stevens is a member of their Presbyterian Church in America congregation and himself went to a Christian college. He wasn’t afraid to play churches and the circuit when he got his start in the mid-’s. But Stevens’ music and his life defy simple descriptions. Early albums featured an indie-folk vibe, though never the proverbial “three chords and the truth.” Even from the beginning, they were more like chords and several views of the truth. His latest, The Age of Adz, continues the indie-vibe and hall-of-mirrors view of the truth. But it’s hardly folk. Electronica and elaborate instrumentations abound, and the final cut on the album, “Impossible Soul,” is more than minutes long—a song Stevens describes in concert appearances as a “magnum opus of love and madness” and performs with a -piece band.
Robertson (who died in and whose work is in the Smithsonian, among other high-end collections) used apocalyptic images, prophetic Bible passages, science fiction, and numerology in his art. These themes are picked up by the music in The Age of Adz. The fact that Robertson was a paranoid schizophrenic and toward the end of his life was overcome by misogynistic rage inevitably has fueled speculation about the possibility of Stevens’ own misogyny. But to return to the original question: Stevens rarely gives interviews, turning down, for example, repeated requests from . He clearly wants his music to speak for itself. Fair enough: The songs on The Age of Adz are lush and complicated, often nonlinear musically and lyrically, and include aliens and the F-word. If the music is speaking, what is it saying? That life is messy and complicated, that the truth is out there, and that we can approach it—but perhaps can’t really grasp it? As for Stevens himself? The answers to that question offered by the music are more ambiguous. Even his famous—and (to fans) beloved—on-stage theatrics and costumes are designed to obscure, not reveal, the real Sufjan Stevens. As to the question of whether he is gay: Most true Sufjan fans—the ones who propelled The Age of Adz to No. on the Billboard chart—are annoyed by the question. Those who care tend to say he is not gay but some of the characters in his songs are. Still others: He’s being intentionally ironic just to keep people thinking deeply about his music. The closest Stevens comes to making a definitive statement about such questions comes from “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.,” a song about the serial killer who raped and murdered at least boys between and and buried the bodies under his house. The song comes not from The Age of Adz but from Illinoise. Stevens closed his album Illinoise every show on The Age of Adz tour— which just wrapped with two sold-out shows at the historic Beacon Theatre in New York—with “Gacy.” The song ends with these words: “In my best behavior, I am really just like him. Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid.” A Email: wsmith@worldmag.com
12/1/10 11:14 PM
JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES
Reviews > Music
NOTABLE CDs
Four new Christmas releases > reviewed by
Christmas Dreaming Susie Arioli Susie Arioli gets top billing on this acoustic jazz excursion, and why not? She’s the singer, after all, and unlike many women who emote in whispery tones, she doesn’t sound as if she’s trying to disguise how little else there is where her whispery tones come from. But she’d probably sound washed out if not for Jordan Officer’s gypsy-jazz guitar, which sets the lazy pace at which the semi-traditional program unfolds and creates a foil for Arioli’s voice that functions like the nonverbal half of a semiprivate conversation. Joy to the World Pink Martini One needn’t be a fan of martinis, pink or otherwise, to be a fan of this album or the -member Portland, Ore., ensemble ( if you count the “artistic director” Thomas Lauderdale). The recipe: Take seven Western seasonal favorites (“Little Drummer Boy,” “Santa Baby”), intersperse them with six Eastern or otherwise exotic seasonal favorites (“La Vergine Degli Angeli,” the Chinese-language “Congratulations [Happy New Year]”), vary the syncopation (“We Three Kings” in / time), and make sure the musicians never drown out China Forbes, whose singing provides the sparkle.
The Gift Susan Boyle The understandable but deleterious kid-gloves caution with which Susan Boyle was handled on her first album has all but vanished from this collection of Christmas carols (“O Holy Night,” “Away in a Manger,” “O Come All Ye Faithful”) and holiday favorites (“Auld Lang Syne”). To the extent that it lingers (until Boyle starts to sing, you’d think every song was Angelo Badalamenti’s “Theme from Twin Peaks”), it’s soon enough superseded by a purity and fullness (in that order) of sound that’s at least some people’s idea of angelic.
MARZUKI STEVENS
JEMAL COUNTESS/GETTY IMAGES
Christmas Cheers Straight No Chaser Jazzy a cappella acts often wear out their welcome because they can’t resist coming on cute, and these men are no exception. Granted, if you’re going to do something called “Christmas Can-Can,” opening with it is the way to go, but following it three songs later with a pointlessly funky “Let It Snow” then an outright novelty (“Donde Esta Santa Claus”) is to gild the lily. Still, when the impeccable technique becomes more a means than an end, even “Who Spiked the Eggnog?” goes down easy. Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
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SPOTLIGHT It’s hard to imagine Susan Boyle listening to Lou Reed’s album Transformer, but whether she discovered “Perfect Day” there herself or had it chosen for her by Syco/Columbia, she couldn’t have found a better vehicle with which to open The Gift or to showcase her icy, monochromatic soprano, which, like “Perfect Day” itself, treads the fine line between the sentimental and the melancholy. Her slowed-down version of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” has a similar effect and works almost as well. And although the world needs no more renditions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” at least Boyle’s version excises the uncomfortably gauche verses that Cohen added circa . Of course, one might well wonder what songs by Lou Reed, Crowded House, and Leonard Cohen are doing on a Christmas album in the first place. Breaking up the over-familiarity of the other seven songs for one thing. Widening (if not necessarily deepening) the emotional parameters of the holiday experience for another.
DECEMBER 18, 2010
WORLD
12/1/10 11:15 PM
mindy belz
Left out
Why has U.S. war strategy ignored religious minorities in the Middle East?
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WORLD December 18, 2010
krieg barrie
hree years ago I attended a meeting outside Washington with a nato adviser recently returned from briefings with commanders of the war in Iraq. The question had been posed to them: If there should be a targeted massacre of Christians in Iraq (the word actually used was genocide), would the U.S. military respond? The answer from the commanders: No. It was December 2007. Gen. David Petraeus had arrived in Baghdad 10 months earlier bearing orders to carry out his new counterinsurgency strategy with a thrust of 20,000 additional troops throughout the city. Until then, U.S. forces were bogged down in Iraq’s sectarian warfare—with civilian and military casualties sometimes topping 100 a day. That year U.S. casualties hit their all-time high, 904, but fell steadily after Petraeus’ arrival to a low of 59 (over 11 months) in 2010. Decades from now historians will study Petraeus-style warfare launched in 2007 and how it catapulted the U.S. military from its post-Vietnam malaise. So it’s always been curious to me that the successful strategy to stamp out sectarian violence somehow did not extend to protecting Iraq’s minorities, particularly a Christian population that stretched back nearly 2 millennia and numbered up to 1.5 million under Saddam Hussein. By December 2007, church leaders estimated, that population had been halved through death and displacement to somewhere under 700,000. Curious, too, because the counterinsurgency doctrine of Gen. Petraeus is decidedly everyman, and in some aspects biblical: Live your values. Clear—hold—build. Small is beautiful. Those were the bywords circulating the forward operating bases in Baghdad, and they came straight from the Counterinsurgency Field Manual, Petraeus’ magnum opus, at that time the first U.S. military manual to come out in 20 years—and to hit The New York Times bestseller list. Petraeus liked to ask, “What have you done for the people of Iraq today?” and was known to stress in briefings, “The human terrain is the decisive terrain.”
Leaving Christians out of the counterinsurgency equation has itself proved decisive. And the result of U.S. military and civilian leaders’ unwillingness to take a vocal and visible stand against targeted violence toward religious minorities continues to unfold—not only in Iraq but across the region. Consider recent attacks in Iraq: the Oct. 31 assault on a church in Baghdad that killed 58; the Nov. 9 bombing of Christian homes in western Baghdad; Nov. 10 Islamic hits to more than a dozen homes with mortar fire and bombs, leaving four Christians dead and dozens wounded. Some of the homes were singled out because they belonged to mourners who attended funeral services for the Oct. 31 victims. On Nov. 15 in Mosul militants stormed two adjacent homes belonging to Christians, killing two men, then bombed others. On Nov. 16 a Christian father and his 6-year-old daughter were killed by a car bomb. As Elizabeth Kendal, writing for the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin, pointed out, “This terror has led to a surge in Christians fleeing Iraq. They will join the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians struggling to survive as refugees in Syria, Turkey and Jordan. They no longer see any reason to risk their lives for a state where, even if they survive, they will be condemned to live as second class citizens (dhimmis).” We see similar terror unfolding with the arrests of Christians in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Gen. Petraeus is belatedly taking up that cause (see p. 11). But the failure of the military to leave a legacy of equal protection for all is part of a larger U.S. failure to address forcefully the authoritarian repression residing within Islam. It will no doubt resound to other minorities and to Muslims who stand against it. Today the Christian population in Iraq is about half what it was in 2007. It may have been spared actual genocide, but to go in one decade from 1.5 million to under 400,000 is extermination by any other name. A Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
12/2/10 11:54 AM
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D A N I E L
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T H E
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Richard S.
Bransford SERVING A GOD OF MIRACLES: The medical mission field, says ’s Daniel of the Year, comes with threats—and privileges by MINDY BELZ in Kijabe, Kenya Photograph by Gerry Locklin DECEMBER 18, 2010
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12/2/10 11:05 AM
0 For doctors like Richard Bransford, enemy warfare begins in the womb. The spinal column fails to form, an infection leaves fluid on the brain, or genetic makeup jumpstarts any number of crippling diseases. In Africa, where Bransford works, such disabilities are both more common and less treated than in the United States. The UN estimates that up to 20 percent of the population in some African nations is disabled. For over 40 years Bransford has been up at dawn most mornings to engage the assorted enemies assaulting children born with physical and mental abnormalities. When I first visited him in Kenya at Kijabe Hospital in 2001, he arrived at the hospital at 6 a.m. to do rounds, had breakfast at home with his family at 7:15—a short walk up the hill perched above the Great Rift Valley—and was back in the operating room for surgery by 9. That day he supervised 12 cleft lip and cleft palate operations in two operating rooms. That year he performed over 1,500 surgical procedures at Kijabe, including treating 1,000 children from all over Africa for some form of hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain) and related spina bifida (where an unformed spinal column leaves an exposed sac of fluid). On Fridays he took a break from the surgical schedule—and traveled Kenya’s rural byways and villages with one of 13 mobile medical clinics.
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This November I caught up with Bransford at Joytown, a school for disabled children about 90 minutes’ drive from the hospital in the town of Thika. Within minutes of Bransford’s arrival he spied a 9-year-old boy with cerebral palsy slumped in a wheelchair and initially unresponsive to his questions. Bransford continued to smile and chat with the boy as he tightened the laces on his heavy, leather orthopedic boots. He checked the leg braces, then said, “OK cookie, let’s get you out of here.” Hoisting the boy from his wheelchair, Bransford had him doing paces on orthopedic parallel bars, back and forth, turning his twisted torso with difficulty, while the doctor closely eyed his progress and the bend of his legs. As the boy grew more agile, his face opened into a smile, and Bransford said, “What’s your name?” Daniel, he replied. “Oh, are you like Daniel in the lion’s den?” asked Bransford. If a disabled child can aim to be a conqueror, then this 70-year-old surgeon aims to be with him in that fight. Bransford has battled alongside thousands of handicapped children—and adults—to help them lead more productive lives and in many cases save them from early deaths. For a general surgeon trained over 40 years ago at Johns Hopkins and the University of Nebraska, that often has meant coaxing specialists to Kenya to show him new techniques—or performing surgery with a textbook open beside him. This year Bransford received international recognition for that diligence: An American Medical Association Excellence in Medicine Award and the American College of Surgeons 2010 Surgical Humanitarian Award. And for a lifetime spent tending not only the medical but also the spiritual needs of African children, Dr. Richard S. Bransford is WORLD’s 2010 Daniel of the Year. In choosing Bransford we seek also to pay tribute to other medical missionaries—professionals around the world who long ago chose to forgo healthcare debates, malpractice dilemmas, and risk management seminars in order to serve the underprivileged, the neglected, the war torn, and the lost. They do so with daily risk and sometimes pay the ultimate price. This year in Haiti 75-year-old Dr. Zilda Arns died when debris struck her head in the January earthquake as she left a church where she had just given a speech. The Brazilian pediatrician had for over 30 years run a Catholic charity that successfully reduced infant mortality by more than half in over 30,000 rural South American communities. In Afghanistan, among the 10 aid workers killed by Taliban gunmen in August were eye doctor Tom Little, who had served in the country since 1976, and dentist Thomas Grams, who gave up private practice in Colorado 10 years ago so he could work alongside medical missionaries. As Bransford puts it: “I really want to serve a God of miracles. I want to put my foot into the Jordan before the waters separate.”
