The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (4/9/2016)

This has been a long week.  Sarah has been sick and we will be moving in two weeks.  Stress is the name of the game, and as closing date approaches it has become readily apparent that a laser focus is needed in the weeks to come if we are going to get all our ducks in a row before the move.

With that said, I wanted to let my followers know my focus will not be on my blog over the next few weeks.  I will still try to respond to comments, and you can still hit me up on social media or by email, but unless something major comes up it is unlikely I will be putting out new material during this time.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who reads and engages my work regularly.  This blogging journey has been an interesting, exciting, and occasionally arduous one.  I am honored that so many of you have reached out in support and friendship.  I appreciate every one of you.

Now, without further ado, I encourage you to take a look at the following:

The Good

1. Tara Beth Leach has been called to be the Senior Pastor of First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California (PazNaz). This is an appointment well deserved and I hope you will take the time to congratulate her with me.

2. Christine Woolgar has begun an excellent series on BDSM culture and the 50 Shades of Grey novels.  Christine has a gift for tackling the difficult topics surrounding sex and sexuality that likely make the little old lady in the pew next o you blush even thinking about them.

Warning: due to the nature of the FSOG books, this post may be triggering for some.

http://www.workthegreymatter.com/50-shades-reflects-real-life-abuse-bdsm-part-1/

The Bad

3. As T4G 2016 readily approaches, Boz Tchividjian issued the following tweet. It is an excellent reminder of the ways in which our priorities as a Church must change.

4. Retired journalist Bruce Desilva has written an excellent post about his own complicity in discovering and covering-up sex abuse in th4 Catholic Church.  Desilva talks about his regrets and analyzes why he was silent, and why silence should never be an option.

This is a must read article.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/04/08/i-got-an-early-tip-about-a-priests-sexual-abuse-and-i-sat-on-it/

5. A study in Australia has been released analyzing how the proliferation of internet pornography has negatively impacted how females between the ages of 15-19 are treated by members of the opposite sex.

http://fightthenewdrug.org/sex-before-kissing-15-year-old-girls-dealing-with-boys/

The Ugly

6. Many are not aware that he 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is fast approaching.  For those not familiar, between 1915 and 1923, the Turkish government of the Ottoman Empire conspired to eliminate the Armenian people.  At the end of their systemic persecution, 1.5 million Armenian people had been murdered.

http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocidefaq.html

Despite these disturbing facts, the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge their action to this day.  Further, no U.S. president has ever recognize this atrocity as a genocide.  In fact, despite a 2008 campaign promise to make recognizing the genocide a U.S. policy, Obama has to this day never recognized it.

Please join me in reminding President Obama to recognize the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/24/politics/armenia-genocide-obama-broken-promise-jake-tapper/

7. On April 12, 2016 the Together for the Gospel 2016 Conference will kick off.  Among the keynote speakers is CJ Mahaney.  This is troubling because Mahaney had been accused of intentionally covering up child sex abuse that occurred within his church for more than 20 years.

If you are unaware of the severity of the charges against Mahaney, I have outlined the story here.

Sadly, the leadership team has repeatedly refused to recognize the credible accusations of the civil suit lawsuit files against Mahaney and SGM and instead chose to vouch for his “integrity” and allowing him to speak at their conference.  All of this, despite the fact that Mahaney has never acknowledged or repented of his actions which led to the cover up.

For this reason, SNAP and the victims of SGM/Mahaney will be protesting the event.  If you live in the Louisville area or are able to travel there, I encourage the protest. If (like me) that is not feasible for you right now, there are links within the post below by which you can contact T4G leaders in protest as well.

http://thewartburgwatch.com/2016/04/06/sgm-victims-family-and-snap-to-protest-at-t4g-2016-for-allowing-cj-mahaney-to-speak/

The 2013 letter of support for Mahaney from T4G leadership can be found here.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130606205256/http://t4g.org/statement/

8. Several States have proposed and/or passed versions of Religious Freedom Restoration Acts which they claim are designed to protect religious liberties.  Instead, as Eliel Cruz has argued, these bills are little than state sanctioned acts of discrimination.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eliel-cruz/bathroom-bills-arent-about-religious-freedom_b_9547706.html

In the wake of North Carolina’s bill, over 100 companies have spoken up, urging Governor Pat McCrory and the NC legislature to repeal the anti-LGBTQ laws.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/31/news/anti-gay-north-carolina-corporations/

I ask, as fellow Christians that stand for justice for all persons, that you would stand against bills which target and denigrate your LGBTQ+ neighbor.

See you all in a couple weeks 🙂