Hope Award West winner: City kids on the farm
Oc tob er 4 , 2014
is the world
falling apart? It often looks that way, but from church basements in Ukraine to living rooms in Iraq to fellowship halls in Israel, a redemptive center still holds
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Contents , / ,
36 Holding together
In a world falling apart, ordinary citizens do the hard work of pursuing a center that holds
42 Legislative guardian
Meet Daniel Webster, the nonradical advocate for a radical step
44 Staying with strangers
Low-cost lodging opportunities are revolutionizing the travel experience
48 A tale of two colleges
Two Christian colleges, both founded in , both about the same size, have gone in different directions
52 Growing on the farm
25
Hope Award West region winner Jubilee Leadership Academy offers troubled boys a new beginning amid apple orchards
58 Course reversal
7 News 18 Quotables 20 Quick Takes
A short story, a grand canyon, and a -degree turn to the realization that not a college falls to earth apart from the will of our heavenly Father ( ): (); , ( / ); ( //)
25 Movies & TV 28 Books 30 Q&A 32 Music
44
63 Lifestyle 65 Technology 66 Science 67 Houses of God 68 Medicine
5 Joel Belz 22 Janie B. Cheaney 71 Mailbag 75 Andrée Seu Peterson 76 Marvin Olasky
48
58
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Joel Belz
Set aside the scowl We don’t all have to live up to our caricatures
>>
KRIEG BARRIE
“N ,” an acquaintance told me some years ago, “but I tend to like conservatism ever so much more than I like conservatives.” “And,” he added, “I also tend to like liberals a lot more than I like their liberalism.” I’ll admit it took me a few minutes to sort all that out. When I did, I had to admit to myself: “He has a point.” It’s an observation that takes no prisoners. Neither conservatives nor liberals can take total comfort while they wrestle with the implicit accusations so deftly lobbed in both directions. After all, which reputation would you rather choose to live with: that of someone whose ideas are sound but who is always crotchety, or someone who is generally loved by all but whose ideas and values can’t stand the test of time? There’s enough truth to the twin charges, though, that everyone can sense immediately what this friend was talking about. Not in every individual case, of course. But we all know intuitively that it would never work to reverse the issue—charging conservatives with being overly nice and liberals with being dour. Almost all of us sense that’s just not the way things really are. But why? I’ve raised the question before in this space: Is there something deep in the nature of a conservative’s outlook that stamps it as ugly as well as true? Is there something endemic to liberalism that allows its dreamers almost always to come off as the nice guys, even while their ideas go bankrupt? All this is not mere happenstance, nor merely the luck of the draw. The role of the conservative is by its very nature a more sober one, while the liberal’s demeanor is, almost by definition, allowed to be easygoing. Most children learn early on, for example, which of their two parents is the tough-minded conservative and which is, relatively speaking, the anything-goes liberal. Most kids learn how to play one against the other. It’s just in the nature of things. Or, as WORLD editor Marvin Olasky pointed out to me once, it’s the difference between your parents and your favorite uncle. One has responsibility for you, while the other
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is just far enough away so he can afford to be a glad-hander. Or, you could note in today’s political context, it’s the difference between the glib and always smiling Joe Biden and his typically stern and even severe predecessor in the vice president’s office, Dick Cheney. Which would provide the most upbeat company at a dinner party? But whose Middle East policies do you wish were in force and operative right now? Some of this is admittedly media-induced veneer. I’ll always remember hearing the late Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., quoted widely in the press that if President Bill Clinton were to visit North Carolina, he should be sure to bring a bodyguard. What almost no reporter noted was the fact that Helms was grinning when he said it. The words, by themselves, fit the picture the media wanted to convey; the jovial spirit just didn’t. Such handicaps notwithstanding, I’d still argue that it’s in the nature of conservatism to come off as a spoilsport. Conservatives are the preservers of the established order; liberals see themselves as adventurers in search of a new and better order. The task of the one, by its very nature, is perceived as a burden; the task of the other stirs excitement. And most of us would rather play offense than defense. All that’s pretty hard to keep in mind when we’re in the middle of an incredibly consequential political campaign. “How,” some will almost certainly respond, “can you focus on trivial issues like this when great constitutional issues—and truth itself—are at stake?” I do so precisely because so many of the important contests in this cycle are so hairbreadths close. Some could literally turn on the Ronald Reaganesque “likeability” of a candidate here or there. Let’s be grim when we’ve got to be grim. But let’s dare as well to set aside our dismal demeanors when such a scowl does nothing but obscure our foundational principles. Maybe it’s time to recognize and poke a little fun at the collapse of a few liberal strongholds. If and when we learn a few of those lessons, I guarantee you that even a few conservatives will be fun people to be around. A
OCTOBER 4, 2014 • WORLD
9/17/14 11:26 AM
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Dispatches News > Quotables > Quick Takes
SEPT. 15: Teachers evacuate children from their elementary school in Weed, Calif., as smoke from a wildfire rises over a hill behind the school. In just a few hours, wind-driven flames destroyed or damaged 100 homes, the saw mill, and a church in Weed. At times, the fire moved so quickly that residents had only a few minutes to get out of the way. Mercedes Castillo/AP
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Marriage wins one A federal judge in Louisiana, by upholding the state’s traditional marriage law, became the first of -plus federal courts to do so since the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act last year. District Judge Martin Feldman argued that states have the right to regulate marriage, and that the law and the Constitution “are directly related to achieving marriage’s historically preeminent purpose of linking children to their biological parents.” The same-sex couples who challenged the law plan to appeal to the th Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the nation’s most conservative courts.
T h u r s d a y, S e p t .
Al-Qaeda in India
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a video that his group was starting a branch in India and had already spent two years finding recruits. Majority Hindu India has one of the world’s largest Muslim populations, with about million, but up to now the country has not had many al-Qaeda recruits. Terror threats in India come mainly from Pakistan and Kashmir. Zawahiri’s announcement came as al-Qaeda tries to win back attention from ISIS, which it disowned in February, reportedly for the group’s brutality.
Guilty governor A Virginia court convicted former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen of corruption charges for taking , in gifts and loans from a Virginia businessman who wanted the couple’s help promoting a dietary supplement. The jury heard testimony about the McDonnells’ broken marriage and the couple’s relationship with Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams, who testified against them. Once a potential Republican presidential candidate, McDonnell could now face up to years in prison.
Rivers dies
Comedian Joan Rivers, , died one week after she stopped breathing during an elective surgical procedure on her vocal cords at the Yorkville Endoscopy clinic in New York City. Rivers had been on life support since Aug. . The doctor who performed the procedure, Dr. Lawrence Cohen, stepped down as the State Health Department investigated the case.
FELDMAN: OFFICE OF U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE MARTIN L.C. FELDMAN/AP • INDIA: MAHESH KUMAR A./AP • MCDONNEL: BOB BROWN/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH/AP • RIVERS: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP • RICE: NICK WASS/AP
We d n e s d a y, S e p t .
Cut The Baltimore Ravens cut Ray Rice on Sept. after a video surfaced showing the running back beating unconscious his then-fiancée Janay Palmer in a casino elevator. In July the team suspended Rice for two games for the incident, but the sensational video pushed the team to release him and the NFL to suspend him indefinitely. Palmer married Rice after the incident in the elevator and now calls the public attention and her husband’s suspension a “nightmare.”
WORLD • OCTOBER 4, 2014
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UKRAINE: SPENCER PLATT/AP • GODANE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE/REUTERS/LANDOV • METEORITE: NICARAGUAN ARMY/AP • YOSEMITE: RACHEL KIRK/AP • CATHY: JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Dispatches > News
Decree delayed UKRAINE: SPENCER PLATT/AP • GODANE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE/REUTERS/LANDOV • METEORITE: NICARAGUAN ARMY/AP • YOSEMITE: RACHEL KIRK/AP • CATHY: JIM WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
FELDMAN: OFFICE OF U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE MARTIN L.C. FELDMAN/AP • INDIA: MAHESH KUMAR A./AP • MCDONNEL: BOB BROWN/RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH/AP • RIVERS: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP • RICE: NICK WASS/AP
S a t u r d a y & S u n d a y, S e p t . -
President Obama announced he would delay taking executive action on immigration until after the November election, upsetting both political allies and opponents. He cited public reaction to the influx of immigrant children over the summer as the reason for the delay, yet Speaker of the House John Boehner said the president’s decision “smacks of raw politics.” Immigration reform advocates agree in one sense: “For Obama, the question is never what he can do for the immigration issue, but what the immigration issue can do for him,” said CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette.
F r i d a y, S e p t .
Ukraine cease-fire
After nearly five months of fighting, Ukraine and proRussian separatists signed a cease-fire deal, even as rebels continued pushing to split from Ukraine. Negotiators agreed to withdraw heavy weapons, deliver aid to cities in eastern Ukraine, and exchange more than , prisoners. The United States and Europe still plan to move ahead with tougher sanctions on Moscow.
Killer killed The Pentagon confirmed that airstrikes killed Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of Somali Islamist group al-Shabab and one of the State Department’s most-wanted men. Godane’s group has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings as well as the attack on Kenya’s Westgate Mall, which killed at least persons and wounded last September. Analysts viewed Godane’s death as a major blow to the group.
Meteorite hits
A meteorite hit Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, leaving a crater feet wide and feet deep. No one was injured at the crash site in a wooded area near the city’s airport. NASA believes the meteorite broke off the -foot-wide asteroid RC, which safely passed by the Earth on Sunday.
Yosemite blazes
Helicopters rescued visitors from Yosemite National Park as a -acre wildfire trapped hikers at Half Dome peak and nearby campgrounds and trails. Lightning sparked the blaze several weeks ago, and strong winds and high temperatures started a spot fire that spread rapidly. The rescue came a day after firefighters contained a acre fire leading to the evacuation of homes.
Died Truett Cathy,, , a small-business man who built a restaurant empire based on Christian principles, died on Sept. in Atlanta. Cathy, a Southern Baptist, invented the fast-food chicken sandwich in and began serving it at his Atlanta restaurant, the Dwarf House. In he founded Chick-fil-A, a company that has expanded to , restaurants—all of which remain closed on Sundays. Cathy left the business in the hands of his children, who could sell it but are prohibited from making it a public company.
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Dispatches > News We d n e s d a y, S e p t .
Back in Iraq?
Kashmiri flood victims travel through a flooded street in Srinagar
President Obama announced plans to eradicate the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the broadest military action he has ever launched. The plan includes expanding airstrikes wherever ISIS exists, sending military advisers, and asking Congress to approve hundreds of millions of dollars to train and equip Syrian rebels. This would be the United States’ first foray into the Syrian conflict, after long resisting involvement in that country’s -year-long civil war. Obama claimed U.S. combat troops would not be deployed.
Fatal floods
More than persons died from floods in northern India and Pakistan as intense monsoon rains pounded the region. Indian media declare it the worst flooding the country has seen in years. Despite strained relations over the Kashmir region, leaders of both countries offered to help the other in the aftermath of the floods. Given the heavy militarization of Kashmir, it’s unlikely either side will accept.
Watch out Apple released its much-anticipated iPhone and Apple Watch to media fanfare. Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled a slightly thinner and slightly larger iPhone, as well as the iPhone Plus, which has a .-inch screen that places it between the size of a phone and an iPad mini. Other new products: a new mobile payment service that transforms any device into a credit card, and the Apple Watch, which has a small touchscreen face and can display apps, track a user’s heartbeat, and— customers hope—tell time.
Lobbying the Scots Leaders of the U.K.’s three political parties pleaded with Scots to vote against independence on Sept. . Polls show supporters of independence in a neck-and-neck race with those wanting to remain tied to England. The impending vote has dropped the value of the British pound and led financial groups, including Standard Life, Lloyds, and RBS to say they would move their headquarters to England if Scotland secedes. Other restive regions, including Flanders, Catalonia, and Kurdistan, hope the referendum passes, creating a precedent for them to separate as well.
Marooned Since lawmakers can’t get along in Washington, two U.S. senators decided to try it on a deserted island. Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., spent a week of their August recess marooned on a remote island for a new reality show called Rival Survival. Discovery Channel says Eru, part of the Marshall Islands, is “an utterly unforgiving deserted destination where the reefs alone are fraught with dangers that include venomous stonefish, lionfish, and scorpion fish.” The show is scheduled to air Oct. .
WORLD • OCTOBER 4, 2014
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FLOODS: ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS/LANDOV • WATCH: MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP • SCOTLAND: ANDREW MILLIGAN/PA/AP • FLAKE, HEINRICH: DISCOVERY CHANNEL/AP
Tu e s d a y, S e p t .
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COMMON CORE FLOODS: ADNAN ABIDI/REUTERS/LANDOV • WATCH: MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP • SCOTLAND: ANDREW MILLIGAN/PA/AP • FLAKE, HEINRICH: DISCOVERY CHANNEL/AP
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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Dispatches > News F r i d a y, S e p t .
All in the family
T h u r s d a y, S e p t .
Remembering / Americans observed a moment of silence to mark the th anniversary of the Sept. attacks, which held special relevance this year as the United States faces another group of terrorists, the Islamic State. At the / Memorial in lower Manhattan, family and friends of those who died read the names of the nearly , victims. Fear of another attack remains: A CNN poll found percent of Americans think ISIS is a threat to the country.
‘Excessive force’ A South African court found Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius not guilty of murdering his girlfriend, but abruptly ended the court session before announcing whether he was guilty of culpable homicide. On Sept. Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa convicted Pistorius of the latter, which could result in up to years in prison. She said Pistorius acted negligently and “used excessive force” by shooting four times into his bathroom door. Pistorius was accused of deliberately killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, who was inside the bathroom at the time, but the double amputee claims he thought an intruder had come into his home.
Trooper attacked A gunman killed Pennsylvania state trooper Byron Dickson and injured another during an ambush outside a police barracks at a remote post in northeast Pennsylvania. Trooper Alex Douglass, who was injured in the attack, is in stable but critical condition. Police have yet to make an arrest in the case and hope Douglass will be able to provide information to help identify the shooter. Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers offered a , reward for any tips on the shooting.
Awarded Lawmakers on Sept. awarded a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal to the victims of Flight during a ceremony in Shanksville, Pa., on the th anniversary of the crash. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert donated the flag that flew atop the Capitol on Sept. , , noting it likely wouldn’t exist if Flight passengers and crew hadn’t kept the plane from coming to Washington, D.C. The National Park Service is expanding the Flight memorial to include a visitors center and learning center—scheduled to open in .
WORLD • OCTOBER 4, 2014
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9/11: ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES • PISTORIUS: GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • FORD: GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • DICKSON: PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE/AP • HASTERT: ARCHIE CARPENTER/UPI/LANDOV
Known best worldwide for smoking crack and public drunkenness, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford withdrew his reelection bid as his brother runs in his place. Ford made the announcement two days after doctors found a tumor in his abdomen. He will still run for a City Council seat in his hometown of Etobicoke, after his nephew dropped his bid to make room for Ford.
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S u n d a y, S e p t .
Hurricane Odile hits Category Hurricane Odile hit Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, making landfall near the vacation destination of Cabo San Lucas. The heavy rains and flooding forced evacuations, destroyed small buildings, stranded cars, and downed electricity for , people. Tourists took shelter as hotels saw windows blown out, lobbies flooded and covered in debris, and facades damaged. The hurricane also produced waves of up to feet.
Briton beheading U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron verified an ISIS video of the beheading of U.K. aid worker David Haines, who was abducted in Syria last year. Similar to the earlier beheading videos of American journalists, Haines is shown with an executioner dressed in black who speaks with a British accent. Haines tells the camera Cameron is responsible for his death because the U.K. entered into “a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State.” At the end, the executioner brings out another captive, U.K. charity worker Alan Henning, and threatens to kill him next. Cameron called the slaying “an act of pure evil” and plans to support American military action.
American sentenced North Korea sentenced -year-old American Matthew Miller to six years of labor on charges of entering the country illegally and trying to commit espionage. Miller entered the country on April and reportedly tore his visa, claiming that he was “not a tourist,” on arrival at Pyongyang airport. According to the court, he wanted to “experience prison life so that he could investigate the human rights situation.” In an interview with CNN, Miller said he had expected to be detained.
Leaving Qatar In an effort to ease tensions in the region, at least seven members of Egypt’s exiled Muslim Brotherhood are leaving their safe haven of Qatar more than a year after Egypt removed President Mohamed Morsi from office. Qatar has riled its neighbors by rallying for the reinstatement of Morsi and supporting of Islamist groups such as Hamas. While it does not provide financial support to Islamic State, many have argued that the wealthy nation has not reined in fundraising for jihadist causes. Some of the Muslim Brotherhood will go to the Islamist-leaning country of Turkey.
CREDIT
Apologized James MacDonald, author and senior pastor of the Chicago-area megachurch Harvest Bible Chapel, said he and his elder board were sorry for harshly disciplining three former elders last year. Harvest had censured the men in an online video after they raised concerns with MacDonald’s leadership. (See “Growing pains,” Nov. , .) “We made statements about their character and actions that were hurtful and proved to be untrue,” MacDonald said, adding he and the elder board had asked for forgiveness and were rescinding the disciplinary action.
MEXICO: VICTOR R. CAIVANO/AP • HAINES: ASSOCIATED PRESS • MILLER: KIM KWANG HYON/AP • MaCDONALD: HANDOUT
S a t u r d a y, S e p t .
WORLD • OCTOBER 4, 2014
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NIDES: MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP • SUPREME COURT: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP • PALTROW: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP • BROOKS: BARRY BRECHEISEN/INVISION/AP • CLINTON: STEVE POPE/GETTY IMAGES
Dispatches > News
MEXICO: VICTOR R. CAIVANO/AP • HAINES: ASSOCIATED PRESS • MILLER: KIM KWANG HYON/AP • MaCDONALD: HANDOUT
NIDES: MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP • SUPREME COURT: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP • PALTROW: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP • BROOKS: BARRY BRECHEISEN/INVISION/AP • CLINTON: STEVE POPE/GETTY IMAGES
Sept. 29
The nine justices for the U.S. Supreme Court will meet today to decide which—if any— cases related to gay marriage they will hear in their upcoming session. Earlier in September, justices indicated the court might hear cases from Indiana, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, or Oklahoma. In each of those states, federal courts have deemed laws against gay marriage unconstitutional.
LOOKING AHEAD M o n d a y, S e p t .