WORLD DeceMber 18, 2010
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Mike Delorenzo
Da n i el OF TH e Y ea R
mike Delorenzo
“I really want to serve a God of miracles. I want to put my foot into the Jordan before the waters separate.” The risks and the demands of field medicine aren’t static. As Bransford’s skill and reputation have grown, along with his experience in finding ways to treat all the maladies Africa has thrown at him, the work has carried him from hospital battlegrounds to live-fire war zones—in Somalia, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sudan. Whatever the setting, Bransford has fought antagonists outside the womb as well: heads of families ready to leave disabled children to die; UN refugee camp bureaucrats who refuse to process sick or war-injured children for treatment; donors ready with grant money but not for “elective surgery” to correct childhood disabilities; or Islamic militias in Sudan and elsewhere who make more work for him by raping and maiming Christian women and girls. In Sudan he rescued one orphaned baby he found beside her mother, dead of gunshot wounds, and carried her
through border control at Nairobi’s airport without incident. He flew to Kijabe a mother named Mary, arms burned so badly by Islamic militias raiding Christian villages in south Sudan that she could not move them beyond 45-degree angles. Surgery made them mobile again. “Dick is one of those rare and special people who seem to live outside of the world’s structures of propriety and prudence,” said Mike Delorenzo, a pilot who has accompanied Bransford into war zones. “He will go places few doctors would consider sensible, and while other docs were eating dinner, Dick would just be getting started on one of two club feet.” In Somalia during the 1993 civil war, Bransford and a colleague stepped in to fill the gap in medical care. “When we arrived in Mogadishu there were three machine-gun nests run by the U.S. Marines across the street from what was a theater. We’d see 300-400 patients a day onstage there.” December 18, 2010
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Da n i el OF TH e Y ea R As word got around that these were Christian physicians, Bransford began to receive vague threats. “We have less than 100 Christians here and if we find them we will shoot them in the street,” a Somali told him. After the medical team departed, Bransford learned that his translator was found shot dead in the street. Oddly enough, those wartime experiences stirred a longing to serve Muslims. “Muslims are not won by argument, but by compassionate care,” he learned. And some of the most provocative conversations he has in Islamic-dominated countries take place over the operating table or at bedside: “When I walk into the pediatric ward and see the multitude of disabled children, He gives me a compassionate, and passionate, heart to first care for them in Christ’s name and to seek the means of being able to share Christ.”
Bransford’s request, and Bransford was finding ways to school some former patients in what he was doing. A Chinese surgeon from Los Angeles taught Bransford how to implant shunts to drain fluid for hydrocephalus and spina bifida patients. Ear, nose, and throat doctor Jim Wade began making regular visits to perform cleft lip and cleft palate repairs—in 10 years, Bransford said, he has done over 1,600 at Kijabe.
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DRIVEN BY NEED: Bransford (from top) in an operating room with African trainees; preparing a spina bifida patient for surgery; evaluating treatment.
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ransford first came to Africa as a medical student in 1966. He wound up at Kijabe, a small mission hospital run by Africa Inland Mission (aim). “If you closed the front door and put beds in front of the door, you’d get 55 beds,” he said. The hospital had one doctor, and nurse midwives were delivering babies in a closet. He returned to the United States to complete surgical training, served in the Air Force, then joined aim, and headed back to Africa—first to then-Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), then to the Comoros Islands. There, only four years out of surgical training, he became chief of surgery at a 350-bed hospital. By the time he returned to Kijabe in 1977, Bransford was a husband and father of five children. His wife Millie, now married to Bransford 45 years, had just delivered twins. The couple would later adopt two disabled African boys—one now in high school and the other a freshman in college. The two largest killers at the hospital then were measles and whooping cough. Today those have been replaced by HiV/aids and tuberculosis. Bransford began a practice then of never turning away a patient because the family couldn’t pay, but he says he often was offered payment in cows. Bransford praises his general surgery training at the University of Nebraska, which he said was not as rigorous as Johns Hopkins, where he went to medical school, but where “I could live with my own soul because they treated people as people.” But driven by need—“and not because I knew what I was doing but because I could read the books”—he began doing more and more orthopedics. A visit to Kajiado Child Care Center, a school near Nairobi, shaped his vision for working full-time with the disabled. “There were 75 kids, and at least 50 had polio,” Bransford recalled. He couldn’t walk away from them, so he began devising ways to transfer the polio victims to Kijabe. “That was the beginning. Polio led to clubbed feet, and clubbed feet led to bad burns needing surgery to prevent contractures. These children were worthless to families because they couldn’t herd goats and cows. So worthless, we discovered, they could be educated.” Soon a parade of specialists made their way to Kijabe at
gerry locklin
top two: gerry locklin • bottom: mike Delorenzo
In 1998 Bransford contacted Dr. Leland Albright, then chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and one of the world’s leading researchers in cerebral palsy. Bransford was trying to locate a textbook edited by Albright. When he told Albright about his cases, Albright said, “Why don’t I just come out?” That began annual trips, where Albright did surgery in three-week stints while training doctors and nurses. Today Kijabe is a sprawling complex with six different units, nine operating rooms, and over 200 beds. In addition to general medicine, the hospital specializes in orthopedic care and treating children with physical disabilities. That’s in large part because Bransford started BethanyKids in 2001, a nonprofit based in the United States and Canada that runs the orthopedic program. Through BethanyKids the hospital now has the only accredited program for pediatric surgeons in East Africa, and a complementary program for nurses. In 2009 it performed more than 2,500 operations on kids with severe disabilities. Each month it runs 10 mobile clinics to outlying areas, including refugee camps in the north where over 300,000 mostly war-displaced people from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia,
and Eritrea live. “We are the only hospital that is doing this kind of work between Cairo and Cape Town,” said Bransford. The work doesn’t end with discharges. BethanyKids has set up a network of volunteers throughout Kenya to do followup care. That includes basic preventative procedures for infection, checking on post-op care, and discipling patients in the gospel. Through that follow-up, Bransford said, volunteers see hundreds of converts to Christianity each year. What’s also unique: BethanyKids runs the program for just under $1 million a year. A spina bifida operation that costs $50,000 in the United States costs $500 here, and Bransford receives the $70 shunt (along with many other supplies) for free. But as Bransford likes to say, “The only sure thing here is change.” This fall Dr. Albright arrived at Kijabe to assume Bransford’s role as professor of pediatric neurosurgery— making way for Bransford’s anticipated stepping away from full-time duties at the hospital in 2011 (he changes the subject if the word retirement is mentioned)—and a likely move back to the United States. “Our role is reproducing ourselves, whether it’s spiritually by leading people to Jesus Christ or medically in trying to find December 18, 2010
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Long hours and LittLe thanks
Other physicians creatively manage heavy case loads far afield and far from a medical support system. Here’s a sampling . . .
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removing cataracts to orthopedics— as well as oversees the facility, including a residency program and an HIV/ AIDS treatment program that provides anti-retroviral drugs to over 3,000 patients. Each month, Karanda also treats 15 new babies with hydrocephalus, thanks to some early guidance from Dr. Dick Bransford.
Dan PRieST (above), 38, was in “a high state of readiness” for an approaching cholera outbreak in mid-November at Rumginae Hospital in Papua New Guinea. An Australian, Priest, along with his wife and three children, has spent six of the last 10 years at the remote hospital. Just 6 degrees south of the equator at 180 feet above sea level, tropical diseases are prevalent: Malaria, tuberculosis, meningitis, and childhood malnutrition are common. Priest also runs a 60-student community health worker program and reaches 16 rural outposts to provide medical care with the help of two Mission Aviation Fellowship pilots based at Rumginae. Belief in magic and fear of evil, illness-causing spirits is strong: “The message of Christ’s victory over death brings freedom from fear. Our desire is to see staff, students, patients, and the local people develop a firm biblical foundation, grow in their faith, and
HANDOUT PHOTOS
Jean CLauDe BeRnaRD, age 61, has been the medical director at Hopital De Fermathe in Haiti for 35 years. The 84-bed hospital, located on the Baptist Haiti Mission campus south of Port-au-Prince, hasn’t stopped serving about 2,000 patients a month though it was damaged in the January quake, and hospital physician Gerard Agenor was killed. Fermathe quickly was overwhelmed by patients needing extensive care, and Bernard was one of two doctors on call at the time. He lives on campus and remains on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He was soon joined by a team of 14 stranded medical workers who offered assistance. When Bernard is not surviving natural disasters, he trains resident physicians to become the future doctors of Haiti—as all three of his own children have done.
When Dan STePHenS was a boy of about 10 growing up in Africa, he wrote what he recalls was “an angry letter” to his father’s mission headquarters, complaining about his dad’s long hours and the lack of other physicians at Karanda Mission Hospital, now a 130-bed facility that’s a three-hour drive north of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. Over the years, said Stephens, now 55 and himself a surgeon, “the Lord convicted me that no one else had the experience or background to do what he does . . . except me.” Stephens returned to Karanda in 1991 and serves alongside his father, surgeon ROLanD STePHenS (above), now 80. The elder Stephens continues to perform about 15 surgical procedures a day and has not taken a furlough since 1995. Dan Stephens also performs surgery (right)—from
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continuously feed from God’s word.”
visit the hospital every six months.
BiLL BeckneLL, 66, has worked in Russia since 1993. He founded Moscow’s Agape Medical Center, a Christian family practice center with outreach expeditions to rural areas, including Siberia and unreached people groups who live in the tundra. Becknell focuses on basic family practice care and health education.
DaviD ThOmpsOn, 62, grew up on the mission field in Cambodia, and as a premed student at Geneva College learned that his parents had been killed while trying to surrender to North Vietnamese soldiers during the 1968 Tet Offensive. In 1977 Thompson and his wife (whose father was killed by Viet Cong while working at a leprosy hospital) helped to establish a new medical
HANDOUT PHOTOS
ReBecca nayLOR, 66, arrived in India in 1974 as a medical missionary with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board). She served as a surgeon at Bangalore Baptist Hospital and became chief of medical staff four years later, becoming the hospital’s administrator in 1984. She founded an adjoining nursing school that now bears her name, and found time while serving at the hospital to start a choir, teach Bible studies, lead chapels, and supervise building projects— all with an outreach strategy to the south India region’s 53 million people. Naylor retired from IMB last year but continues to serve as a healthcare consultant and to
Da n i el OF TH e Y ea R people . . . willing to use the skills they have and leverage them into more skills,” Bransford told me. But he and others at Kijabe worry that U.S. medical education isn’t preparing doctors for work in Africa and elsewhere. U.S. training is “state of the art,” said Bransford, and doctors end up with an education so expensive they can’t afford to think of serving anywhere except a specialty practice with large fees and steep overhead: “We need to say, “What’s in that for Africa? What’s in that for the poor, the hurting, the unsaved?” Mark Newton, an anesthesiologist coaxed to Africa by Bransford, has served at Kijabe for 14 years. He believes in the longer investment: “This hospital is like this because people have committed for long periods of time. Dick’s been here a long time.” Doctors who come for short or long periods, said Newton, also need to train others. “The educational system that’s built up here is the result of doctors staying here and working and investing in the next several generations.” I asked Bransford, are you worried that a new generation will commit three to four years to a place where you’ve made a 40-year commitment? “My concern is not skills. It’s relationships. With the type of work we do, if we don’t have that bond with the moms or the parents, we really can be hurting, not helping,” Bransford said. “That’s part of the threat to us—and part of the privilege. Part of what keeps you driven here is building relationships. And it’s hard. But if you have people without relationships, no matter how good they are medically, they won’t succeed.”
R facility in Gabon, west central Africa, with the Christian & Missionary Alliance. Today that small dispensary is the 110-bed, full-service Bongolo Hospital. Its team has helped to plant four new churches in the vicinity, and in 1996 Thompson helped to start the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS), an organization to support surgical training programs for African doctors at existing Christian hospitals throughout the continent. —M.B., with reporting by Kristin Chapman and Jamie Dean
elationships are front and center at Joytown, where Bransford, his surgical duties curtailed, now spends at least one day a week. BethanyKids took over helping to operate the boarding school 10 months ago when Kenyan government support dropped off. Started in the 1960s by the Salvation Army, it has a defunct swimming pool once used for therapy, a wealth of stray wheelchairs in disrepair, and only three physical therapists with two assistants to cover the needs of 340 mostly primary-school-aged disabled children. Students attend classes but have few extracurricular activities. They live in rooms that sleep 12 with dorm mothers, and most have family visits once a month. Like Daniel, who was hoisted to the bars by Bransford, many have cerebral palsy. Others were born with spina bifida, or deformed by breech birth, or have a congenital disease. Many are incontinent, yet all laundry at Joytown is done by hand. BethanyKids is near completion of a new laundry building, which will include washing machines. Lacking sufficient adult supervision, the less disabled push those in wheelchairs. And sometimes sit two to a wheelchair. Bransford watches the students intently, searching out those who might benefit from some specialized intervention. He examines one child, a 9-year-old named Antony with cerebral palsy, and determines with a therapist that something is needed. Soon they have Antony on an examining table, his thin legs bent over a tin basin, and Plaster of Paris bandages unwinding and rewinding around each foot up to his thighs. December 18, 2010
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she was a curse. “I was always alone, always wet, always smelly,” she said. Bransford had to amputate her lower right leg; in fact, she was a patient on his ward when I visited in 2001. But now she is mobile with the help of a cane, able to control her bladder, and helping to run Joytown. Bransford said she led over 50 disabled people to faith in Jesus Christ in the last 15 months. Francesca also is married—and expecting a baby. “There was a time when I had mothers and fathers come with their kids. And I was comfortable telling them all the negatives—your child won’t walk, won’t be able to hold his urine. And often then they would leave. It wasn’t worth it.” Then, said Bransford, “I got tired of playing God. I wasn’t being fair. So I told them the same thing but I also told them their child might be the most intelligent person in the room, might bring them joy, might make a difference.” Contemplating a U.S.-based career change hardly means stepping away from the threat and the privilege. As Bransford’s tasks at Kijabe have lessened, he’s found more opportunity to travel to countries considered closed, even hostile, to faith-based medicine. “I may not be bright enough to be frightened,” he sometimes says, but the reality is he continues to go where the need is—and doors open as a result. A
nat belz for worlD
OVERCOMERS: Bransford with Antony’s leg tendons Daniel (left); casts for Antony; are severely contracted, Francesca compares canes with and surgery for him isn’t a student at Joytown. an option. So Bransford stretches them out by applying leg casts that the therapist will gradually cut from the back to allow the tendons to relax, straightening his legs. Quickly smoothing plaster over dripping gauze with gloved hands, Bransford becomes less surgeon and more sculptor, humorist, artist. When the plaster dries he measures, then draws lines on each cast indicating where the therapist should cut later. “He will have some pain,” said Bransford, “but he will walk, I think he will.” Optimism about outcomes runs hard into opposition: After all, Bransford is trying to fix people the rest of the world doesn’t see as useful. Sometimes at medical conferences in the United States colleagues will ask, particularly in reference to spina bifida patients, “Why do you have so many?” And Bransford says that he replies, “It’s just that most of yours are aborted.” In Africa the disabled are also liable to be discarded. Francesca, a spina bifida patient who did not arrive at Kijabe until she was 19 years old, spent a childhood avoiding members of her family who wanted to poison her, who thought
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CARD RAIDERS A small ministry learned what identity theft experts say everyone should know: Anyone with an card is a potential target of “skimmers”
P H a bank statement in April for the nonprofit ministry that she directs from her home in Wake Forest, N.C., she was stunned: All the ministry’s money was gone. Embrace Uganda—a grassroots mission group that helps needy communities in Uganda—already operated on a shoestring budget. Volunteers—including Hamp—oversee administrative details from the United States and give an American couple based in Uganda a small stipend to direct projects like digging wells and building medical clinics with partner churches and ministries in the African nation. The organization had about , when thieves in Africa accessed the U.S.-based account with a well-worn method: skimming. By the time criminals finish such a scheme, they’re able to make a replica of a victim’s card. “I just felt sick,” says Hamp. “I know the children that were going to benefit from this money. . . . I had made commitments to them.” Experts say that anyone with an card is vulnerable to skimming and should learn how to guard against it. Volunteers for Embrace Uganda say other nonprofit groups should learn that recovering lost cash from such theft could prove impossible.
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Thieves likely accessed the group’s North Carolina–based account after American workers used an machine in Uganda. Once the criminals secured the card information from the machine, they emptied the account using other machines in Kenya. But skimming isn’t limited to underdeveloped countries: Experts at Bankrate.com say skimming is a billion racket every year worldwide, including in the United States. Earlier this year, thieves used skimmers to steal , from account holders at four Bank of America branches in Long Island. (The bank refunded the money to victims, according to local news reports.) Skimming technologies for machines range from the simple to the sophisticated but follow a similar pattern: Thieves attach a digital skimming device to the card slot on an machine. When an account holder swipes his card, the skimming device records all the account information from the card’s magnetic strip. The skimmer sometimes sends the stolen info to another device—like a modified cell phone hidden on the machine. In other cases, thieves can access the information using a wireless signal, without ever returning to the machine. They attach a hidden camera on the machine (concealed perhaps Email: jdean@worldmag.com
12/2/10 3:38 PM
ISTOCK
BY JAMIE DEAN
ISTOCK
in a light fixture) to record the account holder entering his number. After the thief has the account information and number, he transfers the information onto a magnetic strip of a plastic card—like a gift card or hotel room key. The criminal now has a replica of the victim’s card and the number to use it. For all the high-tech sophistication associated with skimming, Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert at .com, says one of the best safeguards is a low-tech move: Cover the keypad with your other hand while entering your number. Other tips: Avoid withdrawing money from common targets like stand-alone machines or s in tourist spots, and look for anything suspicious on a machine like a false panel or out-of-place hardware that could be hiding devices. Siciliano’s No. tip: Check your online bank statement frequently. Finding fraudulent activity quickly may be the best guard against more theft. “As inconvenient as that may be . . . if they’re checking email and Facebook everyday, they should probably check their bank account too.” Hamp of Embrace Uganda says she didn’t monitor the ministry’s account online. By the time she reviewed the monthly paper statement, thieves had stolen nearly , through transactions in Kenya over a -day period.
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Ministry workers typically withdrew money two to three times a month, and never from Kenya. Hamp says she was shocked that RBC Bank didn’t notice the suspicious activity. (She says a bank employee notified a volunteer making a deposit toward the end of the days.) But Hamp was even more shocked when the bank initially refused to refund the money. RBC Bank spokeswoman Dorsey Landis said that business accounts—including nonprofits—don’t qualify for the same protections as personal accounts, and that the bank recommends that account holders monitor their statements frequently. The bank policy also says that all the protections for credit cards don’t apply to cards. Embrace Uganda board member Steve West said the group eventually reached an undisclosed settlement with the bank. But Hamp says other small ministries and nonprofits should make sure they have adequate insurance against theft and ask banks about protection of their accounts. Siciliano says consumers should remember that thieves are finding ways to outpace banks’ security efforts, and make sure they watch their accounts. “They’re getting more sophisticated everyday,” he says of the high-tech thieves. “They’re just getting brilliant.” A
12/2/10 3:39 PM
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say, no, I was too busy trying to stay alive to think about dying.” His ordeal is detailed in Laura Hillenbrand’s new book, Unbroken (Random House, ). Each chapter of the book packs in enough adventure and hardship to last several lifetimes. But it all happens to one person. Zamperini says the theme of his life is the tenacity of the human spirit. “My generation was not so much the greatest, but it was the hardiest generation. How do you become hardy? By overcoming adversities . . . and we had adversities.” Zamperini is most excited about the book’s postwar chapters. It is here that Hillenbrand details how Zamperini became a Christian. Given a Bible early in the war, Zamperini ignored it. Still, one of his companions on the life raft, the son of a minister, led the survivors in hymns to keep their minds occupied. During the next two-plus years, Zamperini found himself repeatedly praying for God’s protection. He even promised that he would serve God forever if he somehow got out alive. But he returned from the war plagued by nightmares. Feeling humiliated and powerless, he hungered for vengeance. He turned to alcohol. As Zamperini’s life decayed, a young evangelist named Billy Graham began packing a tent with crowds in Los Angeles. A reluctant Zamperini ended up hearing Graham preach twice. He recalls Graham saying that when people reach the end of their ropes they turn to God. Zamperini thought that’s exactly what he did during the war. He had made thousands of promises to seek God but hadn’t kept a single one.