Scrubbed docs? A former State Department diplomat dropped a bombshell in the Benghazi investigation, telling reporter Sharyl Attkisson of The Daily Signal that employees had taken out damaging documents about the terror attacks in Benghazi before turning them over to the Accountability Review Board. Former Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell said he saw top advisers of then-Secretary Deputy of State Hillary Secretary Clinton at the of State Thomas after-hours Nides operations, where employees were told to separate documents that may put Clinton and the department in a “bad light.” Maxwell also claimed the board investigating the incident was “anything but independent” and failed to interview key people involved, such as Clinton and Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides. The revelations came days before the House Select Committee on Benghazi was scheduled to hold its first hearing on Sept. .
Sept. 30
Tech insiders expect Microsoft to reveal Windows — codenamed “Threshold”—at a press event today. Following the disappointing launch of Windows , industry experts expect Microsoft to bring back features of previous popular operating systems like the brand’s iconic Start menu.
Oct. 7
Xbox One users who bought the gaming system without the motion-sensing Kinect device will be able to pick one up à la carte today for the first time. When Microsoft released Kinect in , it became one of the hottest-selling gadgets of all time. The tech giant is betting that some customers who bought discount Xbox One versions without Kinect will now want to complete their gaming experience.
Oct. 9 President Barack
Obama will be in Los Angeles today to rub shoulders with Hollywood elites during a fundraiser for congressional Democrats at the home of actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Patrons who cough up , will get dinner with the president and a chance to ask Obama questions. The president has attended fundraisers in the Los Angeles area since assuming office in .
Oct. 10
Country music superstar Garth Brooks will play in Jacksonville, Fla., today in the third stop in his first tour in more than a decade. Brooks retired from touring in to spend time with his daughters as they grew up. Now with his youngest daughter off at college, Brooks has hit the road, playing two dates in Chicago and seven dates in Atlanta before a six-show appearance in Jacksonville.
Returned After a ,-day absence, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped back into Iowa on
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Sept. . Clinton appeared with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, at retiring Sen. Tom Harkin’s th annual steak fry in support of Bruce Braley—the Democrat trying to replace Harkin. Clinton hadn’t been to Iowa, the nation’s first primary state, since then-Sen. Barack Obama defeated her there in the primary, sparking a long battle for the Democratic nomination. Clinton said she’s “thinking about” a run for president.
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OCTOBER 4, 2014 • WORLD
9/17/14 10:32 AM
Dispatches > News border on Russia: onefourth of Estonians are ethnically Russian. Over the past quarter-century Russia’s birth rate has declined and so has its life expectancy, so Putin faces a now-or-never situation: Russia will become weaker unless freedom and hope return, or unless it grabs the vineyards and fig trees of others. Urmas Jarve, a high-tech exec who guided me around his country in 2012, is skeptical about the Obama pledge of support: “If there really is a conflict, then what is the motivation of U.S. … military men (and political administration), to come to die at Narva [Estonia’s third-largest city] for a small country against an opponent that would have nuclear capabilities? To put their own citizens at risk.” Jarve continued, “Russia is a very dangerous country. … Oil and gas gives Russia the means for it to be a very aggressive state. … Russia has rampant radical nationalism and an economy that is very much controlled by the government. Distrust of almost all other countries (except the almost-puppet governments that it controls) and nationalities. Desire for the return of glory days of empire. That is a dangerous recipe.” Of course, Estonia has its own dangerous recipe: In one Gallup poll, only 14 percent of Estonians said religion is important in their lives, and the EUobserver declared Estonians the “least religious in the world.” To whom will they pray if the Russians come back and reuse Patarei prison, the former KGB detention center that is the spookiest place I’ve ever visited? When the prison closed a quarter century ago, guards took off, leaving behind medical and torture equipment, wall posters and graffiti, utensils and bedding. All that debris is still there, in dark cells complete with creaky doors and winds whistling through window slits on the shore of the Gulf of Finland—a version of past hells, a warning about future ones? A ALLIES: Obama greets Estonian schoolchildren at the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn.
Eyes on Estonia
A desperate Goliath may soon take on a super-secular David By Marvin Olasky
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“Obama’s promises inevitably now sound hollow.” I visited Estonia two years ago and saw there a booming high-tech sector that has helped Estonia to have the highest gross domestic product of any of the 15 republics that made up the former Soviet Union. (The Estonian innovation best-known in the United States: Skype.) The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations all give Estonia high ratings as an advanced, high-income country with high life expectancy, literacy, education, and freedom. In short, Estonia is everything Russia is not, and Vladimir Putin evidently yearns not to emulate it (and so promote progress in his own country) but to steal its golden eggs and probably kill the goose in the process. If he follows his Ukrainian game plan, we can expect agitation in the eastern sections of Estonia that
OBAMA: Mindaugas Kulbis/AP • KOHVER: Office of the Estonian President/ap
President Barack Obama on Sept. 3 journeyed to Estonia, a New Jersey–sized nation with 1.3 million persons, and gave a speech, as is his custom. Estonians were wondering how much they should fear their 400-times-larger-byarea neighbor, Russia, home to 144 million humans including one inhumane dictator, Vladimir Putin. Obama said don’t worry: “We’ll be here for Estonia. … You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you’ll never lose it again.” Estonians are very, very worried. Two days after Obama’s speech, Russian forces crossed into Estonia to kidnap Eston Kohver, an Estonian security officer who was investigating a smuggling ring with top-level Russian connections. On Sept. 12 nine European countries demanded Kohver’s release, to no avail. The Moscow Times reported that
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9/17/14 10:26 AM
BOB J ON E S U NIVERSIT Y • GREENVILLE, SC
The apostles called believers to a mindset and lifestyle distinctively set apart from the world. Today’s church by contrast increasingly reflects the entertainment-saturated, consumer-driven values of the godless world system around it. The “salt” is at serious risk of losing its saltiness (Matt. 5:13).
Join the seminary faculty of BJU for this crucial conference as it presents how believers, by rightly interpreting and applying the Scriptures, can embrace the appeals and ideals of Christ and reject the appeals and the ideals of “this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4).
For registration & more information, please call (864) 241-1657 or visit www.bju.edu/seminaryconference. Rescheduled from February 2014 due to inclement weather. CREDIT (17175) 9/14
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9/15/14 9:17 AM
Dispatches > Quotables ‘The “closed on Sundays” sign on his stores is a countercultural statement that man does not live by bread alone, and there is more to life than a bottom line.’
DANIEL DOCTOROFF, who was heading Bloomberg L.P. until former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to return to the company at the beginning of September. Doctoroff will join the board of Bloomberg’s foundation after he steps aside.
‘Cuomo lost everything tonight except the nomination.’ Former New York City Public Advocate MARK GREEN on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Sept. Democratic primary victory against little-known challenger Zephyr Teachout. Cuomo was able to garner only . percent of the vote against the underfunded Teachout, a performance that has raised questions about his viability as a national candidate for the Democratic Party.
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‘You can beat up your wife, you can beat up anybody and get away with it. And if you’re a lawabiding citizen and you want to protect your family ... you’re a criminal.’ SHANEEN ALLEN, a single mother in Philadelphia who faces a jail sentence for carrying a licensed firearm into New Jersey, on the same prosecutor who handled her case allowing NFL star Ray Rice to avoid jail for severely beating his wife. Allen was pulled over for a minor traffic offense and arrested for carrying a gun in her car even though she showed the officer her Pennsylvania concealed-carry permit.
‘When you come to church, when you worship Him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God happy.’ VICTORIA OSTEEN OSTEEN, co-pastor of Lakewood Church, in an August sermon criticized by many Christians for promoting a “me-centered” religion.
CUOMO: FRANK FRANKLIN II/AP • CHICK-FIL-A: DAVID FREELAND • DOCTOROFF: SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES • ALLEN: COURTESY SHANEEN ALLEN • OSTEEN: HANDOUT
‘Mike is kind of like God at the company. He created the universe. He issued the Ten Commandments and then he disappeared. And then he came back. ... When God reappeared, people defer.’
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9/16/14 3:09 PM
CREDIT
Southern Baptist ethicist RUSSELL MOORE on Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy, who died Sept. . Cathy kept Chick-fil-A stores closed on Sundays because of the Fourth Commandment.
CREDIT
Cuomo: Frank Franklin II/ap • Chick-fil-A: david freeland • Doctoroff: Scott Olson/Getty Images • Allen: courtesy Shaneen Allen • Osteen: handout
9/16/14 2:21 PM
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Dispatches > Quick Takes
If you have the money, William P.D. Pierce of Coldwell Banker in Hillsboro Beach, Fla., has a house for you. At million, the Coldwell listing for four acres of prime land in the Millionaires Mile neighborhood of Florida’s Gold Coast region became the most expensive public house listing in the nation’s history when it hit the MLS listings in early September. The home, an estate called Le Palais Royal, has six fountains, an infinity edge pool set beneath a -foot cascading waterfall, a mammoth summer kitchen, and a -foot dock connected to the Atlantic Ocean and capable of accommodating a -foot ship. That’s just outside: Inside, the mansion boasts , square feet of living space containing bedrooms and bathrooms. Below the mansion lies a -car subterranean garage. According to the National Association of Realtors, the average selling price for American homes in February was ,.
Olive Garden’s popular promise of free and unlimited pasta for seven weeks may backfire on the Italian restaurant chain. On Sept. , the company announced a promotion where customers could purchase for a Never Ending Pasta Pass from the website entitling them to unlimited pasta, soup, salad, breadsticks, and sodas between Sept. and Nov. . The catch: Only quick customers were able to scoop up one of the restaurant’s , available passes, and frustrated pasta lovers vented on social media. The resulting internet maelstrom resulted in disappointed customers inundating Olive Garden’s social media profiles with negative comments.
An -year-old Chinese boy made the discovery of a lifetime when he stumbled upon a ,-year-old sword in the Jiangsu Province riverbed on July . According to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Yang Junxi made the discovery while washing his hands in a river. Once the discovery of the -inch bronze sword became public knowledge, throngs descended upon the boy’s home in hopes of catching a glimpse of the ancient relic. The boy’s father turned down offers to sell the weapon, instead handing it over to government officials.
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LE PALAIS ROYAL: MANSIONS COLLECTION • OLIVE GARDEN: STEVE HELBER/AP • MASON: MUSKEGON COUNTY JAIL • SWORD: IMAGINECHINA/AP
Of all the possible ways to leave a crime scene, -year-old Shirley Mason perhaps chose the slowest. According to Fruitport Township, Mich., police, Mason exited a local Walmart shopping center with bags stuffed with stolen items on Sept. and attempted to make a getaway on the store’s motorized shopping cart. Later in the day, when police caught up to her, she had traveled two miles. Authorities say Mason claimed she paid for the merchandise, but couldn’t produce a receipt. She justified taking the , cart by saying she hadn’t felt like walking.
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9/16/14 3:18 PM
JAPAN: MARI YAMAGUCHI/AP • HAMBURGER: BURGER OFF • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • AVOCADOS: JAMESJYU/iSTOCK • KARAFFA: CALVIN TRICE/THE STAUNTON NEWS LEADER/AP
LE PALAIS ROYAL: MANSIONS COLLECTION • OLIVE GARDEN: STEVE HELBER/AP • MASON: MUSKEGON COUNTY JAIL • SWORD: IMAGINECHINA/AP
JAPAN: MARI YAMAGUCHI/AP • HAMBURGER: BURGER OFF • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • AVOCADOS: JAMESJYU/iSTOCK • KARAFFA: CALVIN TRICE/THE STAUNTON NEWS LEADER/AP
According to officials at one Japanese government ministry, being able to spare a square of toilet paper may make the difference in preventing or enduring a disaster. On Sept. , just in time for Disaster Prevention Day, the nation’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry encouraged citizens to stockpile a one-month supply of toilet paper. Pointing to toilet paper shortages in following the Hanshin Earthquake, the ministry sponsored a series of panel discussions on the subject of toilet paper preparedness. The government even tailored a motto to accompany its media blitz: “If you prepare, no despair.”
For a pair of food critics from a British newspaper, one menu item at a burger dive turned out to be an occupational hazard. Brighton Argus journalists Arron Hendy and Ruari Barratt required hospitalization after noshing a “XXX Hot Chilli Burger” from Burger Off in Hove, United Kingdom. Working from a tip from a travel website, the pair drove to the dive restaurant and ordered a sandwich drenched in a sauce advertised as hotter than pepper spray. Minutes after taking one bite, Barratt doubled over with stomach pains. Later he lost feeling in his arms and his eyes rolled back in his head. Hours later, Hendy suffered similar symptoms. His official review: “If you’re thinking of trying this burger for a dare, just don’t.”
There’s no denying that Dawn Cole was trying to escalate her relationship with a Sparta, Wis., man, but her tactics landed her in legal trouble. According to Sparta police, Cole, , broke into a man’s residence in the early morning hours of Sept. to catch a glimpse of him sleeping. The man, unidentified by police, awoke and found Cole standing in his doorway staring intently at him. At that time, the man escorted Cole from the premises and returned home. But minutes later, Cole returned and began banging on doors. That’s when police came and arrested the woman for disorderly conduct. According to police, Cole said she had wanted to cuddle with the resident.
Enterprising thieves managed to steal thousands of ripening avocados from an orchard east of Barmera, Australia, sometime between Aug. and Sept. . In all, thieves stole about , pounds of the healthy fruit from a grove of trees. Authorities said the pilfered produce has a wholesale value of around ,, but did not speculate whether the booty was bound for the black market or for personal consumption.
A Virginia -year-old is fighting her local school board for the right to moisturize her lips during the school day. Augusta County Public Schools banned ChapStick and other lip gloss from campus three years ago after public health officials warned that students might transmit diseases by sharing lip balm. This year Stuarts Draft Elementary fifth-grader Grace Karaffa,, frustrated by dry and sometimes bleeding lips at school, asked her father for advice. Then she drafted a petition to repeal the ban on ChapStick. After meeting with her school’s principal, Grace made a presentation to the school board in early September. Board members listened to her presentation but asked whether lip balm could be a distraction in the classroom: She said bleeding lips were more of a distraction. In a statement, the board said it would review the policy.
OCTOBER 4, 2014 • WORLD
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9/16/14 3:20 PM
Janie B. Cheaney
The poverty of pluralism
Having chased truth from public life, the West has a hard time defending what is left
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anything that would render anyone else’s beliefs invalid. Or something like that—when truth retreats, it’s hard to defend whatever is left. Nineteenth-century skeptics like Matthew Arnold saw the difficulty coming. “Ah love, let us be true to one another!” he cried, in his iconic poem “Dover Beach.” When the “sea of faith” withdraws its ringing declarations, all that’s left is personal feeling, which like sand easily falls apart. The poverty of pluralism becomes apparent when rootless young Muslim men find transcendent meaning in slaughtering infidels—a purpose which also happens to feed their violent instincts. It fulfills a need that won’t be satisfied at any bargaining table. It will have to be fought and defeated. But faith can only be fought with faith, and Western culture has undercut itself. It picked the juicy low-hanging fruits of Christianity while disregarding the Son who shines on them, valued the comforts but discounted the Comforter. That leaves “men of the West” (to borrow a designation from Tolkien) in an ignoble position: called to defend air conditioning, Walmart, upscale brands, Miley Cyrus, and all the other creature comforts and passing fads that constitute our “way of life.” For many of us, it doesn’t seem worth the effort. For a Christian, though, the commonplace is always worth defending, for it is shot through with glory. It’s where the Lord meets us: on the road, at the dinner table, through the checkout line, in the flesh. Christians should never be sunk into everydayness, but of course we often are. That sense of “meaningless, meaningless” tends to set in when we’re not paying attention, or not “being intentional.” Routine casts a haze over the days, making them all run together in a wash of the same old, same old. Here’s the reality: Our often-hurried prayers and distracted worship are weaving eternal union with the Holy Trinity, whose grace lavishes every step we take. Our jihad is in the workplace and school and home, not with bloody swords but gracious words and manners. Our transcendence is found not in passing moments but in the shining stitches that hold them together. Violent conflict can look glamorous, especially to young men of a certain temperament. Humble service seldom does, even when humble service requires rushing into battle. Yet moment by moment, it lays up treasure in heaven. A
SWNS
T . Two severed heads. One blackmasked, knife-wielding executioner—who, instead of screaming Allah akbar!, spoke in conversational English with a British accent. Within days the internet buzzed with speculation that he might be Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, known professionally as the rapper L Jinny. Days or weeks earlier, Bary had tweeted a picture of himself holding up the head of a hostage from the Syrian civil war, over a caption reading, Chillin’ with my homie or what’s left of him. Whether or not the masked executioner of James Foley and Steven Sotloff is the same man, he is almost certainly a British subject, meaning he was probably not driven to the ghastly extremes of jihad by ignorance or poverty. He’s not alone: Since , thousands of U.K. and U.S. citizens have left their comfortable homeland to become “jihadi tourists.” Why? “[A] yearning for a transcendent cause that liberal society can have trouble satisfying,” wrote Ross Douthat in The New York Times. “His discontent … is driven by ideas, and by the human needs those ideas seek to satiate,” Review. observed Charlie Cooke at National Review “The Islamic State not only has the romance of revolution and the promise of action and power, but also religious and apocalyptic appeal,” concluded Michael Brendan Dougherty of The Week. “Because it gives meaning to life,” Michael Ledeen summed up on his own blog. In other words, they thought their pre-jihad lives were meaningless. The West could presumably summon a bit of “meaning to life” by gearing up to stop those who find their meaning in pillage, rape, and butchery. The problem is, the West has spent the last two centuries chasing true belief from the main stage of public life. Pluralism, our highest communal value, requires no one to believe
Email: jcheaney@wng.org
9/12/14 9:26 AM
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9/12/14 9:31 AM
Reviews Movies & TV > Books > Q&A > Music
Body punches MOVIE: Evangelical culture gets some in-house parody in Believe Me
Riot Studios
by Megan Basham
Email: mbasham@wng.org
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Writer/director Will Bakke (best known for the documentary Beware of Christians) has said that he doesn’t believe his latest movie, a satire titled Believe Me, should be billed as a Christian movie. His reason is that while Christian faith is the backdrop of the story, it doesn’t advance any agenda or include an altar call moment. And perhaps Bakke has a point as Believe Me managed what few Christian films that cross my desk do. It made me think about how I present my faith to the world. A lot.