JOHN MARSHALL MANTEL/AP
O athlete Louis Zamperini turns in January. He claims to remain fit “even though I have been busted up a lot in my life.” Busted up? More like manhandled. Zamperini turned a roughand-tumble boyhood of defiance in California into a shot at a medal for running during the Olympics in Berlin. He didn’t finish in the top three. But his youth and fast final lap had observers predicting that he would be a favorite in the Games scheduled for Tokyo, Japan. Then the war came, canceling the Olympics. Zamperini would still end up in Japan, but by another—much more horrifying—way. When mechanical failure sent his Army Air Force bomber into the Pacific Ocean in , Zamperini found himself floating in a life raft with two other survivors. The perseverance he had learned in sports was about to be put to the test. Zamperini spent days drifting on that raft. He fended off sharks and dodged bullets from enemy planes. He caught rainwater to drink and birds to eat. When the raft hit land, joy turned to horror as Zamperini discovered that he was in enemy territory. Soon he was on his way to a Japanese prison camp. There the cruelest of tortures, like enduring punches a beating, awaited. “People have asked, ‘Didn’t you ever think of dying out there?’” Zamperini told me in a phone interview. “I always WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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HILLENBRAND: HANDOUT • ALL OTHERS: AP
LOUIS ZAMPERINI ZAMPERINI’s long life has seen great highs, terrifying lows, and a “miracle of transformation.” A new biography tells his remarkable story
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HILLENBRAND: HANDOUT • ALL OTHERS: AP
d adversities’ “So that did it,” Zamperini said. “I went back to the prayer room and made a confession of my faith in Christ. Even before I got off my knees the miracle of transformation took place.” When Hillenbrand started interviewing him for the book, Zamperini began praying that she would include his conversion. The author eventually tracked down the actual sermon that changed Zamperini. “When that happened I thought, ‘Oh boy, the Lord is going to bless this book,’” he said. “To me the whole book is the message of salvation.” It is also about forgiveness. Zamperini has visited every state in the nation, telling his story to thousands of clubs, churches, and schools. He’s given his testimony in other nations—including Japan. In , he returned there and spoke to prisoners being held for war crimes. About half of them received Christ. After hearing his testimony, eight former prison guards, now prisoners themselves, who knew Zamperini, came forward. Zamperini said he forgave them. Zamperini has also spoken to , people at an auditorium in Tokyo and had his testimony reprinted at least twice in Japan’s largest newspaper. In , he carried the torch for the Nagano Winter Olympics. His relay route took him past one of his former prison camps. Millions more heard his story through the Olympics’ television broadcast. “My whole life is a ministry,” he told me. “Let’s face it. That is what we are here for. All we are, are voices for the gospel. I’ll be here for as long as the Lord can use me.” A
ADVENTURE & HARDSHIP: Zamperini breaking a record with a time of :. to win the mile run in the Pacific Coast Conference Track and Field meet in ; with his bride-to-be, Cynthia Applewhite, in ; with Billy Graham in ; Hillenbrand (from top to bottom). DECEMBER 18, 2010
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Morgan’s mission The leader of a venerable Manhattan ministry to the poor has goals beyond behavioral modification: “We are snatching back souls from the enemy” by T if fa n y Owens i n n e w yor k Ci t y pho t o gr a ph s b y b ow e n rodk e y
E
d Morgan leans forward, his face stretching into a grin. “It’s like a conspiracy, a conspiracy of the Holy Spirit, a mission.” An Air Force officer during the Vietnam War, Morgan knows about missions, but the mission he’s talking about is The Bowery Mission, one of America’s oldest outreaches to homeless men and women. “Our mission is to create opportunities for God to change and transform lives.” He starts talking faster, holding his hands together in front of him: “What makes me so excited is that I can be a part of the citywide gospel movement here in New York City.” November and December are busy months for a ministry Ceo—more people coming in as the weather gets cold, more donors to reach as the year’s giving peaks. Seventeen years ago, Ed Morgan traded a 20-year career at General Electric to become president of the struggling Christian Herald Association, an organization that ran the Bowery Mission and put out The Christian Herald, a magazine dating from 1879. The publication no longer exists, but the mission now thrives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, operating “in line with the best practices of American businesses, in a way that creates value for our donors,” Morgan says. His career change was partly a matter of curiosity—he was intrigued by the idea of resurrecting a business. But it was more than that. It was, he says, a desperate need to live for something bigger than himself. Some might use numbers to show how Morgan has resuscitated the Bowery Mission: In 2009 it gave out 340,000 meals and over 4,000 full outfits of clothes. Big numbers, though, can also suggest a problem: If the same people keep coming back, is a ministry merely enabling people to stay poor instead of helping them change their lives? This is why a different number is more impressive: Last year 156 individuals graduated from Bowery’s long-term transformative program. This year, 170 are scheduled to graduate. Morgan looks for results: “Most charities measure process—how many meals are served and how many beds they have, but we measure permanent results. We are outcome-focused.” He leans back, relaxed in a bright red leather chair, and summarizes his business methodology. Principle one: strategic planning and an emphasis on concrete results. Morgan counts off on his right hand what a person needs to graduate from Bowery’s long-term program: He must be 1. Connected to Christ, 2. Connected to family 3. Clean and sober, 4. Employed with a place to live, and 5. Have a plan for the future. Principle two: hiring the best. “You’re only as good as the people you have called to the ministry. It’s people first, second, third.” Principle three: laser-beam focus on mission and purpose. Morgan notes that businesses emphasize quarterly earnings, but the mission’s bottom line is “lives changed one at a time. It’s a very scriptural thing. You don’t change lives through social services. That’s called behavioral modification. Recovery from homelessness is an affair of the heart.” So how did a successful businessman become concerned about STREET SPIRIT: homelessness in the first place? What convinced him to accept a 60 percent Morgan, in Manhattan, pay cut (with a son recently accepted into pricey Vanderbilt) to inherit a makes a connection.
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The mission’s bottom line is “lives changed one at a time. It’s a very scriptural thing. You don’t change lives through social services. That’s called behavioral modification. Recovery from homelessness is an affair of the heart.”
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As president, Morgan casts vision and builds both the orga-year-old company with a , deficit and a rapidly nization and relationships with current and potential donors. A decreasing endowment? mid-morning meeting with his event planner, Sara Alonzo Ironically, Morgan’s transition to ministry began when he Maier, adds several follow-up calls and breakfast appointments read a quotation from author Henry James: “The best use of life to his agenda. The two of them work carefully through a coded is for that which outlasts life.” Morgan considered himself a list of names, stopping at certain points for Morgan to make Christian and was active in church leadership, but he was restnotes. For one family, he notes a change in capability. For less: “I felt like something was missing—a connection with the another, the need to visit. He interrupts occasionally to tell Lord.” So in , he and his wife decided to be baptized as friendly stories about the people adults: “We declared ourselves to and their families. He also talks the powers above that we are about how Bowery is working Christians . . . and that’s when with some at-risk younger the trouble started. It’s like joinpeople as well: It has tutoring ing the army, the first thing you programs for children and face is basic training.” brings , to a summer camp. Basic training for Morgan During his first five years at the included tension with comission, Morgan commuted from workers, intense physical the suburbs, but he and his wife suffering (they thought it was Judy moved into Manhattan pancreatic cancer), and clinical years ago—a gesture of commitdepression. For two years he ment to the city and to the misdragged himself to work, came sion. Now the Morgans live in an home, and hibernated: “I literally PEOPLE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD: The Bowery Mission church. apartment above his midtown thought my life was over.” He office. On the office walls are now believes that God used that portraits of previously homeless people whose lives have been suffering to change his heart and prepare him for a new work transformed. His ambitious three-year goals for Bowery include that required compassion he had never had before: “Some of doubling the number of beds—“We’re planners!” he exclaims. my best friends are homeless people going through our He calls himself a “civilian gone combatant” who has joined program at the mission. . . . I identify with them in a way I the battle: “We are snatching back souls from the enemy.” A never thought I would.” Tiffany Owens is editor of The Empire State Tribune
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After Prince Caspian’s disappointing results, Walden Media
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n the summer of 2008, one of the biggest questions critics and entertainment reporters were asking was, “What happened to Prince Caspian?” The film’s predecessor and the first of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia stories to reach the big screen, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, shattered industry expectations in 2005 by earning more than $65 million in its opening weekend and going on to gross nearly $300 million domestically. To put those numbers in context, it was the second-highest-grossing movie of the year, beating even Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So there was no reason for Walden Media, the small, family-friendly studio responsible for Wardrobe, not to expect big things from the sequel. But when Prince Caspian finally hit theaters, the towers of Hollywood did not shake nor even rattle. Though the $55 million it took in over its opening weekend marked only a 16 percent decline, it suffered from poor word-of-mouth. By the end of its run Caspian’s total was less than half of Wardrobe’s, making it a serious disappointment for everyone involved. By 2009, negative associations with Caspian looked ready to sink the third film in the franchise, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Disney, which had partnered with Walden on the first two films, no longer wanted to provide the kind of budget Walden wanted. It dropped Dawn Treader in the middle of pre-production, and there followed considerable speculation that Caspian would be the end of The Chronicles as feature films. Happily for fans, 20th Century Fox decided there was life left in Narnia. The studio tepped in to take Disney’s place. So the question box-office handicappers are asking now is, “What did Walden learn from Caspian, and will it be enough to keep Dawn Treader and the franchise afloat?” Plenty of differences between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian could have contributed to Caspian’s underperformance. One of the most notable was timing—Wardrobe hit theaters in the second week of December, Caspian in the middle of May. No surprise then with the series’ life on the line, Walden has decided to return to a pre-Christmas release for Dawn Treader. But Walden co-founder and president Michael Flaherty doesn’t mince words when acknowledging that there were other, less superficial mistakes his studio made with Caspian that it took care to avoid this time around. One of the most significant, he says, was ignoring the franchise’s core audience. Much has been made of Walden’s distinctive approach of promoting some projects to pastors, youth groups, and parachurch organizations (outlets like Entertainment Weekly and Politico have even accused the studio of pushing a religious agenda). However, says Flaherty, shying away from that approach and relying instead on standard Hollywood methods of marketing cost Walden dearly with Caspian. “We got cocky,” he admits. “With Wardrobe, we were the hardestworking production in show business. We went everywhere. We went to every teacher’s conference, we went to every faith conference, we went to every concert to let people know that this film was coming out and ask them for their support.” After Wardrobe’s stunning success, Flaherty says the studio took it for granted that Caspian was destined to do as well. “We thought we just needed to let people know the date it would be coming out,” he laughs.
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back from being the person that we were created to be.” Douglas Gresham, Lewis’ stepson and an executive producer on all three films, describes himself as the “Narnia purist and card-carrying Christian” on the production team. “Which basically means I’m the resident nuisance,” he jokes. “So if you move a comma from one point on the page to another, I’m the one that jumps up and down and screams.” When a choice between deferring to the other filmmakers and digging in his heels over a story change arose, Gresham says he prayed for wisdom and let the deciding factor be whether the alteration affected the film thematically. “I can’t really speak to the plot additions because I don’t always understand them myself,” says Gresham. “And I sometimes have to accept, not without a fight I hasten to add, what they say we have to do. I stick to making sure that we get the theological messages that Jack [C.S. Lewis] himself was trying to portray in the books. And I think we’ve done that.” I mention, as an example of his point, the particularly significant line in the book where Aslan tells Lucy that he is also in her own world, but by a different name. Gresham laughs and admits, “That was one of the fights that I won. That scene was done the way I wanted it to be done almost completely.” Though almost all of the focus on Dawn Treader centers on whether it will achieve enough to allow the franchise to go forward (Gresham bluntly says, “I’d love to do Silver Chair next, but it depends entirely upon how much the public supports this movie”), Flaherty points out that there may be more at stake than merely the future of The Chronicles. “If the Narnia films do well, it sends a message to the other studios that they should also be making films like this,” he says. “One of Walden’s counterintuitive goals is that we invite imitators. The more studios making family-friendly films, the more studios making films based on good books, the more successful we feel like we’ve been.” A
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An incident at church soon made him realize how wrong he had been. “My pastor gave a sermon a month after its release and mentioned how much he liked it. So I went up to him after and thanked him, and he said, ‘Yeah it was great, I just wish I had known when it came out, I could have said something earlier.’ That was a real sign for us that we didn’t want to make the same mistake with [Dawn Treader].” While pastors and parachurch organizations are no doubt happy to hear that Walden has new appreciation for their audience value, most weren’t bothered by being overlooked so much as they were by the content of the film. In an interview earlier this year, Dr. Jerry Root, who teaches Lewis at Wheaton College, complained, “The worst element in Prince Caspian was when Lucy sees Aslan for the first time on her return to Narnia. In the book she exclaims, ‘Aslan, you’re bigger!’ Aslan responds, ‘I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.’ In the movie, this was seriously compromised to, ‘Aslan, you’ve grown!’ Aslan replies, ‘Every year you grow, so shall I.’ It is a horrible compromise of Lewis and really bad theology.” Many other high-profile pastors and Christian leaders agreed that Caspian distanced itself from the books’ biblical themes while at the same time imposing values that weren’t consistent with Lewis’ beliefs. While no one involved with the production will directly state that Caspian underplayed Lewis’ theological subtext, Flaherty says that during the making of Dawn Treader, Walden had as many Lewis experts as possible on hand to advise them on the points they “absolutely could not miss.” And he maintains that even with changes to the plot, Walden strove to maintain Lewis’ worldview. “We added things with the conviction that they were amplifying Lewis’ themes and not taking away from them.” Specifically, he says they “really wanted to play up that theme of the Christian walk, the spiritual journey, all the things that continue to hold us
Fantastical
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Except for a detour into green mist, Dawn Treader sails smooth and straight When it comes to the future of The Chronicles of Narnia, the pressure is on for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (rated PG for a few mildly frightening scenes). If it delivers, The Silver Chair will reach theaters in due time. If it doesn’t, say goodbye to C.S. Lewis’ wonderland, cinematically speaking anyway. The good news for those who are clamoring to see the rest of the series on the big screen— Walden’s swing this time around should earn it another turn at bat. For those who know and love the books (and even for those who don’t), the first third of the movie is pitch-perfect. Perfect in the way Peter Jackson’s rendering of The Shire and Gollum were perfect. It begins with Will Poulter as the smarmy, pestilential cousin of the Pevensies, Eustace. Poulter owns the character like an old-time stage actor. His body language is starched, his speech affected, and his mannerisms irritating. In short, he is exactly what one would expect from someone named Eustace Clarence Scrubb. Even more impressive is Poulter’s portrayal of Eustace’s redemption. As believable as he is before the lion, Aslan (Liam Neeson), peels away his dead, gnarled shell, he is equally authentic in his transformation into a new creation with a tender heart. Simon Pegg, voicing the valiant mouse Reepicheep, is another phenomenal addition who is easily on par with all the great character actors peopling Harry Potter’s world. As a newcomer to the series, director Michael Apted (Amazing Grace) creates a Narnia that feels romantic and alive. From Eustace, Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and Lucy’s (Georgie Henley) swim through a painting, to the appearance of the ship, to the merry banter of its inhabitants, we believe in this fantastical world. And we continue doing so right up until the point the crew leaves the first of the Lone Islands. From there, the waters get a little choppy. As the Dawn Treader sails on to the Island of the Voices where Lucy discovers a magician’s spell book and meets the Dufflepuds (yes, Virginia, there are Dufflepuds. And they too are perfect), a
plot line involving evil green smoke breaks some of the enchantment. I don’t necessarily have an argument with trying to incorporate a more cohesive story line into Dawn Treader. The novel’s episodic structure of sailing from one island to another just for the sake of discovering what happened to a group of long-lost lords lacks a certain tension. But instead of developing something uniquely befitting Lewis’ creation, the screenwriters have settled for Lost-lite. The green mist that tempts each according to his greatest weakness, the seven swords that must be assembled to destroy it—it’s all rather generically mystical. And it comes off particularly lame compared to the still-fresh subplot of Eustace’s dragoning and undragoning and his developing friendship with Reepicheep. Lewis had the wisdom to impart morals with a sense of wit and depth. This green mist has neither. Thematically, nothing about it conflicts with the novel’s Christian subtext, but it feels like a didactic tack-on, which, of course, is exactly what it is. The new material works best for Lucy, whose desire for beauty is extrapolated and magnified from a small incident in the book. It’s a persistent and common enough sin for the ladies that we have no trouble sympathizing with her struggle. Edmund’s temptation to wrest power from Caspian, however, feels intrusive and redundant. Didn’t we tread this same ground with Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Peter in Prince Caspian? Are there any boys in Narnia who don’t secretly want to be king? Fortunately, by the time we sail into the sweet waters of Aslan’s country, things are back on track, and Christian audiences may be stunned and grateful to see how the filmmakers reveal the true nature of the great lion. His direct-from-Lewis explanation that he is in our world too and we must learn to know him by another name will be like a spring in the desert for thoughtful parents whose time is often spent in theaters enduring cheap bathroom jokes and even cheaper believe-in-yourself messages. And it certainly makes Walden worthy of helming Narnia into the future. —M.B. December 18, 2010
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Drawn by g Many Chinese immigrants hear the gospel for the first time in the United States— and many are responding
Liu found respite from his burdens when a friend invited him to the Church of Grace to Fujianese. Here in midtown Manhattan was a place where he could bond with others from Fujian province in southeastern China. He also noticed something different in the church: a kind of joy and love he had yet to experience in the United States. “There was something genuine about this faith, unlike the idols we worshipped in China,” Liu said. “When I was in China, I had heard of by A ng e l A lu i n n ew yor k & CA l i for n iA Christianity, but I didn’t think I needed it. Now P h o t o g r a P h s b y N a j l a h F e a N N y/g e N e s i s P h o t o s in the U.S., when I’m alone and facing new hardships, here is where I find God.” Liu’s story is like that of many immigrants both legal and rand Street sprawls like a clogged artery to the illegal from mainland China. Since the People’s Republic of heart of New York’s Chinatown. People brush China eased travel restrictions in 1978, the number of Chinese through sidewalks packed with shops selling immigrants has soared from 200,000 in 1980 to 1.4 million in fresh fruit. Restaurants display whole shriveled 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This creates a barbecued ducks. Old women haggle for fish in tremendous opportunity for the Chinese people to hear the harsh Cantonese tones. Souvenir shops offer fake gospel right here in the United States—and the number of golden Buddhas, fish carved in cheap jade, and bonsai trees Chinese churches in the United States has risen from 366 growing in porcelain vases. churches in 1980 to more than 800 today. For some Americans, stepping into this ethnic enclave feels On Sunday mornings at 10:45 a.m., throngs of Fujianese like stepping onto another continent. It might seem that Li people file through a doorway under metal letters that spell out Rong Liu, a native of Fujian in southern China, would read the “The Church of Grace to Fujianese” in both Chinese and Chinese lettering on shops and feel at home—but it’s a bleak English. Friendly chatter fills the 300-seat sanctuary as pews home where he started on the lowest level as a busboy, workhit capacity and those without seats stand along the wall. ing seven days a week from the early morning to midnight for Latecomers sit on folding chairs in the foyer and watch the six years before upgrading to a sushi chef. He now works a service on a small flatscreen. more modest 10 hours a day. After the congregation sings a few hymns in Chinese, “Have you ever worked at a restaurant?” Liu asked in Pastor Matthew Ding takes the podium and instructs congreMandarin with a wry smile. I shook my head no, and he sighed, gants to open their Bibles to Nehemiah 11:6-24. He calls for the “Then you have no idea how hard it is.” Two years ago, though,
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Christ and saw a whole population of dishwashers, busboys, congregation to read the passage aloud, and the hall is filled and waiters toiling all day without hearing about the gospel. with a loud jumble of words as everyone reads at his or her She started holding Bible studies after work in San Jose in 1995, own pace. The passage seems dry—a genealogy of Israelites and the organization now has expanded to a dozen cities such who settled in Jerusalem—but Ding emphasizes that the as Indianapolis, Atlanta, Tucson, and New York. Israelites, like the Chinese, are interested both in lineage and in California’s San Gabriel Valley, where 22 percent of the passing down teaching of the law. He then brings it back to the immigrants from Taiwan reside, has dozens of churches that Chinese culture: “You came to the U.S. to give your kids a immigrants from the mainland increasingly attend: Pastor better life, but if you don’t teach them about Christianity, what Matthew Liu’s house church, Hui-Xin Christian Ministry, is good will it be? Nothing else will last for eternity.” one of them. A native of Taiwan, Liu started as a pastor at a Many Chinese immigrants come to the church entrenched in Taiwanese church but thought more about helping immigrants the Confucian belief that hard work is the only path to success from mainland China after his wife befriended two and held a in life: Study hard to get into a good college, work hard to Bible study with them in their home. make more money, and discipline children to have a respectLiu started a small house church, with services at his able household. When Chinese immigrants hear the gospel, kitchen table always followed by a home-cooked meal. The Liu they have a hard time understanding that salvation comes from house became a pit stop for immigrants who came for dinner, grace alone, not from works. Hence the word grace or “un Bible teaching, fellowship, and help in filling out forms and dian” is often repeated in church. finding lawyers, doctors, and jobs. They frequently told Liu, Ding presents the gospel both in his sermons and through “We have no family here and when we come to your house we church meetings that fit work schedules. He has Bible studies feel like we are home.” As the church grew, the Lius moved to and classes on other days than Sunday mornings, since many a bigger house to accommodate it. When the church no longer congregants work then. He holds a later service for those who fit in that house, Hui-Xin moved to a nearby building. Now 70 work late. The church also has a telephone ministry where to 80 people come every week. about 1,000 immigrants who work in Chinese restaurants The stories some of the immigrants tell are extraordinary. across the United States call in from midnight to 2 a.m. to hear For example, Joshua Yu, 84, a Christian in communist China, a pastor lead Bible study. Afterwards the lines are open for spent 22 years in a “reeducation-through-labor” camp—and callers to share prayer requests and pray together. watched as famous evangelists denied their faith. Other Christian organizations also reach out to Chinese Yu grew up in a Christian home and accepted immigrants. Herald Restaurant Gospel Ministry, sOmething genuine: Christ at the age of 16. His father, a church elder, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., holds late-night The 300-seat sanctuary taught him to read the Bible. When Yu was 23, the Bible studies at Chinese restaurants for what of the Church of grace Communist Party of China gained control of the founder Esther Lou calls “an unreached people to Fujianese fills up prior country and restricted religion. The government group.” Lou, a former restaurant owner, came to to services on nov. 28. December 18, 2010
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afterthedeathofMaoZedong, reatedtheThree-SelfChurch c only800oftheoriginal2,000 andallowedChristiansto prisonerswerealive. worshiponlythere. After21yearsand7 Yuquicklysawhowthe monthsoflabor,Yuwas officialchurchcontradicted allowedtoreturntohisrural theBible:Thegovernment hometownbutofficialswould wouldnotallowanyoneunder notlethimlivewithhiswife theageof18toattend,butYu inShanghai. recalledMatthew19:14,where Onatwo-weekvisitto Jesussaid,“Letthechildren Shanghai,Yufoundanewscometome,anddonothinder paperadseekinganEnglish them,forthekingdomof professoratEastChina heavenbelongstosuchas NormalUniversityin these.”TheThree-SelfChurch Shanghai.Despitehisformer alsoprohibitedpreaching prisonerstatus,Yubeatout aboutthesecondcomingof 600otherapplicantstoget Christandaboutcommands thejob.Afterfiveyears nottolovetheworld: teachingEnglish,achurchin CommunistPartyleaders AmericawantedYutocome fearedsuchideaswould workforthem,soYutried underminethegovernment’s applyingforavisa.Atfirst authority. officialsrejectedhimbecause Yurefusedtodenyhis Many Chinese immigrants come to the church ofhisprisonbackground,but faith,sogovernmentofficials entrenched in the Confucian belief that hard somehowhegothisvisaon calledhiminforquestioning work is the only path to success in life. . . . hissecondtry. in1958andaskedhimwhyhe When [they] hear the gospel, they have a Oncehecametothe didnotjointheThree-Self UnitedStates,Yustartedthe Church:“Iwasinabold hard time understanding that salvation ChineseChristianTestimony mood,soIsaid,‘TheBibletells comes from grace alone, not from works. Ministry,apublishingcomme—andasaChristian,I panythatreleasesbooks, believeintheBible—thatGod translatestestimoniestoEnglish,andcreatesDVDs.Hisminisplacesauthoritiesoverus,soIwillobeytheCommunistgovtryhasreachedbacktoChinaasmissionariesbringhisbooks ernment.ButtheBiblealsosaystoobeyGodoverman.Ifthe intoChinaandreproducetheminthecountry.ButYualsohas governmentandGodcontradict,thenIwillfollowGod.ThreeamessageforAmericanChristians:“BeforeCommunismtook SelfChurchdoesn’tfollowGod.’” over,therewerealotofenthusiasticpastors....Whenthey ThegovernmentsentYuand2,000otherstoa“reeducation cameunderfire,alotofthemjoinedtheThree-SelfChurchand camp”inanisolatedmountainregionwheretheyworkedall daywithlittlerest:Lunchwasasmallamountofriceandonion othersjustdecidedtogiveuponChristianity....Isee America’ssituationanditislikeChina’sbeforeCommunism. soup,dinnerwasasmallpieceofonion.MalnutritionandoverAmericanChristiansneedtoexaminethemselves.”A workwreckedtheprisoners.BythetimeYuwasfreedin1979
Nicole’s story When Nicole Shen came to Brooklyn from Macau, China, as a teenager, she felt lonely and depressed. At the time she could not speak any English and was without friends or relatives. Her classmates teased her and her parents were too busy working in restaurants to pay attention to her and her younger siblings. Shen’s parents would come home tired and frustrated that they had yet to find the promised “mountain of gold” in America. They would take their anger out on their children. Shen was deeply disappointed that no matter
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what she did, she could not earn her parents’ love. When a high-school counselor asked Shen if she wanted to do community service through the New York Chinese Alliance Church, she agreed, eager for something to do. After coming to the church a few times, she wondered why the people there were so kind and caring to non-relatives: Did they have other motives? In China, she had never met strangers who were willing to cook for her, care for her, and genuinely listen to her. She started coming to youth group to find out why people here were so different, and at the youth group she learned about Jesus. Raised in a
Confucian culture that emphasizes filial piety, Shen found the idea of a Heavenly Father loving her so much that He would sacrifice His Son for her a complete reversal from all that she knew. At church, Shen said she finally found the love of God that she had searched so long for in her parents. “The biggest grace that God has shown me is bringing [my sister and me] to church and letting us know Him,” said Shen in Mandarin. “In China, I had never heard of God so I wonder, ‘Why were we so lucky to find these people at church who cared about us?’ We didn’t do anything to get it, I wasn’t a good person. It was all God’s grace.” —A.L.