For several weeks after first viewing a screener I found myself bringing up the movie in conversation, telling friends in a Bible study that I was looking forward to its Sept. 26 release so I could discuss it with them, and generally pondering how churchgoing audiences would receive the movie. That’s a lot of mental real estate for a small-budget indie that is, at its most surface level, essentially a frat-boy caper comedy. Yet Believe Me deserves serious attention for attempting to break out of the faith-based film mold. Not all of its storytelling elements are executed as skillfully as I could have wished, yet the film as a whole is bold and original. Above all, it represents a challenge to Christian filmmakers to get real and take some risks.
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Reviews > Movies & TV
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MOVIE
Atlas Shrugged III: Who Is John Galt? by Sophia Lee
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It’s been a long and painful endeavor for Ayn Rand’s controversial magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, finally to reach the last installment of its film trilogy. It takes an equally long and painful effort to watch Atlas Shrugged III: Who Is John Galt? The trilogy is like a fly buzzing between your eyes with unseemly pomp, and then, even after being smacked with a rolled-up newspaper, it somehow miraculously resurrects, still humming the same one-toned tune. The first two films flopped, and given its stiff dialogue, awkward acting, and cheap special effects, ASIII is basically squatting before liberal bullies, begging for wedgies. ASIII begins with Dagny Taggart (Laura Regan) planecrashing Galt’s Gulch, a hidden refuge sheltering the “best and brightest” minds from moochers, looters, and bureaucrats. John Galt (Kristoffer Polaha) finally reveals himself, climaxing the mysterious expression: “Who is John Galt?” He invites Dagny to join his strike and let the outside world implode. In John’s utopia of “unbridled opportunities where innovation is rewarded,” citizens never provide anyone “unearned sustenance.” Their religion is “self”—self- benefit, self-glory, self-reliance. Their pledge: “I swear by my life and my love for it, never to live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” But their greatest fiction: Egos never clash, accomplishments never stir jealousy, nobody’s greedy or lazy. Besides its wholly unchristian philosophy, ASIII is just a bad movie. The protagonists don’t communicate; they pontificate. Villains are round-bellied, scotch-drinking idiots-in-suits who sputter at John’s words of wisdom. Ideologies that could have made interesting discussions are sucked dry of subtlety. To be fair, the film merely mimics Ayn Rand’s book, which still survives as a pot-stirrer of hot debates. What’s remarkable is that whatever the polarizing differences between these godless ideologies—be it extremist capitalism, socialism, or humanism—they all repel from the gospel core of undeserved grace, Christ’s sole redemption, and the futility of human effort and cleverness. John Galt and government bigwigs? They’re not so different.
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Fight Church: Film Harvest • Scorpion: Monty Brinton/CBS
“You don’t want to be shawshanking in a room full of geckos,” he cautions. Similarly sidesplitting: his observation that Christians hate curse words but love cursing. It leads the boys to develop a line of “Christian” T-shirts emblazoned with the words “F Satan” that sell hugely. Are Bakke and crew trying to have their cake and eat it too by scathingly sending up the modern church’s crusade to be “cool” while at the same time scoring cool points of their own by criticizing their brethren and using a bit of profanity? (The movie is rated PG-13 for dialogue that offers the barest suggestion of how many college kids talk to each other.) Honestly, I don’t know. But I know this: We’ve done filmmaking via unoffending, paint-by-numbers legalism for years, and it hasn’t given us much in the way of vibrant storytelling. If followers of Christ care about the church having a worthy voice in the cinematic arts, we have to start giving our young film makers a little grace to err on the side of license now and then. It’s not possible with our fallen imaginations to walk that line perfectly, and Christian screenwriters and directors can’t test their skills in service of higher quality if they fear being drummed out of the support circle at the slightest hint of convention-breaking. I give Bakke and crew credit for trying and, on most counts, succeeding to bring something new and entertaining to the table. A
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The first third of Believe Me, which sets up the premise, plays out like many mainstream movies in this genre and represents its weakest point. Here we see stereotypical party- loving frat bros Sam (Alex Russell), Pierce (Miles Fisher), Tyler (Sinqua Walls), and Baker (Max Adler) come up with a plan to bilk gullible Christians out of their money by setting up a fake ministry. However, once the boys’ super-Christian stage personas land them a gig to go on tour with a real aid organization, the movie gets more specific and far more interesting. Some viewers will likely take issue with the way Believe Me skewers evangelical culture, perhaps feeling it differs little from mainstream Hollywood’s ugly portraits of Christians in film. But it seems clear to me that Bakke’s exceedingly well-landed punches are being thrown from within the Body, as a challenge to think deeper about our faith and how we express it in our art, rather than as abusive jabs from without. Bakke knows modern church style well enough to parody it accurately, something that can’t be said for most Hollywood depictions. Scenes where the boys school each other on how to posture their bodies during worship are particularly hilarious. For example, Sam dubs the arms-down-handsopen-at-the-sides stance “the gecko” and calls botharms-fully-extendedupward-while-doing-tinycalf-raises “the shawshank.”
TELEVISION
Scorpion by Sophia Lee
ATLAS DISTRIBUTION COMPANY
Fight Church: Film Harvest • Scorpion: Monty Brinton/CBS
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Team up a computer prodigy, a mechanical whiz, a Sherlock Holmes–like shrink, and a human calculator with the combined IQ of nearly 700—and you get a group of socially awkward, emotionally stunted misfits. Oh, and they also save America as a career. That’s the premise of debut TV show Scorpion on CBS. Based on the real-life works of Walter O’Brien, an Irishman with an IQ of 197 (Einstein’s was a measly 165), Scorpion is a fun, family friendly drama about the freak show that happens when modern-day brainpower partners up with Homeland Security to solve America’s complicated, hightech problems. They call themselves “Scorpion”: Team leader Walter (Elyes Gabel) talks to computers, Toby Curtis (Eddie Kaye Thomas) reads people’s behaviors, Sylvester Dodd (Ari Stidham) tangos with numbers, and Happy Quinn (Jadyn Wong—finally, a full-Asian co-star who isn’t Lucy Liu!) manipulates machines. Unlike other Los Angeles–based TV series that film establishing shots of the city’s palm trees and glitz, Scorpion chooses overshots of L.A.’s grit and dirt. The recurring theme is that the grass on the other side isn’t all that green: Having an off-the-chart IQ can be a curse. All of the team members share bleak backgrounds that will unravel throughout the season. For example, the pilot episode shows some cringe- worthy moments in which Walter unintentionally offends people, including his crush Paige Dineen (Katharine McPhee), a diner waitress who is later hired to be the team’s EQ translator. Paige thought she was having trouble connecting with her 9-year-old son, who has autistic traits, because he’s “challenged”—until Walter flatly tells her, “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your son’s a genius.” One scene has Sylvester trying to comfort the worried, guilt-ridden Paige: “It’s not your fault. … It’s just how we are.” Paige asks, “How did your parents handle it?” And Sylvester, clueless, answers blithely, “Oh, I haven’t spoken to them in 10 years.” It should be interesting to see how the show will weave together such ordinary human interactions with high-speed action.
See all our movie reviews at wng.org/movies
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DOCUMENTARY
Fight Church by ANGELA LU
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A good film keeps your brain churning after the credits roll, sets off conversations and debates between friends, and piques your curiosity to research further on the topic. Fight Church, a documentary by Academy Award winner Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel, does those things by posing a single question: Can you be a pastor and a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter? The film introduces viewers to four muscled pastors who are MMA fighters, with all but one starting MMA training ministries at their churches. They argue that the sport’s popularity creates a way to introduce the gospel and that MMA is comparable to other competitive sports like wrestling. Yet even as they tell the camera that they’re fighting solely for the glory of God, the film cuts to cringeworthy scenes from the cage fights: a fighter pounding another man’s head, limbs twisted in unnatural angles, flecks of blood flying from a fighter’s face. Fight Church provides a variety of perspectives on the controversial topic, including an older pastor lobbying to keep MMA illegal in New York, a burly pastor from Tennessee with a handgun tucked in his jeans complaining that “mainstream Christianity has feminized men,” and a former MMA fighter who felt convicted that training others to knee opponents in the chest contradicted his faith. They all show an earnest devotion to the Word of God but come to different conclusions. There’s an interesting overlap between the two communities as a number of the top MMA fighters, such as Jon Jones and Ben Henderson, are outspoken Christians. Fight Church pastors often use illustrations from the cage in their sermons—our lives are a fight, we must persevere, and Jesus didn’t tap out. In a pivotal scene, two MMA-fighting pastors battle it out in the cage, complete with skimpily dressed ring girls and the usual pummeling and grappling. Although the two pray for each other the next day at church, it’s uncomfortable to see two men who claim to be shepherds trying to destroy not the wolves, but each other.
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Reviews > Books
Beautiful words
A look at three men and the ‘power of poetic effort’ BY MARVIN OLASKY
Herbert
Whitefield
Lewis
Son of a preacher man When I was in middle school a friend had a locally famous dad who was the play-by-play announcer on Boston Bruins broadcasts. Hoping for some reflected glory, I wished my father were prominent. Barnabas Piper’s The Pastor’s Kid (David C. Cook) showed me what a mixed blessing that is, even when the father is a godly man. John Piper wrote the foreword to his son’s book and notes that reading it was painful for him, but a stream of grace runs through it. Unlike authors who have mocked Francis Schaeffer and others, Barnabas is respectful throughout as he realizes the tugs on time that are inevitable when God makes a parent a leader both inside and outside his home. Pastors and PKs will want to read The Pastor’s Kid, but so will BKs and their business parents, EKs and their editor dads, and others. Barnabas Piper pleads, “Don’t counsel, converse,” because pastors often counsel others rather than having conversations that include two-way admission of past and present failings: “Leave sermons in the pulpit.” He advises honesty, even when it stings: “We must, we must, speak of what has made life hard—especially to our parents.” Some PKs rebel, but they have benefited from immersion in biblical stories and teaching—and “for PKs to be filled with biblical content even when we are not filled with passion or understanding still puts the pieces in place for God to build something later.” —M.O.
HERBERT: PRISMA/NEWSCOM • WHITEFIELD: DESIGN PICS/NEWSCOM • LEWIS: EVERETT COLLECTION/NEWSCOM
have missed the whole point. … Preaching was the drama. … When he warned of wrath, pleaded for people to escape, and lifted up Christ, he wasn’t playacting. … The house is burning. There are people trapped on the second floor. We love them. And there is a way of escape.” Piper describes three ways to speak. One is like an actor in a play, speaking of an imaginary world as if it were real. Another is like a half-hearted preacher who preaches about spiritual reality in such an abstract, dry way that it seems unreal. And the third is Whitefield’s way, describing that real spiritual world in all its glory and horror. Piper doesn’t give us plaster saints: He examines Whitefield’s apologetic for slavery but shows how he told slave owners, “God has a quarrel with you,” when they treated slaves “as though they were Brutes.” (Whitefield noted that if slaves were to rebel “all good Men must acknowledge the judgment would be just.”) Piper also critiques some of Lewis’ doctrinal views but praises his forthrightness, in contrast with the “many tentative, hidden, vague, approvalcraving intellectual Christians” who care more about praise for their artistry than prying from Satan’s subjugation the great art works of God, human souls.
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HANDOUT
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J P’ The Swans Are Not Silent series (Crossway) takes its name from a mournful concern in .. when Augustine at age retired from church leadership: His successor mourned, “The swan is silent.” Happily, Augustine still strides the world with his books, and Piper—a current swan who last year preached his final sermon as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis—is still writing up a storm. Each Swan book has three short biographies of famous Christians: truthdefenders Athanasius, John Owen, and J. Gresham Machen; gospel-bringers William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton; suffering-transformers John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd; sovereignty-focusers Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Calvin; and perseverers John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce. Piper’s sixth in the series, Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully (), emphasizes “the power of poetic effort” in the work of George Herbert, George Whitefield, and C.S. Lewis. He describes Herbert’s “long, focused, prayerful, Bible-saturated brooding over a single glorious reality” and Whitefield’s refusal to “pause in his preaching to have a little drama off to the side—like some preachers do today, a little skit, a little clip from a movie—that would
NOTABLE BOOKS
SPOTLIGHT
Four recent Christian nonfiction books > reviewed by
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life Donald Whitney Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life is one of the few books I recommend to every new Christian: First published in , it is now expanded and updated. Basing the book upon Paul’s instruction to Timothy that he “discipline [himself] for the purpose of godliness,” Whitney explains that the Christian’s pursuit of holiness must be a disciplined pursuit. Through chapters he explains and unpacks important Christian disciplines that provide a framework for living a God-glorifying life: God in the Bible gives us those spiritual disciplines as ways for believers to gain closeness and conformity to Christ. Whitney is always bounded by Scripture and fully committed to a sola scriptura spirituality.
Women of the Word Jen Wilkin Jen Wilkin loves the Bible and loves to teach other women to love it as well, which she does in her new book Women of the Word. Wilkin sets out to teach “not merely a doctrine, concept, or story line, but a study method that will allow you to open up the Bible on your own,” and she succeeds well. She teaches her readers to study with purpose, perspective, patience, process, and prayer: The method is simple enough to be practical, but significant enough to lead to deep understanding, reflection, and application. I especially enjoyed her emphasis on approaching the Bible intellectually more than emotionally, of training the mind to train the heart: That emphasis is missing in many books, especially those targeted to women. Most men tend to do poorly with friendship: I don’t know if we are actually bad at friendship or if most of us have just never given it a fair try. In either case, it is sad to see how few have genuinely significant friendships. Nate Larkin believes that Christian friendships are key to spiritual growth, discipleship, and victory in the war against sin. In Samson and the Pirate Monks he writes of being a lone sinner, of discovering friendship, and of creating a fellowship of men committed to holiness. His insights into the male mind are profound, and his vision for true spiritual friendship is both attractive and transferable.
One to One Bible Reading David Helm
HANDOUT
HERBERT: PRISMA/NEWSCOM • WHITEFIELD: DESIGN PICS/NEWSCOM • LEWIS: EVERETT COLLECTION/NEWSCOM
Samson and the Pirate Monks Nate Larkin
David Helm argues in this little book that we may have made our evangelism and discipleship strategies too complicated. What if both evangelism and discipleship can be as simple as reading the Bible? “Reading one-to-one is a variation on that most central Christian activity—reading the Bible—but done in the context of reading with someone. It is something a Christian does with another person, on a regular basis, for a mutually agreed upon length of time, with the intention of reading through and discussing a book or part of a book of the Bible.” He introduces the idea, shows it in action, and describes the benefits. Best of all, he shows how it can be done in your neighborhood, your home, and your church.
To see more book news and reviews, go to wng.org/books
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Texas Grit by S.J. Dahlstrom (Paul Dry Books, ) is the second novel in The Adventures of Wilder Good series for upper-elementary readers. Wilder spends a week at his grandfather’s cattle ranch, while his mother receives cancer treatments, and has the kind of adventures most -year-olds could only dream about: riding by bus from Colorado to Texas, deer hunting, cattle branding and castrating, and learning what it takes to be a cowboy. Dahlstrom writes about ranch life with flair and specific detail. Jan Karon fans have something to celebrate: a new Father Tim novel set in Mitford. Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good (Putnam Adult, ) gets off to a slow start as she reintroduces characters who are older and feeling the effects of age. Now retired from the pulpit, Father Tim has to discover new purpose in life. —Susan Olasky
OCTOBER 4, 2014 • WORLD
9/12/14 9:33 AM
Reviews > Q&A
Darwin >> on the rocks By daniel james devine
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For folks who don’t know, would you explain intelligent design? Richard Dawkins has said biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed. That’s classic Darwinism: design without a natural designer. Intelligent design is the idea there are certain features and patterns in the living world—and the universe itself—best explained by r eference to an actual intelligence rather than an unguided process like natural selection and random mutation.
John Keatley/Genesis
DNA and Cambrian fossils, says STEPHEN MEYER, make macroevolutionary theory increasingly untenable
Stephen Meyer is director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute. He is one of the founders of the “intelligent design” movement and author of two books about biological origins, Signature in the Cell and the 2013 bestseller, Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design. Arguments for design in nature come from planetary science, physics, and molecular machines within cells: Meyer has focused on the digital information encoded in DNA.