Angela Lu is a writer in St. Louis, Mo.
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SpecIal adveRTISINg dIRecTORY
MISSIONS & MINISTRY
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M ISSIONS & M I N IST RY DI R E C T ORY
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Notebook LIFESTYLE TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HOUSES OF GOD SPORTS MONEY
Justice suspended
LIFESTYLE: A small businessman learns the hard way about predatory “patrollers” BY SUSAN OLASKY in Southfield, Mich.
©2010 DAVID KADLUBOWSKI/GENESIS PHOTOS
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T Sal Herman, an immigrant to the United States from Israel with a high-school education, figured out how to make a suspender clip that wouldn’t slip off the pants it was supposed to hold up. Herman, now , received patent ,, in February . He then founded the Holdup Suspender Company in a Detroit suburb, Southfield. The company has grown because its website boast is apparently accurate: “The Holdup Suspender Company has the cure for frustrated suspender wearers all over the world. . . . Our exclusive noslip clip is guaranteed to never slip-slide or pop off your pants.” Herman’s invention led to jobs for himself, his wife, and three other people, and for employees of his supplier in Taiwan, where the clips are manufactured and etched with his patent number. In June the patent expired, but Herman never bothered to remove the expired number from the clips: “Why should I take it off? . . . It didn’t hurt anybody.” True—but it provided
opportunity to a company known as Unique Product Solutions of Dayton, Ohio. Unique on Sept. sued the Holdup Suspender Company for using “invalid and unenforceable patent rights in advertising with the purpose of deceiving the public.” Unique filed similar suits against companies in July alone. Its lawyers are seizing the opportunity created by a D.C. circuit court ruling in December —Forest Group v. Bon Tool Company—that changed the fine for using an expired patent number from per incident to per unit. It also said anyone could sue without having to prove competitive injury. It gave a financial incentive to sue because plaintiffs split the fines with the federal government. That ruling jumped the potential fine for Herman’s violation from to million: In the past two years his company produced approximately , clips etched with the expired number, and each one could carry a fine of . Unique’s potential windfall is million, and Unique is only one of the companies that have become “patrollers,” searching for expired patent numbers (those below ,,). When they find them they sue: Since the ruling, false patent marking lawsuits have added to the U.S. litigation load—compared to in the previous two years. DECEMBER 18, 2010
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Notebook > Lifestyle Herman says he could probably settle his lawsuit for ,. That’s on top of the , he spent to hire a half dozen people at /hour to unbag every suspender in his inventory, grind off the offending number, and rebag them—a process that took seven weeks. But he doesn’t want to pay what his lawyer calls a “shakedown” and his wife calls “extortion.” Herman prefers to talk about “a travesty of justice.” I called Unique to get its perspective, but no one returned my call. Herman complains that no one ever told him he had to take the numbers off: “It’s not the American way. The government just changed the rule months ago.” He argues that the patent system, dating from the time Abraham Lincoln was president, is outdated. Having the patent number on his
suspender clip didn’t keep anyone from innovating, he says. It could actually help competition because Google allows an inventor an easy way to look up the number, see what it covers, and potentially design an improvement—just as Herman did back in the pre-Google s. In October Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, introduced H.R. , the Patent Lawsuit Reform Act of , to return the situation to the way it was before the circuit court ruling. Latta notes that “during this time of economic uncertainty, companies should not have to worry about expending additional resources on lawsuits based on one court’s interpretation of current law.” In the meantime, Herman keeps innovating. On May he received a new patent, D, S, for an improvement to his suspender clips. A
BECOMING BRANDED Does belief in God inoculate a person from being overly brand-conscious? That’s the conclusion reached by Ron Shachar, a business professor in Israel. He and scientists from Duke University and researched the connection between a person’s religiosity and brand reliance. They found that non-religious folks tend to use stuff to express who they are to the outside world. The researchers found “more secular populations are more prone to define their self-worth through loyalty to corporate brands instead of religious denominations.” —S.O.
Dinner and a movie
MOVIE: ISTOCK
Actor and comedian Albin Sadar creates gag gifts like The Men’s Underwear Repair Kit and Mistletoe on the Go: Stick it and Smooch (“portable mistletoe that attaches to the forehead with a suction cup, allowing you to ‘accidentally’ find yourself under the mistletoe with . . . anyone who strikes your fancy.”) But he also has a serious side. One Wednesday a month, he and a group of volunteers with Hope For New York host a Pizza and Movie Night at St. Paul’s House, a mission to the homeless in the Manhattan West Side neighborhood officially dubbed “Clinton” but traditionally known as Hell’s Kitchen. When the doors open, men and women file into the basement room, park their carts, stuff their backpacks under chairs, and pick up a bowl of popcorn and a cup of soda. Sadar, who has been doing movie night for years, greets most of the men and women by name. Later, he and three to five other volunteers pass out pizza. Sadar selects movies that he thinks the men and women will enjoy and that will lead to good discussions about meaning, purpose, and hope. Ultimately he wants to talk to them about Jesus. On the night I visited, Sadar showed The Astronaut Farmer, which stars Billy Bob Thornton as an amateur rocket builder who pursues his dream to be an astronaut despite the ridicule of neighbors and the opposition of . The homeless audience consumed pizza pies (eight sausage, eight pepperoni, two mushroom, four plain) and two-liter bottles of Coke, and at the end of the movie applauded—a rare response, Sadar says. Ratatouille was another movie that received an ovation. —S.O.
Email: solasky@worldmag.com
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12/1/10 5:10 PM
Are we servants or slaves? MOVIE: ISTOCK
Slaves had no rights, but some servants did. So when readers see Christians called to be Christ’s slaves in the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the radical nature of discipleship is clearer. Accuracy, one of the reasons you’ll love reading any of the HCSB digital or print editions. HCSB Study Bible Now Available
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see | hcsb.org
12/1/10 1:55 PM
Notebook > Technology
Missing app Protest prompts Apple to remove Christian app BY EMILY BELZ and ALISSA WILKINSON
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C A for banning porn apps from its online store earlier this year, but recently the computer company showed that its censor cuts both ways. Over Thanksgiving, Apple removed from its store the Manhattan Declaration app, which contained a statement of Christian beliefs about marriage, life, and religious freedom. The app went up on the Apple store beginning in mid-October and rated + (for “no objectionable material”), but change.org—an activist website for causes like gay marriage—collected about , signatures petitioning Apple to remove the app, calling it a “hate fest.” Catholic scholar Robert George of Princeton University was the chief writer of the Manhattan Declaration, which calls signers to reject “disdainful condemnation” of those they disagree with and remember that all humans are created in the image of God. It has nearly half a million signatures and garnered support from Christian groups as diverse as Focus on the Family and Evangelicals for Social Action. The app had allowed users to sign the document virtually, take a survey, and access information about events. The Manhattan Declaration organizers have asked Apple head Steve Jobs to reconsider the app removal.
Demand for online education—once thought to be a passing trend—shows no signs of slowing down. In fall , colleges enrolled . million students in at least one web-based course, according to a survey of , higher education institutions. That number represents an increase of million students— percent—over the previous year. Reasons for this increase include the economy, improved technology, high demand for education, and an increase in the number of institutions offering online courses. Many of those courses are offered by for-profit institutions, and that “weakness” could stop online momentum: The idea of investors profiting through building new schools is not popular in the Obama administration’s Department of Education. New rules handed down last month will result in more government regulation of these schools, and that will delight some brick-and-mortar stalwarts who are rapidly losing market share. —A.W.
Your cellphone makes phone calls, browses the web, picks up your email, and entices you to play games. Now, Google wants it to act like a credit card. The technology giant’s , Eric E. Schmidt, recently demonstrated a phone that uses near-field communication (or ) technology, which allows people simply to tap the phone on a sticker-like symbol and perform an action, such as paying for something. Schmidt said that using such a technology for purchasing could be more fraud-proof than traditional credit cards, since both the person and the phone would need to be present to make the purchase. Schmidt also noted that phones using technology could sense when a user walks into a store: The phones could track shopping preferences and tell customers where to find a specific product. —A.W.
ILLUSTRATION: GETTY IMAGES • NCF: HANDOUT
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WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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Notebook > Science
Caffeinated drunks
With an eye toward health and public safety, the cracks down on high-alcohol energy drinks BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
>>
“blackout in a can.” Four Loko, an energy drink that comes in a variety of fruit flavors and peaks at percent alcohol, costs . for a tall, .-ounce can. Or at least it used to, before the in mid-November ordered the drink’s manufacturer and three other makers of “caffeinated alcoholic beverages,” or s, to reformulate or stop selling their products. The banned seven brands with names like Joose and Moonshot,
WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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FAT CATS (& DOGS) Is your dog or cat gaining weight? He or she may be part of a broader trend. Researchers analyzing the weight data of dogs, cats, mice, marmosets, and wild rats living near humans found an overall increase in obesity through several decades. Pets could be gaining weight from too many calories and too little exercise (like us)—but that might not explain why lab rats are fatter. Water toxins or even a fat-inducing virus, which is known to exist, could be a cause—but some say lifestyle factors shouldn’t be ruled out. —D.J.D.
DRINKS: TED S. WARREN/AP • DOG: SHARON MONTROSE/THE IMAGE BANK/GETTY IMAGES
calling the caffeine an “unsafe food additive” for the alcoholic drinks. The agency’s decision followed a year-long review and came on the heels of two publicized incidents in Washington and New Jersey, in which several college
students had to be hospitalized after drinking Four Loko. It’s no secret that alcohol-free energy drinks like Monster and Red Bull have become wildly popular among teens and young adults over the last decade. One-third say they drink such beverages on a regular basis, seeking energy and alertness—even though Red Bull, to the unenlightened, tastes like a blend of Mountain Dew and Alka-Seltzer. But some nightclubs went further, mixing, for instance, Red Bull and vodka to combine the feelings of intoxication and energy, fueling all-night parties. Businesses selling caffeineinfused alcohol sprang up, and from to the sales of two leading brands shot from , gallons to nearly million. Alcohol is a depressant, caffeine a stimulant. The one makes you sluggish, the other alert. Combine them, and the alcohol is masked by the energizing effect of the caffeine, which experts believe tricks imbibers into thinking they aren’t very drunk. So they drink more, behave badly, and as the caffeine wears off find themselves with dangerously high blood-alcohol levels. Studies show that people who consume energy drinks alongside alcohol are three times as likely to be binge drinkers, and twice as likely to take advantage of someone sexually. Two Florida lawsuits pending against Phusion Projects, the maker of Four Loko, claim the drink is responsible for a shooting death and a car accident injury.
The company’s cofounders say their beverages are being unfairly targeted— and point to rum and sodas or Irish coffees that “have been consumed safely and responsibly for years.” They have half a point: Imbibers who want the effects of caffeine and alcohol can still get as much or little as they desire by mixing their own drinks. But those combinations aren’t sold in a prepackaged form to be chugged for the purpose of quick, cheap, inebriated energy—unlike Four Loko, the equivalent of five beers and two coffees. The distinction obviously doesn’t reach the soul of the problem, but it makes s an easy target for the .
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
12/1/10 3:44 PM
John collier/Prints anD PhotograPhs Division/library of congress
Notebook > Houses of God
The chapel at Vadito, near Pensaco in northern New Mexico. This photo was taken in the spring of 1943 as part of the Farm Security Administration—Office of War Information Photograph Collection. The more than 100,000 mostly black-and-white photos, including a selection on churches, form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. They are now available online via the Library of Congress.
December 18, 2010
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Notebook > Sports
‘God is in control’ MICHAEL VICK’s way out has become his way up
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lazy, leaning into his exceptional physical abilities to produce good enough, rather than pressing to grow his mental understanding of defensive schemes and the quarterback position. For Vick, football was providing all he wanted—a new flashy lifestyle, a new home for his once impoverished mother, a new identity rooted in power and acclaim. It was for these things that Vick valued the game, for these things that he still clutched football as a savior. And then that savior and many of its attending blessings were suddenly removed in . Vick’s involvement in illegal dog-fighting did more than bar him from playing football; it sullied his public image, plucked away his freedom, and emptied his bank accounts. More than that, it left him searching for a new God. Vick’s public apology included this note: “I’m upset with myself and, you know, through this situation I found Jesus and asked Him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.” That statement met considerable criticism at the time, none harsher than from black conservative radio host Jesse Lee Peterson: “The statement that Michael Vick has found Jesus is laughable. Like other celebrities before him, Vick is evoking Jesus’ name to stop the criticism and gain public sympathy.” Three years later, it is Peterson’s comment that’s in question. With evangelical Christian and former coach Tony Dungy at his side, Vick addressed a Campus Crusade for Christ audience earlier this year: “Pre-incarceration, it was all about me. When I got to prison, I realized I couldn’t do it anymore. The one thing I could rely on was my faith in God. . . . Five months ago I was worried with what was going to happen, but now I’m more at peace. God has taken it over. I don’t have to worry about being dynamic. God is in control of that.” Freed from clutching sport as savior, Vick now plays the game out of a new identity—one rooted in humility. Football is no longer his way out but a public canvas to tell the story of a new man. And nothing is more dynamic than redemption. A
ONE OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES EVER: Vick carries the ball against Redskins.
TOP: CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP • LEFT: BRIAN GARFINKEL/AP
and child of a crime-ridden housing project, Michael Vick grew up clutching football as his way out. It was his escape hatch, his passage to a better life—or at least a more comfortable one. But in the wake of a felony conviction and -month prison term for his role in a savage dog-fighting ring, Vick’s grip on the sport that would save him has loosened. The Philadelphia quarterback cares less now about football than ever before. And paradoxically, he has never played better. Vick has surprised sports prognosticators, fans, and even his own coaches and teammates with his emergence as a Pro Bowl–caliber passer this season. He is among the favorites to claim the league’s award at season’s end. His performance in a - blowout of the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football on Nov. drew praise as one of the best single-game spectacles for any player in history. So what to make of this extraordinary resurgence? Football minds point out that no one ever doubted Vick’s talent. With lightning-quick feet and a rocket arm, he led the Virginia Tech Hokies to a national title game as a redshirt freshman in . Two years later, he was the No. overall pick in the draft. But that promise failed to translate to the professional game at the level many had predicted. Vick was a good quarterback, but not a great one. Observers lamented that such rare athletic gifts might never reach full utilization for a player more given to puffing his chest than pushing himself. Vick was
Email: mbergin@worldmag.com
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SHOPPERS: TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES • UNEMPLOYMENT: PAUL SANCYA/AP • IRELAND: JULIEN BEHAL/PA WIRE VIA AP
BY MARK BERGIN
Notebook > Money until Black Friday’s arrival (barely) to throw open the doors of its physical locations: Walmart stores opened at midnight. With household discretionary spending near a -year low (as a percentage of total consumer spending), retailers—following two years of disappointing Christmasseason sales—are hoping to reap the rewards of pent-up consumer demand. The National Retail Federation is predicting a “moderate” uptick in holiday retail sales this year of . Retailers think smaller debt loads will lead percent. Last year, sales rose less than half shoppers to open their wallets this month a percent, following a BY JOSEPH SLIFE . percent decline in . Among the consumer statistics cheering T C season retailers this Christmas season: Outstanding arrived early, with several big retail credit card debt has fallen percent since chains opening on Thanksgiving Day late , suggesting that consumers may feel (Kmart at a.m., Sears at a.m., Toys less strapped and be more willing to spend. R Us at p.m.) rather than waiting for Merchandise sold in November and “Black Friday.” In the online world, December typically accounts for about oneAmazon.com rolled out some of its Black fourth of annual sales for discount and Friday deals as early as October. Walmart, department stores—and the amount is even the nation’s top retailer, touted online-only higher for jewelry stores. deals on Thanksgiving Day, but it held off
TOP: CHARLES REX ARBOGAST/AP • LEFT: BRIAN GARFINKEL/AP
SHOPPERS: TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES • UNEMPLOYMENT: PAUL SANCYA/AP • IRELAND: JULIEN BEHAL/PA WIRE VIA AP
Holiday hopes
>>
FED FORECASTS The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee said U.S. unemployment is likely to stay near percent in , then drop to near percent in . The forecasts were included in notes from the committee’s early November meeting, released just before Thanksgiving. (In comparison, the unemployment rate was less than percent in .) Committee members also downgraded their -growth projection to between percent and . percent. Earlier estimates, made in June, were about a halfpercent higher. —J.S.
Irish eyes are crying “It’s clear we need some form of external assistance,” Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said as European Union banking leaders and representatives from the International Monetary Fund () arrived in Dublin to craft a rescue plan for the Emerald Isle. The intervention followed weeks of pressure from other Eurozone members, as well as nervous financial markets, as Ireland tries to weather a banking crisis that’s driving interest rates for its government debt above manageable levels. A portion of the funds for the Irish bailout, pegged at a total of billion, will come from the billion European Financial Stability Facility set up earlier this year, with the remainder coming from the . The Irish bailout, in the form of loans at below-market rates, is slightly smaller than the Greek bailout earlier this year. To reduce Ireland’s budget deficits (this year’s deficit is expected to hit a staggering percent of the country’s gross domestic product), Prime Minister Brian Cowen unveiled a four-year plan calling for . billion in spending cuts and . billion of tax increases. The plan aims to cut public-sector payrolls by nearly , and reduce pay for new public-sector workers by percent. —J.S. Joseph Slife is the assistant editor of SoundMindInvesting.com
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DECEMBER 18, 2010
WORLD
12/2/10 11:59 AM
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Providence Christian School of Texas • Dallas, Texas Athletic Director/Head Coach/Faculty (Fall 2011) Founded in 1989, Providence is a conservative, classical, independent, K-8, Christian day school located in the heart of Dallas, Texas. Our mission is to provide academically able students with a challenging educational experience designed to help them know, love, and practice that which is true, good, and excellent and to prepare them to live purposefully and intelligently in the service of God and man. Our core values are: faith, family, intellect, counterculturalism and stewardship. Our athletic program consists of football, cross country (boys/ girls), volleyball, soccer (g), basketball (b/g), lacrosse (b/g), and track (b/g) with virtually 100% student participation. Primary Job Requirements
Education in the classroom, in culture, and in community
SPiriTual BaCKGrOunD: We seek a candidate who is a mature Christian, who is passionate about Christ, and who treasures Him above all else. The candidate’s lifestyle must exemplify Christian character, and a commitment to personal holiness. The candidate should be an active member of a local church and experienced in mentoring and discipling young people. The candidate must be able to articulate a Christian worldview of athletics and be able to implement Biblical principles and character training in all programs. COaCHinG: The School seeks a candidate who has the vision and leadership skills necessary to build a superior athletic program known for its commitment to excellence in all aspects. a minimum of five years of successful
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coaching experience is required and the ideal candidate should have the ability to coach more than one sport. Head coaching opportunities are available in all offerings except football. COmmuniCaTiOn SKillS: The candidate must be able to speak and write persuasively to a variety of groups, possess strong interpersonal skills, and be able to successfully resolve conflict. EDuCaTiOn/ExPEriEnCE: The candidate must have a Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of five years of teaching or related experiences. note: The current position involves administration, teaching (PE), and coaching. We are open to considering a candidate whose background and experiences are outside of a traditional educational model or whose teaching background is in a different subject matter. aDminiSTraTiOn: Strong aptitudes and interests in planning, organizing, promoting, implementing and scheduling are required for this position. The candidate must be able to effectively recruit, develop, and retain outstanding coaches and faculty. Compensation: Highly competitive salary and benefit package Candidates should first request and then submit the School’s Employment application (please secure from our website at www.pcstx.org) and all supporting materials. Contact: Pat Sissom, Headmaster’s assistant, via email at psissom@pcstx. org or (214) 302-2801.
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Proven leaders ... equipping leaders at Patrick Henry College Alex and Brett are on a mission to combat apathy in their generation. They aren’t waiting until after graduation to start making a difference. At Patrick Henry College they’re helping to prepare a new generation of Christian leaders.
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and << Alex Brett Harris
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Bestselling authors of Do Hard Things and founders of TheRebelution.com.
Where Leaders Go.
To learn more, go to www.phc.edu/discoverphc For Christ and for Liberty
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MAILBAG
“Overcoming evil” (. )
“Riots against reality” (. ) The French people totally overreacted to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s increasing the retirement age from to . That is not a huge difference compared to the impact it will have on that country’s financial status. The French acted like spoiled little monsters, throwing a temper tantrum in front of the world. Sarkozy should not give in.
I just finished Laurie Halse Anderson’s book, Speak. Speak So much young adult fiction these days is edgy and dark, but life for some teens is, sadly, harsh and dark. Recently our newspaper described a freshman girl who committed suicide because of bullying after she reported that she was sexually assaulted by a senior at her school. Tragically, it was life mimicking fiction.
Delevan, N.Y.
. , , Ripon, Calif. “A bigger wave” (. ) This was a very inspiring interview. People like Dick Armey working in public service will move the country and the federal government toward the correct course and away from the charlatans. Hudson, Mass.
The interview with former Rep. Dick Armey was worth my whole year’s subscription to . It was delightfully frank.
but they are a small minority. The is right in putting a stop to this vicious behavior now. Selah, Wash.
“Infected by arrogance” (. ) Thank you for this column. We as Christians need to be reminded that our government, whether led by liberals or conservatives, can all too easily come to be regarded as a panacea for all our earthly woes. Raymond, Miss.
.