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John Keatley/Genesis
Your most recent book is called Darwin’s Doubt. What exactly did Darwin doubt? It had to do with an event in the history of life known as the Cambrian explosion, in which the first major animal forms emerged in the fossil record very abruptly. This raised a real problem in Darwin’s mind, and it’s something he acknowledged in the Origin of Species itself. In the lower, Precambrian layers, the ancestral forms he expected to see based on his branching tree picture of the history of life just weren’t there. Instead of seeing life gradually morph from a very simple one-celled organism through lots of intermediate forms, what we see in the fossil record is the sudden appearance of these complex animal forms. Darwin said the absence of these ancestral intermediates was a “valid argument against the views here entertained,” as he put it in his Victorian English. What’s an example of a complex animal? On the cover of my book I have a picture of a trilobite. As a kid I was fascinated with these things: They had this beautiful exoskeleton with three parts and all these articulated lobes, and they also had compound eyes. You have this intricate visual device from the very dawn of animal life, and it’s quite contrary to what Darwin expected for two reasons: First, he thought the fossil record
Email: ddevine@wng.org
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should show intermediate forms. Second, his mechanism of natural selection and random variations by definition had to work very slowly and incrementally. He thought if there were big changes from one generation to the next then the organisms would surely die. Yet the Cambrian rock layers show the sudden appearance of trilobites and other unique animal body plans. What you found in the Cambrian was 23 distinct body plans, and fully 20 of those first appeared in the Cambrian. There are only about 27 body plans that have been preserved in the fossil records, total. So you can see this is a big event in the history of life. The impression I get from Darwinists is that a few mutations can produce a new body plan or organ. True? Every time you have a new body plan you need new types of tissues and new types of organs. New tissues and organs require new types of cells, and new cells require dedicated proteins for building those cells. For example, many of the Cambrian animals had guts, and guts require digestive enzymes—and other enzymes to regulate the way the digestive enzymes work. When you get a new animal you need new proteins, and new proteins are built from the instructions on the DNA molecule. So the Cambrian explosion is not just an explosion for new body plans, it’s actually an explosion of information: Where did that information come from? Mutations over billions of years, I’ve heard. A mutation is a random mistake. If you start randomly changing the 0s and 1s in a piece of
s oftware, are you more likely to degrade the information that’s in that code or generate a new program? The mechanism Darwinists have credited with creativity is actually a mechanism of destruction of information. And biological life needs not just random information, but “specified information”? If you have a series of digits—say 10 digits—but you dial them and they don’t cause a phone number to ring, there’s a mathematical definition of information that would say, “It’s information because it’s a series of digits that you sent through a communication channel.” This is what’s called Shannon information. But the kind of information we have in living systems—in the DNA molecule in particular—is “specified” or “functional” information. It’s not just a random arrangement of characters, but it’s an arrangement of chemical subunits that are functioning just like alphabetic characters in a written language. Those chemical subunits—adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine— must sit in the correct order to encode functional proteins. I’ve got an illustration that I used in Darwin’s Doubt of a bike lock. Imagine the person who owns the bike has taken great precautions against thievery and he’s got a 10-dial bike lock. There are 10 billion possible ways of arranging those digits. Is it likely a thief entering random combinations is going to succeed? In relation to all the possible ways of arranging the A’s, C’s, G’s, and T’s on the DNA molecule, the few that will give you a functional protein are like the combination
that will open the lock. They are extremely rare. Is 4 billion years not enough evolutionary time to find the winning combination? It’s a blink of an eye. And the Cambrian explosion isn’t 4 billion years. It’s dated on the standard geological time scale of about 10 million years, and the major pulse of the explosion is within the 5 to 6 million year window. In relation to how fast the Darwinian mechanism works, it’s not nearly enough time. Sounds convincing to me, but is intelligent design gaining any acceptance at the university level? There is a lot of behind-the-scenes movement, especially in Europe, oddly. I had an email several years ago from a European scientist who said, “Please don’t email me back—call me, but not at the office. Can we talk at my home?” I get a lot of phone calls like that. His problem was he’d come to accept intelligent design, but he was quite prominent in the European evolutionary establishment. How about among students? A couple of years ago some of the Discovery scientists were at a dinosaur dig in eastern Montana. In a restaurant a young waitress came back with the bill, looked left and right, lowered her voice, and said, “Can you tell me what the Discovery Institute is?” I answered and she said, “I thought so! Our professors hate you.” Then she motioned to three other young waiters and waitresses and said, “I’m a bio major at the university and so are they. I’m telling you, our professors hate you, but we go on your website and see those animations of all those little machines and we say, ‘No way did that evolve.’” A
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Reviews > Music
Together again
Movie’s Black Album hits the right post-Beatles note but holds it too long BY ARSENIO ORTEZA
REUNION: Hawke (right) and Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood; McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr (clockwise from top left).
Boyhood music
Linklater’s film does have an official soundtrack. Titled Boyhood: Music from the Motion Picture (Nonesuch), it juxtaposes alternative pop-rock acts that would’ve been popular with the film’s artistically inclined, perpetually uprooted Everykid protagonist during the film’s - span. Even Bob Dylan’s “Beyond the Horizon” ((Modern Times hit No. in after all) fits. Most impressively, the selections—especially Yo La Tengo’s “I’ll Be Around” leading into Family of the Year’s “Hero”—compress the film’s gestalt, helping them to cohere more than the selections on most other crossmarketed, various-artists albums. One might even say that the songs elevate each other. —A.O.
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BOYHOOD: MATT LANKES/IFC FILMS • McCARTNEY: MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES • LENNON: BETTMANN/CORBIS/AP • STARR & HARRISON: ASSOCIATED PRESS
years) was shot. And now that he has gone public (at BuzzFeed.com) with the track list, Beatlemaniacs have begun assembling it themselves via iTunes or their own collections. Hawke gets a lot right, from the Beatlesque contributor proportions ( percent McCartney, percent Lennon, percent Harrison, percent Starr) to including McCartney’s “Junk” and Harrison’s “Not Guilty,” post-Beatles tracks originally recorded during the White Album sessions. And often the sequencing does indeed have an “elevating” effect. Consecutive songs
sometimes seem like a conversation (Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels,” for instance, following McCartney’s “The Back Seat of My Car”), at other times like an argument (Lennon’s “Crippled Inside” following McCartney’s “Listen to What the Man Said” following Lennon’s “God”). Admittedly, fans have been making solo-Beatles mix tapes, mix discs, and MP playlists like Hawke’s for a long time. But none of those have gone viral or had similar clout. So The Black Album is already looking definitive. Whether Capitol Records or whoever owns the rights to all of the material ever issues an official version is practically moot. Hawke’s anthology isn’t perfect. If The White Album tends to feel overlong at songs, the -song Black Album feels “overlonger” yet. And Disc Three, which ranges from the thematically redundant to the soft-headedly sentimental, could’ve been scrapped altogether. But the “deep album” cuts on Discs One and Two belong, serving as meaningful segues when not taking on heightened significance. Imagining that there’d been no breakup still doesn’t come easy. But, thanks to Hawke, it’s easier than ever to try.
Email: aorteza@wng.org
9/17/14 9:23 AM
INGA KUNDZINA/EPA/NEWSCOM
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I’ of our digitaldownloading times that what might turn out to be the best album of exists only in the fictional world of Richard Linklater’s new film Boyhood. In one scene, the main character’s father, Mason Sr. (played by Ethan Hawke), gives a birthday present to his -year-old son, Mason Jr. The gift turns out to be a thoughtfully sequenced, three-CD package called The Black Album that compiles the best (and most mutually compatible) solo recordings from Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in the decade immediately following The Beatles’ demise. Calling it The Black Album is Mason Sr.’s way of connecting it to The Beatles’ White Album (a.k.a., The Beatles), long regarded as the beginning of the end of the Fab Four’s ability to come together. “Basically,” Mason Sr. says, “I’ve put the band back together for you. When you listen to too much of the solo stuff, it kind of becomes a drag, you know? But you put ’em next to each other— right?—and they start to elevate each other. And then you can hear it: Ah! It’s The Beatles!” The scene feels believable in part because, offscreen, Ethan Hawke had already made The Black Album and given it to his real-life teenage daughter before the parallel scene in Boyhood (which was filmed in real time over
NOTABLE CDs
SPOTLIGHT
New albums > reviewed by
Stockholm Chrissie Hynde Stockholm is being called Chrissie Hynde’s “solo” debut, but it really doesn’t differ much from The Pretenders albums that Hynde has composed, played, and sung on lo these many years. That the guitars and rhythms serve the hooks and lyrics rather than vice versa might seem significant except that the same could also be said about Packed!, an underrated Pretenders album that turns next year. What is different: “In a Miracle” and “House of Cards,” in which faith or something like it is what’s learning to crawl.
Anomaly Lecrae
No Fools, No Fun Puss N Boots From her Everly Brothers tribute with Billie Joe Armstrong to this all-female roots trio, Norah Jones’ side projects have been as charming as they are humble. Not only does she willingly share the spotlight, but she also likes shining it on other composers’ material, material that if not exactly in danger of slipping into oblivion could at least do with fresh appreciation—The Band’s “Twilight,” for instance. Her trio even does all right by George Jones, that is until they tarnish “Tarnished Angel” with an F-bomb.
—A.O.
Frozen EP Stellar Kart Condensing the biggest album of the year down to three songs would be no more than a cheeky deconstructive gesture if these CCM pop-rockers didn’t play and sing the treacly things as if they actually liked them. But they do, and their enthusiasm is infectious. In fact, in light of their similar artistic accomplishment three years ago with the four-song A Whole New World EP, it’s quite possible that stripping Disney down and rocking it up is what they were put on this earth to do.
INGA KUNDZINA/EPA/NEWSCOM
BOYHOOD: MATT LANKES/IFC FILMS • McCARTNEY: MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES • LENNON: BETTMANN/CORBIS/AP • STARR & HARRISON: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nine years in as the biggest frog in that small pond known as Christian hip hop, Lecrae has so firmly established his street-called-Straight cred that he can address broader topics without risking accusations of “secular” selling out. And he’s making the most of the opportunity. Although he knows less about history and socio-political realities than he thinks, neither “Dirty Water” nor “Made in America” seems arrogant. Sincere is more like it. As for the faith references, they go more naturally with his flow than ever.
In the early s, James Brown gave an interview to Details magazine in which he waxed uncommonly religious. In light of his convictions, he was asked, what did he think of his hit “Get Up (I Feel like Being a) Sex Machine”? Apparently with a straight face, Brown said, “That song has been misunderstood.” “That song” (which Brown went on to say was mainly about flirtatious dancing) appears in both studio and live versions on Get On Up: The James Brown Story (UMe), the unflaggingly entertaining -song soundtrack to a biopic that’s currently getting mixed reviews because it’s impossible to capture in one film the complexity of someone known alternately as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Soul Brother No. , and the Godfather of Soul or the many levels on which he left his mark. The soundtrack, unsurprisingly, has no such trouble, mainly because it was music into which Brown poured himself for over years.
To see more music news and reviews, go to wng.org/music
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OCTOBER 4, 2014 • WORLD
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9/12/14 4:19 PM
Holding t In a world falling apart, ordinary citizens do the hard work of pursuing a center that holds by Ja m i e De a n p h o t o b y S A F I N H A M E D /A F P/G e t t y I mages
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g together Iraqi Christians, who fled the violence in the city of Mosul, walk past decorations displayed in commemoration of the Elevation of the Holy Cross festival on Sept. 14, in Erbil, Iraq.
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, I W B Y description of a devastated Europe after the brutality of World War I: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. …” Forty years later, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe used Yeats to describe the woes of Africa in his famous novel Things Fall Apart. Nearly years later, Yeats resonates again. From Iraq to Syria, from Israel to Ukraine, wars and rumors of wars scatter refugees and strain residents struggling to live normal lives in abnormal conditions. It’s not unlike New Testament days when the Apostle Paul wrote to Christians facing persecution and instability. But from a prison cell in Rome, under the threat of execution, Paul had a different take than Yeats. Christ is before all things, Paul wrote. And in Him “all things hold together.” The same holds true today. In some of the darkest corners of the world, ordinary people are helping to hold things together by the unseen sacrifices of everyday life. Aid organizations and mission agencies are doing valiant work to help the weak and needy in the world’s hot spots, but so are average citizens whose deeds often go unnoticed. It’s a thread of good news in the midst of devastating deadlines: From church basements in Ukraine to living rooms in Iraq to fellowship halls in Israel, a center still holds where things fall apart.
I
For those living inside conflict zones, the ominous has become the ordinary. In the eastern city of Donetsk, rebels have seized control and declared the area the Donetsk People’s Republic. Many residents have fled, and those remaining are vulnerable, including the elderly and those without the resources to relocate to other homes. Shelling and bombs send residents scattering to makeshift shelters in basements and cellars across the area. In the besieged city of Antratsit, the basement of a local Baptist church quickly became a nightly bomb shelter for some people. One of the church leaders described the scene to Suko: Most of the congregation’s members fled the city, but about congregants remained. Those members had attended services regularly, but weren’t heavily involved in the life and ministry of the church. War has changed them. These days, the church members in Antratsit are busy caring for residents in a city where food supplies are scarce, rebels run the town, and bombings are a brutal reality. At nightfall, congregants prepared the church basement for several dozen residents seeking a safe place to sleep. When outsiders manage to bring supplies into the city, the church members distribute them to long lines of needy residents. “They are just busy ministering to people,” says Suko. “And really risking their lives to do it.” In early September, another blow fell: Rebels seized control of the church building in Antratsit, and demanded the locals leave. It’s a scene unfolding across rebel-held areas, as many evangelical churches report separatists seizing their property to use as local headquarters. On Aug. , rebels in Donetsk seized the property of the ,-member Word of Life Church.
SUKO: HANDOUT • DONETSK: FABIO BUCCIARELLI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • CHURCH: IGOR KOVALENKO/EPA/LANDOV
U O, things hold together nearly a year after upheaval led to a revolution and an incursion by Russian-backed separatists in the country’s eastern regions. Indeed, after demonstrations in May, summer in Odessa unfolded like many seasons before it, with a couple of notable exceptions: Prices rose and more people than usual packed the Black Sea retreat. But the influx wasn’t just tourism: Like many cities in Ukraine, Odessa is absorbing refugees from the country’s beleaguered east. It’s a jarring reality for a developed nation unaccustomed to a refugee crisis. The United Nations estimates the recent fighting in Ukraine has displaced more than million people. Despite a tentative cease-fire in September, many Ukrainians remain skeptical. They doubt the agreement will quell Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionist ambitions. Some think Putin will use the moment to regroup and refocus his efforts on grabbing more territory. For now, Ukrainians in cities outside the conflict zones retain a sense of normalcy: They commute to work, walk to school, visit markets, and stroll through parks. But a growing anxiety punctuates daily life, as many Ukrainians wonder if unrest will reach them. Caleb Suko, a Baptist missionary in Odessa, sees the anxiety as he interacts with friends and neighbors. In his blog about life in Ukraine, Suko writes about the new normal: “People are on edge and it shows in their faces. Smoke rising in the distance could just be someone burning garbage, or it could be a provocation, the beginning of something ugly. A distant boom makes you wonder, ‘Was that a car backfiring or was it something much more ominous?’”
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Earlier in the summer, separatists occupied Donetsk Christian University, and housed rebel militia in staff apartments. In some cases, the seizures turn violent. In June, the Institute for Religious Freedom reported gunmen kidnapped four members of the Transfiguration Evangelical Church in Donetsk. The assailants shot and killed the four men, including two deacons and two sons of the church’s senior pastor. “The victim’s bodies were buried by the terrorists in a mass grave,” said Anton Herashchenko of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Church leaders say rebels target evangelicals, vilifying them for suspected connections to the West. Church members say their activities are spiritual, not political. Despite the threats of bombing and violence, Christians still help their neighbors. When rebels seized the church building in Antratsit, the congregants adapted: Since they could no longer shelter residents in the church basement, they brought the most vulnerable into their homes. The church members now care for about disabled residents who can’t quickly make it to bomb shelters without help. Suko’s friend at the Antratsit church is encouraged by the spiritual growth he sees in the remaining members, and by the reality it displays. “The church is not a building,” he told Suko. “The church is still in Antratsit.”
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I . One example is Christ Church—the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East. The evangelical, Anglican church sits in Jerusalem’s Old City and counts British abolitionist William Wilberforce among its founders. David Pileggi—an American who has lived in Israel for years—leads Christ Church, and has watched tension, conflicts, and wars roil the country for three decades. The recent, -day war with Hamas militants in Gaza brought missiles, rockets, and carnage to the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, but it also stoked tensions in Jerusalem. Even after a cease-fire ended the worst fighting in late August, demonstrations and riots continued in parts of the Israeli capital. Israeli officials in Jerusalem reported a spike in violent Palestinian attacks on Israeli police and civilians during July and August. They also reported Palestinians launching firebombs at Jewish enclaves in Arab neighborhoods. Palestinians reportedly suffered a smaller number of Israeli attacks in Jerusalem over the summer, but the Associated Press reported hundreds of Israelis marched through the capital during one set of demonstrations, shouting “death to JARRING REALITY: the Arabs.” Christians take part Pileggi says it’s some of the worst in a collective prayer disturbances he’s seen in Jerusalem in Donetsk for the in years. Still, Israelis manage to live victims killed during the Ukrainian crisis normal lives in what Pileggi calls the (top); an armed “routine emergency” of life in Israel: man walks past a They go to school, raise families, start damaged church in businesses, grow crops, write music, Horlivka, Ukraine.
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M E, citizens are clinging to any help they can find. Militants from the terror group Islamic State—also known as ISIS—have seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria, and driven more than . million people from their homes. Many of those refugees are Christians and
members of other minorities. The militants have also viciously killed thousands, including two Americans beheaded publicly. Sarah Ahmed has seen much of the suffering of the refugees firsthand. In her work for the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME), Ahmed travels between the refugee settlements in the north and a base of operations at St. George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad. When Ahmed talks about the extremism and violence of ISIS, she expresses grief and anger, and claims the terror group “doesn’t represent Islam.” Ahmed spends her days helping Christians and others suffering in the north. As refugees have fled their homes, they’ve flooded Kurdish cities like Erbil.
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and visit cafés. Much of the capital—and other parts of Israel—see little of the violent conflicts. But tensions always simmer between Jews and Arabs in the divided city, and Pileggi says residents sometimes feel as if they’re on the front lines, even if war is in another part of the country. For Christians—an even smaller minority in the capital city—it’s a challenging dynamic for ministry. At Christ Church, meeting that challenge often means simply being together. The church’s mix ROUTINE of Jewish followers of Jesus, Arab EMERGENCY: Christians, and believers from Christ Church other countries work hard to (right); promote community in ordinary Palestinians hurl stones ways: Together they celebrate during clashes holidays, eat meals, pray, study with Israeli the Bible, and serve others. police in East Serving others often means Jerusalem (below). looking beyond internal woes, and helping those suffering in other parts of the world. The church recently sent a team to help refugees from Iraq and Syria and sent aid to Christian families suffering in Gaza. The church also hosts a conference every two years for Christians from other Middle Eastern countries to promote unity in the gospel. But often, Christian ministry in Jerusalem means helping people in unnoticed ways, as people face ordinary difficulties during— or in spite of—the outbursts of turmoil and war. Pileggi thinks of some of those Christ Church has helped recently: The mentally challenged Palestinian man who needs help with basic needs. The low-income families in need of work. The woman locked in a custody battle for her handicapped child. The Palestinian mother who longed to send her sons to a Christian school. These are the faces unseen during high-profile conflicts: They need help beyond the fog of war. Pileggi says helping others in such complicated dynamics requires staying humble and clinging to Christ: “We do not want to be ashamed of the power of the gospel.”
says it can be a jarring sight in a city with so many suffering: “But what can people do except continue living their lives?” In Baghdad, people are trying to continue as well. ISIS militants haven’t seized the city, but residents still live in fear of car bombings and other attacks. A pair of car bombings near a Baghdad market on Sept. killed at least people. Ahmed says the city’s residents still go to work and school, but wonder if they’ll make it home: “In Baghdad people are scared all the time, but being scared and fearful is just a part of life right now. This is how it is.” Despite the dangers of Baghdad, some refugees fleeing ISIS have arrived in the capital city. Congregants at St. George’s Church have offered aid to those arriving, and Ahmed says many have bought new clothes and other supplies for those who fled their homes. Meanwhile, the church continues its outreach to poor and needy residents in spots around Baghdad. And Canon Andrew White—the St. George’s chaplain known as “the vicar of Baghdad”— continues to pursue discipleship in the midst of chaos. In an August blog post, White—who also leads FRRME—wrote about the joy of preparing children at the church for their first communion. He asked the children why they were excited, and “they basically said that when they were baptized their parents had promised CLINGING TO HELP: Christian refugee children sing and pray they would follow Yesua, but in an abandoned shopping mall in Erbil. Refugee families were invited to take shelter in the mall (above); Sarah Ahmed (left). now they have decided themselves.” The chaplain gave the children Bibles, and said the church would distribute the same That’s a difficult Bibles to refugees in the north: “So amongst the devastation offer for some. Many there has indeed been the joy of the Lord.” Iraqis already have large families in small houses, so offering U, the pastor of Word of Life space to large refugee Church—the large church seized by rebels in families—sometimes Donetsk—wrote a letter to his scattered congrewith six to people— gation, encouraging them also to pursue the joy is challenging. of the Lord in the places where things seem to Still, Ahmed says be falling apart. she’s been encouraged when she sees ordinary citizens sacriThe pastor said the remaining congregation would continue fice to help others. She remembers one local resident who saw to meet in small groups around the city, and still strive to serve several Christian families living in the streets after arriving in and multiply like the church in the days of the New Testament. Erbil. He invited the families to stay on his property and pro“Tested faith is more precious than a faith that has not been vided bedding and other supplies. tested for durability,” wrote pastor Leonid Padun. “Tested In other parts of the city, daily life continues for those faith—a faith to the praise of Jesus Christ Himself. … It’s like a already residing in Erbil. Ahmed sees weddings and parties, reward for the uniform of a soldier who returned from the and says people eat and drink in local restaurants as usual. She front with a victory.” A
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Those with resources seek shelter in hotels or rental homes, but others end up sheltering in church sanctuaries, schools, and tents. Aid agencies and some missions organizations have delivered aid to the area overwhelmed by the influx. Fuel prices have risen, rents are doubling and tripling, and permanent residents grow frustrated with the strained living conditions. Still, Ahmed says, some churches have opened their doors to refugees, and she’s also seen Christian families offer to share their homes.
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Email: jdean@wng.org
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Meet Daniel Webster, the nonradical advocate for a radical step ..
photo by Norma Lopez Molina
Legislative guardian F
C Daniel Webster’s office displays a standard American flag and a painting of Abraham Lincoln kneeling in prayer. What’s happily missing, though, are photos with celebrities. Instead, among the family photos is a John MacArthur Study Bible and a book containing the speeches of the th-century Daniel Webster, a distant relative who gained fame as an orator while serving in the U.S. Senate and twice as U.S. secretary of state. Webster, , is unlikely to have that career at the federal level. He was first elected to the House in , after serving years in the Florida Legislature. At feet inches, he’s a big guy who makes a quiet impression and takes care of constituents. He’s not a camera hog or headline chaser—and that’s why it’s surprising to find him at the center of the House lawsuit against the president of the United States. Critics say radical Republicans are behind the lawsuit challenging President Obama’s penchant for unilateral executive action, but Webster doesn’t fit that narrative. Yes, he’s personally conservative and staunchly pro-life, yet conservative critics say he isn’t conservative enough in Congress. He was one of GOP House members who joined Democrats to end the government shutdown last year. The National Journal this year rated two-thirds of House Republicans as more conservative than he. But Webster says he votes for a bill if he likes percent of it, because “I’m elected by percent plus one. There are no perfect bills, other than maybe the Mother’s Day resolution.” Webster has long been an enemy of expanded executive power. He talks about Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Democrat, suing him in to stop the Legislature from overriding his vetoes, including a ban on partialbirth abortion. The Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Webster’s favor. Later, the Florida House and Senate individually won lawsuits against Republican governors whom the courts ruled had overstepped their executive authority.
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In , when Webster was a state senator, he played a role in the outcome of the presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. When seven justices of the state Supreme Court granted Gore another recount after the first one gave Bush a narrow victory, attorneys said the Legislature had no standing to challenge the decision in court. Webster argued the U.S. Constitution, not the state constitution, granted the Legislature its authority to set election rules, so the body should appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. He found an attorney willing to try, and days later the high court overturned the state ruling. The decision didn’t end the election controversy, but it delivered a rebuke to the Florida Supreme Court and restored the Legislature’s role in the process. Now in Washington, Webster helped convince the House GOP to pursue unconventional means to preserve congressional power against a president who, Republicans say, has exceeded his authority on issues ranging from immigration to welfare reform, and refuses to enforce laws he doesn’t like, including marijuana laws. Last March the House passed a bill authorizing a lawsuit against the president, but not surprisingly, it died in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Using a legal maneuver that allows one legislative body to challenge an executive’s authority, Republicans— following Webster’s Florida playbook—crafted a binding resolution not requiring Senate approval. Although Democrats say the lawsuit has no chance of success, Webster says that’s not the point: “You don’t have to know what your chances are—you need to know you’re right.” He says it’s not a partisan move: “What you’re defending is not the current speaker, governor, or in this case the president, but the constitutional distinction between the branches of government.” An August CBS poll found a majority of Americans disapproving of the unprecedented lawsuit against the president, which focuses on President Obama’s ability to waive provisions of the Affordable Care Act. That probably means Republicans will wait until after the midterm elections to actually file the lawsuit in court. A
Email: jderrick@wng.org
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florida’s homeschooling father In the early 1980s, conflicting Florida court opinions left in doubt the legality of homeschooling. Two families approached then-state Rep. Daniel Webster in 1984 and asked if he would champion homeschooling in Florida. He had never heard of homeschooling; but after one of the parents, attorney Craig Dickinson, explained the bill he had written, Webster agreed to push for it. Webster said it took a while to explain the bill even to Republicans, but the turning point came at a House Education Committee hearing: A large contingent of home education advocates came to support the bill, and many filled out cards requesting to testify. The chairman flipped through the cards, said he didn’t want to hear from the adults, and instead selected an 11-year-old boy at random to address the committee. “He marches up to the podium, pulls the microphone down, and says, ‘Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I came here to address you today to say you have my future in your hands,’” Webster recalls. “He made this awesome speech, and they gave him a standing ovation.” The House and Senate both approved the bill, but Democratic Gov. Bob Graham threatened to veto it. Webster took Dickinson and a University of West Florida professor, both Democrats, to meet with Graham on the last day of the legislative session. Graham listened intently, looked over at his chief of staff, and said, “What do you think?” The chief nodded. Graham pulled out his pen and signed the bill. The experience impressed Webster so much he decided to homeschool his own six children, who had to miss school when the Legislature was in session. Home education offered the perfect solution. For years public educators made repealing the home education law their No. 1 priority, but homeschoolers won the state geography and spelling bees, a homeschooler became the University of Florida’s valedictorian, and three became top students at Harvard. “And then they didn’t want to talk about it any more,” Webster said. The basic law hasn’t changed, but it now allows dual enrollment and athletic participation—giving rise to football star Tim Tebow and others. —J.C.D.
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Staying with strangers
M ICH ELLE SM ITH of Asheville, N.C., recently rented her basement apartment to a couple of strangers on vacation from Oregon. They came with a special request: Could she perform their wedding during their stay? A licensed minister, Smith, 50, recruited a few neighbors as witnesses, found the bride a dress downtown, and officiated their wedding in the city’s botanical gardens. Wanting to spare the newlyweds her normal charge, she asked what they might offer in return. The husband said he was a massage therapist. “I want your most rock-star massage ever,” Smith told him, and that’s exactly what she got for the next two hours in her living room. Smith is part of a growing movement that is changing how people travel. Using websites like Airbnb, Smith and other homeowners throughout the United States rent out spare rooms and houses to guests who value adventure and economy over consistency and safety. Since 2008, Airbnb has accommodated more than 11 million guests and, with a $10 billion valuation, is worth more than some major hotel chains like Hyatt and Wyndham. Facing new competition, many conventional hotels are tweaking their business models to appeal to anticookie-cutter travelers.
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by Ryan Hill and Emily Scheie That trend is readily apparent in Asheville, N.C., a long-time vacation destination. (The city’s minor league baseball team is called the Tourists.) In 2012, more than 9 million tourists came to experience the area’s outdoor sports, craft beer, bohemian culture, Christian retreat centers, and Biltmore House, the largest residence in the United States. Those travelers added $2.3 billion to the area’s economy and are the object of intense interest among the hotels and hotel alternatives we visited to get a sense of the changing market and what it says about a changing America. Airbnb has more than a half-million listings in more than 30,000 cities around the world, including 400 in Asheville. Hosts and guests both have online profiles. Michelle Smith first listed her basement on Airbnb in 2012. She priced it at $49 a night and, within two hours of launching her account, had a booking. The demand has never faltered. Today she has, at most, five unbooked nights a month from spring through fall. Guests like not only the affordability of Smith’s room but also her spacious yard planted by a local farmer. One visitor who arrived this summer enjoyed the quacking of her ducks and the dozens of snap peas she offered while tossing swiss
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Low-cost lodging opportunities are revolutionizing the travel experience
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chard and kale in the sauté pan, rotten cilantro in the compost bin, and cabbage in a jar full of vinegar. Smith began offering rentals as a last resort: “It saved my ability to stay in my home.” Guests often choose Smith’s apartment after seeing online how she ranks against other Asheville hosts: They can see how fast she responds to guests and whether they rate their stays positively. Sometimes that system fails, and some of Airbnb’s 600,000 global listings have led to nightmares for a few unsuspecting travelers. The service doesn’t run background checks on hosts, and some guests have complained about owners who came home drunk, turned up with criminal records, or tried to swindle them during online reservation. Some hosts, in turn, have complained after guests held orgies, stole stuff, or trashed their rentals. Smith and others operate within restrictions. City codes in tourist hot spots like New Orleans, San Francisco, and Asheville forbid renting a whole house or apartment for fewer than 30 days. Those codes are often unenforced, but New York City authorities fined Nigel Warren $40,000 in 2012 for leasing out his apartment on Airbnb while he vacationed in Colorado. An appeals court later dismissed the case, but against-code rentals and evasions of hotel taxes continue to breed controversy (see “A room of one’s own,” Dec. 14, 2013). Airbnb users may AIRBNB AT WORK: Smith wind up saddled with in kitchen; guests enjoy more responsibility than side garden in yard. they bargained for. One photographer on the road for a shoot booked a room in Atlanta, Ga., only to find that good food and coffee were a two-hour trip away through downtown traffic. She also found bedbugs under her sheets, but the host bought her medicine and helped clean her belongings to beat back the tiny pests. Hosts are also sometimes surprised: A young host in Los Angeles, Calif., had to find drain cleaner
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Ryan Hill
FRUGAL TRAVELERS also make use of a traditional alternative: hostels. Those willing to give up privacy can stay in the heart of downtown Asheville for as little as $28 a night. Sweet Peas hostel shares a renovated old paper factory with breweries, bars, and boutiques. Lodgers choose among three options: a bunk in a room full of bunk beds, a pod or cubby-like bed with a heavy curtain they can draw for privacy, or a private room with a sink and a locking door. All guests share a common shower room, kitchen, dining room, and living room. Sweet Peas has midnight to 8 a.m. quiet hours, but the open-air design means if someone snores or comes in drunk at 2 a.m., everyone knows it. But community experience has its positives: Manager Sarah Dostal fondly remembers Christmas last year when she and some of the guests shared sushi around the tree in the common area. She called such meetings “the best and worst part, because you can develop some really nice friendships, and then those people go away.” Across the United States in California, the Banana Bungalow hostel chain shares a food theme and low prices (as
little as $34 per night for a dorm bed in the summer) with Sweet Peas—but guests at the Maui or Hollywood locations trade Asheville’s mountain air and hippie culture for West Coast heat, tiki bars, free body board rentals, and Pacific sands. Another Asheville hostel, Bon Paul & Sharky’s (named after owner Joe Gill’s two goldfish), typically has lodgers between 18 and 35 years old, with one-third coming from outside the United States. Bunks cost $26 per night, and Gill tries to cultivate conversation among guests by scheduling potlucks, establishing common rooms and decks with games and maps of Asheville, and having a fire pit out back. Bunks have mismatched sheets and sometimes roommates are mismatched too, but many leave their photos on the kitchen fridge, their dreams in a “dream book,” and their quirky character in memories. Julie Esh, the founder of Hostel Earphoria in Chicago, Ill., uses Airbnb and other websites to rent her rooms for $25 per night. Almost anyone can afford her prices, but not everyone can stay: She only welcomes musicians and music lovers into the small, white guesthouse. Visitors to Earphoria will find drum kits, guitar amplifiers, an antique piano, and pricey production software for their use in the converted studio, not to mention free bread and eggs for breakfast. Some Airbnb rentals are considerably more expensive, with private rooms at $100 or more, but they are usually a better buy than similar hotel rooms. Hoteliers often have mixed feelings about Airbnb competitors, but particularly want them to pay hotel taxes: Christian Hickl of Asheville’s
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after renting out her studio space to a guest who managed to clog her bathtub with hair. One guest’s stay became a matter of life and death. Asheville Airbnb host Robyn Blakely was asleep at her fiancé’s house when her father, living at the rental spot, awoke around midnight with chest pain. The guest heard his cries and drove him to the hospital, where doctors performed quadruple bypass surgery to save his life. Blakely arrived at 2 a.m. after spotting a frantic text message from her guest.
Emily Scheie
AMENITIES: Sweet Peas pods; Bon Paul & Sharky’s Hostel; Sweet Peas kitchen; Christian Hickl at Sweet Biscuit Inn (left to right).
Sweet Biscuit Inn says, “I don’t mind their business. I just think it should be a level playing field.” Hickl’s seven bedrooms, which mix hotel elegance with hostel quirkiness, go for $139-199 per night, and a local carpenter used old wood from the Grove Park Inn (see sidebar) to build the bed in Room 1. Robyn Blakely, whose father had the emergency heart surgery, knows the Hickls on a friendly basis, yet keeps one
small secret: “They don’t know I run an Airbnb.” But vacation rentals in city after city across the United States are no longer a secret: Many travelers, before checking hotel websites, now go to Airbnb, VRBO, CouchSurfing, or a dozen other start-up competitors in what has become a brave new traveling world. A —Ryan Hill and Emily Scheie are 2014 World Journalism Institute graduates; Tiffany Owens and Sophia Lee supplied additional reporting
Upscale reaction
Ryan Hill
Affluent travelers seeking to avoid unexpected lodging experiences stay at upscale hotels like the 101-year-old Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C. With 513 rooms and 1,000 employees, it’s three miles but worlds away from the $49 basement room. A club suite on the adults-only floor runs up to $1,000 per night. The average room costs $250 on most days but $320 in late November when the inn hosts the annual National Gingerbread House Competition, packing the halls with “a quarter-mile of gingerbread.” Some upscale hotels that face competition from usually friendly homeowners are trying to be less stuffy. At Aloft, a downtown Asheville hotel (part of a nationwide chain) that charges $289-389 per night on a summer weekend, staffers go through “vibe training” and aim for a culture of “hipness.” When staffers learned they would be housing WWII veterans, they put RC Colas and MoonPies wrapped in American flags in their rooms as a welcoming surprise. —R.H. and E.S.
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Two Christian colleges, both founded in 1906, both about the same size, have gone in different directions by Sophia Lee & Angela Lu
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A TALE OF TWO C
Known as the “family-friendly
Las Vegas,” Branson, Mo., is home to many touristy spectacles: a life-size replica of the Titanic, horse dancers frolicking in Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede, a Hollywood-esque cracked building housing Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and an endless parade of country music shows. But the No. 4 most popular attraction on review site TripAdvisor.com is a tour of the College of the Ozarks (C of O), where gawkers can snap photos of respectful college students doing honest work in exchange for a tuition-free College of the education. Ozarks student In this competiRuben De La tive college market, Rosa carries an this school of 1,400 order from the kitchen of still thrives finanDobyns Dining cially. It even Room in the nabbed the top spot Keeter Center. in Christian College Online’s 2014 ranking of the 50 best Christian colleges. As many tuition-driven colleges, such as the controversy-ridden Louisiana College, slowly sink in a pool of expensive amenities and extraneous majors, C of O floats on a hefty $410 million endowment—the largest of any school in the Council for Christian Colleges
s tudents expect and learn to earn their keep through humble, traditional labor. Without tuition as a revenue source, C of O doesn’t need to pander to parents and students as do typical colleges. It can model financial responsibility to millennials. Freshmen start off working in menial jobs: washing windows, scrubbing toilets, or cleaning rooms at the lodge, sometimes waking up at the crack of dawn to finish a shift before class. Each semester, they can apply for new positions that relate to their majors. For example, communication majors staff the school’s PR office, nursing students work at on-campus clinics, and education majors help out at the newly opened School of the Ozarks high school on campus. By the time students graduate, they’ve garnered interview experience, compiled lengthy resumés, earned debt-free diplomas, and most importantly, learned good work etiquette. “It helps them tremendously,” said Chris Larsen, dean of work. “Employers look for C of O grads first. They know our students will work and are respectful, so they call us up when there are openings.” The college’s unique focus on hard work, patriotism, and character education attracts numerous donors
T. Rob Brown/The Joplin Globe/AP
TWO COLLEGES and Universities (CCCU). How does a tuition-free college survive, while other colleges charging an average of $30,000 per year fret about their emptying coffers? A look around the C of O campus, where students grind wheat at the oncampus mill and don hairnets to bake the school’s signature fruitcakes, reveals the school’s fidelity to its 1906 mission (created when it was still a high school) to provide a Christian education to young people who are “found worthy but who are without sufficient means to procure such training.” Such faithfulness has kept the school surviving—and thriving—as
who fear the country is pulling away from its traditional roots. Some donors were first introduced to C of O as tourists dining at its highly rated restaurant, where students serve smoked tomato soup and harvest salad tossed with student-grown vegetables from the school’s greenhouse. Along with donations, the school runs on federal grants, minimal staff, student-generated revenue, and fiscally conservative practices that ensure the school stays debt free. For instance, C of O will not start any building project until it obtains complete funding for it and rejects any plans that fall outside the school’s mission, such as
adding a graduate school or expanding enrollment. The spirited, no-nonsense President Jerry Davis, who took over C of O in 1988 when the school was struggling financially and “waffling” in its direction, is one reason why the original mission has remained uncompromised. “If you’re going to charge what most colleges charge, you gotta offer something different,” he said. “Now here it’s obvious: Students don’t pay tuition, everybody works. You see that head, heart, and hand philosophy actually carried out. It’s basically a ‘be good or be gone’ philosophy.” Within the first few years of his presidency, Davis cut staff, consolidated 23 departments into six divisions, and even implemented a dress code forbidding men to have long hair or earrings. His decisions came under fire, especially as he rid the school of tenure in 1993, to the outrage of the American Association of University Professors. But as Davis often says, “people don’t give us money to be like everyone else.” The numbers speak for themselves: C of O’s endowment allowed it to coast through the recent recession. Students coming to campus know exactly what they’re getting themselves into: 15 hours a week of work on top of their schooling, and two 40-hour work weeks during their breaks. Tough luck if they can’t handle the workload—10 prospective students will snatch up their spots, Davis said. With so many applicants, the school can be as choosy as an Ivy League university. Per the school vision, all students must demonstrate financial need, and priority is given to residents of the impoverished Ozarks region in Missouri and Arkansas, where the per capita income hovers around $17,000. Most students are grateful to be there: Without C of O, they would not be able to afford a Christian higher education.