I have had to put down many books, including Speak, due to the language or topic while reviewing them for the library at my kids’ Christian school. I was gripped by the despair in it and, although some young people are in this situation, I found no redeeming message.
Greenwood, S.C.
“My Frank Wolf moment” (. ) Frank Wolf’s words regarding the church sliding into immorality and debauchery were very powerful and poignant. I was pleased that someone in politics would say
San Antonio, Texas
Orphanage in Staritsa, Russia /
“Lessons from Haiti” (. ) I am sorry to read the article on Charles Amicy of Presbyterian Mission in Haiti, but not surprised a bit. Too many modern missions are caught between incompetent missionaries, who think that getting on an airplane qualifies them to do mission work, and corrupt culture-brokers who are more than happy to work with uninformed and well-heeled wanna-be missionaries.
around the world
Evans, Ga.
“Hit or miss” (. ) There is nothing more disgusting than watching a cowardly defensive back nail a defenseless receiver, and then strut around beating his chest as if he had just done something heroic. Yes, some fans watch the game for the chance to see players get hurt, Send photos and letters to: mailbag@worldmag.com
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DECEMBER 18, 2010
WORLD
12/1/10 2:13 PM
Teach children to KNOW, LOVE and DELIGHT IN our holy God.
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something that is not politically correct. May God bless Rep. Wolf and all the other politicians who share his view. Joseph M. Gates Mount Prospect, Ill.
“Ready to eat?” (Nov. 6) Almost all our food, domestic animals, and landscapes come to us through human engineered genetic modifications people have used in farming and agriculture since Adam, Abel, and Cain. Our techniques have improved as we use our God-given gifts of faith, learning, and effort to better understand God’s creation. RichaRd BRiGGs Belpre, Ohio
Dispatches (Nov. 6) The cartoon by Gary Varvel, depicting Chinese parents telling their son to eat his dinner because “there are starving children in America,” delighted me. I grew up hearing: “Finish eating. The children in China are starving.” In my thoughts I replied: “Fine, send it to them. I’m full.” But of course I didn’t dare say a word, just stuffed it in me. We didn’t even think about sassing our parents back then. How I wish my mother were alive to see that cartoon. anita WolfenBeRGeR New Market, Tenn.
The United Nations has a “defamation of religion” resolution that works as an international license to kill those who speak against Islam. Meanwhile, some of our nation’s crisis pregnancy centers must publicize their perceived “deficiencies,” such as their refusal to perform or refer for abortions. May God open the eyes of our citizens to our perversion of God’s justice! cheRyl a. hoGstRoM
Phoenixville, Pa.
“Eyes on the prize” (Nov. 6) I’m pleased to see Mindy Belz and other WORLD writers telling it like it is and not pussyfooting around the Washington powers, including our president. I, and many other Christians, try too hard to be “nice” too much of the time. Bill Mc QueRRy Penn Valley, Calif.
“When Disney was Disney” (oct. 23) I saw Secretariat three times. I am a huge fan of horses and I especially appreciated how Disney made a movie my whole family could watch. I was extremely glad to hear that the director of Secretariat is a Christian and that Mr. Wallace had the guts to be who God called him to be, therefore producing a terrific movie. caRlie land
Jefferson City, Mo.
“Citizen watchdogs” (oct. 23) I have long been convinced that all the charges of voter fraud against ACORN should have been investigated. I am optimistic that more voter registrations in Houston County and possibly elsewhere throughout the country will now be more legitimate because of citizens’ careful monitoring. John KaiseR Holland, Mich.
“Realignment” (oct. 23) It was curious that you didn’t mention Tennessee, where Bill Haslam thumped a Democratic opponent to win Tennessee’s gubernatorial race. This moved the state from the Democratic Party column to the GOP, yet you listed Tennessee as “safe or no gubernatorial race.” You shouldn’t ignore the political history and wisdom of Tennesseans. In 2000 we wisely turned away from our so-called native son Al Gore, denying him 11 electoral votes, thereby putting Florida into play. alec Woodhull Rockford, Tenn.
“Drone wars” (oct. 23) I agree that we need to call off the drones. We may be killing al-Qaeda leaders with the drones, but we are also killing innocent civilians we are supposed to be protecting; they shouldn’t regret our help. nathaniel tRacy
Temple, Texas
“Don’t forget Obamacare” (oct. 23) As an admirer of Rick Santorum I was happy to read the interview. Unfortunately, the otherwise well-researched Santorum lumped chiropractic care in
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with “healthcare” items that should not be covered and are in no way related, like Viagra. As a chiropractor, I would say that chiropractic care is vital in any serious healthcare plan. M.E. RusE
Kalamazoo, Mich.
“‘In the thick of it’” (Oct. 23) I am a high-school student, and for four weeks now I have had mono, which makes you very run-down and tired. I know it’s nothing to complain about really, but I was feeling very sorry for myself. I had never heard of Joni Eareckson Tada, but after reading her story I was very moved. It really made me thankful for having mono. Madison MaRsch
Jefferson City, Mo.
“Katrina plus five” (Oct. 9) I just finished reading Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans by Dan Baum. Thank you for recommending such an outstanding book. The city has held a very special place in my heart since I was part of a missions team to New Orleans 10 weeks after Katrina. The real-life stories told in the book show the hope of a life lived for Christ and the utter hopelessness of a life without Him. suE nEllis Casco, Mich.
“Quiet diplomacy” (Oct. 9) Thank you so much for Mindy Belz’s thoughtful column. I pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in various places, and I appreciate so much articles that inform the readers about what is happening and hopefully spur others to pray. saRah Goad
Joplin, Mo.
LETTERS AND PHOTOS Email: mailbag@worldmag.com Write: world Mailbag, P.O. Box 20002, Asheville, nc 28802-9998 Fax: 828.253.1556 Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
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Andrée Seu
MY GRANDDAUGHTER’S FAITH
KRIEG BARRIE
C
Praying with the confidence and gratitude of a little child
,, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians :). My granddaughter and I roll over and pray that she can “go to a school where they teach you about Jesus,” then she drifts off to sleep like it’s a done deal, and I am jello. She has told me God speaks to her. Finally, curious, I ask her what that is like for her. She says, “He doesn’t talk out loud, He talks in my brain.” I request an example and she says that when her Mom tells her she can go play, she asks God. “What does He tell you,” I pried. “Last time He told me to decorate my hamster cage.” What now? Do I nip this in the bud? Do I say, “No, darling, God doesn’t speak to people that way anymore, and even at that there were only a few”? She might throw the story of little Samuel back at me, because I have shared that one, and she doesn’t forget a thing. You can appreciate that I am stuck. My granddaughter is not yet old enough to have had her theology fine-tuned. The thing she has asked for is impossible. And yet my next thought after writing those words is that there are precedents for impossible things. He “calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans :). I need to decide how to deal with this school prayer business. No sign of an answer to date. Do I check in occasionally: “Has Jesus sent you that teacher yet?” Or do I refrain, lest her childhood faith be injured? I know she is looking; she reported to me in mid-play one day that there are no kids in her class who believe in Jesus. I was astounded; did she ask every one of them? “What about the preschool before that?” I probed. “There was one,” she said. Who are those God inclines Himself to? Are they those like Simeon, who was “waiting for the consolation of Israel,” and Anna, who was “worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke :, )? The coming of the Christ child led Anna to “give thanks to God,” and I’ve thought that we are to thank God for Christ and for salvation and all the things we already have—and this is true. But now I am entertaining an outrageous notion—that I will thank God for the very thing I am presently asking for. This is the completion of the circle of faith that James commends—nay, insists on—as a condition for effective praying: “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting” (James :).
Email: aseu@worldmag.com
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Now come the voices: “No, that is presumption, not faith, to thank God for something He may not be pleased to grant.” But then why would He bait us: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours” (Mark :)? He bids us to increase in faith. What would that look like? “‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’” Jesus asks two blind stalkers. “‘Yes, Lord.’” And as Jesus heals them He says, “According to your faith” (Matthew :-). How long will we wait for that fist-sized cloud? One week? One month? One decade? What if there is no teacher who loves Jesus this year? Do I inquire of the child again at the start of first grade? If there is none next year, do I ask in September of ? Do I ask every year till college? Is it folly to keep this dream alive in her mind? Here is my confidence about my granddaughter’s prayer: God is going to do something for her that He would not have done if she had not prayed for a teacher who loves Jesus. He will bring into the world—at the perfect time and place—a reality that would not have existed. And just think how grand it will be, how much more praise will ascend to God, when we receive what we have so long sought. Evan Roberts prayed for years for revival in his native Wales. It came when he was , and he was electrified. But then again, he was a child when he had prayed. A DECEMBER 18, 2010
WORLD
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Marvin Olasky
TO WHICH I AM AM I FAITHFUL?
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Christmas is a time to move from fear to trust
WORLD DECEMBER 18, 2010
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KRIEG BARRIE
I’ve passed by the front of the Empire State Building and encountered three groups of ticket-sellers who wear their company colors: red, blue, or yellow. A block away from the they start asking anyone who looks like a tourist, “Going up?” They discourse on the heavenly views that come with a trip to the th and nd floor observatories. Most religions are a lot like that. Priests and imams tout ways to go up to heaven in exchange for the performance of various rituals or the pronouncing of certain words. Christianity is different, since we have nothing with which to buy grace. Jesus offers us His living water for free, but the cost to Him was enormous. In gratitude believers learn to think of serving God and serving others: We cannot put aside our self-interest, but we can lose our selfishness. Moses before the burning bush told God that the people of Israel would demand to know God’s name. God told Moses to say, “I AM has sent me to you.” I AM, of course, means God who is neither past nor future but everlasting, making every moment throughout eternity the present one, always focused. What a contrast with his human creations: We think woulda/shoulda/coulda about past opportunities and then chase future fantasies. So here’s a question each of us should ask, especially as Christmas approaches: Do I care most about God’s I AM or my own I am? The human I am stands for the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. The A is for ambition: Magnify my name. The M stands for money: Maximize it. But neither ambition nor money buys us a ticket to God’s observation deck. We go up only through the grace of Jesus Christ, whom the apostle Paul called the second Adam—but we live by working, following what God set forth for the first Adam. God’s pronouncement to Adam that he would sweat to earn his daily bread was a punishment, yes, but also a severe mercy: When we don’t need to serve others by working, we typically
start obsessing about our own I am. With our sinful natures, it’s harmful for poor human beings to live on welfare, rich human beings to live on trust funds, or -year-old Frenchmen to live on pensions. Chapter of Lamentations displays the contrast between I am thinking and I AM. The first part of the chapter describes the individual reflecting on his own afflictions: He is in darkness without any light, he is walled about so he cannot escape, he wears heavy chains, he is on crooked paths, a bear and a lion are ready to attack him, he is torn into pieces, his kidney has become a pincushion for arrows, he is drinking wormwood, his teeth grind on gravel, he is cowering in ashes. It’s the march of a million groaning metaphors. In the next part of the chapter, nothing in the author’s troubled situation has changed, but he has moved from I am to I AM: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” I imagine red, blue, and yellow salesman each accepting different currency for their tickets. The rich man’s money, the scribe’s knowledge, and the Pharisee’s reputation for morality are all legal tender. There’s nothing wrong with having money, knowledge, or a reputation for morality, but those who have it often know they have it and pride themselves on it. Those who have no money for tickets are far readier to accept the offer of free grace that provides ascension to a far greater observatory. The goal of life is to move from the baby’s first cry of I am to the wise maturity of allegiance to I AM. Our human I am is born of fear: My position and my bank account give me a haven in a harsh world. God’s I AM requires trust, which is very hard for those of us who grew up amid suspicion and worry—but if it were easy we wouldn’t need the Redeemer born on Christmas. A Email: molasky@worldmag.com
12/1/10 3:37 PM
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