Meanwhile, about 430 miles south
in Pineville, La., another Christian college has also been attracting attention— for all the opposite reasons. Louisiana College (LC) has almost the same student body size as C of O and was founded in 1906, but the similarities end there. LC is one of the many small liberal arts colleges trying to compete
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Deteriorating conditions at Louisiana College
includes LBC executive director David Hankins. At first colleagues at the college greeted Aguillard as a “charming Southern gentleman” who cleared out the liberal faculty and hired professors who affirmed the Baptist faith. But critics say he lost track of the school’s original mission, which includes a “devotion to academic excellence for the glory of God.” Jay Adkins, a trustee since 2008, remembers being dazzled at first by all the exciting new programs Aguillard proposed: a law school, a medical school, and a divinity school. But as the list grew to include a film school as well as a Bible school in Tanzania, Adkins and many others started wondering how the school planned to pay for it all, when the existing buildings were in dire need of maintenance—about $35 million in repairs. Students, who pay a $14,520 annual tuition, were living in mold-infested buildings and dealing with sporadic outages in power and hot water. At times, internet connection would crash, leaving students unable to complete homework, take online tests, or register for classes.
Despite such pressing financial needs, Aguillard pursued his grand plans. Various whistle-blower complaints say he diverted donations to fund other projects, then misled the board of trustees and a major donor about the money. When details of financial misappropriation emerged, the donor terminated future donations, a loss of about $2 million per year. In the face of such problems, Aguillard spun an anti-Calvinism narrative and refused to renew the contracts for three “Calvinist-leaning” professors, which placated LBC’s Hankins, who opposes Calvinistic theology. The administrative storm affected the student body as well. Students struggled to focus on their academics as administrators replaced their favorite professors. A spirit of intimidation kept the faculty quiet for fear of repercussions, and former student Drew Wales recalls threats of disciplinary actions for speaking out against the administration. What the future holds for LC is a mystery. But the college—and Christian colleges—should study the way College of the Ozarks has dealt with challenges: strong leadership, fiscal discipline, and adherence to a core vision. A
ANGELA LU
for students with projects: more buildings, more programs, more majors, and eventually (it hopes), more tuition dollars. Instead, LC slid into financial, academic, legal, and leadership dysfunction. After some nasty top-level shenanigans regarding forged signatures on accreditation documents, and a subsequent Game of Thrones-esque battle of blame, LC has recently been placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), a mere six months after its last “Warning” s tatus. The probation is the third time in 10 years that LC has received sanctions from SACS, which listed four key concerns about LC: standards of integrity, trustee board governance, personnel practices, and audit findings. Much of LC’s woes can be traced back to its leadership, specifically former President Joe Aguillard. In April he became president emeritus (retaining an LC faculty position and an office on campus). Further up the leadership chain is the Louisiana Baptist Convention (LBC), which funds about 11 percent of the school’s budget and wields heavy influence on the LC Board of Trustees, a 35-member team that
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Messiah the Prince Revisited by J. K. Wall
C
hrist is King. What does that mean for your daily life? for your church? for your government, and for the governments of the world? Updated and abridged for the 21st century reader, this book is based on William Symington’s majestic and definitive work detailing the role and rule of Jesus Christ. crownandcovenant.com 412.241.0436 info@crownandcovenant.com
“Every Christian leader should read this book” —Richard D. Phillips, Second Presbyterian Church, S.C.
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert
Expanded Edition by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
“Butterfield’s incredibly poignant and vulnerable account” —Jim Daly, president, Focus on the Family “There are some stories that just need to be told” —Tim Challies, challies.com One of WORLD Magazine’s Top 10 Books of the Year
Expanded Edition includes:
ANGELA LU
• Two open letters from Rosaria • Pastor Ken G. Smith’s story of reaching out to Rosaria • Pastor Kent Butterfield’s testimony of Christian hospitality • FAQs, psalms to sing, & more
crownandcovenant.com • 412.241.0436 • info@crownandcovenant.com
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NEW HOME: Travis Crockett at Jubilee. SOPHIA LEE
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THE AWARD FOR EFFECTIVE COMPASSION
Growing on the farm WEST REGION WINNER JUBILEE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY OFFERS TROUBLED BOYS A NEW BEGINNING AMID APPLE ORCHARDS by SOPHIA LEE in Prescot t, Wash.
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T C stared out of the car at miles of hills, apple trees, and dry grass, and then spotted a deer for the first time in his life, he realized: This is far, far from home. “Home” was a gang-dominated set of blocks in northwest Chicago. The car with Crockett turned from the orchard jungle into an open field with gray-roofed, white-bricked buildings. The air smelled like a farm—fresh-mowed grass, horse manure, and something savory wafting from the cafeteria. “This must be Jubilee,” Crockett muttered. The driver turned around and said, “Yeah, this is your new home.” It was April , , Crockett’s first day at Jubilee Leadership Academy in Prescott, Wash., a Christian residential facility for troubled boys aged to . He was a -yearold city kid who agreed to go to “Washington” because he had assumed it was the capital, not the state. But now Crockett says he’s glad Jubilee isn’t in D.C., because he could have easily run away when things got tough—and lost his last shot at a decent future. Crockett had been expelled from the eighth grade for fighting rival gang members in school. Every night he cried himself to
sleep, woozy and sick from his weed smoking and drug dealing, and asked, “Why am I doing this? I want to stop, but I can’t stop.” When his troublemaker cousin Keewaun came back from Jubilee transformed, Crockett thought, “I can change.” Crockett, now , is a model student at Jubilee’s leadership program, a mentor to younger students, and an All-Star basketball player. He plans for college and hopes for the NBA. Jubilee is a chance—perhaps the last—for students like Crockett to escape a cycle of abuse, crime, addiction, gangs, and despair. Executive director Rick Griffin describes Jubilee as a place where “God wants to level the playing field,” as in the biblical Jubilee year. Jubilee’s -acre campus, cocooned within , acres of Broetje Orchards property, was once duck-hunting grounds: Then Broetje Orchards founders Ralph and Cheryl Broetje bought the land and decided to donate it. Every week a small group of individuals, including the Broetjes and Griffin, gathered at a dust-coated house near Crockett’s current dorm and prayed for “spiritual fruit-bearing” on that land. In , Jubilee opened doors with six students. Now it is an all-male, fully accredited boarding school with about
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THE AWARD behaviors? After much soul-searching and research, students and a staff of , along with cows, pigs, FOR EFFECTIVE COMPASSION Griffin returned to Jubilee and advocated a total chickens, and horses. Jubilee offers therapy paradigm change. sessions, an online academic curriculum, vocational Today, Jubilee follows a three-tiered model of programs such as woodshop and welding, and athletic safety, relationships, and skills. Its philosophy: God first wants programs with a local high school. The campus also has a us to feel safe in Him, then learn from our relationships, and football field, basketball court, skateboard rink, outdoor laser ultimately bless others with gained skills. tag park, and zipline, golf, and rope courses. For the first days a staff member accompanies a newBut Jubilee is no resort. Some boys come under coercion— comer everywhere, from breakfast to chapel. Once the student either court-ordered or “escorted” by a transport service the parents called from desperation. Once they arrive, they’re stuck. The nearest town is about an hour’s drive away. Cell phones, laptops, and cash are not allowed. By the time they arrive, the boys have accrued scars, anger, and bitterness— and it’s up to Jubilee to slowly dredge them up. At first, Jubilee used the traditional punitive method. A misbehaving boy ran laps, dug ditches, or had only a bologna sandwich for dinner. Better behavior yielded more privileges such as phone calls and video games. But over the years, Griffin realized the penal system was not
demonstrates a sense of security, the staff teaches him skills to help regulate his emotions and issues through counseling and classes. The vocational programs provide a safe environment for using skills. Horses teach the rider to be more assertive or gentle without being judgmental. Wood-shopping or welding teach patience and dexterity. Since implementing the new model, Jubilee has raised more student mentors and discharged fewer students than ever before—but its Christ-centered mission has LEVEL PLAYING FIELD: been constant, because “without Christ, everything else is working. Instead of motivating Jubilee’s -acre campus; pretty meaningless,” Griffin said. Though spiritual maturity is the kids to change, the disciplinboys learn welding (right). not a requirement for the boys to graduate, Jubilee is fully ary measures merely solidified intentional about preaching the gospel by word and action. mistrust and repressed anger. A The students have chapel service every morning and can kid sullenly following orders to avoid consequences isn’t participate in an evening community group. I joined one such changing, and Jubilee was discharging boys who couldn’t community group led by program coorseem to change at all. dinator Joshua Romaine, a -year-old Griffin left Jubilee from to Christian rapper who has worked at and worked with people with cognitive Jubilee for almost seven years. Seven disabilities who clearly cannot perform slouching boys with spread-out legs sat certain normal functions. He started JUBILEE LEADERSHIP in a circle. Romaine told his own story wondering if Jubilee boys too aren’t ACADEMY of breaking free from drug addiction subjects of “will not” but “cannot.” 3 - revenue: ,, and encouraged the boys to rely on God, What if the severe traumas these boys 3 - expenses: ,, concluding, “Only through Jesus Christ, experienced had significantly altered 3 Net assets at the end of year guys, only through Jesus.” As he their brain development—and thus their : ,
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3 Executive director Rick Griffin’s salary and benefits: , 3 Staff: full-time, part-time 3 budget: . million 3 Website: jlacademy.org
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preached, the boys affected postures of cool blasé, yet their subtle nods or murmurs showed they were listening. “It’s tough,” Romaine told me later. “It ain’t no picnic. It’s a spiritual warfare through and through.” Working at Jubilee requires sacrifices that go beyond the modest pay. Romaine commutes two hours each workday and others give up basic comforts to live on the isolated campus with their wives and children. But they also tell me the sacrifice is worth it. Romaine loves the freedom to “talk about God all day long,” loves that moment when students accept Christ—“it’s like finally the light bulb clicks.” Religious freedom also means Jubilee relies heavily on private donations to maintain its yearly operating budget of . million. None of its students can afford to pay the full monthly tuition cost of ,, but Jubilee doesn’t turn any student away because of financial status. Had it done so, Travis Crockett and others like him would have continued falling through the cracks in society. One student-turnedintern, Brandon Kohfield, told me if it weren’t for Jubilee, he would have been “six feet under today—or someplace worse.” Crockett too remembers that he expected a future of minimum wage jobs and drugs. But now, whenever he feels discouraged, he recites Jeremiah : and reaffirms that God has plans to give him hope and a future. He’s fallen off the path, but God has put him “back on the straight path through Jubilee, in the middle of nowhere.” He confidently says, “I’m a new man now.” A
TRUTH AND BEAUTY WEST REGION RUNNER-UP: FROM BROKEN HOMES TO A GORGEOUS CAMPUS
SOPHIA LEE
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P walked into Orange County Rescue Mission’s Village of Hope (VOH) in Tustin, Calif., turned to her husband Devin and her -year-old daughter Holly and exclaimed, “Pinch me. Is this for real?” They had been homeless for six years, spending nights in mothbitten motels, and on couches and streets. Every morning at :, the Pucketts would pick a street and show a double-sided sign: One side asked for help, and the other, to which they quickly flipped when police passed by, asked for a job. “We were like gypsies,” Jody Puckett recalled: “I felt like dirt under your shoe. I felt hopeless.” But now they were on VOH’s tastefully modern campus, where
tall palm trees shade contemporary furniture on a manicured lawn, and water—symbolizing God’s living water of generosity and grace—springs from a massive urn. The idea behind VOH’s aesthetics is that every homeowner wants his home to be beautiful—so what makes the homeless different? Many who enter VOH were raised in broken homes, some hopping from shelter to shelter, others spending days and weeks on the streets—and kids growing up in such an environment have few models of order and beauty to emulate. So when Orange County Rescue Mission (OCRM) President Jim Palmer was planning the Village’s construction, he knew beauty had to play a key theme. He had seen beauty’s positive influence on its residents at the House of Hope, a s Craftsman-style mansion for single mothers that’s furnished with real antiques, chandeliers, and oil paintings—all donated by neighbors and friends. So Palmer, with resourceful help from philanthropist Roberta Ahmanson, drew a similar vision for the Village of Hope. That vision became real in March —with no government funding, no loans, no debts. Instead, OCRM financed the million construction costs through private donations and services. An architecture firm drew up plans pro bono, professional interior designers and volunteers decorated the residential dorm-style rooms, and a Danish artist crafted both the urn and stained glass windows representing Jesus and his apostles. The Cheesecake Factory designed and developed the warm-toned, spacious dining room, which frequently offers fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers plucked from the Village’s community garden. OCRM, still rejecting HOPEFUL: government money, gets The Pucketts. about percent of its support from individuals and the rest via corporations, foundations, and grants. In , cents of every dollar went to direct programs, with the remaining cents going to administration and fundraising costs. Although warm and pleasant, the Village isn’t meant to be as comfortable as a personal home. “This place looks beautiful, but literally, it’s like we’re operating outside the gates of hell,” Palmer said. People arrive with stories of poverty, addiction, abuse, trauma, eating disorders, mental issues, and more. All have reached what Palmer calls “our sweet spot”: the bottom of the barrel in life where they’ve tried everything and realize there’s
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AWARD prep classes, financial tutoring, day care for prenowhere to look except up to a Being greater than FOR EFFECTIVE COMPASSION schoolers, after-school tutoring programs, a playthey. ground, basketball courts—even a hair salon. It just The Pucketts are good examples. Just days before lacked one essential component: a local church. VOH they joined the Village, “home” was a patch of dirt squats on . acres of a ,-acre former military base— underneath heaps of blankets. Over the years drug addiction redeveloped by the city of Tustin to include , new homes had cost them everything. One night under the stars, Jody but no churches. Students eligible to leave campus would have Puckett and her husband held each other and fell asleep sobhad to spend money they didn’t have to get to distant bing, promising they wouldn’t “ever, ever get this low again.” churches. The Pucketts spent their last to get married at the Santa Two years ago Church at the Mission, or “CAM-Tustin,” Ana courthouse so they could be accepted into the Village began holding Sunday services. The church also creates Bible (only married couples can enter together). Their daughter study groups, discipleship training, retreats, and a commuHolly was the witness. During their first months at the Village, nity network that bridges into the outside world. In return, they spent each day in devotions, Bible studies, vocational the Village provides, rent-free, a gorgeous -seat, stained glass– spangled chapel that doubles as an auditorium and theater. I attended two Sunday services and saw children running around and adults hugging (and trying not to spill coffee). Musicians played a mix of classic hymns and contemporary worship songs, and the congregation rocked and shouted along with the worship team on stage. The air vibrated with pounding feet and waving arms. VOH students make up about a third of the CAM-Tustin congregation. When the pastor mentioned drug and alcohol addiction or broken marriages, many congregation members raised their hands. When people shared news of sobriety or repentance, the church burst into cheers and applause. Jody Puckett, raised in a Christian home, said she felt “an awakening of my spiritual walk with God” through the Village and the church. She and her husband classes, and therapy groups. On weekdays, a bus transported BEAUTY: The Village of Hope campus. have invited family members to Holly and other children to local public schools. attend with them. Her husband’s Adult residents of VOH are called “students.” They rise ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, and daughter now attend on Sundays, from freshman to senior before “graduating” into the outside Puckett told me proudly, especially after they saw her husworld, usually within to months. At each level, students band make “a complete degree” transformation. receive greater freedom, and before graduating they make The day I met her, Puckett had just upgraded to “junior” arrangements for off-site housing and employment. About level. As a sophomore, she had been head of janitorial, but percent of graduates remain self-sufficient beyond two years now she’s switched to resident adviser in the mailroom. She from graduation. believes God has a calling for everyone, and that the Village One reason for the good statistics: Prospective students go and the church are part of His plan to guide her there. “I through a screening process to assess their willingness to always knew Jesus died for me on the cross for my sins,” she comply with program rules. For example, freshmen cannot said. “No matter how bad my sickness, I knew I could turn to leave the campus for the first days without an escort (but Him. But I feel very bad, sad, and convicted today that I took can resign from the program at any time). While on campus, this long to know it’s not about anything but God.” all students are required to participate in program activities After she graduates, Puckett plans to be a Christian counand be responsible for certain duties and chores. selor to alcohol and substance addicts: “I want to turn my Besides shelter and food, the Village also provides therapy, scars into stars.” A treatment plans, medical care, career counseling, GED online
Email: slee@wng.org
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bju.edu/why For graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program and other important info visit go.bju.edu/rates. (16104) 11/13
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Course reversal A short story, a grand canyon, and a 180-degree turn to the realization that not a college falls to earth apart from the will of our heavenly Father by Marvin Olasky i l l u s t ra t i o n b y K r i e g B a r r i e
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y favorite short story, Leo Tolstoy’s “What Men Live By,” tells of an angel who disobeys God’s decision that a woman who had just given birth to twins would die. The woman begs him—take pity on my children!—and the angel tells God that newborns cannot live without their mother. The angel eventually learns that God is in charge and fully capable of taking care of babies. There’s nothing angelic about me, but in recent years God taught me the same lesson. He has changed my course repeatedly during the past four decades but reversed it only twice, once when I left Communism and became a Christian during the 1970s (see WORLD, April 11 and May 23, 2009), and once again from 2010 to 2012. That’s when God yanked me from a destructive path, then showed me what it means to “wait on the Lord” and see His provision for baby colleges. The baby college I loved was The King’s College, New York City, where I became provost—chief academic officer—in 2007 after teaching for two decades at The University of Texas at Austin. (The last WORLD episode about God’s action in my life—May 4, 2013—explains why I made the switch. The reason 17 months have gone by since publication of that piece is because upon leaving King’s in January 2011, I promised freshmen recruited by me that I wouldn’t write anything about the school’s problems until after they graduated this year.) WORLD remained my prime professional love over the years— I’ve been married to it since 1992—but it was wonderful at King’s to hire great professors, add new courses, teach students not to fear
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he question for me became not whether to leave King’s and spend all my professional energies on WORLD, but when and how. Many professors, especially those I had hired, also saw D’Souza as a successful agitator but not a college president, so it would have been easy for me to start a civil war. Sure, that might end up killing the college—potential donors already questioning the college’s stability would have intensified doubts—but maybe it deserved to die. I also had a financial stake. It wasn’t admirable on my part even to think in these terms, but since I was giving up
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lifetime tenure at the University of Texas, the King’s board of trustees had given me a sevenyear contract with a special provision: If King’s went out of business or the board decided to dispense with my services, I would receive $80,000 per year for the life of the contract. My problem was that the board, perhaps for public relations seeing his provision: D’Souza; King’s; my trip to the Grand Canyon (from top to bottom).
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D’Souza: LUCAS JACKSON/Reuters/Landov • the king’s college: JonesFoto • Grand Canyon: BRIAN MORLEY
controversy, and live in midtown Manhattan. As Jacob learned during the 14-plus years he worked for his uncle Laban, love made time go fast and productivity increase. The King’s website during those years still spelled out the vision that had attracted me and others: “Almost all of the significant Christian colleges in the United States on the Protestant side of the Christian spectrum are in small towns, the countryside, or the suburbs. … [Kings’] roots are in the Protestant evangelical tradition, and we are probably alone among colleges in this tradition in our embrace of the city.” In 2010, though, the King’s board of trustees, out of financial desperation, selected a new president, Dinesh D’Souza, who had little understanding of that tradition. Ironically, I had introduced D’Souza to King’s in fall 2007, bringing him to our venue to debate Christopher Hitchens. D’Souza, a lively talker, was perfect for that role, and I encouraged him to do more of that. Just about every college is financially challenged these days, and King’s had the double trouble of no endowment but heavy expenses in Manhattan, where everything costs more. Several trustees had contributed millions of dollars over the years and wanted to break that habit. Still, I thought the president of King’s should have an evangelical understanding. D’Souza clearly did not. He said he was both a Catholic and an evangelical, and gave as evidence his attendance at the Calvary Chapel with which his wife, Dixie, had long been involved. I did not know that the marriage he credited for his theological development was in trouble, but the more I learned about what D’Souza believed, the more my distress grew. The clincher was his support for evolution. Disavowal of biblical teaching about creation is particularly serious because that perspective underlies so many other positions: In dozens of once-Christian colleges a slip-sliding-away from the first three chapters of Genesis has led to abandonment of the rest of the Bible. (See “Soaping the slippery slope,” Aug. 25, 2012.) The King’s board, to my naive surprise, didn’t focus on what D’Souza believed: His task was to lasso a desperately needed big donor or donors. One wealthy trustee said he didn’t disagree with my theological concerns but asked, “What choice do we have?” My response was “Trust God,” but the trustee said, “That’s not enough.” He did not have sufficient confidence in God’s sovereign mercy and, despite my words, neither did I: He thought King’s without a moneymaker like D’Souza would die. I thought King’s without a discerning president would die.
reasons, did not want me to leave. I could force the board’s hand by starting that civil war. My natural drift was toward selfishness—but providentially, a week-long, summer whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon came along. The creationist group that issued the invitation wanted to show me geological evidence for a young earth. That opportunity interested me but whitewater excited me more. And God, while caring about both Grand Canyon geology and killer rapids, had another purpose for me: Sleeping under the stars night after night and, looking up at the vastness, I could remember how big God is and how small I am. It was my most vivid epiphany since Nov. 1, 1973, when at 3 p.m. I sat down in my room as a Communist. Hour after hour that day I questioned my movement down a dark corridor and refusal even to open a door to a room that could be filled with light. At 11 p.m. that long-ago night I wandered the cold and dark University of Michigan campus, crying out to ... Someone. Now I knew who that Someone is, but still
So, come fall, I resigned quietly and turned down numerous media opportunities to blast D’Souza. My advice to professors was: Keep your chins up in the classroom and your heads down in relation to the new administration. Wait and see what God will do.
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n “What Men Live By,” God over six years gives the disobedient angel three crucial lessons. The angel sees God’s provision even for those who disobey; he sees God’s judgment on the arrogant; he sees God’s love for two helpless babies. Since leaving King’s, I’ve learned three things about God’s providence in relation to the college I loved. The first lesson: God kept King’s alive, with the college receiving a $15 million gift from a donor. The board’s assessment of D’Souza’s financial impact was accurate. The second lesson: God removed D’Souza from the presidency in a way that made clear his lack of fitness for the job. Two years ago, while still married to his wife of 20 years who had introduced him to evangelical thinking, he traveled with a young woman to a South Carolina church conference. D’Souza introduced her as his fiancée and shared a hotel room with her, much to the consternation of his church hosts. D’Souza’s keynote speech at the conference was about thinking and living biblically. (The hosts brought the facts to a WORLD reporter who was at the conference. He interviewed D’Souza and wanted to report what had happened. I would have preferred that another magazine break the story, since D’Souza’s obvious recourse would be to say I was out to get him. We asked ourselves this: If another equally heralded author and college president spoke at Christian gatherings, yet his practice belied his words, wouldn’t we report it? The answer was yes, so we went ahead. D’Souza blasted me and said, “I had no idea that it is considered wrong in Christian circles to be engaged prior to being divorced.”) The third lesson: Not only did the King’s College board of trustees accept D’Souza’s resignation, but God provided a replacement committed to the Protestant evangelical tradition: Greg Thornbury, an ordained minister who had been dean of the School of Theology & Missions at a solidly evangelical school, Union University. Before the D’Souza debacle, the board would not have turned to a thoroughly biblical scholar like Thornbury, the author of Recovering Classic Evangelicalism and co-author of Who Will Be Saved: Defending the Biblical Understanding of God, Salvation, & Evangelism. Editing WORLD is my dream job, and it occupies me all day long—but I still miss King’s. I do know now what colleges (and all of us) live by. We make seven-year plans and sometimes see them dashed in seven minutes, because we live within God’s sovereignty and by His love. As Tolstoy wrote, “It was not given to the mother to know what her children needed for their life. Nor was it given to the rich man to know what he himself needed. Nor is it given to any man to know whether, when evening comes, he will need boots for his body or slippers for his corpse.” A
D’Souza: LUCAS JACKSON/Reuters/Landov • the king’s college: JonesFoto • Grand Canyon: BRIAN MORLEY
I had left for the Grand Canyon plotting a civil war. … I returned to New York, through God’s intervention, thinking of others. wanted to fight battles my way, until the Grand Canyon helped me to see a crevice in my own heart. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your creation! The heavens declare Your glory. You made the stars far away, but in all Your majesty You still draw near. When I was young, You carried me to faith. Now, I want You to bless my will, but should I not be patient and see Yours? You died for us: Can my pride not die before You? Should I not have confidence in You now? Cut off my anger, but don’t cut me off. Give me renunciation and joy, submission and patience. I had left for the Grand Canyon plotting a civil war and snarling at my godly wife when she said it was simply time to move on from King’s. I returned to New York, through God’s intervention, thinking of others. The board was not about to reverse itself, so public protest would merely give me existentialist satisfaction in proclaiming my own supposed virtue, and nihilistic pleasure in destruction. A civil war would produce despair among students I had recruited and job loss among professors I had hired. I had another job to go to, one I loved. The professors would probably be unemployed. It might have been worth playing a latter-day Samson if King’s was destined to worship Dagon, but why assume that: Is God not sovereign? Could He not save King’s? The skies over the Grand Canyon proclaimed His handiwork, and night after night they revealed knowledge to me. The two paperbacks in my trip pack were Tolstoy’s short stories and a waterproof New Testament. One evening I reread “What Men Live By” and reread in the gospel of Luke that we cannot serve both God and Mammon. It seemed to me that the King’s board was serving Mammon, but if I treasured my golden parachute, so was I.
—For other episodes in this autobiographical account, go to wng.org/olaskyseries
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Lifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports > Medicine
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Oversexed education Parental reaction spurs school district to pull controversial health text—at least for now by Mary Jackson
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Last June, only 25 parents attended an informational meeting to view a new sex education textbook chosen unanimously by Fremont, Calif., health teachers for use with incoming freshmen. Some parents didn’t know about the meeting, especially if they are not on the Fremont Unified School District’s email system. Others said they received the invitation but ignored it amid the flurry of graduation and end-of-the-schoolyear activities.
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Asfia Ahmed and Teri Topham, both mothers of ninth-graders in district schools, did attend the 90-minute meeting. They became acquainted as they sat at the same table and took turns flipping through the 392-page Your Health Today, a college-level text according to many bookseller websites. Topham, 49, said she and Ahmed grew “appalled” as they browsed chapters: “What we saw was adult content that is totally inappropriate for 13- and 14-year-olds.”
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Notebook > Lifestyle But two weeks later—and with little fanfare—the district’s board approved the new text to replace a decade-old one. Fast-forward two months: Over people—mostly parents—filled to firecapacity a board meeting room and overflow rooms. Others stood outside after being turned away. Many held yellow signs reading “Remove College Text,” and sparred with a smaller group waving green signs saying, “I support comprehensive sex education.” During the six-hour meeting, the board reversed its June decision and voted to shelve the book, asking staff members to work with publisher McGraw-Hill to revise it. The story of this surprising reversal starts with eight parents, including
paper petitions; and gathered signatures at the library, neighborhood block parties, and other social gatherings. A few parents, including Ahmed and Sally Hu, threatened the board with legal action, claiming the book violated a state law that says health materials must be “age appropriate” for the district’s , ninth-graders. When reporters picked up on parents’ efforts, the diverse Bay Area city just north of San Jose became a focal point. In several days the petition jumped from hundreds of signatures to more than ,. I bought a copy of Your Health Today, which McGraw-Hill spokesperson Brian Belardi told me was “developed with [a college] audience in mind.” He said in an email that “several” K- districts
sex in a given month (a majority) or how many men are willing to pay for a prostitute ( in ). It states that women mostly experience “relief” after a -minute abortion procedure, with only percent exuding “mild, transient, depressive symptoms” similar to those felt after childbirth. Five years ago the Fremont district discontinued its abstinence-only education after the ACLU threatened a lawsuit. Now, the district “has gone too far,” according to Sally Hu, , who has an eighth-grade daughter. “This book says little about making good choices— it’s more about telling our kids what everything is and how common it is.” Although the board requested a report back on the book’s revision process by January, parents continue to have questions. “I don’t see how they can edit it and make it appropriate for teens and adolescents without rewriting half the chapters,” said Ahmed, who is also concerned that parents will be left out of the approval process. California standards begin covering sex education in fifth grade, or at about age , but parents are allowed to opt their children out for religious reasons, or choose to have their kids sit in the library during the class’ sex portion. Hu, Ahmed, and Topham have never opted their kids out, but each said they would if the board adopts the new text. When asked why they went a step further to rally parents, Hu says, “Maybe it’s a maternal thing … we care about more than just our own children. This book does nothing to strengthen the family or challenge kids to aspire higher. It takes them to the lowest place and says it’s OK.” A
‘This book does nothing to strengthen the family or challenge kids to aspire higher. It takes them to the lowest place and says it’s OK.’ Topham and Ahmed. After the June meeting they bought copies of the text and emailed friends, urging them to invite other parents—regardless of their viewpoints—to come see it for themselves. Word spread as parents filtered in and out of homes and passed around the text or purchased their own copies. Parents sent letters to the district and board; circulated both online and
use the text, but he would not give locations. The book blandly covers topics like health, nutrition, and fitness but serves up big helpings of specific detail on many sexual practices and stages of sexual arousal. Info graphs list the pros and cons of various dating websites and contraceptives. Statistics normalize behaviors such as how frequently college students drink alcohol and have
WORLD • OCTOBER 4, 2014
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Notebook > Technology
The need for speed
Governments and industry are racing to go hypersonic By Michael Cochrane
missile: Courtesy of the U.S. Army • knight: Courtesy of the u.s. air force
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Last month an experimental U.S. Army hypersonic missile was intentionally destroyed in midflight during a test in Alaska. A few weeks earlier, the Pentagon confirmed a second flight test by the Chinese military of a similar hypersonic weapon. Russia and India also reportedly have hypersonic aircraft programs. Are we witnessing a new type of arms race? What is hypersonic technology, and why the recent surge in interest in hypersonic aircraft? The prefix hyper means “way beyond,” as in hyperactive. A hypersonic aircraft is one that flies between five and 10 times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 miles per hour to 7,700 miles per hour. At those speeds, “all of our understanding in aerodynamics falls over,” says Paul Bruce, an expert in high speed aerodynamics at Imperial College London, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. “Every equation that we use to describe subsonic and supersonic flow and flight … doesn’t work when
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FAST TIMES: The U.S. Army’s Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (above) took off for the first time in 2011; Pete Knight with the X-15.
the air starts changing at hypersonic speeds.” Which explains why many hypersonic aircraft tests last only minutes or are aborted. The world’s militaries are interested in hypersonic weapons because of their ability to reach anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes and outrun virtually any defensive missile launched against them. These hypersonic glide vehicles, or HGVs, are launched from atop an ICBM. Once it’s very high, the missile pitches over, releasing the glide vehicle, which then dives to hypersonic speed and glides to the target. But beyond the military applications there’s a huge commercial interest in hypersonic technology: getting satellites and other payloads into orbit
cheaply. The cost of using traditional launch vehicles such as rockets or the Space Shuttle has been around $10,000 per pound of payload. Scientists and engineers believe they can lower this cost by a factor of 10 or more with reusable hypersonic aircraft. The biggest challenge in hypersonic technology is developing a jet engine that can power an aircraft to hypersonic velocities. The earliest hypersonic aircraft such as the X-15, which flew from 1959 to 1970, used rockets to propel them. But since a rocket carries both its fuel and the oxygen to burn it in liquid form, it’s very inefficient. A jet engine, on the other hand, is “airbreathing”: It takes in air at the front and then burns it with the fuel, pushing it out the back at a much faster speed. But when you’re already traveling at 2.3 miles per second, it’s pretty difficult to push air back faster than that! In addition, the engine has to slow down the air that’s entering it at Mach 10 to something close to the speed of sound so combustion can take place. “It’s a lot like trying to keep a match alight in a hurricane,” says Bruce. A combination of international government and private investment is funding current hypersonic development. In the United States, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has awarded initial design contracts to Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Masten Space Systems for what is being called the XS-1, or Experimental Spaceplane. The XS-1 operational requirements call for it to be able to fly 10 times in a 10-day period and launch 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of payload for less than $5 million per flight. The first orbital test flights are expected in 2018. The X-15 still holds the world record for the highest speed ever reached by a manned, powered aircraft. Air Force test pilot Pete Knight achieved a maximum velocity of 4,520 mph on Oct. 3, 1967. A
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Notebook > Science
Private groups dominate effort to reach Mars By Julie Borg
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School start times don’t allow teens to get enough sleep, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said in an Aug. 25 statement. The AAP recommends that middle and high schools delay their start times to no earlier than 8:30 a.m., or a time that allows students to get the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep per night. Schools need to take average commute times into consideration in determining appropriate start times, the AAP said. An estimated 40 percent of high schools in the United States have start times before 8 a.m., and 20 percent of middle schools start at 7:45 a.m. or earlier. Simply instituting earlier bedtimes won’t solve the problem because the biological sleep-wake cycles of adolescents begin to shift up to two hours later at the start of puberty, making it difficult for many teens to fall asleep earlier than 11 p.m. “The research is clear that adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life,” lead author of the policy statement, Judith Owens, said. Causes of teen lack of sleep also include homework, extracurricular activities, after-school jobs, and technology use. The AAP encourages parents to enforce a media curfew. —J.B.
Hypoallergenic peanuts Good news for the 2.8 million Americans who are allergic to peanuts. Researchers at North Carolina A&T State University discovered a way to treat peanuts with enzymes that reduce protein allergens by 98-100 percent. The hypoallergenic peanuts may also be used by doctors to build up a patient’s resistance to peanut allergens. The discovery is important New nuts: Jianmei Yu because the of North increased use Carolina of peanuts in A&T State food products University. makes it difficult for allergic individuals to avoid accidental exposure. The research also shows promise for reducing allergens in other tree nuts and in wheat. —J.B.
mars: Mars One/Bryan Versteeg/Rex Features/ap • sleeping student: istock • peanuts: Lee Adams/School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, N.C. A&T State University
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Humans may already inhabit Mars by 2035 when NASA envisions its first manned mission there. The race for the red planet is on as private organizations vie to be the first to put a human footprint on Martian soil. NASA officials announced in August that they will proceed with development of the new Space Launch System (SLS) designed to carry astronauts to the moon, asteroids, and Mars. The 143-ton lift capability of the SLS will make it the most powerful rocket in history. It will also be one of the most expensive, with a baseline cost of $7.021 billion. Some private organizations, like the Netherlands-based, not-for-profit Mars One Foundation, believe they can put humans on Mars sooner and without the use of taxpayer money. Mars One has an ambitious plan to establish a p ermanent human 2024: A rendering settlement on the planet in 2024. of Mars One’s human settlement. In May of this year, Mars One announced the selection of 353 potential candidates, chosen from 200,000 applicants for the one-way trip to Mars. The company’s mission plan calls for crew training to begin in 2015, followed by establishment of the first Martian outpost, accomplished by use of a rover, in 2023. The first crew of four will leave Earth a year later. New recruits will join the settlement every two years. The Inspiration Mars Foundation has a target launch date of Jan. 5, 2018, to send two Americans—one man and one woman—to fly within 100 miles of the planet and then return to Earth. The privately funded California Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, SpaceX, hopes to send a person to Mars and back sometime in the next 10 years.
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John Moore/Getty Images
Race for the red planet
Notebook > Houses of God
John Moore/Getty Images
mars: Mars One/Bryan Versteeg/Rex Features/ap • sleeping student: istock • peanuts: Lee Adams/School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, N.C. A&T State University
A girl at the Bethlehem World Outreach Ministry International in Dolo Town, Liberia, sits as the congregation listens to the pastor speak about the Ebola epidemic on Aug. 24. Members of the church prayed for Liberia’s healthcare workers, who have become some of the Ebola epidemic’s most frequent casualties. The government on Aug. 20 issued a quarantine on the rural community of some 20,000 people.
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Notebook > Medicine
Going viral?
Ebola so far hasn’t hit tiny Guinea-Bissau, but the disease could spread there like wildfire By Mary Jackson
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trash strewn and heaped on red dirt streets. Chickens, goats, and pigs roam near open markets filled with shoeless children. While Ebolastricken countries such as Liberia push for hand-washing, the practice is unheard of in Bissau, where only one in five people has access to tap water. Men and women urinate openly in the streets, and it is normal to contract rashes from dust and pig feces, Alvarez-Romero said. These conditions have long been breeding grounds for malaria, cholera, and typhoid. Those with money often travel to Senegal or Morocco for medical care, as public hospitals offer little help. Poorly paid doctors and nurses sometimes steal donated drugs since they can be sold for profit to pharmacies. Patients pay for their own medications, and many times, “If a person has to choose between a malaria pill and a bowl of rice, they’ll choose the rice,” Alvarez-Romero said. About 20 minutes from downtown, Casa Emanuel sits on four acres enclosed by a large iron gate and 1-foot-thick, white-washed concrete walls built originally to protect the 150 orphans from family members trying to kill them, believing they carry a curse. Founded in 1995 by Costa Rican dentist Isabel Johanning, Casa’s cleanliness, running water, and electricity—along with a hospital and K-12 school—attract many outsiders seeking education or
medical attention. Still, Casa’s challenges underscore the complexity of containing Ebola. Four on-staff doctors and nine nurses mostly treat pregnant women and newborn babies, but they try to help anyone who shows up in need. Visiting doctors, nurses, and students sometimes bolster the orphanage’s staff and supplies, but limitations are the norm. AlvarezRomero and Casa’s medical staff worry about Ebola’s malaria-like symptoms and the 21-day incubation period that make detection difficult: “We know we’re not prepared to help someone with Ebola.” Cultural traditions have long compounded viral containment at Casa. When cholera threatened the area in 2008, villagers were leery of Western medicine. Often they followed a witch doctor’s traditional cures and potions over the physician’s care. As in other West African countries, many families also follow strict burial procedures: Family members manually wash their dead before hosting a wake in their home, believing that those who fail to attend will be haunted. The threat of Ebola has Casa taking precautions. If it hits, they may close the school and hospital in order to protect the orphans. “We’re human, so yes, we’re nervous,” Alvarez-Romero said. She finds strength each morning when the children line up before their classes and sing a simple tune: “Let’s give thanks to the Lord … for all He has given us.” A FIGHT FOR LIFE: Road block run by Guinean security forces (above); AlvarezRomero (left).
Alvarez-Romero: HANDOUT • ROAD BLOCK: Youssouf Bah/AP
As Maritza Alvarez-Romero, 62, heads back to Guinea-Bissau, a small West African country nestled between Guinea and Senegal, she’s nervous. Like most in West Africa, she has watched as the deadly Ebola virus has spread. The hemorrhagic fever, passed through contact with bodily fluids, has killed more than 2,000 people since it appeared in Guinea last March. It has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and most recently, Senegal. In August, Guinea-Bissau closed its borders with Guinea, and shortly after announced a nationwide “hygiene drive” that involves disinfecting public places every last Saturday of the month. Outside a market in the nation’s dilapidated capital, Bissau, President José Mário Vaz held a dustpan as he championed this effort. Soldiers fanned out into the city with rakes, brooms, and wheelbarrows. Alvarez-Romero calls the cleanup effort “a good start.” But she says the country has a long way to go. Born in Costa Rica, Alvarez-Romero became an American citizen in upstate New York, where she taught high-school English for 30 years. Six years ago she moved to Bissau to serve as resident translator, liaison, and school principal at Casa Emanuel, a Christian orphanage on the outskirts of the capital. Work often takes Alvarez-Romero into downtown Bissau. She describes
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This pamphlet, by David J. Engelsma, gives the biblical and creedal answer to the question whether Jehovah God, in the Fourth Commandment of His law, still today sets apart one day of the week as a special day; and exhorts the saints to hold living with respect to this day.
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9/15/14 9:30 AM
Mailbag ‘Boots on the ground’
Aug. We love your magazine but were very disappointed with your cover story. Many Louisiana conservatives believe that Bill Cassidy is the Republican establishment’s “moderate” candidate. Also, you didn’t mention the tea party favorite, retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness, who will face Cassidy and incumbent Democrat Sen. Landrieu in an open primary on Nov. . —V. L G, Gonzales, La.
‘Birth is just a start’ Aug. Joel Belz’s description of Christian growth well answers his critic. I would add that Jesus commanded us to make disciples, and teaching them to “obey everything I have commanded you” is a lifelong process. —R R, Owosso, Mich.
I agree that we desperately need to share the “simple gospel of Jesus” throughout the world. Thank you for providing a biblical perspective on current events in a world where the media are dominated by secular voices. —D W, East Berlin, Pa.
Recently I read in Ephesians that we are called to be “preachers and teachers” according to our gifts. To those who think WORLD should avoid secular news to focus on the gospel, I would say that the magazine’s writers are more teachers than preachers. —W B, Middletown, N.Y.
‘The Giver’ Aug. I saw The Giver before I read your review, so not knowing what to expect I settled into my theater seat with Junior Mints in hand. I found it more than a pro-life movie; it continually pointed to a loving God who
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distractions. Decades ago a wise professor of mine at a secular college urged us always to ask, “Where does the goodness lie?” I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but many of his examples of the “good” things came from the Bible. —E H, Easley, S.C.
‘Toward a sustained quiet’ provides choice to His children even when it may cause pain. It is a depiction of life without our Lover. —K F, Davenport, Wash.
‘Plastic façade’ Aug. Sophia Lee’s article was excellent. I pray that one day this beautiful peninsula will, like Germany, be reunited in freedom. The prosperity in the South hides real problems that can only be solved by prayer. —D M, Troy, Mich.
For years I have prayed for the overthrow of the North Korean government so Christians there can receive help from South Korean believers. Now I wonder if God is planning the opposite, using persecution to strengthen and purify the North Korean church so that when it is free it can help Christians in the South. In a nationwide revival began in Pyongyang, the present capital of North Korea; perhaps history will repeat itself. —C H, Bonner Springs, Kan.
‘Generation distraction’ Aug. Our constant search to connect with something larger and better than ourselves will appear, when we can’t find it, to be just a search for
Aug. Mindy Belz’s accurate reporting on the Middle East has enlightened me. She has detonated much misinformation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. —N R, Early, Texas
‘Rhythm and rhyme’ Aug. I tugged on his arm. “Dad, we have to dance. Please?” Frank Sinatra was singing “Embraceable You.” He rose, slowly pushing his walker onto the kitchen floor, and we danced our last dance that night, he and I. That was years ago; he would have been now. After reading this column, all I could do was sit and weep. His name was Frank. —J R, Weiser, Idaho
‘Bothersome babies’ Aug. I appreciated Joel Belz’s column on the undocumented, unaccompanied minors coming to our country. I don’t know what we should do for these children, but I am grieved by the hatred some express in other news media. —E K, Ontario, Calif.
This column is so wrong. There are compassionate ways to enforce our laws, but we are angry because our president and his administration refuse
OCTOBER 4, 2014 • WORLD
9/10/14 4:47 PM
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Mailbag
Date of filing: Sept. , Title of publication: WORLD Publication no.: - Frequency of publication: biweekly No. of issues published annually: Annual subscription price: . Location of known office of publication: WORLD Magazine, PO Box , Asheville, Buncombe Co., NC Mailing address of the headquarters or general business office of the publisher: WORLD Magazine, All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC - Mailing address of publisher, editor, managing editor: Publisher: Kevin Martin, P.O. Box , Asheville, NC -; Editor: Mindy Belz, P.O. Box , Asheville, NC -; Managing Editor: Timothy Lamer, P.O. Box , Asheville, NC - Owner: God’s World Publications, All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC - Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: W.H. Newton III, Robinhood Road, Asheville, NC ; Jeannie Pascale, Meandering Way Fairview, McKinney, TX ; Howard Miller, Jeffrey Road, Moorestown, NJ Total number of copies printed (net press run): average for last year: ,; last issue: , Paid circulation: Mail subscription: average for last year: ,; last issue: , Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales: average for last year: ; last issue: Free distribution by mail and other means: average for last year: ,; last issue: , Total distribution: average for last year: ,; for last issue: , Copies not distributed: average for last year: ; last issue: , I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. —Kevin Martin, publisher
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ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA submitted by Paul Lim
to enforce them and even stand in the way of states that try. —M. B, Palm Harbor, Fla.
Thank you for this insight into the opportunity knocking on our door in the states bordering Mexico. One can only hope that the body of Christ responds the way it should. —G K, Beijing, China
Is it not obvious that if we welcome all these “babies” that we will get more? If I sent my children unlawfully across borders, what other nation would even contemplate housing them in resort-style facilities for the moment; seeing to their education, medication, and other needs for the rest of their lives; eventually invite me to join them; and all but hand me a local ballot when I arrived? The answer is none, because it would be national suicide. —D B, Tucson, Ariz.
‘LA confidential’ Aug. The Catholic Church was not “adding to the Scriptures” in prescribing absolute confidentiality for what priests hear in confession. That requirement, as you note, is defined
in the Canon, but the church does not consider the Canon to be Scripture. That the priest in the Louisiana case exercised very poor judgment in his advice to the girl has nothing to do with Scripture, nor does the Seal present “moral dilemmas” for other priests. —S H, Clemson, S.C.
‘Hello darkness’ Aug. Thanks for Emily Whitten’s article on the hopelessness of much teen literature. Several years ago we had a foreign exchange student who had recently lost her closest friend to suicide. She struggled with her English class, despite excellent language skills, and finally broke down and related how all the books were about suicide or death. Her teacher initially refused to substitute any books, and when I called, told me, “She’ll have to get over it; suicide is a way of life in America.” —M U, Santa Rosa, Calif.
‘Married to Darwin’ July Thank you for the stand on creation. The best basis for interpreting scientific data is God’s revealed Word; one cannot doubt that He
9/16/14 1:41 PM
knows what really happened. When youth and adults are supported in their beliefs, they have a bulwark against atheism and progressive ideology. —Vic Lindblom, Hagerstown, Md.
Anyone wondering whether evolution is true should consider the scientific evidence and the difficulties with the theory. For example, the thousands of systems in the human body supposedly evolved over millions of years in many different areas on Earth and then united in a single individual, the first human. Perhaps problems like this are why over 800 scientists have signed the online “Dissent From Darwin” statement. —James D. Hopkins, Mechanicsville, Va.
‘Hope and help for the poor’ July 12 Compassion International is a deserving recipient of your 2014 International Region Hope Award. Thank you for enlightening readers about the conditions in Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. I sponsor a child in Haiti and will now sponsor a child from one of these regions. If many more people here offered help and hope, perhaps fewer families there would send their children on such a long and perilous journey. —Lisa Bradshaw, Arlington, Texas
I rely on World News Group for 99 percent of my news. You have done an outstanding job recently beefing up the depth and scope of your content, adding contributors and writers, and improving your website experience, all with a Christian worldview. —Kristy Hiner, Conyers, Ga.
letters & photos Email: mailbag@wng.org Write: world Mailbag, PO Box 20002, Asheville, nc 28802-9998 Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
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9/11/14 2:46 PM
MIDWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY exists for the Church. mbts.edu 800-944-MBTS Kansas City, MO
From start to finish, Midwestern Seminary strives to dramatically transform students by renewing their minds with biblical truth, igniting their hearts with ministry passion, and enriching their souls with deepened Christ-likeness. We are growing the future leaders of the church who are whole-heartedly dedicated to fulfilling the Great Commission as they go forth into all the world. *Complete your degree online or on campus.
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KRIEG BARRIE
HAVE YOU NAMED WORLD IN YOUR ESTATE?
If you haven’t already, consider naming WORLD in your estate. Doing so will create a legacy that equips future generations to sort out the day’s news with clarity and insight from an uncompromising Christian perspective.
Andrée Seu Peterson
A heads-up for living
We don’t know the hour, but the Bible’s predictions give us important information
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KRIEG BARRIE
A S ’ I prayed: “Lord, come quickly. Already we see your words materializing—the nations surrounding Israel to destroy it; the increase in persecution of your church.” No sooner had I finished than a woman prayed after me: “Lord, please help us to resist the temptation to try to decode your word and to presume we know the future. Help us to focus on the things that unite, not on divisive things.” Gulp. Here is my question: If God has revealed specific things to us about the future, how is it “decoding” or “divisive” to mention them, without specifying when those things will occur? As for divisiveness, we shall have very little to talk about if we confine ourselves to what is not divisive. You can eliminate the subjects of worship music, baptism, counseling methods, tithing, the role of women, and the nature of sanctification, for openers. Does that leave us with the topic of love? That will be divisive too. As for decoding, we learn from the historian Eusebius that many living in Jerusalem around .. had no trouble “decoding” Jesus’ message to head for the hills at the sight of their city encompassed with armies (Luke :). By simply believing Him they escaped a great bloodbath. “Behold, a day is coming for the L, when … I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken. … Then the L will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the L my God will come, and all the holy ones with him” (Zechariah :-).
Email: aseupeterson@wng.org
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There are way too many specifics crammed in here to call the passage metaphorical. Why not follow Occam’s razor on the logical assessing of hypotheses and assume that God means what He says? (What do they teach at these schools?) And God says that there will be war between Israel and the nations; that God will fight for Israel; that He will touch down on the Mount of Olives; that we will witness the mother of all earthquakes; that radical topographical changes will result; that the valley created by the quake will reach to a place called Azal. To emphasize that He is talking about space-andtime history and not poetry, God relates the earthquake that is future to us to one that is past and documentable. He says, in effect: Remember how you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, who reigned in - ..? You will flee again when the Big One comes. The writer of Chronicles compliments the tribe of Issachar by calling them “men who had understanding of the times” ( Chronicles :). John brackets his Revelation with declarations that he is writing “to show his servants what must soon take place” (Revelation :; :). Jesus himself shows what predictions are for—a heads-up for living: “I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you” (John :). Who would have thought that after centuries of modernity, beheading would once again be a means of persecuting the people of God? Does it not send a chill up our spine to read all about it in Revelation : even as we hear about it on CNN? “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus.” Let us then encourage “one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews :). We don’t know when the Day is, but we can see it approaching. A
OCTOBER 4, 2014 • WORLD
9/15/14 3:47 PM
Marvin Olasky
The truth test
Experience shows clear problems with transgenderism, but is that enough?
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W : the Bible or certain kinds of data? Let’s think about three types of situations. Sometimes the limited data we have appears to contradict God’s command. Chapter of Genesis states, “the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” So she ate, despite God’s command not to. The consequences were severe. Sometimes social scientists say we don’t have enough data—for example, what are the long-term effects of gay couples raising kids? Here we have to choose between believing what the Bible says about homosexuality or believing what is proclaimed at the high places—media, academia, and the courts—of American culture. Sometimes, though, we have data but ignore it, unless brave experts remind us of what we know. That’s why I’m grateful to Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who recently wrote a Wall Street Journal column headlined, “Transgender Surgery Isn’t the Solution: A drastic physical change doesn’t address underlying psycho-social troubles.” McHugh noted that persons who believe they need transgendering are like others who suffer from anorexia or bulimia nervosa and view themselves as blobs even while they become emaciated. Such individuals have disordered self-perception, and so do those who are male but think they are female, or vice versa. The good news (we don’t hear it from transgender advocates) is that the disorder usually goes away. McHugh: “When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic, percent to percent of them spontaneously lost those feelings.”
McHugh became an expert on transgendering because Johns Hopkins in the s became the first American medical center to do “sex-reassignment surgery.” Hopkins later compared the psycho-social adjustment of patients who had surgery with those of similar leanings who did not, and found the former no better off than the latter. The hospital then stopped doing sex-assignment surgery: Why amputate normal organs if the results aren’t beneficial? A long-term study conducted at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and published in gave us more data. Researchers followed people who had sexreassignment surgery and learned that about a decade after their operations, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. That study’s overall conclusion: “Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.” McHugh wrote acidly of those who hurt transgender claimants “by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention.” He also criticized “misguided doctors” who administer “puberty-delaying hormones to render later sex-change surgeries less onerous—even though the drugs stunt the children’s growth and risk causing sterility. Given that close to percent of such children would abandon their confusion and grow naturally into adult life if untreated, these medical interventions come close to child abuse.” So let’s review uses of sociological and psychological data. When we don’t have it, what is culturally trendy wins. When we do have it, what is culturally trendy usually wins. I’m not saying we should ignore data, but we shouldn’t idolize it. We should look to the Bible and also take into account the lessons of history. A
Voters’ choice
WORLD • OCTOBER 4, 2014
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In this issue we conclude WORLD’s profiles of four Christian ministries in the running for this year’s Hope Award for Effective Compassion. East winner Seeds of Hope in urban New Jersey ministers to prisoners, prostitutes, addicts, and others. Midwest winner Friends Ministry has rural Michigan acres in which the poor can work off their bills. South winner Maury United Ministries gives rides in Tennessee to those without transportation, and in the process builds relationships. West winner Jubilee Leadership Academy works with troubled teenage boys in Washington state. Each regional winner, including our international winner, Compassion International, will receive ,. Since Compassion is a big organization, though, it’s not eligible for the grand prize that will make a big difference to smaller organizations: ,. You can learn more about all the groups, and from now through Oct. vote for the domestic one that appeals to you the most, at wng.org/compassion.
Email: molasky@wng.org
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There’s still health care for people of Biblical faith!
As a committed Christian, you can live consistently with your beliefs by sharing medical needs directly with fellow believers through Samaritan Ministries’ non-insurance approach. You do not have to purchase health insurance that pays for abortions, abortifacient drugs, and other unbiblical practices. Health care sharing satisfies the individual mandate in the recent Federal health care law (26 United States Code, Section 5000A, (d), (2), (B)). Every month the more than 36,000* households of Samaritan Ministries (over 120,000* persons) share more than $10 million* in medical needs directly—one household to another. They also pray for one another and send notes of encouragement. The monthly share for a family membership of any size has never exceeded $405*.
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Biblical faith applied to health care www.samaritanministries.org
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